Brightly Woven(77)

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Oliver and North exchange a look. In the end, Oliver merely nodded, summoning a few of the other wizards around him. They drew out their talismans and, in the next breath, disappeared.

“Hold on,” North told me, replacing the red cloak around us with his black one. I nodded and, for the first time, savored the feeling of our fall through space.

My body jarred with the heavy thud of North’s boots against the ship’s deck. Several of the sailors around us looked startled at our sudden appearance.

North ducked, squeezing us down the narrow staircase to the hull. The space was dark and cramped. North sat against the wall with a long sigh and pulled me onto his lap, once again wrapping the red cloak tightly around us.

“Where are we?” I asked again, suddenly exhausted.

“We’re just off Auster’s coast,” he said. “It was too far for us to twist safely from Provincia. We had to sail most of the way.”

“How did you find me?”

“The moment we came close to shore we all felt you, burning like a star on the mountainside. You drew us to you.”

“Dorwan,” I began, pulling away. “He was with me on the mountain—I don’t know what happened to him—”

“What in the seven hells was he doing there?” I saw North’s face glower in the darkness.

“He told the king I was their goddess,” I said. “When I didn’t understand their ritual, he asked that I be allowed to prove my power.”

“And you did,” North finished.

“On my own terms,” I said. “I’ve never wished this on anyone, but I hope he’s dead, and I hope he suffered.”

I felt his hand come up to stroke my hair softly.

“I hope so, too,” he said. “If he’s alive, Oliver and the others will find him.”

“How did you manage to get Oliver to come along?” I asked.

“I’ve been wondering that myself, actually,” he said. “When the queen sent him away, Oliver came and got me immediately. I think he felt guilty for letting it happen, to be honest. He may not like me, but he’s not a beast, and he knew you were innocent.”

I pulled back from him, studying his face. “About before…I was angry,” I whispered. “If it meant saving your life, you know I would give you whatever you needed.”

“Don’t say that, and don’t apologize,” he said gruffly. I felt him shift slightly beneath me. “I deserved it, every last word.”

I pressed my lips against the line of his jaw softly, not pulling them away until I felt the tension there slowly abate.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered again. It was his warm breath on my face that made the moment real; it was the light touch of his fingertips on my neck that nearly reduced me to tears. I tilted my face up expectantly.

The sound of two dozen boots raining down on the deck above us broke the spell. A moment later, Oliver appeared on the steps, his shape outlined by the setting sun.

“Wayland!” he called.

North cleared his throat but made no movement to stand, let alone move. I let my head rest against his shoulder once more.

Oliver stumbled around the crates and bedding, stopping short of us. Even in the darkness, I could see his eyes widen at the sight of us.

“We could only find guards and broken carriages,” Oliver said. “Who else was there?”

“The king,” I told him. “A few of the nobles and priests…and Reuel Dorwan.”

“So he is involved?” Oliver asked North. “It wasn’t some lie you spun to avoid the war?”

“Do you really believe I would do that?” North asked, and there was real hurt there.

Oliver looked away. “I checked the records. I wasn’t able to find any trace of him, let alone track his movements.”

“He’s not a ranked wizard, so there was no trace spell placed on him, remember?” North said. “You were there when he confronted my mother about it, weren’t you?”

“That was justified,” Oliver said. “He was raised by hedge witches. His ranking is forbidden in our code of laws.”

“It’s more important you try to find him now,” I said. “There’s a chance he didn’t make it off the mountain at all.”

“And you’re positive the king was there?” Oliver pressed. “This may change everything.”

I nodded.

“Only if he’s dead,” North said. “If Dorwan was there, I doubt he would have let the king die. Not when it was advantageous for him to keep the king alive.”

The thought was almost soothing to me, as if the lives of a few men being saved by Dorwan made me any less of a murderer. Of a monster.

I ducked my chin against my neck and closed my eyes. North seemed to sense my thoughts, because his hand came up to press my face against his shoulder once more.

“You did what you had to,” he said. “You’re alive and we’re together again. That’s all that matters to me.”

“I wish…I wish there could have been another way,” I mumbled. “None of those men were like Dorwan.”

“The other way would have been death as well, only it would have been yours,” Oliver said. “And that’s no more honorable than what you did.”