Page 79

It had set the swamp beneath it ablaze. The few remaining tree trunks within the firestorm split and toppled, hollowed out from within.

Ilyana didn’t think Moersbad was much farther on, but after so many days of trekking through the swamp, we couldn’t afford delays. Our time was too close to running out. We had to reach the emperor before the end of the day if we wanted to save Yudit and stave off a war.

“Shouldn’t the fire be spreading?” Sunbeam asked. “I know everything’s damp here, but that wouldn’t stop something like this.”

He was right. The devastation stopped where the rain did. On one side, the grass was lush and green. On the other, there was nothing but ash.

“Maybe it’s not real,” he said.

“Feel free to shove a hoof in if you want to check,” Ilyana said.

“No, thanks. I’m not married to the theory.”

We weren’t going to get anywhere on speculation alone. I reached out and poked the tip of my finger into the fire rain.

“Ow!” I yanked back my hand and stuck the burned finger in my mouth. “Shit,” I mumbled around it.

“Well, so much for that idea,” Sunbeam said. “Anyone have a better one?”

I didn’t have anything brilliant to contribute, so I continued nursing my finger.

Ilyana scowled at the rain as if personally offended by it. “We’ll have to go around. I don’t see any other option. Which way, though?”

That was a troubling question. We didn’t know how far it extended. If we circled around to the north, and the Red Empire army hadn’t passed through Moersbad yet, we might find ourselves trapped on the wrong side of the fire rain with no way to reach the emperor. But if we went south, and the army had moved quickly, we’d have the exact same problem. Except that then they’d already be in the northern kingdoms and the war would be underway. That had to be the absolute worst-case scenario.

“Let’s go north,” I said. “The emperor’s forces got sped up by Dr. Pipt’s radish-enhancing spell. They’ve probably gone pretty far.”

No one objected, so we turned left and plodded onward. The rain of fire stretched on and on, crackling and roaring. When the droplets fell in a pond or a stream, they sizzled out with a serpentine hiss. We eyed the boundary warily, in case it changed its mind and decided to move. Except for Stinky, who regarded it with a kind of resigned acceptance. She’d given up on panicking after meeting her twentieth monster or so.

With every hour that passed, the ground became less marshy. We were on our way out of the Swamp of Monsters at last. But it was taking too long. Much too long. When evening fell, we were still in the wilderness with no army in sight.

We had until midnight. It wouldn’t be the emperor’s birthday until then. I told myself he wouldn’t decide to execute Yudit early. Surely he wouldn’t. I refused to believe that she was already dead.

Around moonrise, we came across a large clearing. And there, at a safe distance from the fire rain, a collection of tents and supply wagons spread across a gentle slope until they reached a broad cliff face on the far side.

An army camp. I wanted to cry out from sheer relief.

There was, however, no guarantee we were done yet. The empire’s forces were vast. We might have a long way to go before we reached the emperor himself. Frankly, this didn’t seem like the likeliest place for him to be. The camp was too far from the rainlight to make out details, but it wasn’t very large—perhaps a rearguard? Were they keeping watch on the bizarre rain of fire at their back?

“I want to get a closer look before we go barging in,” I said. “All of you wait here for a minute, all right?” Trampling into the camp unannounced at night would be a good way to get stabbed by a sentry patrol.

I crept along the edge of the clearing, moving from tree to tree. There was no movement among the tents, no noise except the distant roar of falling flame. I was considering how best to alert a guard to our presence when someone spun me around, grabbed me by the throat, and slammed me into a tree trunk.

It occurred to me, somewhat belatedly, that sneaking around like a spy was also a good way to get stabbed.

The guard was huge, easily keeping me pinned with a single hand that wrapped most of the way around my neck. I tried to call up some kind of aggressive flower to help me out, but I couldn’t maintain the concentration. Being strangled will do that.

“I found an intruder!” she bellowed. In the corner of my eye, I saw tent flaps open as the camp began to stir. My lungs were in agony, starved of air. I was going to black out soon if I couldn’t break free.

Wait. She bellowed?

The Red Empire didn’t allow women in its army. I squinted in the darkness and made out a familiar one-eyed face. With some frantic squirming, I loosened her hold enough to take a single breath.

“J-Jinjur?” I choked out.

She peered at me. “Jules? Jules!” Jinjur lifted me away from the tree and waved me around like a flag. “Everyone! It’s Jules! I found Jules!”

After a moment, she noticed the desperate noises I was making and realized she was still holding me by the neck. She let me go with an apologetic grunt. I dropped to the ground. By the time I recovered, we were surrounded by soldiers.