Page 106 of A Wayward Movement

“Much more is possible than your small-minded kingdoms imagine,” one of the strangers said dispassionately. “It would be more convenient for us if we’d found a way to capture magic in objects and let it lie dormant. But we haven’t yet understood how to do that. As our recent experiments in Torrens showed, even a huge volume of power will become useless if stored dormant in a talisman. It has to be harnessed at all times. And why sacrifice our own people to that cause with the Peninsula so defenseless? Now you get to be part of the innovation, which is more honor than your worthless lives deserve, I don’t doubt.”

He turned to his fellow.

“Your turn.”

Alina realized that the second man was preparing to do the same thing to Benji, and a protest rose within her.

“Stop.” The word burst from her with too much force, and her senses swam alarmingly. She was back on the precipice, staring down into the chasm of total depletion.

“You’ll learn quickly not to do that,” the man who’d bound her said, no pity in his voice. “We’re using every bit of energy your body can spare to maintain the magic in your talisman. If you try to expend any more, you’ll die.”

Alina lay still, barely able to marshal her thoughts enough to even feel afraid. She was impossibly weary, each breath a struggle.

It’s not over, a whisper of defiance reminded her. The team is following the linking enchantment. They might be almost here. A warmth spread through her chest at the thought. She realized that it had been there the whole time, she was only just now focusing on it. She didn’t know if it was just her certainty that Xavier would come for her, or something more tangible. She could almost believe it was the pressure of the linking enchantment, tying her to the investigation. The thought buoyed her amidst the fear and exhaustion trying to choke her.

She’d thought the men had left, but one of them spoke from a short distance away.

“Hold on, I forgot.” His voice was sharp. “We were supposed to check both of the new ones in case there’s anything on them. Because of the man those investigators sent out to try to get captured.”

Alarm flared in Alina, sick and hot, but she was unable to do anything but lie there as one of the strangers knelt outside her grate. He examined her carefully, his sight playing no role in the scrutiny.

“She’s clean,” he said. “Nothing is coming out from her except the connection to her talisman.” He patted his pocket.

“Same with this one,” the other said, rising from his place in front of Benji.

The pronouncement crushed the last hint of resistance within Alina. If she’d had energy for it, she would have broken down and sobbed. As it was, she couldn’t muster more than a whimper. The linking enchantment wasn’t working. It had been weakened too much by the transfer, as the craftsman from the guild had warned might happen. No one knew where they were. No one was coming for them.

For a moment after the men’s footsteps retreated, all was silent. Then a faint voice came from somewhere down the row.

“Welcome,” it was more breath than speech, “to the family.”

Alina didn’t try to respond. Sinking into the exhausted oblivion that threatened to consume all the years she had left, she felt hope die within her.

Chapter

Twenty-Five

Xavier paced his room at the inn, his thick head protesting at the sound of a crowing rooster.

Morning already? Alina had been gone all night, and he’d done nothing. A soft knock sounded, and he strode across the room to pull the door open.

“Come in,” he told the craftsman standing outside. The man looked anxious.

“You said it might just need time to settle in,” Xavier said curtly, the moment the door was closed behind the other man. “But it’s been all night, and nothing’s changed.”

The craftsman deflated. “I’d hoped you had better news, Your Highness,” he said.

“Last night, you said that it had worked,” Xavier accused him. “You said that the linking enchantment was intact.”

“It seemed to be,” the man said helplessly. “You said you could feel it.”

“I still do,” Xavier acknowledged. The enchantment had been sitting right at his core since the moment it was transferred to him. It was as though Alina’s absence, which had already been an open wound in his heart, now had a tangible presence in his body as well. “But there’s no tug in any particular direction, like you said there would be.”

The craftsman looked thoughtful. He turned his attention to Xavier’s body, examining it with professional eyes.

“If you can feel it, it’s worked,” he said. “And I can feel it on you, too. But it’s not as solid as it should be. It should form a bridge. Instead it’s like a seeking strand reaching out to nothing.”

“Why would that happen?” Xavier demanded.