old healing of Rainier’s artistry from beneath this soldier’s shirt. Bone fractured, vessels tore, flesh ripped open as if it had never been healed at all. “My friend Rainier healed it, but he’s dead, and you don’t get to reap the rewards of letting your people die for you.”
A dark, dark strain seeped across his shirt, the linen gathering blood like I gathered magic, and he groaned. His sword hit the ground. Then his knees did.
“My mother didn’t have to gift me anything,” I said, staring down at him. “I have all I have ever had, and it will always be enough.”
Me, alone.
* * *
I left him bleeding on the ground in Monts Lance. He wouldn’t die; I didn’t undo enough of the wound for that. There had been others guarding me, but they weren’t artists, and it was easy to put them to sleep. There was no need to hold back now. I rode one of their horses east for three days.
No one questioned someone riding toward a war, and if the soldiers I left behind gave chase, they never caught up.
Laurence and Estrel had made a deal, but I doubted they were the true originators of Laurel. They were simply the ones who had agreed to take the fall when trouble came. There was little to do but think while traveling, and my time with Laurence repeated over and over in my mind. Of course he was one of the Laurels, and now His Majesty thought he had taken out the biggest threat. If we attacked Kalthorne, there would be no going back.
Chevalier Waleran du Ferrant and Physician Pièrre du Guay would have no mercy for the soldiers and hacks who refused to fight, and how many would die in the fights with Kalthorne that came after? They had to be stopped.
Smoke rose over the large military camp at Segance. I rode my stolen horse until I was close enough to see the line of soldiers walking the western border. Everyone would surely know what had happened by now, my name and what had happened all over, and there was no way I would be allowed to simply walk back into camp. I stayed on the edge and watched, timing the soldiers as they paced and kept watch. I couldn’t handle all of them.
They came in twos. I crept closer, low to the ground and channeling as much magic as I could so I was ready. Two soldiers approached, laughing and chatting. I altered the alchemistry of the one nearest to me. They slumped and snored.
I slipped into the flesh of the other one, my mind melting away as theirs filled my head, and tried to prod their body to sleep. Their head jerked up to me, and I reared back. They tackled me.
Their knees hit my chest, their hands grabbed my throat. I gagged and flailed. They shoved me hard into the dirt. Their nails cut into my skin.
“Stay down,” the soldier said, blinking back the sleep I tried to settle over them.
Insomnia.
I gathered magic and channeled through my neck, into their hands. They shrieked and smacked me. My vision went black.
Then they were gone. I coughed and rolled out of the way, sight coming back slowly. A blurry figure approached.
“Are you trying to die?”
I coughed again and rubbed my eyes.
Charles—lip busted and a purple bruise blossoming across the corner of his mouth, shirtsleeve torn and smoldering where fire had lapped at his skin, and hair a crown of bloodred tangles—kneeled before me. His arm curled around my waist and the other touched my throat, healing the worn-out flesh and crushed cartilage there. I leaned against his side and sobbed. His magic felt like spring.
“Emilie?” He tapped my cheek. “You’re worn out.”
“I’m fine,” I said, voice rough. “We have to go before they get up. Chevalier du Ferrant and the phys—”
“One step ahead of you.” Charles hooked his other arm beneath my knees and hoisted me up. “A lot’s happened. Madeline is well. Laurence is dead.”
“I know.” My head lolled against his chest, the steady thump of his heart heavy in my ears, and I licked my lips. “I saw.”
A few steps from the fight and after adjusting my alchemistry enough to keep me walking, Charles set my feet on the ground. “The other camps are refusing to attack Kalthorne, but Chevalier du Ferrant has Physician du Guay backing him up with a few apprentices and soldiers. They could kill us all, but then they would have