Brightly Woven (20 page)

“Sydelle, you’d better come with me now,” Dorwan said. “It would be a shame for you to witness what I’m going to do to Wayland if you don’t.”

“You disgust me,” I spat. “I’d lie in a bed of snakes and spiders for all eternity before leaving this place with you. We’re going to Provincia to stop this war, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Are you honestly stupid enough to think you have a choice?” Dorwan said. “There’s no stopping the wheels of chaos now that they’ve been set in motion. It’s a glorious time to be alive in this world! I’ve seen to it that the wizards will be destroyed in this war, and you, dear girl, will help me to establish the new regime.”

North’s fingers tugged at the knots holding his cloaks in place, and time slowed around us. All of the cloaks fluttered down silently, ripples of color in the air, landing in a puddle of fabric between the two men.

“What are you doing?” I cried.

“What makes you believe I’d ever agree to a
wizarding
duel?” Dorwan’s smile made my skin crawl. “Those rules are antiquated and useless to me.”

“But you love a challenge, don’t you? You’d love nothing more than a chance to use whatever dark magic you’ve created to end my life,” North said. “If you give me time to take Sydelle to safety, that’s the only rule I need.”

Dorwan nodded, obviously reluctant. “There’s no room for nobility in battle, Wayland. You’re too soft.”

“If I win, you’ll leave us be. You’ll never look at Sydelle again, or think about her, or try to stop us from going to Provincia,” North said.

“If I win,” Dorwan said slowly, looking straight at me, “the same terms apply, only I demand the surrender of your talisman as well.”

“Fine,” North said. “Are we in agreement, then?”

“Don’t you request my talisman if you win?” Dorwan asked, seemingly confused.

“Why would I ever want such a piece of rot?” North said. “No, thank you.”

Dorwan was silent, pulling a long, thin dagger from its sheath. Its hilt, worn with use, was wrapped with blue string; one long braid of strings, ranging in color from midnight to sky blue, hung down from the hilt.

Dorwan opened his hand, letting the dagger fall on top of North’s cloaks. A palpable buzz of energy filled the air, touching my skin with a slight shock. When the sensation finally faded, Dorwan bent to retrieve his talisman.

“I’ll let the two of you say good-bye,” he said, and turned, walking back into the sunlight.

“Great gods,” North grumbled as soon as Dorwan was out of our sight. “Oh, bloody fantastic! I hate that rotting misericord, and he knows it!”

I stared at him helplessly.

“The mercygiver?” he clarified. “The dagger? Used by sodding tricksters and sneaks because they can’t fight with a real weapon? Great. Oh, bloody great.”

“You’re worried about…the dagger?” I asked incredulously, wondering if I had misunderstood him. He shrugged his shoulders slightly. “Are you insane?” I said. “You just challenged him to a duel! What’s gotten into you? We have no time as it is!”

“It was the only way to make sure he stopped chasing us,” he said, stooping down to pick up his cloaks. “I didn’t see another choice.” He shook out the cloaks to clean the dust from them.

“Besides,” he continued, “I’m much stronger than he is. He just doesn’t know it yet.”

“What good is strength if you have no sense?” I asked. I grabbed his forearms. He took the opportunity to wrap the black cloak around us; when it fell away, we were back at the head of the mountain pass.

“No!”
I said, turning to run back into the pass. “I won’t let you leave me behind, not again!”

“Syd!” he said, catching me in two strides. “Listen to me—you have to get away, all right? Stop!”

“No!” I said. “I won’t!”

North gave me a hard shake, forcing me to look him in the eye. “Just for a little while,” he said quietly. One of his arms wrapped around me, and his other hand came up to touch my hair. “Until the fight is over.”

“What was he talking about?” I asked him. “When he said you took me because you wanted to study me?”

“Because…,” he began.

“Don’t lie,” I warned. “There’s something you’re not telling me. After hearing you and Pascal, and now Dorwan—”

“You can’t believe a word he says, Syd.” North pulled away. “He’s full of deceit.”

“Then why would he want me?” I pressed.

North dropped his bag unceremoniously over my shoulder. “Keep this safe for me, will you?”

“It’s not because there’s…something unnatural about me? About my magic?” I asked.

“There is
nothing
unnatural about you,” he said sharply.
“Nothing.”

I nodded.

“Just wish me luck and let me go,” he said.

I looked down. “You don’t need luck.”

He laughed, bringing my hand up to kiss it.

“Try to find a place to hide, or get as far away as you can,” he said.

“What about you?” I said.

“I’ll find you, as soon as I possibly can,” he said, wrapping a loose curl around his finger. “You’re a bit hard to miss, you know.”

He backed away, pulling his cloak up and leaving me trembling and alone.

The path we had taken down the mountain wasn’t difficult to follow, and the walk back was made easier by the fact that I had left our bags and my loom in the wagon. I was supposed to be with them, of course, but I didn’t care what North wanted—I wasn’t going to sit there and wait for him to return.

Jinx
, my mind whispered.

A terrible boom echoed through the air, and I ran. A blast of wind blew my skirts up around me, and fist-sized rocks began to rain down. My boots threatened to trip me up against the loose rocks and soil, but I kept running. Another loud crash echoed through the pass, ringing out so loudly I thought it would consume me.

Someone screamed—a man’s voice, strained and distorted. I saw a cloud of red fire cut through the sunlit opening of the pass, followed by a man shouting,
“Come on, you can do better!”

I couldn’t tell who it belonged to, and that scared me more than anything.

