-2 years prior-

“You requested my presence, my lady?”

Lady Iris heard the disaffected voice, but remained looking down at her lap where she fingered a little jumping jack. It was children’s toy, only this one was not made for children. It was cast in pale gold and encrusted with precious jewels, the little man bearing miniscule ruby eyes. It was a beautiful little bauble, masterfully made. She had bought it for herself not long after getting married, back when she could barely fathom the kind of wealth the union had put at her disposal. Or, perhaps, it had been Marcus who had purchased this particular thing for her. She couldn’t remember now. He was always buying her sparkling trinkets like this in the early months.

Turning it over in her fingers, she could feel Murzagis’s eyes on the back of her head. Another servant or soldier would have cleared their throat or repeated themselves by now, under the assumption she had not heard them the first time. Murzagis wouldn’t. He would stand there in silence until nightfall, awaiting her command. He was a well-honed tool. She wondered if he desired her. She understood he had a wife and child somewhere back in his home country, but that never stopped men desiring more.

She set the jeweled jumping jack down in her lap. “I want you to increase my garrison. As many battle-tested fighters as you can summon here from your lands. These should be soldiers experienced in campaigning and invading. And I want it done quietly. It should not appear as if I am amassing forces.”

Murzagis was quiet for a time, and Iris knew he was working through how to carry out her command. However he chose to do it, she had confidence he would get it done.

“It will take much time. And much coin.” There was a brief pause before he added, “Enough coin to be worth waging war for.”

He knew her well. Or, at least, he understood the logic at hand. One did not raise an army they didn’t intend to use. “You’ll have the coin, and you can promise much more to be taken as plunder later. As for time ... you know how I don’t like to wait, but make certain no corners are cut.”

“Understood, my lady.”

No sound of bootsteps followed his statement. Iris smiled. She took up the jumping jack again and watched its jewels sparkle in the morning sunlight from the window as she pulled the string to make the little man dance and leap. She let its limbs fall limp once more and then offered it to Murzagis.

“Sell this. The coin it fetches should get you started.” Taking the valuable bauble, he flicked a short nod, and turned to leave. Before he was out of earshot, she added, “And have my tax collector sent to me.”

There. She sat back and looked down at her hands, now divested of the jeweled toy. With a slow turn of her fingers, she cast a miniscule Barrier in the shape of the jumping jack. It wasn’t exact, but it was close enough to please her. That trick, she had developed while studying with a blind mage far to the east. It had not been easy disguising her travels over the last three years, but she had managed. Her trips had been a mage’s Journeying of her own devising, same as any Journeyer mage would undertake. She had tracked down skilled mages in foreign lands and studied with them, learning much. She estimated she could now be considered a master mage in her own right, missing only a teacher to bestow that title on her.

Yet, the strides she had made in skill and knowledge still did not appease her. She had control and precision, but not the strength and magnitude that Marigold commanded. She would never be the mage she envisioned herself as without the old woman to finish her lessons. Nothing she had learned in her travels came near to giving her the expertise to cast anything like Marigold’s town Barrier, let alone bring it down.

Fortunately for her, she had discovered more than new magic techniques in her travels, in the form of Murzagis and his hardened mercenaries. She had seen the advantages that bringing them into her garrison would afford her. They had proved themselves loyal, and would continue to be, so long as the gold and goods kept flowing back over the border to their families in the east. What better way to stop them raiding her hold than to make them her own? Her husband had never thought of that, nor any of the other things that one might do with such a force.

With the army Murzagis would raise for her, she had the complimentary piece to her magic, the combination that would bring down Marigold’s Barrier and see the old woman placed before her feet.

*

Full bright sunlight assaulted Lily’s eyelids. She opened them and the sun itself directly pierced her pupils. Closing them tightly, she rolled onto her side and groaned. Strange to feel the feather down gossamer of Slumber lifting from her senses at the same time that the alley’s uneven cobbles were digging into her hip. Waking from Slumber did not involve the clearing of mental cobwebs that normal sleep could. Lily’s thoughts were sharp and ready, and she was instantly aware of the position of the sun and what it meant. It was noon. Of the following morning? Or had the second Barrier spell she had cast extended her Slumbering into the day after that?

