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The group went back through the steps and the spells until there was nothing left to do but wait. The sun traced a path through the clouds overhead. It was the best weather they’d had so far. Still cold at this elevation, but it would have made for a decent day of hiking. Ren hoped their decision to wait was the right one. As the hours passed, however, she felt less certain. Every trace of movement on the landscape drew their attention. The occasional bird wheeling overhead. A sunset-red fox diving into the snow as it hunted. There was no sign of Clyde.
“Can’t feel my toes,” Cora complained, shifting her footing.
Ren was about to call it off when she heard a distant scrape. Her eyes darted to the mountain shelves on their right. Shadows pooled there. She took a deep breath before whispering to the others, “I’m pretty sure he’s here.”
The narrowed path they’d chosen extended about one hundred paces in a slight downslope. Ren had made sure there was no natural way around. Clyde would have to learn to levitate if he wanted to take them by surprise, and she was fairly certain Timmons had never mastered that particular skill. A few minutes later she saw his scorched visage peeking around the mouth of the stone passage. That stark blue eye considered them with unblinking intensity. Ren set her feet, but the revenant remained motionless. Minutes passed. On and on like that. The sun was slipping down over the shoulders of the mountains, and the shadows stretched.
Ren hoped their stances and battle formation would draw the revenant’s attention away from what they’d buried in the snow. None of their plan would matter if he didn’t actually attack them. She was considering cupping her hands and calling a taunt when Clyde started to move. She saw his entire right leg had snapped clean through from the fall. It produced a jarring limp. The rest of him was sturdy and strong, though. He was eighty paces away. Seventy. Ren reached for her magic as something stirred in the space between them.
Clyde went completely still.
She squinted. “Come on. What are you waiting for?…”
The air was scented with his foul magic. Was he probing their defenses somehow? Could he sense the trap? She glanced at Theo. Clyde still hadn’t moved. He looked more like a wax figurine.
Until he blinked.
The shadow on Theo’s left changed shape. The revenant had traveled from there to here in a terrifying breath. A blackened hand shoved out, and the first slash of his chain spell struck Theo square in the chest. Ren barely recovered in time to cast her own spell. She took aim.
Not at Clyde. Instead her wand tip was pointed at Theo’s back.
Timing was everything. Right as the revenant’s spell jumped between them, she hit Theo with a pinprick of painfully sharp magic. It would feel like someone stabbing a three-inch needle into his flesh. Hopefully, Cora was about to perform the same spell on her. Ren felt Clyde’s magic hit her like a two-ton anvil. He had all of Timmons’s strength now. She wasn’t just ushered gently into darkness the way she had been all the other times. This time she was dragged head over heels, like being tumbled by a massive wave.…
The sight of her father, bent wrongways in the belly of the canal…
A sharpness pricked the back of her neck. The pain jolted her free of the mental trap. Theo was standing there, pretending not to move. She knew it had worked, though, because he held one hand behind his back, flashing the signal they’d arranged. Pain had woken both of them up from the memory spell. Clyde was limping forward, thinking he had another helpless victim to devour.
Now they sprung the trap.
The creature’s right foot set down in an altered patch of snow. Magical teeth snapped around his good ankle. He let out a wounded snarl as Theo raised his wand to cast the next spell. A half-moon of fire cut off Clyde’s retreat. Ren used her own magic to enclose the circle, binding him inside. There was a roar as the revenant realized he was cut off from the rest of the world. She could feel him mentally scraping at the barriers of her spell. His magic was dark and strong and desperate.
He’s afraid, she thought. And he should be.
Ren and Theo prepared their second wave of spells. They’d carefully curated each set. They mirrored each other’s motions. Ren stepped into the casting to put proper force behind the magic. Great blasts of fire struck Clyde in quick succession. His entire right side went up in flames. That arm withered before snapping off entirely.
“Let’s finish him,” Ren whispered. “Now, Theo!”
They were about to cast their third and final set when Cora barreled into Theo’s back. They’d forgotten about her. By necessity, their plan had not involved waking her up from her catatonic state. She’d been trapped inside the memory, and they’d assumed she’d remain standing in place, helpless. Instead she forced Theo’s wand hand to the ground, and a bolt of stray magic struck the stones between them. The concussive blast flung Ren sideways. Her grip on the magic prison around Clyde slipped. That was the only opening he needed. She managed to shove back to her feet in time to watch him flee down the stone passage. Fire trailed from his body.
Cora was groaning. “Did it work? Did we get him?”
Theo was blinking up at the stars, dazed by the aftermath of his own wayward magic. Ren spat on the stones as their summoned fire whittled down to smoke. Clyde was a distant speck of light that the shadows were slowly devouring. She reached down to help Cora and Theo back to their feet.
“He escaped. Come on. We need to get moving.”
34
Ren’s stomach rumbled as they pushed themselves to keep walking.
Their trap had come so close to working. Ren’s design was nearly flawless. She hadn’t accounted for that last desperate gasp of magic. Somehow Clyde had commanded Cora to do his bidding. In her mindless state she’d tackled Theo before their final round of spells could finish the job. It was yet another clever twist of magic.
Clyde might be wounded, but Ren also suspected he would approach them with an entirely new strategy next time. The same trap would not work again. Rather than delay, the group pressed on by the light of the stars, hoping to keep their advantage.
Theo shouldered their consolidated pack. It was nice for her to walk without the weight tugging at the muscles in her lower back. Vega caught a scrawny rabbit that might serve as a meager dinner. They trudged on through the endless, snow-laced landscape. The Eyeglass cut the star-bright sky on their left, sharp and slender. The higher passes of Watcher Mountain wound like veins in the iron sides of a giant on their right. Ren finally sensed the land starting to wind downward.
“We’re almost through,” she said. “How much magic do we have for the descent?”
Cora looked over. “I’m down to thirty ockleys after that encounter.”
