TAUNO’S BOWSTRING TWANGED and I yelled, “Go! Go! Go!” Kiki was free, but two Sandseeds held tight to Garnet’s bridle. A quick glance to the side revealed ten feet separated us from the fastest Vermin.

I pulled my staff from my pack as Kiki turned. She used her rear legs to keep the Vermin occupied while I brought my bow down on the temple of a Sandseed holding Garnet. A pang of regret touched my heart as the man crumpled to the ground. He had probably been forced to ambush us. But I didn’t let the feelings stop me from attacking the second man clutching Garnet.

“Go! Go! Go!” I yelled again.

Even with Moon Man’s scimitar, Tauno’s arrows and my bow, the Vermin outnumbered us. It was only a matter of time before they would overrun us. In a flurry of hooves and steel and shouts, the horses headed away from the Sandseed camp, breaking into their gust-of-wind gait.

We had ridden through most of the night to get as far away from the Vermin as possible. The horses slowed. Heads down, they panted. Their coats gleamed with sweat. Only a couple dark hours remained. Dismounting, we removed their saddles. While I walked the horses to cool them down, Moon Man and Tauno searched for wood and game.

No one said a word. The shock of the attack had yet to wear off and the vivid memory of it played over and over in my mind. The ramifications alone were too awful to consider right now.

We ate another rabbit stew in silence. I thought about our next move.

“The elders…” Moon Man’s voice seemed loud in the thick night air.

“Are still alive,” Tauno said. “For now.”

“Would they kill them?” A shudder gripped my body at the thought of all those drying skulls.

“The trap was sprung. They have no need for them,” Moon Man replied then seemed to reconsider his words. “They might keep them as slaves. The Vermin are lazy when it comes to domestic tasks.”

“And they’re just busy beavers when it comes to ritual killings and gaining power,” I said. “Lucky us.” The scene once again flashed in my mind. “Do you think some of your people escaped?”

“Perhaps. They would have left the plains, though.” Moon Man considered. “The Sandseeds no longer control the protective magic over the Avibian Plains. To stay within its borders would be too dangerous for them. Right now, the Vermin are using the protection to keep their presence a secret, but now that we have fled, I believe they will use it to find us. Perhaps to attack us with magic.”

“Then we shouldn’t linger long. Is there any way to know if they find us?”

“We can create a barrier to alert us to an attack and maybe deflect an initial foray.”

“We should saddle the horses in case we need to make a quick exit.” I stood.

“That would be prudent.” Moon Man helped me with the horses.

Kiki snorted in annoyance when I tightened her straps.

Tired, she said. Don’t need. Smell good.

For now. If the smells turn bad, we can leave faster. I fed her some peppermints and scratched behind her large ears. She sighed and her eyes drifted shut.

After the horses were ready, the three of us sat in a circle around the fire.

“Maybe we should douse the flames.” Worried that the Fire Warper would sense me through the blaze, I hadn’t used my magic near a fire.

Moon Man dumped water onto it. Puffs of gray smoke rose into the air.

“Yelena, I want you to pull threads of magic and I will do the rest,” Moon Man instructed.

Concentrating, I gathered strands of power. Moon Man plucked the strands from me and weaved them into a net around us. Tauno’s pinched and sullen expression reflected his discomfort. As the only one without magic, he didn’t have the ability to see the protection building around us.

When Moon Man finished, I disconnected from the power source, feeling drained of energy. The net pulsed with magic even though we no longer fueled it. I wondered why it still worked. In all my past efforts, the power dissipated as soon as I stopped using magic. Except for my mental connections with Kiki and Irys, every time I wanted to heal or project I had to consciously draw from the power source. Yet the Sandseeds had their protection, and there were other lingering spells.

An image of the knife in Valek’s suite came to mind. When Valek had assassinated the King of Ixia, the King cursed him, vowing his blood would stain Valek’s hands forever. Since magic doesn’t work on Valek, the curse transferred to the knife instead. The King’s blood still clung to the blade and remained as wet and bright as the day the King had been killed.

I asked Moon Man how the protective net stayed active.

