“Here,” Stanley says, pointing to the stables. He hurries over, then calls out orders to a boy who was brushing one ofthe horses. He drops the brush and begins to prepare Stanley’s horse, the two of them working quickly.
Caiden gets to work preparing his horse and I stand by feeling useless. We never could afford a horse. The carriage ride to the castle was the first time I’d ever even come close to riding one.
Once they’re ready, Stanley helps Anya into the saddle, then climbs on behind her. “We’ll meet you there.”
Caiden nods, then tosses a bag of coins to the boy. His whole face lights up when he catches it. Based on the jingling, it was a generous payment.
“Climb on up,” Caiden says, holding out his hand.
I take a tentative step onto the stool as I’d seen Anya do, then pull myself on to the horse with Caiden’s help. It’s not graceful, but I make it. I’m a little in awe of the beautiful creature and I gently stroke her neck while Caiden climbs on behind me.
“Hold on,” he says as he wraps one arm around me, pulling me against him.
I wish I could enjoy the ride, but I’m so worried about Anya I’m struggling to pay attention to anything else. My hair whips around my face and the wind burns my cheeks.
We’re getting closer to where I think camp is but I still can’t see any fires or torches to identify it.
Then the voices start again. I grip Caiden’s arm as I suck in a breath. There’s so many of them. “Caiden…” Fear tinges the word and he tightens his arm around me.
“What is it?” he asks.
“Hurry.”
He doesn’t hesitate to push our horse faster.
I fight against the onslaught, these voices are pained, tormented. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. And there’s so, so many of them.
“What are we riding into, Tay?” he asks.
“Death, I say. Lots, and lots of death.” I squeeze my eyes shut and beg for silence but there’s no reprieve. I think everyone is dead. All of them. I think we’re riding into a camp full of corpses.
Brevan. Oh, gods. My chest tightens. The thought of his voice being one of those that’s screaming at me is too much.
As we get closer, I see the flickering flames of the torches, burning as if they have no concern over the fact that the people who lit them are gone.
I feel it, the death calling to me. It’s a swirl of desperation and fear. There’s anger laced in there, too, but mostly, it’s despair.
There’s dead legionaries littering the ground, some of them with their own swords sticking out of their chests. I can tell that some of the deceased weren’t with us. Aside from the blond hair that gives them away, their clothing, though not military, isn’t like what we see in Pendralia.
I don’t know how I get off the horse and I think Caiden is speaking to me but I can’t hear him over the din of the dead.
I’m fighting them, though, shoving them away as I scan the bodies with a single-minded focus.
Where is he?
Anya approaches from near where our tent was, her face even more swollen than it was before. Her expression is one of defeat, but there’s not an identifiable sorrow in it. “He’s not here.”
I know who she’s referring to and I nod, agreeing. I can’t feel him here. I don’t hear him and I can’t sense him. It’s insane to think I would, but I know that if he were dead, his voice would be the loudest.
And if he was dead, there’d be nothing I could do, anyway. Bringing back his corpse wouldn’t be the same as saving him. The woman standing in front of me needs my help. I shove away the voices, forcing them back until they’re a quiet roar in my skull. “We have to get you to a doctor, and we can’t stay here. They could return for us.”
“The winter estate is probably the closest if we don’t find a doctor along the route,” Stanley says.
Caiden makes his way over to us, scanning the surroundings as he walks. I call to him, “Anya needs to return to the winter estate.”
He closes the distance between us. “That’s a good idea. You should go with her, you’ll be safer.” He’s talking to me, but he’s looking at something beyond me.
I follow his gaze and when I see it, my shoulders fall. I’ve seen death like that before and it came from a very specific magic. The voices nag at me, scaling up their intensity as I try to process what I’m seeing.