She stood and brushed dirt from her wrinkled skirt, groaning again. “Ow, ow ...” All of her body ached from lying inert on the cobblestones. As she made her way back out of the secluded alley to the street, she discovered that one part of her was sore in an altogether different way, one that was titillatingly pleasing—a reminder of Vetch’s exuberance. The smile that inspired on her lips faded the moment she set foot out on the street and gazed up at the stark castle on its hill.

“No ...” she whispered. The sensations of magic coming from the place were unchanged. She sensed Marigold, still in there. She sensed Lady Iris, as well—awake. A conflagration of magical strength. Had Vetch failed to discover where Mari was being held, or had he run into trouble? He had no magic himself, so there was no way for her to tell if he was still up there in that place. Or even if he was alive or dead.

People passed Lily on the street, uninterested in this young woman with hair and clothes disheveled from a night spent sleeping on the ground. It had to have only been one night, she reasoned. Yes. It was the following morning, otherwise she would feel much more parched than this. She well remembered that lesson from her other, more lengthy misadventures Slumbering in strange places. So, not much time had passed. That was something positive. It was possible Vetch had needed to hide out within the castle and make his move at a more opportune time. But she had so convinced herself that he and Marigold would be right there by her bedside when she awoke in their inn room. Even now, having not made it back to the inn, the fact that Marigold was still up in that fortress gnawed at her. It didn’t feel right.

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Setting off, Lily spurned the route back to the inn and instead returned to the dirt road and hill trail she had come down from the night before. It was a hot and sweaty hike back up the far side of the slope. More than once, she mistook the way and had to double back, but, ultimately, she arrived at the plateau under the fragrant trees, and from there trudged toward the chasm. She would wait there for Vetch to make his appearance. She could even bridge her own way over if she sensed any trouble. Anything to lend him her support and see that he and Marigold returned safe. At the very least, she preferred to be here to greet them straightaway, not spend the day pacing the length of her inn room.

Scraggly plant life tugged at her skirt as she went up the final steep stretch of ground that Siegert had shown them the night before. Cresting it, she came to the chasm. She almost didn’t duck back down fast enough for the guardsmen patrolling its far side to miss spotting her. They were all over! In the brief glimpse she’d had of the area, she noted two of Lady Iris’s men scrutinizing the edge of the chasm, right where her Barriers had been. Another two guards were loitering by the storage buildings underneath the castle wall.

Lily heard one of them say, “Right around here.” She risked another peek. The second guard began sweeping his spear over the chasm’s edge. A spear would pass straight through a Barrier—even if those she had cast hadn’t already faded—but Lily could still see that their intent was to discover the invisible bridge.

They knew.

“Shit,” she whispered. Frantically, she kept crouched and scrambled back down, her shoes sliding on loose soil and rocks.

“Hey!”

It was one of the guards who yelled. Lily couldn’t tell if she had been spotted or if the man had only heard the noise she’d made and meant to alert his companions. She didn’t pause to wonder. As quickly as she could safely manage, she navigated her way down the hill. With any luck, they wouldn’t know by which route she had gotten here, and wouldn’t be waiting for her when she reached the street below.

Panting raggedly, she came to the road and ran. As she went, she thought back. They had definitely been Lady Iris’s sellswords, and they were certainly scrutinizing the area around where Vetch had crossed with Siegert and his companions. But did that mean they had been caught? Or had Lady Iris sensed the spell and sent them to check what might be amiss? It was bad tidings either way.

Lily slowed when she reached a street that was more populated. Trying to catch her breath and not look out-of-place, she hastened her steps toward the inn. She would return to their room and give it more time. As tortuous as it was, she still couldn’t assume that anything had gone wrong. Siegert and his people had probably taken their tools back and left long before her Barrier bridge had faded. And Vetch could still very well be hiding up in the castle somewhere, waiting to make his move safely, unknown to the guards Lily had seen.

He and she had spoken about this possibility the day before. It might take time. He might have to hide himself somewhere and wait until he could free Marigold without setting up an alarm. He had told Lily she should wait in their room and not worry unless he failed to return after a full two days. If he and Marigold did not appear by the third day, he’d said, then she should flee Black Crux and make her way home. Aid from the King’s Capital City should have begun trickling into Moonfane Forge by now. She could send word to the capital about Lady Iris waging an attack on Hold Moonfane. Then it would be a matter of leaving it to the royal garrison to mete out justice and free Marigold and Vetch.

