in to destroy the shrines, leaving the spirits with no place to return to.
They had started to cart away the stones to dump in the forest when the Wither Queen rose from her hiding place. Her own slaves, some like pale pinpricks of light, the strongest scampering like spectral rats, had encircled the camp by the time she was spotted and the alarm raised. The mages put up a fight, but it was a poor one. Every touch brought their twisted, malformed bodies out in boils and blisters, plague spreading so fast that the last few cut their own throats rather than suffer such horrors.
She didn’t care what they did, as long as they were dead. Only the mages mattered; the imperative to scour the forest of Elves was fading from her mind and she felt Lord Isak’s compulsion to murder them all gradually wither. She would still do so because of what she was, but once her strength grew beyond a certain point she would be able to kill any mortal, bargain or no bargain. They worshipped her in Lomin, and at the two other shrines set up for that purpose, but it was a feeble thing now that the boy was dead. No bargain lasted beyond death and that meant it would not bind her as soon as worshippers stopped going to the temples.
Once her bargain was broken, then ... then the more she killed, the more they would flock to praise her — the more they would beg her to spare them. The Wither Queen tasted the fear on the air and smiled. Her time was coming.
CHAPTER 11
Mihn felt that familiar ache of guilt as he set the bowl of food on the bed near Isak’s head. It was irrational, he knew, but seeing his friend so changed, his body so battered and abused, was hard to bear. No part of him had been spared; even his eyeballs bore signs of torture. It was not hard to see why the white-eye had retreated deep into himself: the only way to save what scrap of sanity he could.
The daemons had torn and ripped and burned and shredded his flesh, endlessly, feeding on the fear and pain from every new attack — small wonder Isak had cringed when Mihn had sharpened a knife a few days back. He was more careful now, not to do anything that might evoke memories best forgotten.
The witch had delved into Isak’s mind to find the blackest knots of horror, and had used her magic to rip them free — but she couldn’t get them all. Only the worst had been taken, the memories that could not remain if Isak was ever to speak again, rather than spend any waking minutes shrieking aloud, his sleeping moments sobbing as he relived each horror in his nightmares. Other memories might be lost alongside them; they did not know, but it was a risk they had to take.
Mihn saw Isak’s nostrils flare slightly at the scent of food: that faint recognition hadn’t yet gone so far as to prompt Isak to action, but it was a start. The puppy lying outstretched next to Isak was more receptive: he stirred and looked up. Mihn wasn’t sure what sort of dog it was — though young, it showed the promise of powerful body and legs, and he guessed it was bred for guarding, maybe even fighting, rather than hunting. Right now it tired easily, growing too fast to be boisterous for long, but that would change soon.
The dog yawned wide, its tongue lolling, and thumped its tail against Isak’s thigh. It licked Mihn’s wrist and started to move towards the bowl, but Mihn moved it out of the puppy’s reach and opened Isak’s shirt to check on his injuries. He gently removed the witch’s poultices, wiped the skin clean and examined the scabs underneath. There was no sign of infection, and the deep cuts were closing nicely — though Mihn had expected Isak to heal unnaturally quickly, he was still a little surprised to see even the broken skull was knitting together well, and where the skin had been ripped away new tissue was growing.
He shuddered. Even with that degree of healing, the injuries were so wide-ranging that from some angles it was almost impossible to recognise the youth he’d first met. The shape of Isak’s head had changed with those depressions; patches of scalp had been cut away, along with chunks of his ears. Half his teeth were