Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,108
here. She converted some of the villagers, and they cornered us, demanding the firebird. We didn’t have much choice. They were ready to kill us.”
“Did you…” Tala felt sick at the thought, still staring at the unmoving figures.
“We only knocked them out. It took some time. She…they were pretty resilient.” Ken winced and touched the side of his face, then looked down at his hand, surprised to find it shaking a little. “All this howling is making my head hurt. What’s going on?”
“We’ll talk about that later,” Zoe said, with another glance at Cole.
“The village has been breached, milords,” the innkeeper said urgently. “Something has gotten into the butterflies. The spells woven within them have been negated somehow, and the loss allowed some of the Deathless entry. If you are to accomplish what the priestess has decreed you must accomplish, you must leave now.”
Tala’s mouth fell open. “No. Oh no.”
“We grabbed your things from the rooms,” Loki chimed in. “If those Deathless were sent here to stop us, we’re putting these people in danger if we stay longer.”
“We can’t leave you guys like this,” Ken protested.
The innkeeper laughed. “We come from a long line of warriors, youngblood. We can handle a few nightwalkers. But now you must leave. We will pound our drums and lure the ice wolves out to give you a chance to escape their notice. Hurry now, quickly!”
“Thank you!” Zoe dug her foot into her horse’s sides, and it went off at a brisk canter toward the gates, the others following her.
“It’s my fault they got in,” Tala choked. “The butterfly on my hand. I changed it, somehow. The priestess didn’t predict that—she was just as surprised.”
“It’s not your fault,” Alex said fiercely. “She knew the risks. For all you know, this was part of why we’re here in the first place.”
“We’re not leaving just yet,” Zoe said.
“Zo, there could be more of them around,” Loki argued.
“There’s something we need to pick up before we leave.”
“Why didn’t you do it earlier, then?” Ken asked irritably, laying a reassuring hand on his stallion’s mane.
“I didn’t know we had to until about ten minutes ago.”
“Where are we going?”
“The tower.” Zoe shook her head in disgust. “I knew they were hiding something in there.”
“What is it, then?”
“The granddaughter.”
“The one getting hitched tomorrow?”
“Yup.”
Ken paused, mulling that over. “Well,” he finally said, “we’ve accidentally lured Deathless in and ruined their festival. May as well kidnap the priestess’s granddaughter while we’re at it.”
24
In Which Pepper Is the Most Powerful Spice
The tower looked even shabbier up close. The cracks and crumbling brickwork lining its walls had been resealed with piebald patches of mortar. In the darkness, the place looked abandoned, with only glimpses of moonlight guiding them through the snow-strewn path. The guards were now conspicuous by their absence, no doubt back in the village assisting the others in rounding up the last of the Deathless.
“How are we getting up there?” Zoe asked, tilting her head back to take in the tower’s height. “I don’t see any stairs, and scaling walls isn’t one of my better skills. And Deathless could still be following us—they might not have gotten them all.”
“I’m more concerned about the ice maiden responsible for turning them,” Alex said. “If she’s lurking around.”
“Not while the wolves are here,” Cole said quietly.
Zoe glanced at him, like she was about to say something else, then shook her head and turned away again.
“We could use the firebird,” Loki suggested.
But the creature had retreated behind Alex, shaking its head.
“What’s wrong?” Alex asked.
It shook its head again and buried its face against his shoulder, trembling.
“Swell,” Ken said. “Now that we actually want it to fly off and explore, it refuses.”
Alex scowled. “It’s not its fault!”
“Miss Ayanti mentioned that the tower had the strongest of Ikpe’s enchantments,” Zoe said. “Firebirds are creatures of magic too. It could be affected by it.”
“I’ve got an idea.” Ken cupped his hands around his mouth. “Hey! Rapunzel, Rapunzel!” he hollered. “Let down your hair!”
“That’s your bright idea?”
“I said I had an idea. I didn’t say it was a good one.”
“How’d you know her name?” West asked.
“Girl in a tower, raised by an enchantress; Rapunzel’s as good guess as any. I’m guessing she’s dragging around forty-foot-long hair too.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You’ve never heard of the Rapunzel story?” Tala asked him.
West shook his head. “I always thought it was about some kind of cabbage.”
Talking to West sometimes, Tala learned, was like trying to walk up a down escalator.