CORWIN STARED DOWN INTO THE pit, his heart galloping inside his chest.
“What do we do?” Kate asked from beside him.
“We kill them before they can be used for further harm.” He pulled the revolver from his holster.
“Wait, Corwin.” Kate touched his arm. “Someone put those drakes in there, caged them, and tried to hide them.”
Brow furrowed, he stared back at her. “You think we might be able to catch whoever is behind this?” The Rising, here in Norgard. He didn’t want to believe it, his city in danger. The wilder responsible for his mother’s death had killed dozens of people—and he’d acted alone. Corwin didn’t want to imagine the damage wilders could do banded together.
“Not if we kill the drakes.” Kate peered around the clearing. “Whoever it is might hear the shots and be scared off.”
Glancing up at the sky, Corwin guessed it was drawing toward noon. He’d already spent too long out here, and if he wasn’t careful he would be late for yet another high council meeting. But there was no question that this discovery was more important.
He turned back to Kate. “All right, we stay here and see who comes to check on them.”
They retreated the way they’d come and crouched down behind the white trees, their slender trunks offering poor coverage. Neither spoke, and in their silence, the noise of the forest grew louder, each creak of a tree bough or snap of a twig ominous. The minutes marched by. Before long, Corwin’s stomach began to growl loud enough to hear, and his body ached from sitting still so long. He knew Kate must be feeling the same next to him.
“Do you want to check the horses?” he whispered to her.
Relief broke over her face, and she nodded once, then stood and retreated as silently as a wild animal. Corwin watched her go before turning back to the clearing. The drakes had settled some, but every few minutes he would hear the snap of teeth or a growl. Please, Noralah, let me catch those behind this and be done with it. He touched a finger to his bandaged palm, feeling the brand beneath it.
It seemed for once that the goddess was listening, for on the far side of the clearing, a figure soon appeared. The man was plainly dressed, with nothing remarkable about his appearance. Nothing like the Andreas miner with his blue tattoos and ragged clothing. He might have been a clerk or a farmer or something equally inconspicuous. A wilder rebel?
Slowly, carefully, Corwin eased the pistol out of the holster as he watched the man approach the pit with a puzzled expression on his face. He circled the hole slowly.
Corwin braced, ready to subdue the man once his back was turned, but before he could, he heard the snap of a twig from behind, Kate returning. It was a slight sound, but enough to draw the stranger’s attention. He spun toward Corwin with wide, startled eyes.
Corwin leaped up, pointing the revolver. “Don’t move!”
The man ignored the command, his hand already pulling something out of his pocket.
“Watch out, Corwin!” Kate shouted, rushing forward as if she meant to shield him from the attack.
The man threw the object at them, unleashing a blinding white light. A ferocious bang echoed across the clearing, so loud Corwin felt his brains rattle inside his skull. It was a flash stone, like the kind Raith had used to escape the daydrakes.
Stunned and disoriented, Corwin fell to his knees, unable to stay upright. It was as if the solid ground had started to churn like the waves of the ocean.
“Kate!” he screamed, but he couldn’t hear the sound of his own voice. Groping blindly, he reached out, soon feeling her body next to his.
As the white light faded, Corwin’s senses slowly came back to him. He could see again, although a dreadful ringing remained in his ears. He turned to Kate and cupped her face, running his thumbs over her cheeks.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded and rolled away from him, lurching to her feet. She stumbled toward the path by which the man had first arrived.
Corwin grabbed her arm. “There’s no point. He’s long gone by now.” He guessed he was shouting but couldn’t help it. “We need help.”
Kate turned back. Scowling, she placed her hands over her ears. “I can barely hear a thing.”
“Me too.” Corwin bent down and retrieved his revolver from where he’d dropped it. “We need to hurry, but first—”
He broke off and headed for the pit, where the drakes were writhing about, in a frenzy over the commotion above them. Gritting his teeth, Corwin aimed the revolver into the pit. There was no sport in this sort of killing, but the foul creatures couldn’t be allowed to live. One by one, he planted a bullet in their skulls, his aim deadly accurate at such a close distance. Once again, he thanked the gods for Bonner’s revolver, more certain than ever that it was the key to vanquishing all the drakes that plagued Rime.
When it was done, Corwin hurried down the path after Kate toward the horses. Both Nightbringer and Firedancer pulled at their tethers, ready to be away from this place. Corwin and Kate climbed into the saddle, then raced out of the woods and down the road to Norgard’s eastern gate.
They didn’t slow down until they made it back to the castle. “Stay with the horses,” Corwin said, doing a flying dismount in the courtyard. “I’ll be back with help.”
He turned and raced into the stables, shouting for Master Cade.
“He’s still in the high council meeting, your highness,” one of the stable hands said.
Corwin swung toward the man. “Have a squadron of cavalry horses saddled and send someone to muster their riders. I want everyone ready to leave at once.”
With the order given, Corwin left the stables and raced all the way to the council chamber in the central wing. The guards standing outside the door stepped aside as he barged in. Seated at the large, round table, all the high councilmembers looked up at once with matching alarmed expressions.
All save Edwin, whose lips curled downward. “I would say you’re late, Corwin, but that would be a gross understatement.”
“There are daydrakes in the Wandering Woods.” Corwin pulled the magestone from his pocket and held it out. “They were caged in a pit and hidden with magic.” Placing the magestone on the table, he told them the rest.
“Very worrisome,” Grand Master Storr said when Corwin finished. Storr picked up the magestone, examining it closely. “This stone had a concealment spell on it, the kind for sale in any of the brown-robe houses. It would be difficult to trace, to say the least.”
