Yann woke up in a completely different bedroom in Costico’s palace. Yann pried his head off the pillow and looked around. He’d never seen this room before.

It was just as big and palatial as the room in which he’d stayed last time, but its giant veranda and garden faced a different part of the mountains.

The bed and furniture also sat in different positions than Yann remembered.

Anríq lay curled up asleep on top of the bed next to Yann. The blankets covered Yann with Anríq on the outside.

Anríq looked peaceful when he slept. He must have brought Yann back from the Layers.

Yann felt good, but still a little weak. He wasn’t wearing his uniform. A pair of thin linen pajamas surrounded him in softness.

He collapsed back on the pillow and that movement roused Anríq. He cracked his eyes open and squinted at Yann before Anríq let his head fall down with a sigh.

“I thought you might die,” Anríq husked. “Thank the stars you’re all right.”

“Thank you for coming back for me,” Yann replied. “I really thought I was going to die down there.”

“I wouldn’t let that happen.” Anríq pushed himself upright. “You should eat. You’ve been unconscious for almost a week.”

“I don’t want to lie in bed anymore.” Yann threw back the covers.

He tried to sit up on the edge of the bed, but sitting up made him realize he was weaker than he thought. He couldn’t stand up—or at least he didn’t trust himself to stand up.

Anríq crossed the room, picked up a bowl of fruit, brought it back, sat down on the edge of the bed next to Yann, and put the bowl between them.

“Thank you,” Yann repeated.

Anríq took an apple out of the bowl and started eating it. Yann took a plum. It tasted incredible.

“What’s happening out there?” Yann asked. “Did all the captives get back all right?”

Anríq nodded. “They’re all home thanks to you. Amala won’t stop talking about you.”

Yann looked up. “Is she here?”

“Of course. Costico wouldn’t let her go anywhere else. They’ve already had several arguments because he doesn’t want to let her leave the house again—ever.”

Yann had to laugh. “I think I can guess how that will end.”

Anríq kept eating his apple while he crossed the room going in a different direction. “Here’s your uniform in case you’re feeling strong enough to walk around.”

“How long are we staying here?”

Anríq shrugged and sat down again. “I suppose we’ll stay until you feel strong enough to travel. We have no more reason to stay.” He pointed outside. “The vortex is gone and so is the curse on the town. I went to check. Everyone is recovering, now that the Darklings aren’t living directly under the town anymore.”

“Where are they?” Yann asked. “What happened after you found me?”

“I collapsed the Layer to send them somewhere else. The caverns caved in completely. There’s nothing under the town anymore except more Layers—the same chaos Layers that have always been there. The curse is lifted.”

“Wow,” Yann breathed. “Well done.”

“We both did it—you especially. You healed more people this time than I did.”

Yann looked away and concentrated on eating his plum. He didn’t tell Anríq about his revelation when the Darklings were about to kill him.

Anríq didn’t need anyone to tell him. He knew before Yann did—not that it made any difference.

It didn’t make any difference between the two of them, but it made all the difference in the world to Yann.

He knew what he was now. He just didn’t know how it would affect his life. Waking up to the fact that he was a Servant—or the Black Watch equivalent of one—didn’t clarify which direction he should go.

He didn’t find the answers to any of those questions, but they didn’t bother him anymore. He would just keep following the road in front of him.

Maybe something would happen between now and when he actually had to take the oath. Something might show him what he had to do. He could only keep going and find out.

Yann finished his plum. He would have put the pit back in the bowl, but Anríq held out his hand for it and then tossed the pit off the side of the veranda.

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“Where are you staying?” Yann asked when Anríq came back inside.

“I’m staying here with you. I didn’t want to leave you alone until I knew you were going to make it.”

Yann forced a laugh. “You mean we’ve been sleeping in the same bed all this time? Why am I only hearing about this now?”

Anríq laughed along with him, but just then, Costico came in with a bunch of other men wearing Corsair robes.

Costico’s eyebrows shot up when he saw Yann sitting up. “Ah! This is a pleasant surprise. We thought the curse would be harder to break.”

Yann glanced at all the other men standing around. “Am I missing something here?”

“These are my doctors and healers. They’ve been working to break your curse since you came back from the Layers.”

Yann shot a look at Anríq. Yann thought Anríq was the one who had been working to break Yann’s curse.

Yann didn’t want some strangers working on him, but what difference did it make as long as the curse broke in the end?

“I suppose you have to take some time to recover and build up your strength,” Costico went on. “I’m going out for a few days raiding with my men. Make my home your home. I’ll see you when I return.”

Yann stiffened when Costico mentioned going raiding with his men. Were they going back to the same town after everyone there just recovered?

If Costico and his men didn’t go for that town, they would go for another. They would sack it and probably kill a bunch of other innocent, defenseless people.

Yann didn’t speak up to try to talk him out of it, though. Yann would have tried to talk him out of it before, but something changed in those tunnels.

