Hell. I had to be in hell. And I couldn’t find my way out.
* * *
He’s coming to.
Bloody saints. Not now. Keep him quiet.
I tried to reach up, to feel my eyes, to see if they were open, because I still only saw blackness, but the slight movement ignited a red-hot poker stabbing into my shoulder. I groaned and a hand pressed hard over my mouth.
“Shhh,” a voice hissed. “Unless you want to die!”
I was still because I couldn’t move. I couldn’t reach up to push the hand away. I heard something creak over my head. A wooden floor? Muffled voices.
No love lost between us and the Ballengers …
… burned us out …
If any were here, we’d be the first to hand them over …
Good riddance, I say.
If you do see him, you’re to report it immediately.
I heard the sound of horses riding away, and the hand lifted from my mouth.
I felt myself slipping again, falling back into some dark cave. “Who are you?” I whispered.
“Kerry.”
“Kerry of Fogswallow?”
“How many Kerrys do you know?”
Only one. A small child was able to hold me down.
* * *
The heavy scent of burning tallow stirred me awake. When I opened my eyes, a candle flickered in a glass lamp and shadows shifted on walls. Barrels lined the room, and there were rushes scattered across the floor. I was lying on a pallet. Caemus sat next to me on a milking stool. Shadows filled the hollows of his face. None of it made sense. What was I doing here? What had happened to me? And then, bit by bit, the black fog rolled back. We had been attacked. Kazi and I—
I tried to rise, but instead I sucked in a sharp breath, coughed, and pain shot through my chest.
“Hold on, there,” Caemus said, gently holding me down. “You’ve barely got one foot out of that underworld. Don’t go stepping back into it.”
“Where am I?” I whispered.
“The root cellar. Lucky thing you dug it. Don’t know where else we’d hide you.” He poured water from a pitcher into a cup. “Here,” he said, bringing the water to my lips. I struggled to drink. Even my tongue ached. It was dry, coated, and salty. My lips were cracked, and I shook with the effort of lifting my head, even with Caemus’s help.
He set the cup aside. “That’s enough for now. We didn’t think you were going to make it at all. You’ve been in and out for days now.”
I couldn’t remember any of it. “Where’s Kazi? Why isn’t she here?”
And then the fog rolled back a little farther. Baricha. I had told her to run, to get away, but instead she jumped from her horse and fought them, beating them away from me, ordering the horses to run. She killed one, and then another, and then a fist—a fist punched into her stomach—but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t get to her. I couldn’t do anything. I had never felt more helpless. Baricha. Tigone ran into the forest. Metal flashed, voices shouted, the world faded in and out. Pieces were all I could remember—slamming to the ground, footsteps, someone lifting me.
“He only brought you.”
“He? Someone brought me here? Who was it?”
“I don’t know. It was dark, the middle of the night. He didn’t say his name, and it was hard to get a good look at him. I think he wanted it that way. He told me to take care of you—to do my best, but not to call a healer. He said they were watching all the healers, following them. He tried to give me coin for your safekeeping, but I wouldn’t take it. Before he left, he wiggled your ring off your finger. Said he needed it, and I didn’t argue, seeing as he was trying to save your life.”