It had sounded so rational and routine when Vetch had detailed it all out to her—soldiers learned early on that being captured was always a possibility, and they knew how to bide their time through it, until they were either ransomed or their captors were defeated and they were freed. The important thing was that Lily saw to her own safety first, by returning to Moonfane Forge and sending for help.

Ideally, she wouldn’t have to consider any of that. She didn’t want to. And what she hadn’t told Vetch—as she had been listening to all of the backup plans to backup plans that he had conceived—was that she had no intention of abandoning him, no matter what happened.

“Silly fears, girl,” she told herself under her breath. “Don’t let them get in your head. Calm yourself.”

How do they know about the Barrier bridge?

Her traitorous mind flung the question at her like a dart. It was the one thing she couldn’t explain away. If Siegert and his friends had safely escaped with their things, and if Vetch were simply hiding out until he could make contact with Marigold, then the sellswords wouldn’t be looking for her Barrier. Even if they discovered the boot prints along the chasm edge, there would be no reason for them to suspect any magic had been cast there.

No. Calm down. It will be alright. She didn’t want to believe that something had gone terribly wrong. She would not think of that. Vetch had been adamant: give him time. Do not make any moves or put herself in danger until she was absolutely certain he had failed in his mission to free Marigold. As difficult as it would be, she should not assume anything. Give him time. She would try.

Taking inspiration from her training in magic, she slowed her breathing and forced herself to walk at a slower pace. She would order a meal and a bath, change into clean clothes, then go collect Fae and Vetch’s horse. She would bring them to the back of the inn, saddle them both, and then wait until it was time to move, when she sensed Marigold leaving the castle.

Staying ready to act, while having nothing to do but wait and wait. How did Vetch do it and appear so calm?

Upon reaching the street before the inn, Lily witnessed a stocky swordswoman standing guard out front of its door. Her arms were crossed over her chest as she scanned passerby. Immediately, Lily moved herself out of view and around a corner. So much for silly fears. Something truly had gone wrong. They knew about her and that she would return here!

Lily’s mind raced. Even if Vetch were captured, he would never have revealed anything about the means by which he had infiltrated the castle, nor about Lily and her whereabouts. She knew that. But who would? One of Siegert’s companions? No, none of them knew where she and Vetch were lodging. Siegert, then. Siegert knew. Had he been captured and made to talk? Or had he betrayed them by design? Could it be that Lady Iris’s soldiers knew Vetch was somewhere within the castle, but had not located him yet? That seemed the very best possibility that Lily could hope for at this point. She didn’t want to consider the grim alternatives that were also possible—that he had been captured, hurt, killed. She didn’t want to imagine those things. Nor did she want to believe they had been betrayed.

But denial did not sweep away everything she now saw and sensed. Something had gone very wrong. Vetch and Marigold were still in the castle, and Lady Iris’s people were searching for Lily. For what other reason would one of her soldiers be skulking about outside their inn?

The certainty raised a lump in Lily’s throat and made her feel sick to her stomach. Her efforts to calm herself had been for naught. With her heart racing in her chest, she took a roundabout way and approached the back side of the inn, intending to sneak in and get their things. But there, too, she found a burly swordsman on the door. There was no mistaking it now; they had been found out.

“Damn, damn, damn, damn.” Lily beat her fist on the bricks of the garden wall she concealed herself behind. She sunk down to a crouch with her back to the cool stone. “Doesn’t matter how, girl. Figure out what to do about it.” Words for herself from herself, but they might as well have come straight from her Mage-Matron. She thought of Marigold. And Vetch.

What to do about it ... what to do? Flee, as they had planned? Wait and hope Vetch still found a way to Marigold? No. Even if he hadn’t been discovered yet, they would know he was somewhere in there and that he was after Marigold. He might not even realize yet that he was hunted. No. If Lily waited or fled now, she left Vetch alone to his fate, a fate she would have no hand in affecting. She wasn’t about to do that. She had to do something. What, then? She considered.

She decided.

Lily straightened and hastened away from the inn. The building where Fae and Revenge were stabled was not far.