He no longer considered it his place to talk anyone out of anything. Who was he to decide who was right and who was wrong?

What if Costico had been right about the townspeople communing with the Dark? What if they weren’t innocent pawns of Mihaili or whatever Dark force captured those people?

Yann would never know.

He did know one thing. He didn’t want to stick around this palace accepting Costico’s hospitality as long as Costico was out there raiding anybody.

“We probably won’t be here when you get back,” Yann told him. “We’ll leave as soon as I can travel. If you aren’t back before then, we’ll be gone when you come back.”

Costico only smiled at him. “I expected that. You have your own mission to fulfill. I’m supremely grateful for everything you’ve done.”

He came forward and hugged Yann. Costico remembered to bow to Anríq and Anríq bowed back.

“Thank you both—for everything,” Costico repeated. “My servants have orders to give you anything you need—anything at all. I hope our paths cross again.”

“Thank you for taking such good care of us,” Yann replied. “I’m glad we could bring your daughter back.”

Costico left the room and took his doctors with him. That left Yann and Anríq alone in the silence.

Anríq broke it. “I’m glad I’m not the only one who wants to move on.”

“Did you really think I would want to stay here?” Yann made a face at the room around him. “This place gives me the creeps. Give me a thatch cabin in the woods any day.”

Anríq grinned at him. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay, marry Amala, and inherit Costico’s fortune? I’m sure he would be delighted to welcome you as his son-in-law.”

“You better shut up,” Yann snarled. “Make that the last time you ever mention me getting married.”

Anríq laughed at him, but Anríq didn’t mention it again.

The boys spent the rest of the day lounging and eating way too much. The servants figured out pretty quick that Yann was awake—or maybe Costico told them.

The servants brought in massive platters of every kind of delicacy known to man—most of which Yann had never seen or heard of before.

The boys helped themselves, went to bed early, and slept like rocks until the next morning.

Yann woke up restless on the second day. “Let’s get the hell out of here before Costico comes back,” he told Anríq.

Anríq only nodded. “All right, but I want to do something before we leave.”

“What is it?”

“Get your glaive and follow me. We’ll leave as soon as I take care of it.”

Yann felt better after he put on his uniform. Anríq seemed to feel better with his bags slung over his shoulder and his axe hanging on his back. Both of them felt more normal like this.

Anríq led the way to a different bedroom—an unused one. Yann seemed to remember Anríq coming out of this room the first time the boys stayed in this castle.

Anríq checked both ways to make sure none of the servants saw them, opened the door to let Yann inside, and shut the door behind them.

“What are we doing here?” Yann asked.

Anríq crossed the room to the opposite wall. “This is the painting Mihaili used to talk to me.”

Both boys faced an elaborate oil painting surrounded by an expensive wooden frame painted gold.

The image inside depicted the interior of a grand house and a wide living area full of expensive furniture. The room led onto another marble veranda with a mountain scene behind it. The picture looked eerily similar to something from this very castle.

“The picture is different now than when I saw it last time,” Anríq murmured. “Mihaili must have changed it.”

“What did it show you before?”

“It was a poor house with one room, one table, one bed, and a fireplace. An old woman and an old man lived there.”

“So is Mihaili the old man?”

“No, he looked like a young man. I don’t think the old man and the old woman realized he was using their house as a staging area to spy on someone else. They didn’t even notice him. I think he must have used magic to conceal his presence.”

“How is that even possible?” Yann countered. “Surely they must have noticed something.”

“I doubt it. I saw them in the picture multiple times. They didn’t notice anyone watching them from the picture—and when I saw Mihaili there, the old people were gone.”

“So what are we doing here?” Yann asked. “What do you want to do about it?”

“I want to break the spell on the picture so he can’t spy on Costico’s family anymore.”

“So what’s stopping you?”

Anríq gazed into the picture. “Nothing, I guess.”

Yann studied Anríq more closely than the picture. Yann didn’t understand Anríq’s hesitation, but something obviously did make him hesitate.

Yann didn’t see anything that made Anríq act, either. When he did, he did it decisively.

He stepped forward and passed his hand down the picture the way Costico activated the picture of the town—the one he said showed him where his daughter was.

The scene in the magnificent living room vanished. The picture didn’t turn back into a poor, one-room house with an old man and an old woman living in it, either.

The image changed to a sunny field with a split-rail fence and horses grazing in the sunshine. The long grass waved in the breeze and birds soared against the clouds.

Anríq stood back.

“Is it finished?” Yann asked.

Anríq nodded. “It will stay like this forever now.”

Yann waited, but Anríq didn’t turn away from the picture. “Are you ready to go?” Yann asked.

Anríq nodded again without turning away from the picture. He might have stayed like that forever.

Yann bumped his elbow to get his attention. “Let’s go.”

Anríq tore himself away and the two boys left the castle. No one tried to stop them.

End of Chapter 46.