Corwin gaped at him, dismayed. The concealment spells he knew of were for hiding simple things like blemishes on the skin or an unfortunately shaped nose, not a massive pit in the ground housing four deadly daydrakes. “But the browns deal in the small arts, vanity spells and the like. This was far bigger and more powerful.” Corwin waved Storr off when he started to respond. “Later. For now we need to scour the woods to catch whoever put the drakes into that cage.”
Minister Knox and Master Cade both stood at the same time. “My men can be ready to ride as soon as the horses are saddled,” Knox said.
“I’ve already got the grooms saddling their horses,” Corwin replied before Master Cade could respond. Then he turned to Storr. “But we will need magist support as well. There’s no telling what other magic our enemies possess.”
Storr bowed his head. “I’ll have Maestra Vikas assemble her golds. They will be best for dealing with such rogue magic.”
Corwin didn’t argue. He didn’t care so long as they hurried.
But nearly an hour passed before the troop of cavalry soldiers and golds were mounted and ready to go. Edwin and Corwin rode at the front of the troop, with Kate trailing just behind them. No one questioned her presence, although Corwin suspected they would later. The councilmembers who’d decided to come along all eyed her curiously. So did Grand Master Storr, although he was better at hiding it. Only Minister Rendborne seemed unconcerned with her presence, going so far as to exchange a few words with her as they rode along. Corwin cast the man a grateful nod.
They entered the white woods in a single file, the path too tangled and overgrown for anything else. Behind him, Corwin heard several of the men whisper oaths of protection against entering the cursed woods. Maestra Vikas soon barked an order for her golds to cast spells of protection.
Within minutes they arrived at the same clearing. At least, Corwin thought it was the same one, only there was no sign of the pit or the drakes. The clearing was undisturbed, as serene as if it hadn’t been touched by human hands in a hundred years.
Corwin glanced at Kate, doubt making him uneasy. “Did we make a mistake?”
Biting her lip, she shook her head. “This is the place. Maybe they came back and hid it again?”
She dismounted and walked toward the center where the pit should’ve been. Corwin joined her, as did Grand Master Storr and Edwin. Visions of the ground giving way flashed through his mind, but nothing happened. They searched for hidden magestones in the grass, Vikas going so far as to use an illumination spell, but they found nothing. The pit and the dead drakes were gone, as if they’d never been there.
“It was here. I swear it.” Corwin turned to where Edwin and Storr stood, Vikas and Rendborne joining them.
A glower colored Edwin’s face. “If this has all been one of your ploys, Corwin, I’ll—”
“What reason would I have to lie?” Corwin balled his hands into fists, ready to hit something in his frustration, even as an embarrassed flush threatened to rise in his cheeks. He felt twelve years old again, with his brother so ready to accuse him of seeking attention. “The daydrakes were real, Edwin, and so was that man with the flash stone.”
Grand Master Storr cleared his throat. “If I may offer, your highness: Supposing it is true that these daydrakes are a tool of the Rising, then there’s an easy explanation for what happened here.”
“Yes,” Maestra Vikas said, nodding. Like the grand master, she wore no mask, her skin pale as white silk. Equally pale hair framed her narrow face. It would’ve been an attractive face, with her gray eyes like storm clouds, if only her expression weren’t always so austere, like a marble statue. “An earthist could’ve easily hidden evidence of the pit.”
Corwin swore beneath his breath, seeing the insidious brilliance of it. He exchanged a look with Kate, hers more worried than angry. “It took us a long while to get back here. Surely enough time for a wilder to have come in and taken care of it.”
Edwin looked doubtful, but he didn’t argue. Instead he turned to the men crowding into the clearing. “We need to search the woods. Overturn every leaf and stone. I want small groups heading in different directions, but there needs to be a gold in each one for safety.”
“A wise plan, your highness,” Storr said, sketching a bow.
While Edwin took charge of organizing the groups, Corwin drew Kate aside for a private word.
“You must be tired and hungry. Do you want me to have someone escort you to the castle?”
“I don’t need an escort.” She brushed back a strand of hair that had fallen loose from her braid. “But no, I’ll stay and help. I might be of use.”
Corwin held in a sigh. He didn’t want her in these woods, not with wilders and drakes about, but he knew better than to try to order her home. Besides, a part of him was relieved she was staying. It was the same part that always seemed able to find her in a crowd. He wanted to take her hand, to lace her fingers with his, but he settled for a touch of her shoulder.
“I know you’ll be of help. I don’t think I would’ve found the pit in the first place without you.”
Kate dropped her gaze, shrugging. “The horses told us more than anything.”
“True. But if you’re going to stay, I want you to ride with me.” He hesitated, then added, “Please.”
Kate looked up, her eyes bright and that secretive, sideways smile appearing on her face. “Of course. Where else would I go?”
Away, he thought, remembering Hale’s ledger, once this is all over. But no, he shouldn’t dwell on that now. It was a dangerous subject, leading him down a dark road to nowhere.
They searched the woods until dusk began to descend and Edwin called it off. They’d found nothing so far, but early the next morning they returned to search once more. Again, they found nothing. Hour after hour, path after path. Nothing. Not so much as a single claw mark in the mud.
“We didn’t even find the Hellgate,” Corwin said as the search party rode back to the city. “How is that possible?”
Although he hadn’t directed the question at anyone in particular, Master Storr chose to answer. “People lie, your highness, sometimes even the ones who write the history books.”
It was an unpleasant thought, but less so than the certainty that he’d come so close to uncovering the mystery behind the daydrakes and who might be controlling them, only to fail again.