Cursed by Malignant Magic (Once Upon A Curse)

Chapter 23

Chapter

Twenty-Three

W e didn't spend long with the merchant caravan. Less than a day, in fact.

Now, it wasn't because of anything they, or we, did. The company of the group was nice, and we spent most of the day with them before we stopped at a new town. I’d had the best time I'd had in a long time. No fighting, no shouting of orders from superiors or the snappish infighting of soldiers trying to prove they were the best around.

Instead, the conversation was cheerful and teasing, far less mean spirited than I was used to. Even with the massive wagons, every one of the drivers seemed to hear one another over the jingle of tack and the creak of the wooden wheels. Some of those not driving walked alongside the wagons, singing or talking. A few others had split off to go hunting or gathering and came back with baskets full of herbs and mushrooms.

The whole situation made me calmer than I had been in days, and my magic seemed calmer now as well.

While the others talked and teased amongst themselves, Legacy and I didn't say much. Legacy drove the storage wagon, and I sat next to her, with us taking up the rear of the train of wagons. Other than a question here or there, or a comment about the weather, the tension between us remained thick enough to swim through.

I wasn't sure what to say, so I didn't say anything at all. We merely sat in silence. Plenty of time to think, like about the previous night. Sleeping next to Legacy in the tiny bed on the floor of the wagon had been the first good night’s rest I'd had in a long time, even if that might have been because of sheer exhaustion.

When we stopped for the day, Dora strode toward us, chuckling under her breath as both Legacy and I struggled to climb down from the wagon. I curled my lip but not angrily; I couldn't blame her for laughing at us.

Between all the running and the fighting recently, my body was not exactly happy with me. Riding the horse had been a different sort of bumping and jolting than riding on the bench of the wagon, but that didn't mean either was any smoother than the other. In fact, it was still a throbbing agony with my injured leg, adding to the aches in the rest of my body.

Still, I was more than happy to get the chance to stretch my legs, and Dora had given us the perfect opportunity for that.

She pointed, and I followed her finger, squinting. A building stood in the distance, but I couldn't see much more than that.

“What is that?” I asked.

Dora snorted, and I flushed. Clearly she had been about to tell us, but I was not the most patient person in the world. I doubted that would surprise her.

"Ruins. There are rumors from the locals that a cult goes there to complete strange magical rituals. Glowing lights, disappearances, magical objects going haywire, things like that. No one knows who they are, but they seem to come from all directions. Not all together."

Legacy and I glanced at one another, her eyebrows rising.

"The locals are like us,” Dora said. “They do not choose sides. As long as none of their own are hurt, they do not want to know what goes on."

Fair enough. I couldn’t exactly blame them.

Dora seemed to sense that this was something we needed to know about. Legacy and I would have to explore on our own, but that was probably for the best.

Legacy bowed her head respectfully to Dora. "Thank you for telling us. If we do not return from exploring, good luck on your future travels."

Dora nodded, clasping our forearms before she walked away.

All of us acknowledged that they would leave without us; there was never even a question of it. There was also no doubt in anyone's mind that we might not come back from this little expedition, but I tried not to think too hard about that.

We had been in danger every moment of the past…I didn't even know how long. But it had certainly been long enough that doing one more ill-advised thing shouldn't have given me pause.

It didn't take long for Legacy and me to walk to the ruins, crumbling stones crunching underfoot. As I explored the stone ruins, I couldn't help but marvel at the intricate carvings and structures that still stood despite years of decay.

Sunlight filtered through cracks in the stone, illuminating the overgrown plants and moss that had claimed parts of the ruins as their own. The scent of earth and moss filled my nostrils, the dampness of the stones mixed with a musty, ancient smell.

I had no idea how old these ruins were, but I could feel the innate magic here curling around my skin. My own magic reacted, like a dog sniffing for a plate of food, and I cracked a smile as I placed my hand on the stones, cool and rough under my fingers. The vines shifted in an unseen breeze as if they were reaching out to me. I wouldn't have been surprised if they were.

Legacy stayed close to me as we explored, the only sound the crunching of leaves under our feet and the occasional chirping of birds in the distance, as clearly they had the good sense to stay away from the ruins. More than we did.

The eerie silence made my heart race with anticipation. I nearly jumped out of my skin when Legacy finally spoke.

"I understand now why the advisors use this place for spells. I can feel the magic here." She lifted her arm a little, showing me the rising thin hairs on her arm.

I could feel it too, the magic in the air, and I nodded in agreement. "At least now we have an idea where they have been, but that isn't going to help us find them now. There's no telling when they'll come back."

With her hand on a stone, Legacy’s gaze went unfocused, not looking at anything important that I could see, just staring off into space. I took a step closer to her, my hand hovering in the air, but I didn't want to touch her.

Something was clearly not right, and if she was in the midst of a vision as she had been before, then I wasn't about to interrupt.

I waited, not so patiently, my gut shifting uncomfortably the longer she was out of it. How long were her visions meant to last? I made a mental note to ask her soon, whenever she came out of her trance.

She finally took a shuddering breath, blinking a few times as her eyes refocused. She reached out, and I shook myself out of my own stupor to help guide her over to a rock that looked somewhat flat enough to sit on.

