“Yes,” Emely said. “That's true. If Jocelyn is indentured, that means she is magically bound to Silas. She can't leave without his express permission and being released from the enchantment that locked her to him. The only way she'd be able to come along with us is if Silas agreed to free her, and also gave her permission to come with us.”

  “But if she was free, wouldn't that mean she could do anything she wanted?”

  “Not exactly. Being bound to him means his will is the most influential aspect of her life. What he wants and needs is what controls everything. It's easy for someone to say their servant is released if they're under duress. If a group attacked and wanted to steal servants, or were trying to be vigilantes and free them, they could simply torture or otherwise compel a person to say their servants were free. But that wouldn't be their actual will. That means they weren't actually released from the indenture and would be drawn back. In order for a servant to be completely released, the person who holds their indenture must not only say they are released and break the word bond, but give them permission to carry on with what they want to do. This expresses their total will for their former servant to take control of their own life. In order for us to be able to take Jocelyn with us and have her join Celeste’s army, Silas has to be willing it to end the magical bond, and also give his permission for her to come along.

  “Alex can make him do that. Can't you, Alex?” Jocelyn asked, her words filled with naked hope.

  She was putting all her trust in me, and I had no choice but to try.

  “I'll see what I can do.”

  Silas was still in the shop when I stepped back out of the hallway. I closed the door behind me to prevent the girls from listening in on the conversation, just in case it didn't go the way we wanted. If I couldn't convince him, it seemed only right Celeste hear the disappointment from me.

  “Hello, Alex,” Silas said without turning around. “Is there something I could do for you?”

  “I want to talk to you about Jocelyn.”

  The old man turned around slowly, using the shelves and displays around him to prop himself up.

  “What about her?”

  “Celeste tells me she is your servant, and we want to take her with us when we leave.”

  There was probably a smoother way to approach it, but time was moving past us, and I didn't have any to spare on subtleties. The slow breath Silas took in and the way his gnarled fingers slipped through what looked like miniscule shells in a barrel at his side suggested he had far more he was willing to dedicate to getting us into this conversation.

  “You want to take Jocelyn?”

  “Yes. Celeste is getting better, but she says the herbs and care Jocelyn has been giving her have made all the difference. Since we need to continue on as soon as possible, having Jocelyn with us would give her the support she needs to stay healthy.”

  It wasn't exactly the truth but skirting right along the edge seemed appropriate in the situation.

  “Of all the people in your group, none are capable of caring for her? Are you sure it doesn't have anything to do with why Jocelyn is my servant?” His brow lifted as he spoke,

  That was unexpected. This man was good. I would need to be on my game if there was any chance of getting out of this with Jocelyn along.

  “There may be some appeal in that.”

  We were dancing around the truth, but I wasn't going to be the one to confirm it. I had no idea how much Silas knew about us or the mission we were on. It didn't seem in our best interest for me to fully explain our crusade to a man who was little more than a stranger. We still didn't know if he would be on our side in the battle, and I could easily see him as a turncoat to the cause if the price was right.

  “What are you willing to offer in exchange for her?”

  “As you might have noticed, my group is diverse. We all have skills and capabilities, and I'm sure you can think of ways to use them.” I said.

  “I think it's a dangerous game to play to assume what others are capable of.”

  It came off with the edge of a threat, but I didn't acknowledge it.

  “Sabrina has a few interesting tricks up her sleeves. She's known to be able to cause quite a distraction. That might be beneficial if you have a large quantity of contraband you want to move sometime soon.”

  “I already have my methods. If it's so important to you that your young friend is cared for and protected while you travel, I can give Jocelyn a temporary pass. She can travel with you for as long as it may take for Celeste to improve, should it be more than a few days, and then Jocelyn will come back to me.”

  “That's not enough. Celeste getting sick like this is a pretty common occurrence. We can't know for sure how long it's going to take her to get better, and when the next episode is going to be. We need Jocelyn with us for good.”

  He was testing me, trying to get me to reveal more than I was willing to.

  “Then buy the herbs from me and let Jocelyn teach one of you how to administer them the way she has been. She has no particular medical skills or healer abilities. What she does anyone can do.”

  “What are you talking about?” Violet asked as she came into the shop.

  “Alex here is asking for Jocelyn to be released from her indenture so she can travel with them.”

  Silas's voice was even and unaffected, but Violet immediately looked angry. She stalked across the shop to us, her eyes burning into me. “You can't possibly be considering it.”

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “Jocelyn has been here her entire life. She's part of how this shop and our business functions. She’s—she’s almost family,” Violet said.

  “You don't own her,” I snapped. I hadn't intended on going down that path, but it just fell out of my mouth.

  “You don't know what you're talking about,” Violet said in a low, angry voice.

  “Violet, leave me to talk with Alex,” Silas said.

  “Who does he think he is? We offer him help because he decides it’s a good idea to play with a portal, and he takes it upon himself to try to steal our servant from us?”

  “Again, you don't own her. I can't steal her.”

