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Chapter 47
Caspyn
Staying low to the ground and far enough away that hopefully they wouldn’t see me, I trailed the snakes as they continued to beat the man they held between them. Every few steps another of them would kick or punch him, the one in the lead turning every so often to shove the butt of his sword into the shadowed man’s gut.
It was only then that he made a sound, the low grunt of impact echoing over empty tents before the snakes would laugh and move faster, leading him around to the back of the temple, past the domed door everyone had entered before.
“Why don’t we mark him and be done with it?” One of the voices traveled back to me, far louder than I expected. I darted toward the shadows of one of the wagons we traveled by, realizing I might be close enough to be seen.
“He’s too strong. I doubt his bastard of a mother would do it anyway.” I waited for the voices to drift away before I darted out from behind the wagon, careful to keep my feet silent as I followed. Thankfully they were loud enough I had no trouble following; the grunts, laughter, and spare words about death and betrayal echoed over the packed dirt and carriages like a well laid map.
I did not know this man besides his devotion to Princess Elara, beside the rumble of his magic. Saving him would reveal that I was still in this camp after my escape before. It would take away what little surprise I had left in my attack against the queen. So, I kept my magic restrained as they stepped nearer the spindly red trunks of the Forest of Ok. The sky had deepened from red to a purple smudge of a bruise, leaving the towering red trees to look more like the skeletons of lost life as we moved closer.
Haunting and death whispered from the trees, mixing with the pungent musk so similar to that of Fae blood it made my skin crawl. They scent of this graveyard of Fae. I had always chalked those stories up to nonsense. But even when I had traveled to the Isle of Dám to trade with the assassins there I had traveled the hard road through the snowcapped passages of the Luftyn mountains, staying far away from the red trees and the death that runs through them.
With each step, those stories buzzed to life, helped along by the way the branches twisted into the plum sky, by the hum of something that wasn’t quite right whispering alongside. I had felt the warm buzz of magic enough in my life, felt the burn of life as I had taken power from bush and branch. I could feel the same there. But there was something else… something that left a coppery tang on my tongue.
The taste burned in my mouth as we plunged into the forest, those arm-like branches reaching with red spindly fingers as I followed them through the thick patch of trees to a clearing, the deep brown dirt packed under the wheels of five large red pack wagons that sucked the air from my lungs.
Pressing myself against a copse of trees I kept my distance from the feeling, from whatever was inside of those wagons. Even from the far side of the clearing I could still sense the people who had been locked inside the windowless wagons, but not just the people, a feeling I knew all too well from my time in the Runturin.
Catalysts.
The wagons were full of Catalysts.
The riotous guards laughed as they reached the filth covered cart, the snarl in their voices growing as a few of the snakes broke off from the group to hit their swords against the high paneled walls, sobs and pleas echoing from inside.
“Let us out!”
“Please, help us!”
“I need to see Aeinya! It is my duty to be there! I have the ribbon! Let me see my Requisite!” The sob broke through all the others as one of the snakes laughed and jumped around the closest wagon, hitting his sword over the wooden sides like some terrorizing drum. The hollow thud was more like a call to war, to death.
“Not yet, you ain’t getting out of there any time soon! Stop your blithering!” He hit his sword against the side again before moving to the back of the wagon, two others joining him, swords drawn as he moved to unlatch whatever lock was there.
“Get back you filthy thieves! Get back or we’ll gut you through no matter what the queen says!” The wagon shifted and swayed, people inside moving as the back of the wagon was thrown open. The aroma of vomit and piss drifted by me in a woosh of air as the doors were thrown open, a few of the guards recoiling as I did, my hand on my mouth.
“You disgusting little rats! Couldn’t keep yourself clean for even a day could you?” The main guy laughed as he stepped aside, letting the others bring the shade forward.
“Please! I need to see her! She needs me!”
“We need food! Water! Please!”
The voices drifted from the foul interior of the pack wagon, pale hands reaching through the dark before the snake thrust the dull end of a sword toward the desperate grasps, the sounds of grunts and groans mixing with the creak of the cart as whoever was reaching was thrown back.
So many of them, locked away, ready for the slaughter.
Ready for the start of the Red Wave. But when? Tonight? Tomorrow? That King had clearly wanted me to see this, wanted me to do something. If I freed them now, if I sent them running would it be enough to stop what was coming?
My hand ached from gripping my sword so tightly, the pain turning into a hot buzz as I watched the snakes, knowing what I had to do. Once they left I would free them all, then I would run to the queen and continue as I had planned.
To do any of that, I needed time.
I stepped to the side, making sure I was well hidden by the vermillion trunk of one of the larger trees, my bare hand already wrapping around the spindly trunk of the small one beside it.
My magic flared as I watched the snakes, ice slithering over my skin as my eyes shifted, that power swelling and my magic devoured the life within the poor tree.
Except that this life, this power… it was all wrong.
