Chapter 15
Holding the stump of her wrist, Teagan made her offer.
‘I tell Lady Jane that all three of you are dead and I have the book. You get out of the country, so she can’t catch us if she ever finds you alive,’ she said with a tiny smirk, looking back to her man. ‘She doesn’t think of you as a threat, you’re just some girl with her book. She won’t be in that much of a hurry to check on how quick we are in getting back to her with it, so you’ll probably have about, oh, maybe two weeks to disappear?’
‘How’re you going to do that? How can we trust you?’ Thelonious crossed his arms over his chest. ‘We can’t follow you back to Russenholde.’
‘If you can manage a sending, little missy. We’ll do it that way, the con would fall apart right away if I showed up in Russenholde without the book or at least your head,’ she said, looking at Syline. ‘I don’t know what kind of spells you’ve got in your book, but if you can manage one. You can all watch, listen in, make sure I don’t say anything wrong. I don’t know how quick you’ll be able to manage it though. Sendings need special materials. That’s why we had Yaldabaoth, that wild mutt could do it without them. She only taught me the command phrases to get him to send messages if I needed to.’
‘And what do you want in exchange?’ Amberly asked.
‘Just let us keep our supplies, enough to get out of this place and start over.’
Thelonious shook his head. ‘Don’t even know if we can do a sendi–’
‘Deal!’ Syline cut him off. Stepping forward, she offered Teagan a handshake as Thelonious blustered behind her. A moment passed, Syline offered her other hand, that time, Teagan did shake.
‘Syline, we don’t even know if that book has a sending! We don’t have the materials for it either unless you’ve got them stashed in your robes somewhere,’ Thelonious said as she turned back to them.
Syline was already shaking her head, though much of her body was shaking as it was. ‘This is our only chance to save my mother, Thelonious. If we report that I’m dead, Jane will give her the antidote, and that at least gives us some breathing room on what to do next! I have to try. I’ll… I’ll figure something out! I’ve always managed to until now!’
Thelonious felt rattled. From saving Amberly from the pyre, to this, Syline was terribly impulsive. He knew, maybe sooner than later, it would be the death of them. But in this case, she was right.
‘Alright, alright. Well, if they stick with us ’til we find the materials, then we’ll just need to keep an eye out that Teagan doesn’t try for a round two.’ Thelonious locked eyes with her as he said it. She held up both arms in surrender.
‘Look, you lot clearly have a lot to sort out. If it’s all the same to you, we’ll go check who else is still breathing. Tell me when you’ve sorted yourselves out.’
‘Um, I broke one of your men’s legs,’ Syline said, pulling Teagan up. ‘I think he might have passed out, but he should definitely still be alive. He’s just over there.’
Syline waved across to where she had fought off the man with her staff, he was slumped over on his back, practically disappearing into the snow. Teagan gave her a grateful smile, nodding as she walked off, her man’s arm around her shoulder to help him walk. Syline returned the smile, then opened the archmage’s book, sorting through the pages until she found a sending. Her heart dropped. There was no way they’d be able to get all the materials needed in time. Where was she going to get fresh lavender in the middle of winter?
‘I can’t.’ She looked up at Amberly and Thelonious. ‘I don’t know if we can do it. Not unless we go into a town for materials.’
‘What about if we found our own outsider?’ Amberly suggested suddenly, rubbing her chin in thought.
‘Where are we going to find an outsider? None of us have real links to Hell,’ Syline said, falling to her rump in the snow. The hopelessness of it all was hitting her hard. Without Yaldabaoth, they had no way to contact Jane, which meant she would kill Syline’s family and there was nothing she could do about it. Her mother and tutor would both die and it would be her fault. All because of curiosity, her curiosity. Tears began to rim in her eyes.
‘We could have ended this,’ she whimpered, wrapping her arms around her knees. She lifted her head to stare at Amberly. ‘If it wasn’t for you and that stupid demon, no one would’ve died today. My family would be okay. Now’ – she sniffled, anger and fear and grief welling up in her breast – ‘now they’re going to die, and it’s your fault!’