  Finally, Violet stomped out of the shop, taking a third door at the back of the room that led to a narrow staircase heading steeply up into the darkness of another floor. Silas turned back to me and our haggling continued. The night wore on as we went back and forth. Gradually, pieces of the truth about our mission began to come out, though I kept most of the details to myself. Eventually, I alluded to the power waiting for me and Silas's eyes brightened. He pushed harder, and I pushed back. Our bargaining became more intense, and eventually it was clear that both of us would have to make concessions to the other. We weren't getting out of this cleanly. He already knew too much about me for us to just walk away, and he knew I had dug my heels in and wasn't going to just pretend I hadn't learned what I had about them and their business.

  Fragments of sunlight were coming through the coverings over the windows by the time I extended my hand to Silas. His accepting it was the first step in granting Jocelyn her freedom, but that handshake also sealed promises that hinged on my future power, and that I hoped I would never have to fulfill. I had finalized the deal with Silas, but I still didn't know him well enough to trust him, or believe he would use the power and privilege I'd agreed to give him for the right purposes.

  20

  I woke up with a shout, my heart pounding heavily in my chest, and looked around frantically before realizing it was just another nightmare. The fourth of the night, the brutal images of the battle with the giants still burned in front of me. Slowly they faded into the darkness. The dream had been only a few minutes long, reducing my night to a series of fits. The beds in the room were too narrow for me to share one with any of the women, and a few feet to the side of me I heard Riley groan. She was still asleep, but my restlessness was obviously affecting her. I didn't want to keep anyone else awake and dealing with the same frustration, so I slipped out of the bed, intending to go into the parlor and grab some sleep on the couch. As I walked out of the room, I noticed the bed Mathus had claimed was empty. This wasn't much of a surprise. He rarely slept well at night, usually opting to take guard duty for a few hours at a time. We rarely talked about it, but I knew the giant was struggling with the same types of nightmares that kept me up at night. I could only imagine the memories of his berserker rage still haunted his mind. That battle was different for him than it was the rest of us. We were fighting against an enemy standing in front of us. Mathus was fighting against his own.

  Taking a blanket and pillow with me, I made my way down the hall to the parlor. Part of me expected to find Mathus there, pacing around the room or eating some of the food left over from dinner. But the room was empty, only the lingering remains of a fire burning on the hearth giving any movement to the space. After tossing the pillow onto the end of the couch, I dropped down and pulled the blanket up over me. The room was warmer than the bedroom, but even that didn't help me to calm down. After a few minutes of tossing around and trying to convince myself to go to sleep, I decided a walk might to be what I needed to clear my mind and ease myself back into rest.

  The night was slipping by quickly, and I didn't want the only chance I had of getting sleep, before the hard day ahead of me, to disappear. I made my way through the herb shop and out onto the empty sidewalk. The abandoned buildings might have been unnerving anywhere else, but they looked oddly calm and comforting here, almost like they were just sleeping. I realized it was because I knew I'd much rather be outside at night in the abandoned area of the city than awake in the streets, probably still crawling with guards and overzealous followers of The Covenant.

  Just as I'd hoped it would, my mind cleared as I made my way down the sidewalk. The cement crumbled in places under my feet and I looked down to avoid the larger broken pieces and dips. When I got to the corner and saw it fed into a street coated in dust and dotted with ripped paper, I turned back around and headed in the other direction. When I was nearly back to the herb shop, the sound of a voice ahead of me stopped me in my tracks. Side-stepping into the shadows cast by the building beside me it, I eased my way toward the sound. When the instantly defensive response faded, I realized I recognized the voices. It was Mathus and Nia. A little stream of laughter broke through the quiet around me, seconds before I saw the two emerge from around the corner. They walked close enough for their bodies to brush against each other, their heads leaning toward one another as they talked. They were so lost in their conversation they didn't even realize I was standing there. Nia laughed again and Mathus playfully bumped her. He held the door open for her and they both stepped into the herb shop.

  I didn't know exactly how to feel about their burgeoning relationship. It was good to see Nia opening up and seeming more comfortable, and I liked that some of Mathus's gruff edge had softened. It seemed they were good for each other. As long as what was going on between them didn't distract either of them from the mission, it could be good for all of us.

  Not wanting them to realize I'd seen them, I hesitated outside the door of the herb shop for a few moments to give them the chance to get back to the guest wing. When I figured they'd had enough time, I went into the building and made my way back to the parlor. Curling up on the couch, I covered my head with the blanket and went back to trying to will myself to sleep. I must have been successful because the next thing I realized, my eyes were opening, and my lungs were filling with the intoxicating smell of breakfast being cooked in some nearby kitchen. The scent lured me out of my slumber and down the hallway through a partially open door that led down a spiral staircase.

  "Good morning," Sabrina said when I stepped into the stone-floored kitchen. "Did you sleep well?"

  She sifted a few pieces of bacon onto a platter and added several more to the pan.

  "Eventually." Planting a kiss on Sabrina's cheek, I snatched a piece of bacon from the platter.

  She swatted playfully at my hand with her spatula, but the bacon ended up in my mouth anyway. "That's for everyone," she said.