The fact that she had reached out for support told me that something was wrong. She wouldn't have done that unless she needed to. Still, there was a bit of a flush to my cheeks as I sat next to her, and I tried not to think too hard about the warmth of her hand in mine.

"I take it that was a vision." I dug through my bag and found the canteen.

She took it gratefully, tipped it over her mouth for a few quick swallows, and offered it to me when she was finished. I took a few sips as well, but I just wanted to know what her vision had been about.

"You take it correctly." She took a deep breath. "Nothing much. It's hard to make sense of it, but from what I can tell, it was only showing me that we were right. The men we're chasing, Tannin and the other advisors, have used this place in the past." She shuddered. "Magic like I've never seen before. Strange rituals. I don't know their purpose, but I do know that something strange is afoot with them. They gave me a bad feeling, at least."

I nodded. Bad feelings were all we had at this point, but it was better than nothing.

"And something else," she said slowly.

Heat blossomed on her cheeks, and it made me go cold. Something was not right if she acted that way, and I didn't like that at all.

"What else?" I asked.

She nodded toward the entrance of the ruins. "We're surrounded."

I jerked my head so hard that my neck cracked. She was right. A crowd of men with weapons stood at every entrance, weapons bristling toward us. From their crude armor, I couldn’t tell which side of the war they represented.

"That's less than ideal," I managed through gritted teeth. "But don't you think you could have said something about that a bit sooner?"

She shrugged, the back of her wrist nudging mine. Something cool brushed my palm, and I instinctively opened my hand to take it from her.

"I was in the middle of a vision. I can't control what I see. Believe me, I would have loved a bit more warning about them." She lifted her head to stare at the armed men approaching us.

I took the opportunity to look down at what she had given me. A gauntlet. Not the simple bracelet I had stolen from her before, but a full one, carefully tended leather with a large purple stone in the center to help me control my power.

My eyes widened, shocked that she would give me something so clearly useful, not to mention valuable. This was a far better mark of trust than anything she had shown me thus far.

She had taken her bracelet away from me, no doubt to make sure I didn't use my magic to lash out at her. Even though now she knew I could use magic without it, she also knew I needed something to control it. Still, she was taking the chance of me using my magic against her, and with the gauntlet to help me focus it, I could do far more damage.

I swallowed hard past the lump in my throat and tightened my grip on it, moving slowly to slide it into place on my right arm.

"Don't move," one of the men snapped as they stalked toward us, which of course I ignored.

Only a few of them had crossbows, and the rest of them weren't any danger to us unless they got much closer than they were now.

I focused more on the crossbows. My injured leg gave a sharp twinge, as if I needed the reminder that I had failed to stop the bolt before.

The men drew closer, and I was none too happy to wait for them. If we were going to do something about our current predicament, now was the time.

"So are we going to get taken again or bail?" I asked.

Legacy snorted under her breath, keeping her expression calm and her hands raised as she answered me in a low voice. "If you get shot in the back with a crossbow, we'll have to take care of that first."

I nodded slowly, doing a mental check of my magic. With the gauntlet and feeling well rested, I was fairly sure that I could stop the bolts before they hit us.

"We can make a run for it, but you can't be mad if I miss a bolt or two,” I said. “I'll try not to let us get killed."

Legacy arched her brows at me. "That's the best you can offer? We probably won't die?"

I shrugged, already gathering my magic. I took a single step back, even as the men crept closer, snapping at us not to move.

"If you'd like to try to stop what is likely going to be a hail of arrows, please feel free," I muttered.

"Fine. Let's do this."

I grinned, and the magic flowed through the gauntlet and into my hand. With no signal between us, I whirled on my heel and sprinted toward the nearest entrance, with Legacy close on my heels. I yanked the magic up into a shield behind us, the arrows rattling against the magic and sending a jolt through me.

While I took care of the soldiers behind us, Legacy worried about those in front of us. Her magic surged out in a huge arc, knocking them all down like kicked buckets. I slithered through the middle of the falling crowd, shooting for the gap in the wall. The rock crumbled behind us as we scrambled through the narrow gap, and I aimed my magic backward, doing my best to plug the hole we'd gone through.

The soldiers slammed against the wall, shouting, but none of them had the presence of mind to try to go over the top or shoot from the top. Considering that I wasn't sure whether I could hold that shield and stop any arrows if they shot at us, I was glad they weren't smart enough to be a threat.

I held the shield until long after we had gotten away, both Legacy and I panting as we slowed to a walk. My muscles shook, both from the physical strain and the use of magic, and my lungs pinched painfully. I gritted my teeth and kept walking, refusing to admit pain first.

Legacy bent over and placed her hands on her knees, panting so hard that I could barely understand what she said next. "Fine. Apparently not letting us get shot full of arrows is good enough."

I swept into a low bow and grinned, my cheeks warming.

While neither of us said anything as we finally started moving again, much slower this time, no doubt we were thinking the same thing. Everywhere we went, someone wanted to kill us, and they were getting closer and closer to succeeding. Even worse was the possibility that they would go around killing anyone who had even seen us.

I didn't want that on my conscience. But for now, we had to make sure that we had gotten away and try to get back to hunting down Tannin and the other advisors.

Until they were dealt with, there would be no peace for us.