Page 1

One

It was possible to fight with a burned arm. I knew, because the flesh of my forearm had blackened, the skin cracking like the shell of a boiled egg when tapped against a plate.

I didn’t have time to stop and heal it because around me, the forest burned.

The fact that I couldn’t feel the injury helped, because if I stopped to think how much pain I was going to be in, I would have lain down and begun screaming like a child denied dessert after dinner.

And much like my mother’s fifth wife when I begged for cream pudding, the pain would not give in to any of my hysterics. So the only option was to keep pressing on, to push harder and harder, to finish before my body caved to its weakness.

I only had a few more hours until sunrise, but the land around me glowed as bright as midday with burning trees. A fire like this created its own weather, drying out the moist air of the swamp. But it also meant the fire didn’t burn like normal. It guttered and popped, sparks flying everywhere.

I inhaled sharply, but instead of the cool air I needed, I inhaled smoke so thick that I choked on it. I muffled my cough as best I could, struggling to keep my lungs from contracting and my whole body from giving itself over to the panic of not finding my breath. The last thing I needed was to reveal my own position. Then Tallu would be down not just his lover, but one of the only reliable forest magic users he had.

Crawling into the space between a tree’s massive roots, I coughed into the ground, getting dirt and filth into my mouth as I gasped for air. The tree above me was not an elder tree, but I could feel the magic in it, the way the entire swamp sang with it.

Magic was everywhere here, in the air, in the soil, and in every plant that vibrated with something I had never felt before reaching Tavornai. Something trilled near my ear, and I felt delicate claws land on my shoulder. I sat back, just enough, and one of the small dragons born from the elder trees patted my cheek, its sharp claws scratching my dry skin.

“I’m all right,” I said hoarsely. “I’ll get moving.”

The dragon scratched harder, as though not quite believing me, and I scooted back out of the knot of tree roots and began my slow trek through the shimmering heat, the blazing trees. With the forest itself speaking to me, Kacha’s men were a torn hole in the center of a beautiful tapestry. They hurt. The forest knew what they had done—at least the elder trees did—and the elder trees had no mercy for them.

Closer to Kacha’s men, I pulled on a fabric mask made up of a thick scarf. It provided little relief from the smoke, but it focused my vision, calming the heat of the fire on my skin. I just had to keep moving forward.

Their camp, when it came into view, was clearly temporary. Their tents were thin, barely more than bivouacs. It was only six men. With the fire confusing their night vision, I was only one shadow among many.

Taking a deep breath, I did what I had been practicing all the way here. Ice uncurled from within me, further dampening the blaze. Using the heavy weight of magic within me, I grew plants out of the ground that wrapped around the still smoldering trees, smothering the flames.

Clenching my muscles, I kept myself still, hidden behind the destruction these men had spread. Like fungus growing on an unsuspecting host, the forest magic kept trying to consume more of me, wanting a willing sacrifice even as the ice shot a cold desire through my heart. Cautiously, I held them both at arm’s length, keeping myself together.

At first, the men didn’t notice, too distracted breaking up camp, then one turned. “What happened to the fire?”

One who wore a captain’s stitching on his jacket came out from his tent, turning in a slow circle as the blaze they had so carefully nursed disappeared in front of his eyes.

I was sweating, my desperation making the ice take over, the forest magic drowning without my willing sacrifice. It began to snow, the flakes melting as soon as they touched the damp swamp floor. The men stared up, mouths hanging open, and that was when I moved.

There were six of them, counting the captain. But they never stood a chance. With concentration, I practiced something that had delighted Naî the first time I had shown her. Ice formed in my hands, and I imagined the blades I would need, thin and razor-sharp, shaped like crescents.

When frozen solid, ice could cut just as well as metal. That was something we learned early in the north, and I put it to use here. The ice flew from my hands, striking the men. One went down immediately, the ice blade embedded in his eye.

Another screamed, grasping at his shoulder, trying to pull the blade free and only slicing his hands in the process. Blood burbled from his mouth, and he looked for help, but the other men desperately searched the darkness, their eyes unable to see where I hid.

I threw three more blades, one hitting a soldier in the stomach, slicing through his leather armor. Another went through the throat and hand of the man standing next to him, and both of them went down.

I could finish them off like this, hitting them at a distance like an assassin with a bow, or an electro mage with a handful of lightning. But my body knew differently. I was already trembling, my flesh jumping, my breath coming short.

When I gasped in the air, the smoke dragged over my throat again, and I didn’t have the magic to finish what I had started. Well, I could manage without magic. I had done so my whole life, after all.

As I moved, only one of the men saw me. He shouted, and the captain turned. I was faster.

My short sword went up, slicing across his exposed throat. The captain fell, but I had underestimated the strength I needed, and used my burned arm. I hadn’t been able to cut deep enough, and the mistake cost me. He was up, his sword flashing as it sliced across my burned skin. When I screamed, the sound was animalistic.

There was the pain I had been drowning under shock and adrenaline.

Clutching my arm close to my chest, I passed my sword from my right hand to my left. The other soldier circled behind me, and I heard his footsteps when he rushed at me. Ducking, I rolled to the side, and he passed above me. In one motion, I swept his legs out from under him, kicking his head hard. My ankle ached, but I didn’t have time to worry, using my whole body to tackle the captain, and this time, the wound wasn’t shallow as I sliced across his throat, blood pooling on the Tavornai ground.

The soldier left alive blinked at me, one pupil larger than the other as he tried to put together words.

“I have information. I know where General Kacha is. Not all of us are loyal to him. The emperor needs to know that.” He moved, and I could see him favoring one of his legs as he pushed up.