  "I didn't think cooking breakfast came along with your service package," I teased.

  She shot a glance over her shoulder at me. "It isn't usually, but your performance last night got you a special deal."

  Jocelyn rolled her eyes and moved between us to bring a platter of biscuits to the wooden table on the side of the room. As they continued making breakfast, the rest of the group made their way down the spiral staircase into the kitchen and took their places at the table. I expected Silas to join us, but he didn't. It was a good thing, though, as we filled all the chairs at the table, not leaving two for the owners of the store. We dove into eating and I quickly noticed Emely was back to babying Celeste. She leaned close to her sister, fussing over her and trying to cut her food into smaller pieces. She looked like she was a few seconds away from trying to feed her, and I could see Celeste was not having it.

  Her eyes met mine and I decided to deflect the situation. "Have you been thinking more about your plans for when you have gathered your army together?"

  "What do you mean?" I asked.

  "Well, how are you going to train them? Just because they are rare magic users doesn't mean they automatically know how to serve in an army or work together. Are you going to have specialized classes? Mock battles? Are you going to divide them up by the magic they use and train them individually, or train them all as a unit and just hope they are able to apply their particular magic to your efforts?"

  Celeste looked dumbfounded and somewhat overwhelmed by the series of questions, but at least it made Emely fall back away from her. The younger elf stuttered for a few seconds, poking at the food on her plate with her fork.

  “I don't really know,” she said. “I think all of that will probably be determined by what you need for your future goals.”

  The question took me aback and sent my mind spinning. Until that moment I hadn't thought about the fact that I would need a specific strategy moving forward. Up until then, we'd been going from problem to problem, managing what arose in front of us before moving on to the next without much thought beyond what was fairly immediate. Now I realized that wasn't enough. I was going to have to up my game and create more of a plan that would guide us along our way, but also be prepared to evolve as the situations changed and Celeste grew in her magic. That would start with not holding back about my vision.

  "There's something I need to talk to everybody about," I said.

  Their eyes turned to me and a spectrum of emotion stared back.

  "Is something wrong?" Riley asked.

  "Not exactly. I had a vision last night."

  "A vision? The Gods?" Nia asked.

  "Yes. They told me more about what's ahead of us. The Covenant has sent three high-ranking followers after me in a competition."

  I told them more about what the gods told me, and as we leaned in closer to each other around the table, our plan started to piece itself together. We knew we had to be vigilant, to pay close attention to everyone around us and make sure we could trust them before we let them close. We knew we couldn't go into too much detail devising what we were going to do. There were too many questions, too many variables to be set, in what was going to happen. But by the time we were finished eating, I felt more secure knowing we were united and ready to face what was ahead together.

  21

  Breakfast was long finished and the smell of the third pot of coffee, which had been brewing on the stove, was lingering in the air when I realized Jocelyn hadn't said anything the entire time we sat discussing the plans for moving ahead. Her eyes moved amongst us as she obviously paid attention, but anytime one of us looked her way, her gaze darted in the other direction. It looked like she didn't want to seem too invested in the conversation or that she was overstepping her boundaries. Finally, I leaned toward her.

  "What do you think, Jocelyn?"

  Her face snapped up to look at me with an expression that bordered on shock and fear. She didn't respond and I wondered how often she was caught in moments like this, accused of putting herself into situations where she didn't belong. She'd told Celeste how good Silas was to her, but someone being 'good' sometimes only applied to the perspective of the person who said it.

  "Jocelyn?" Celeste asked.

  The young dwarf shifted her gaze to the elf. "Me?"

  I nodded. "Everybody else gave their input. I want to know how you feel about the plan. You probably have insight the rest of us don't and it could be really helpful."

  She hesitated for a few seconds, not wanting to answer in case she was misunderstanding what I said. Then she swallowed hard. “Does that mean I get to go with you?”

  “Yes. I spoke with Silas last night, and he agreed to release you and allow you to come with me and the rest of the group, if you'd like to.”

  Jocelyn and Celeste exchanged glances. Both girls looked thrilled and threw their arms around each other.

  “Yes,” she told me when they broke the embrace. “Yes, I would very much like to go with you. Thank you.”

  “We need to get going,” Emely said. “The dragon boneyard is still a few hours away from here according to Nia’s navigation. We want to get there before it's too late in the day.”

  “That means we have to go talk to Silas,” Jocelyn said, some of the excitement tempered in her voice. “He needs to do the final release.”

  Her voice made it obvious she was worried he wouldn't go through with his agreement and decide at the last minute to keep her with him. I smiled at her reassuringly and stood. Extending my hand to her, I helped her up from her chair so we could go back to the herb shop on the floor above. Instead of going to the shop itself, Jocelyn led me to a small office where Silas was waiting at the desk. Haphazard stacks of papers filled nearly the entire surface, and some had slid off in a cascade that scattered across the floor. Tipped teacups had stained some of the pages while thoughtlessly discarded quills obliterated the words from others. We stood at the door for a few seconds before he noticed we were there. When he saw us, his hand stilled.

 

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