Amberly reeled back, as if struck, her brow furrowing. ‘Syline that demon attacked me.’
‘And it wouldn’t have attacked anyone if you hadn’t been here!’ Syline stood up now, but there was little true venom in her voice. She was scared. She was lonely and now her mother and adoptive father figure might die and it was going to be all her fault. ‘Just like in the depths! Those things didn’t attack until you started screaming about demons!’
Syline stepped in, her blow was pathetic. A balled fist bouncing off Amberly’s shoulder. It struck Amberly then how young Syline was. The girl was trembling, hurt, drenched in blood, sweat, and tears. She didn’t belong out here. Amberly had been training with a sword since she could lift it and facing real battles like this not soon after. Syline was a coddled noble girl. Scared, and out of her depth. Gods, she was brave.
Amberly stepped in, throwing her arms around Syline in a hug. Almost immediately, Syline collapsed in against her, quivering and sobbing.
‘Now… my… family’s… going… to die,’ she made out, between sobs and hiccups. ‘I hate you.’ There was still no real venom in it, only despair. Amberly squeezed her.
‘I’m sorry.’ She disagreed with Syline. Those things would have attacked regardless and Yaldabaoth broke its leash before she ever made a move. But she didn’t need to say that. Not to this girl who’d thrown away everything to rescue her once and had been ready to do it again to save her family. ‘I’m sorry. I’ll be better next time.’
‘There won’t be a next time,’ Syline mumbled, the struggle had gone out of her now, arms about Amberly, she was trembling. She tucked her head into the older woman’s shoulder, and Amberly gently ran her fingers through Syline’s long black hair, trying her best to soothe her.
‘Yes, there will, I promise. Check the book,’ Amberly said. ‘Maybe it’s got something for summoning a devil. It’s got rituals and illegal spells.’ Syline didn’t reply at first, so Amberly didn’t continue speaking, instead she just held her. Letting days and days of fear and stress bleed out as tears on her shoulder.
‘I’m sorry,’ Syline mumbled eventually and Amberly laughed.
‘What for?’
‘I didn’t mean it. I don’t hate you, Amberly.’
‘I know.’ Amberly leaned in and kissed Syline on the cheek. It sent a flush up the pale girl’s cheeks. ‘Take a few minutes, get yourself together and then go through the book. We’ll figure it out Syline, even if we have to go back there and cut that bitch’s head off ourselves, and I’ll be right there with you.’
She squeezed Syline, before letting her go. Syline smiled. Her eyes looked less clouded to Amberly now. Like a weight had fallen off them. Poor girl had a lot of worries to carry. Amberly moved off, giving Syline a little space to sit down, collect herself. It was a few minutes before she felt she had the clarity to start going through the book proper. Almost as soon as she did, a new distraction came.
‘Here,’ Thelonious said, interrupting her chain of thought. Syline looked up. He held a murky brown and amber vial: another of the Dawnsteel potions of healing, taken from one of Teagan’s men.
Syline drank it down and, along with the fading aches and pains of the battle, most of her wounds mended. She calmed a little bit, able to focus more clearly. With their conversation with Teagan done for the moment, Thelonious directed Amberly to help him pack up their spoils of war. True to their word, they only took what they needed, leaving Teagan enough to start over. Giving Syline space to focus. Syline was still torn up, unsure of what their next move would be, but at least with something to focus on, she had direction. She could put her worries away for a moment. She sat cross legged in the snow and Corax butted at her from her scarf, begging for attention with a sad little warble.
‘Thelonious! Do you have another healing potion for Corax?’
‘That was the last of them, sorry. What happened to the bird?’ Thelonious asked over his shoulder as he roped sacks of dried meat onto Alma’s saddle.
‘He got thrown into a tree, and I think his wing is broken.’
Thelonious paused for a moment, then sighed and walked over, shoulders slumping.
‘Can’t heal it, but I doubt it’s too bad a break. It’s probably just dislocated or sprained. Maybe a small fracture. I’ve looked after hunting falcons before. I know how to fix up a wing.’