“Mostly we channel the magic through us. But there are times when you can loop the power back to the source. It can be very difficult to do, and, by having you draw the power, I could save my energy for knitting it together and redirecting it back to the source. Large-scale protection like the one covering the Avibian Plains and the Sandseeds…”

A hitch of emotion stopped his words. He closed his eyes and swallowed his grief before he continued. “Huge magical loops require an immense effort by many magicians, but can be effective for a long time. The protection we just created will last for a few hours before dissipating. Enough time to give the horses a chance to rest.”

“And then what?” I asked, but he looked at me. Leif’s comments about my role as commander flittered through my mind. I answered my own question. “We leave the plains. Head toward the Citadel and let the Council know what’s been going on with the Vermin.”

“Hopefully they will already know. The Sandseed survivors would have gone to the Citadel.” Moon Man scowled. “If there were any.”

Waiting for the horses to regain some of their strength proved to be difficult. Our protective net flashed whenever the Vermin’s magic scanned the area. So far the net hid us from the Vermin, but each encounter weakened the fibers.

The desire to flee and the need to sleep battled within me. I wanted to stay awake in case the Vermin attacked, but I dozed off and on until the sky brightened with the rising sun.

The few hours before dawn had been enough time for the horses. We mounted and headed northwest, riding hard. During our rest breaks, Moon Man searched for any sign the Vermin’s magic had found us. I projected my awareness to learn if they physically pursued us. In our haste, we left a physical trail even my untrained eyes could follow.

A couple hours short of the Avibian border, we stopped for a longer rest. Moon Man proclaimed the Vermin had lost us, and I couldn’t sense anyone nearby.

Since we had been traveling together for fifteen days, we automatically attended our chosen tasks, even with the Daviian threat hanging over our heads.

By the time I had finished rubbing down the horses and seeing to their needs, I smelled rabbit stew cooking on the fire.

Tauno sat next to the pot. His shoulders hunched as if a great weight pressed down on him, and his attention remained fixed on the ground. He hadn’t uttered more than a few words since yesterday. Perhaps he felt guilty and responsible for leading us into an ambush. I debated discussing it with him, but considered he might be more comfortable talking to Moon Man. I wondered if Moon Man was his Story Weaver. Every Sandseed had a Story Weaver to guide and advise them throughout their lives.

I glanced around, realizing Moon Man hadn’t returned from collecting firewood even though a pile of branches rested near the cook fire.

“Tauno, where’s Moon Man?” I asked.

Tauno didn’t even lift his head when he said, “He was called to the shadow world.”

“Called? Does that mean another Story Weaver survived the Vermin attack?”

“You will have to ask him.”

“When will he be back?”

Tauno ignored the rest of my questions. Frustrated, I circled the area, searching for Moon Man, and found his clothes in a heap on the ground. I moved to return to the fire and bumped into him.

I jerked back in surprise. Moon Man seized my upper arms to keep me from falling.

“Where have you been?” I asked.

He peered at me with an alarming intensity. Blue fire flecked his brown eyes. I tried to move, but he wouldn’t let go.

“They are dead,” he said with a flat voice. “Story Weavers and Sandseeds gone. Their souls haunt the shadow world.”

His grip on my arms tightened. “You’re hurt—”

“You can help them.”

“But I don’t—”

“Selfish girl. You would rather lose your abilities than use them. And that is what will happen. You will become a slave to another.”

His words slapped me in the face. “But I’ve been using them all along.”

“Anyone can heal. You, though, hide from your real power and others suffer for it.”

Stung and hurt, I tried to break loose, but his hold wouldn’t release. In order not to injure him, I projected into Moon Man’s mind. Thick ropes of gray power surrounded him. The shadow world still held his mind. My efforts to cut the ties failed.

“The shadow world calls.”

Moon Man began to fade. My body became translucent. He planned to take me with him to a place where I feared I couldn’t access my magic. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled my switchblade and triggered the blade. I slashed him across his stomach. Moon Man shuddered and let go. He collapsed to the ground, curling into a ball on his side.

I looked at Moon Man’s still form. The gray power had vanished, but I wasn’t sure of his mental state. Perhaps the shock and grief had been too much for him. Difficult to believe. He had been a calm and steady presence all along.

I knelt next to him. The blood from his wound soaked his shirt. Drawing power, I focused on his stomach. The cut pulsed with a red light and a line of pain formed on my own stomach. I huddled on the ground, concentrating on the injury. My magic repaired the damage.

