Prisoner (The Scarred Mage of Roseward #2) - Sylvia Mercedes Page 0,116

was no other way to . . . no other . . . no . . .

“Nelle?” The name whispered through his cut and bleeding lips.

The Thorn Maiden hissed again. He felt a soft hand brush his cheek, felt the fingers stick in his fresh and oozing blood.

It won’t be long now, my love. Your spell is weakened. I will soon be free . . . free . . . free . . .

The echoes of her voice died away, replaced by other sounds. Waves lapping against a boat. Oars creaking. Wind sighing and . . . and was that Nelle’s voice?

“Oh, you lovely, lovely beasties!” Her words came in a sort of rhythm, panting in time to the sound of the oars. “I take back every nasty thing I ever said about you. You just keep on singing!”

Another sound touched his ear: wyvern song. It flowed down from high above into the darkness behind his eyes, and his soul lifted despite every effort to prevent it. He wasn’t dead. Not yet anyway.

He sank into a numb, trance-like state, his eyes still closed, his body cold, paralyzed. Every other sense stirred with life, his ears full of wind and wyvern song, his nose with the scent of the salty ocean, his tongue with the iron tang of blood. Each of these sensations, pleasant and unpleasant alike, was cause for joy. He was alive. There may yet be time to right at least some of the wrongs he’d committed.

He allowed this thought to float around in his mind, sloshing like the waves. Other sensations floated along with it, vague and oddly comfortable.

The boat crunched onto the sandy beach, jarring his body. He winced, the first actual move he’d made since regaining consciousness. With that one small act, wakefulness began to return to his body, creeping and slow, but determined. He heard the oars clatter inside the boat as Nelle dropped them, listened to her splash and puff as she leaped out and hauled the little craft farther up the shore. He ought to rise, ought to get up and help her. One hand twitched, but he couldn’t quite manage more than that, not yet. He exhaled slowly, preparing to gather his strength for another, more concentrated effort.

“Ginger!”

A dart of surprise shot through Soran’s awareness. His eyelids fluttered and flared open, and he found himself staring at the nilarium-crusted fingers of his own left hand, close to his nose. He turned his head slightly, trying to get his face out of the bilgewater.

“Ginger, is that you! I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

“Sam!”

That was unmistakably Nelle’s voice. Her answer was sharp, surprised, a little confused.

Sam . . . why did he know that name? Had she spoken it before?

Oh. Yes.

When he’d held her in his arms and gently called her wandering spirit back to her body with a kiss. When she’d pressed her hand to his cheek and he’d thought she might draw him in for another kiss, one of her own initiation. When she’d looked up at him, still half asleep, half dazed, her lovely eyes blinking fast in confusion.

That’s when she’d said it. Sam.

Wait. What did this mean? Soran’s head ached with confusion, and pain roared through his limbs as he tried to pull himself together, to push himself upright. But when he heard Nelle speak again, he stilled, closed his eyes, and strained his ears, trying to catch her words.

“What are you doing here? I thought . . . Where were you last night?”

“Where was I?” answered the stranger’s voice. “Where were you? You said you’d come before sunset, but it got darker and darker, and you were nowhere to be seen! Then I caught a . . . a sense of something. Something dangerous, getting nearer by the moment. I remembered what you’d said about not staying at the house after dark, so I got out of there as quick as I could and ran down to the harbor. I thought you’d meet me there. I waited all night and didn’t sleep, just like you said. I heard all kinds of awful racket, more of those skull-dogs, I think, and I was afraid something had happened to you. I wanted to search for you, but it was black as pitch by then, and I couldn’t see my hand before my face. I sat there in the dark forever. Soon as it was light again, I went searching for you and found some of those skull-dogs all torn to pieces.