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“Which explains the possessed,” he murmured. “What about animals? Can it control them too?”
“Yes. The weaker the mind, the easier to manipulate.”
“What does it want with Fionna?” he tried to clarify.
“To live again. Without a body, Koschei’s powers are greatly reduced. However, if he can find a vessel to inhabit then he will have full access to his magic and that would be terrible thing.”
“By vessel, you mean a person.”
“Not just a person. A witch with blood magic, which is very rare, so rare they used to have a name for it: sorceress. Which happens to be the other symbol Fionna struggled with.”
“During the fight with the dragons, Fionna said her blood made her spells stronger.” He remembered her shock when she punched that hole in the beast.
“Because she is a sorceress, able to use blood to enhance her spells. With her missing, I fear the worst. If Koschei takes over her body, he might be unstoppable.”
Kormac scrubbed his face as his mind whirled. Now he understood why Airiok had all magic users killed. He feared one would set it free. And Kormac had been the one to bring a witch back to Srayth. “Fionna hasn’t been gone too long. If I can rescue her, there’s still a chance to stop this.”
“You’ll have to hurry.”
No shit. “Now that we know what we’re facing, how do we destroy it?”
Amelia shook her head. “The book might have said but the pages were damaged. Perhaps if you find the object he used to store his essence, there might be a way to set the spirit loose, forcing it into a true death.”
“This object, how will I know I’ve found it?”
“The book had an image of a box. Tiny and ornate.”
He thought of the glass wall with the object embedded within. “A box will be easy to smash.”
“I doubt it’s so simple or Airiok would have done it rather than sealing it in a cave.”
“Meaning I might have to do the same.” As he’d talked to the queen, his horse had continued trotting into the pass, but it halted as he reached the rubble that blocked it.
“I need to go now,” he stated, sliding off his horse.
“Please bring Fionna back to me,” the queen pleaded.
“I’m not leaving that cave without her.” A grim but truthful promise.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Fionna came to consciousness and immediately panicked. She was bound head to toe, arms tightly pressed to her body, the webbing around her covering every inch, including her face.
The last thing she recalled was hearing a strange scratching noise coming from the kitchen hearth. She’d been ready to blast whatever emerged, only the web that shot out of the opening didn’t give her time to react. It hit her skin and lethargy struck almost immediately. She’d been only half aware as the giant spider spun her into a cocoon, terrified because the size of it didn’t bode well. Almost as big as she was, its eight legs were slick and black, its faceted eyes reflecting her own terrified expression.
And then nothing. Until now.
She appeared to be lying on the floor, and while she could breathe, she couldn’t see or move.
As if someone heard her thought, the webbing over her face tore, and she sucked in a giant lungful of air before opening her eyes to see she lay in a chamber of stone. It didn’t take much to realize the spider squatting off to the side had brought her to the cave.
She couldn’t help but recall how Lomar had called her the key. And she’d dumbly not run in the other direction that same night.
A soft light illuminated the space Kormac had described. She looked to the walls, noting the inscriptions. The section she read began with a warning.
Beware. The stealer of bodies can’t be defeated by blade.
Then how did one kill it?
