Cursed by Malignant Magic (Once Upon A Curse)

Chapter 14

Chapter

Fourteen

“ T hat is enough ,” a familiar voice snapped.

My shoulders instinctively loosened when I recognized who’d spoken. Now that Ehuna was here, she would explain that this was all just a misunderstanding, and Varna and I could finally rest without worrying about being captured or killed.

But to my horror, when I looked at Ehuna, I realized that she wasn’t looking at the soldiers. She hadn’t told them to stand down. She had been talking to me.

I stared at her, my jaw slackened. Why was she mad at me ? I hadn't done anything wrong. She could have been angry that I hadn't stayed where she’d commanded me to, but in light of everything else that had happened, I was a bit miffed that she was still angry with me.

It wasn't my fault that I had been snatched by Tannin’s giant bird, then dropped, then taken captive by the enemy. Yes, I should have stayed where I was told, but this wasn't entirely my fault.

"I don't understand,” I said to her. “Treason?"

A single word from her would have stood the soldiers down, and yet she stayed behind them, looking at me as if I were the threat here.

"We will speak,” she said, “but I have received word that you have turned against our cause, and I cannot in good conscience allow you to walk free until we get to the bottom of these accusations."

"But…you know me. You know I'm not a traitor. Whoever it is, they're lying." My mind whirled, searching for who might have been determined to see me punished, or at the very least locked away again.

It wasn't hard.

Tannin made the most sense. He had already warned me that he wasn't finished with me. Perhaps this was because of him. He was Ehuna's superior, so of course she would take his word over mine; she wouldn't have a choice.

But she wasn’t going to give me a chance to explain. That much was clear.

“Take her,” Ehuna said, turning away, and my heart climbed into my throat.

I lunged toward her, one last attempt to make her understand that this was all wrong, but the soldiers roughly grabbed me. A few of them nudged Varna out of the way as if they weren’t sure what to do with her, and I struggled even harder.

“Ehuna, please!” I begged, straining against the guards as they dragged me backward. My arms ached as if they were going to rip free from their sockets, but I didn’t stop.

Ehuna was the one person I had always trusted, the one who cared about me no matter what my issues were. I had no family, but she was the closest thing I had. If she gave up on me, I had nothing left.

“Please!” I said again, but the guards didn’t stop, didn’t acknowledge that we were on the same side and had probably even fought together at one point or another.

They hauled me away as Ehuna had commanded, my feet dragging in the dirt as I hung limply between them. They didn’t take Legacy’s bracelet off, the only form of a gauntlet I had. They didn’t bring me to the dungeon as I had expected, either, but rather to a small room half underground in one of the main buildings.

True, the door was still barred, but there were no chains or suspicious stains. No straw on the stone floor either. Just a bed against one wall and a desk with a pitcher and a bowl against the wall.

All in all, far better than my captivity before.

The guards threw me to the floor, and I immediately crawled to my hands and knees. I scoffed to myself, hauling my body onto the bed as the door clinked shut behind me without a word from the guards. How had this become my life, where I was comparing captivities?

There was nothing to do but wait and rest as much as I could. I was too anxious for proper sleep, so I curled up on my side, facing the door of the room. It felt strange to be locked up by my own people. Would they torture or kill me, if Ehuna gave the word?

"She wouldn't," I muttered to myself, curling tighter beneath the thin blanket.

I couldn't believe that she would order me to be harmed, no matter what lies Tannin had told her about me. I could only hope she would believe what I had to say, or at least give me a chance to explain.

I had no idea how long I lay there before the sound of boot steps startled me out of my doze. I jerked upright so fast my head spun, and I flung the blanket off so that I could swing my feet to the floor and stand.

Hunger and thirst tore at my insides, but I stood tall, waiting to see who would come to the door. My magic didn’t seem to want to tell me, which irritated me, but perhaps it didn’t see the people around me as a threat. Ironic, but the only reason I could come up with at the moment.

Ehuna’s face appeared in the doorway. Once again, I had the urge to relax, to trust that she was here to help me, but I resisted. I had never thought that she would order me to be locked up, no matter who had told her what, and that trust would take time to rebuild.

“You look ill,” Ehuna mused as she closed the door behind her.

Ill. An interesting word choice for starving.

“Is Varna safe?” I asked.

Ehuna nodded, her eyes never leaving me. “Yes. She is merely a victim, and we would never punish her for that. She is safe and well, being looked after by a healer as we speak.”

I relaxed fractionally. How ironic that we were both victims, but only one of us was treated that way. Why did Tannin hate me so much that he would call me a traitor but ensure that Varna was safe? Was I not useful enough?

Whatever the reason, I was glad that my new friend was safe, that I would only have to worry about my own skin from here on out.

"Why are you here? You've already had me locked up, so I doubt you will believe anything I have to say." I couldn't hide the bitterness in my voice.

Ehuna was the one person I had always thought I could trust, and she was the first to turn on me.

She sighed. “It isn’t about that. It’s not that I don’t trust you. But when one of my superiors sends a message that you’ve turned against us, that you’re a traitor, I can’t just let you walk around freely.”

“And it never occurred to you that it might be strange? I saw Tannin when I was captive. He’s the traitor, not me.”

Her brows rose.

I clenched my fists. “Of course you don’t believe me.”

And the worst part was I couldn’t blame her. If it had come down to a superior officer versus a girl who was barely even a soldier at all, more like a stray dog nipping at the army’s heels, anyone would have chosen Tannin’s word over mine. I had no proof, no way to show Ehuna that I wasn’t the threat, and I wouldn’t find anything like that while locked up in here.

Which meant, once again, escape was my best option.

“I want to believe you. I truly do. But you understand how this looks. I can look into what you’ve said, but it will take time, and I can’t just let you wander—”

“What about Varna?” I asked.

Ehuna crossed her arms, clearly not appreciating the change in subject or the interruption. “She’s safe here. Her talent to sense magic without the use of a gauntlet will make her useful, but we know she was just a prisoner. She will have all the time she needs to recover. She will be safe here,” she repeated, like she thought I hadn’t believed her the first time.

But despite the spark of betrayal still burning in my chest, I trusted Ehuna as much as I trusted anyone, no matter what happened. Tannin seemed to think that Varna would be useful to him even here, so she would be safe in a way that I was not.

That helped to calm me, but it also set my jaw with determination. If Varna were captive here too, I’d have to take her with me, and that would complicate things. But since Varna would be safe here in my absence, I could escape on my own and come back later. Not a great plan, but a plan nonetheless.

As for Tannin, I would get my proof.

No matter what it took.