The slope was steep; I fell at one point and scrambled the rest of the way up on my hands and knees. The ground shook with the force of their spells.

The pass had brought me out far above where we had entered with the wagon. I could see the wizards throwing around blasts of fire, light, earth, wind, and ice as if it was the
most natural thing in the world. The only source of shelter I could find was a gnarled tree, brown and barren. I was about halfway up the slope from them, but I could hear and see as clearly as if I was beside them.

Dorwan thrust his dagger onto the ground, and a vein of black ice sprang up, solidifying around North’s heavy boots. North shattered it easily, kicking free. He didn’t hesitate longer than a fraction of a second before he pulled up the red cloak and a line of fire shot through the air. It wrapped around Dorwan, and North yanked the other end, dragging his opponent to his knees.

Dorwan’s dagger came up and cut cleanly through the cloak, severing the magic. He frantically patted down his shirt, which was still smoldering from the effects of North’s spell.

North swept his hand across his brow, wiping away sweat.

“Don’t tell me you’re tired already,” Dorwan said.

“Not too tired to burn that smirk off your sodding face!” North snarled. His fingers rested on the edges of his cloaks, poised to choose the next one.

“I have all the time in the world,” Dorwan said, throwing his talisman up into the air.

Water poured from the sky, knocking both North and me off our feet. The trembling of the ground was more pronounced now; small rocks bounced past me from above, and the dirt shifted beneath my feet. North’s next explosion of
rock and soil from the ground missed Dorwan completely. I saw Dorwan’s sleeve pull back and the horrible lines of scars that ran along his arm.

“What’s the matter with you?” Dorwan complained. “You’re distracted.”

“Shut up and fight!” North growled, shaking his head.

Dorwan thrust his dagger in front of him. A million fragments of ice raced toward North, their tips aimed directly at his chest.

North instantly countered, bringing up his yellow cloak. The icicles hit a wall of wind and air and were pushed back. Dorwan’s unmarred eye narrowed at the force of the spell, and his face twisted into what I thought was supposed to be a smile. The scarred skin of his face shone in the sunlight.

There was something graceful about the way North pulled his cloaks up in wide, sweeping circles. If the pace of the fight picked up, he would have only a moment to grasp the colored fabric in his hand, or to wrench it up to shield his face. At first glance, it all seemed effortless.

Dorwan moved fluidly with his dagger, twice shallowly slicing through North’s skin. But North still had him—was moments away from finishing it, perhaps. He launched one spell after another, beating Dorwan down to his knees. I watched as Dorwan disappeared into a wall of fire, before pushing himself through, dousing himself with the water of his own spell.

It was then that Dorwan showed what he was truly
capable of. He cast one spell after another in rapid succession, ignoring North’s turns and shouts. Clouds of smoke and ice wrapped around North, and Dorwan flashed about, moving so quickly it seemed he was everywhere at once. He followed every spell with a swipe of his dagger, catching North’s clothing and skin until blood flew into the air.

One spell after another, and then another—it was too much. A spike of ice shot out of the earth beneath North, knocking him clear off his feet. He lay there, panting and shaking.

“Get up!” I whispered desperately, clutching my necklace. “Get up, get up!”

North pushed himself onto his elbows, and I thought he would take his chance to rally. He shot off a poorly guided blast of ice that Dorwan swatted away with his bare hand, his boot connecting with North’s head and sending it back down into the mud.

I couldn’t do anything without revealing myself or distracting North even more. My vision blurred with tears, and blood pounded in my head. Control was slipping away from me, and I couldn’t stop trembling. North still hadn’t gotten up, and now Dorwan knelt beside him.

“This is pathetic, you know,” he told North. “I guessed it wouldn’t be long before you burned yourself out, little fire.”

“Sod…off!” North said, lashing out with his arm. Dorwan let it strike him before pushing it away.

“Tsk, tsk.” The wizard shook a finger. “Stay down, dog.”

My heart was hammering in my chest. It felt as if the world was sliding out from under me.

“That curse of yours…” Dorwan paused, dragging his silver dagger against North’s chest. North kicked Dorwan with as much strength as he had, and the blade disappeared into North’s chest lower than the other wizard had intended.

The cry of agony that escaped North would not be contained—and neither would mine.

Dorwan twisted his wrist, and it sounded to me as if something deep inside of North cracked.

“She did stay around, after all!” Dorwan said, sounding delighted. “I suppose she really did mean it when she said she’d never leave you. This is far better than I could have imagined—so much fun to be had!”

“Stop!” I begged, stumbling down the road to them, tears streaking my cheeks. “Please, I’ll do anything,
anything
—just leave him alone!”

Dorwan’s dagger pulled clean from North’s chest with a sickening gurgle of blood. North raised his arms, warding off another blow.

“Please…,” I sobbed.

I fell to my knees beside North, ignoring the rocks that had begun tumbling around us. His tunic was heavy and warm with blood.
This can’t be happening
, I thought.
No, Astraea, please!

“Don’t—don’t—Syd.” There was urgency in his voice. “Calm—calm…”

A roar sounded above us, and everything quivered with the force of my fear and desperation. Watching North like this, feeling his blood soaking between my fingers, I felt as if I would burst.

“Great Mother,” Dorwan whispered. Not even the scars could hide the shock on his face. “It is true….”

The earth shook, as if a great shock had run straight through its core. A cloud of dust exploded into the air. Then the ground was shaking so hard my teeth chattered, and a river of mud, rocks, and dead trees surged down the mountainside.