“Had you simply asked, I’m sure Isabel would have been willing to help you,” Alexander said.
“I doubt that very much,” Hazel said.
“What have you done to Isabel?” Ayela asked.
“She’s just sleeping, Child,” Hazel said, dismissively. “Pack your things. We’ll be leaving today.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you until I’m sure Isabel is all right,” Ayela said.
“Don’t be a fool,” Hazel snapped. “Do as you’re told.”
“No,” Ayela said, drawing her dagger. “Isabel is my friend.”
“Hector, be a dear and take her weapon,” Hazel said.
Hector grabbed Ayela by the wrist and calmly pried the blade from her hand.
“This is your doing,” Hazel said to Alexander before she stepped up to Ayela and blew a pinch of powder into her face. The Princess of Karth blinked a few times, then her eyes went glassy and her face went slack.
“Pack your things,” Hazel said.
Ayela slowly started gathering her belongings, moving in a methodical, almost shambling sort of way.
“For what it’s worth, I won’t harm Isabel. She may yet prove useful, provided she survives the swamp.”
Alexander faded from sight but remained to watch. He wanted to shout, to rage against the witch, to threaten her, but he was afraid of what she might do to Isabel.
So he simply watched.
Chapter 36
Isabel woke, lying in the mud, shrouded in fog. She sat up sleepily at first before she realized where she was and then she scrambled to her feet, looking around in near panic. She was in the swamp, alone, without her weapons or pack. She focused on breathing, calming her racing heart while she thought about her situation, trying to find a scrap of hope she might leverage into survival.
Alexander appeared a few feet away.
“What happened?” Isabel asked.
“Hazel left you in the swamp without even a knife and took everyone else with her,” Alexander said. “It looks like they’re headed for the mountain.”
“What would she want there?” Isabel asked. “She made the place out to be a death trap.”
“Maybe there’s something there she doesn’t want anyone to know about,” Alexander said. “Her plan seems to hinge on your traveling companions.”
“I really thought Ayela was coming around,” Isabel said, getting to her feet and wiping the mud from her pants.
“Hazel cast some kind of spell over her involving a charm that Ayela is now wearing around her neck,” Alexander said. “She’s just as obedient as Hector and Horace.”
Isabel surveyed the swamp, still and quiet as a tomb. “I’m in trouble here,” she said.
“I know. Let’s start by getting your weapons and equipment back. Maybe we’ll find some answers along the way.”
“I don’t even know which way to go,” Isabel said, feeling helpless.
“I do,” Alexander said, transforming into a ball of light and bobbling away into the mist.
Isabel followed, more afraid of the swamp than ever before. He led her along a path that became familiar when she reached the tree with notches cut into the side like the rungs of a ladder. Once across the rope bridge and down again, she found the place in the stone wall that was a cave entrance when last she came this way.
“It’s right here,” Alexander said, transforming back into an image of himself and pointing. “The wall is about a foot thick. She controls it with a few words in a language I don’t understand, so you’ll have to burn your way through.”
Isabel nodded, reaching for her rage but finding only the numbing sensation of the malaise weed in its place.
“She’s been drugging my food. I’ll have to wait for the effects to wear off before I can cast a spell.”
“How long?”
“Could be hours, could be tomorrow.”
“I want to stay with you but I can’t hold an illusion for that long,” Alexander said.
“I know, just check on me now and then,” Isabel said. “I’ll need your help once I get into her valley.”
“Be strong, we’ll get through this,” he said, fading from sight.
Isabel waited, attempting every hour or so to build her anger into a rage sufficient to cast her light-lance spell. As night fell, her fear grew. It was so dark. She listened to the deathly quiet of the swamp, expecting some horrible monster to come for her in the darkness, but nothing did. She woke the next morning shivering and hungry … but more importantly, she was angry. Her rage bloomed into fury easily, almost too easily, but she fed it as she spoke the words of her spell.
The hole she burned clean through the stone wall revealed the passage beyond. It took