When I finished, Moon Man grasped my hand. I tried to pull free, but he squeezed. My body jerked as the image of headless bodies slammed into my mind. They crowded close, enveloping me with the reek of dead flesh as they demanded revenge. Another jerk and the scene of a massacre flooded my senses. The burning stench of body fluids and death stung my nose as blood soaked into the sand. Mutilated bodies were strewn in a haphazard, irreverent manner and left for the vultures to find.

Moon Man sat, and I tried to break his hold. His gaze met mine.

“Is that what you saw in the shadow world?” I asked.

“Yes.” Horror filled his eyes as the gruesome images replayed in his mind.

“Give the memories to me.” I felt his reluctance. “I will not forget them.”

“Will you help them?”

“Can’t you?”

“I can only help the living.”

“Are you going to tell me how or spout some cryptic bullshit?”

“You do not want to learn. You have refused to see what is all around you.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

Pain creased his face and the light in his eyes dulled. He would be unable to function with the dreadful knowledge of how his people suffered.

“Give them to me. I’ll try to help them, but not right now.” I mentally added soothing-the-dead-Sandseeds to the end of my long list of things to do. After I dealt with the Fire Warper, which should be a breeze. While I was lying to myself, I included flying and turning stones into gold to my list. Might as well think big.

Moon Man released the emotional turmoil of his visions. He wouldn’t forget the images, but they would no longer strangle him. I gathered his grief and guilt and anguish to my soul. So much carnage and blood. All to boost the Vermin’s power. So many dead. Too many. How to soothe those victims? Stopping the Vermin from increasing their strength might work. What if they tried again? Perhaps destroying the power blanket to keep everyone from using magic would work. A drastic and desperate measure that might not even be possible.

Letting go of my hand, Moon Man stood.

“What you said about my future. Is it true?” I asked.

“Yes. You will become a slave to another.” The discussion over, Moon Man returned to the campfire.

We ate the stew in silence. Packing up, we mounted and spurred the horses toward the Avibian border. When we reached the road located between the plains and the fields of the Greenblade Clan’s lands, we turned north toward the Citadel and slowed the horses to a walk. At this late hour, the road was empty.

Being out of the plains gave us at least an illusion of safety, but I wanted to ride a little farther before we stopped for the night.

The next three days dragged. With hardly a word spoken between the three of us, an awkward hush resulted as we traveled to the Citadel. Moon Man’s comment about my future repeated in my mind, grating on my nerves like a high-pitched squeal. I wanted to know who would force me to be a slave and when, but I knew Moon Man would reply with a cryptic remark and I wouldn’t be smart enough to figure it out. The air turned cold and damp as we went farther north, and one night sleet pelted us, making our ride miserable.

Seeing the welcome sight of the white marble walls of the city on the third day, I spurred Kiki into a gallop. Gone from the Keep for eighteen days, I missed Irys, my old mentor who answered my questions with a refreshing directness, and my friends at the Magician’s Keep.

After crossing the south entrance gate of the outer wall, we walked the horses through the streets of the Citadel. Puddles of icy muck peppered the walkways. Citizens hurried through the intermittent rain, and the grayness cast a mournful facade over the expanse of marble buildings. The smell of wet wool clung to the air. We aimed for the Council Hall, which was located with the other government buildings in the southeast quadrant of the Citadel.

Home? Kiki looked with longing at the four towers of the Keep.

Soon, I said. Rest here for now. A stable for the Councilors had been erected behind the building. At least you’ll be out of the rain. Once Kiki and Garnet were settled, we entered the hall.

A guard informed us a Council meeting had just finished and we should go in before the Councilors left for the day. Entering the Great Hall, I spotted Irys talking to Bain Bloodgood, Second Magician. Groups of Councilors and aides formed small knots and the noise of their discussions filled the room. By the harsh tones and strident voices, I sensed the discussion hadn’t gone well and an undercurrent of fear trembled against my skin.

Moon Man and Tauno went directly to their Councilman, Harun Sandseed. I hung back, not wanting to interfere with the Sandseeds. Irys hurried toward me. She wore her stern Fourth Magician expression. She was worried. I scanned the clumps of Councilors with more care and I discovered the reason for her concern.

Cahil stood with Roze Featherstone and another Councilor. He laughed and talked as if he belonged there.