Marked For Magic (22 page)

Currents of need, hunger, and energy skimmed about Alicia and hovered in the air. The forceful waves surged so powerful they grew to visible colors, and all were dark.

“Alicia,” Nin whispered.

“No, enough! I’ve seen quite enough.” Thabit’s voice grated like a north wind through the mountain passes. “So, instead of doing as you should, you decided to play your own game? You called up a few things to entertain yourself and got caught in your own web.” His glance smothered the smoky colors swirling around Alicia, and they faded.

Alicia sagged forward and shook her head. Her effort to answer broke into choked breaths, her words almost indistinguishable. “The voice called me—it was my friend—I had no other. I wanted to stop—I couldn’t—I had to go on. I have to!” Alicia’s voice rasped from the darkest corner where her form could scarce be seen.

Nin gasped as flames illuminated the small storeroom seeming to lick around Alicia’s body. Orange and blue swirls darted over the red gown. They encircled the hem of Alicia’s skirt and leaped up to make her a crimson doll.

Heat spun toward her and Thabit. The swift sting burned her cheeks and caused beads of sweat to dampen her brow. She could not pull Alicia from the grip of the flames. Her heart ached, and she could bear to watch no more. She sent a cool wave in an attempt to still the heat.

“You are too generous, my Sparrow.”

Tremors racked Alicia, who bowed her head while she breathed harsh and fast.

Her heart in her mouth, Nin stared at the relic of her childhood friend. “
What happened to the girl I laughed with?”
She turned to Thabit, confusion and pain consuming all her thoughts.

“This is only the beginning. You would not have recognized her had we found her later. She is riddled with unimaginable evil, and it grows.”

Thabit stood white-lipped. His rage hung in the air like a blade about to fall.

Nin turned from one to the other.
“This is unbearable, dangerous.”

Thabit’s struggle to contain his wrath surged painful, each seething wave burnt through her as hot as the fires binding Alicia. Nin turned back to him, reaching for his hand. Such anger could harm him, harm her, and destroy Alicia.

Thabit moved beyond her toward Alicia. “Do you know the devastation you have created? The pain and suffering? And it continues still!”

Overcome by his ferocity, Alicia sank to the ground, hunched into a small ball. Broken, gasped words croaked from her. “I—couldn’t—stop it.”

Nin shivered as goose bumps ran over her flesh. A mixture of pity and compassion mingled for Alicia. Facing the power of such malevolence with no one to help or guide her, to protect her from any of its demands, Alicia was lucky to have survived the experience.

“You’re tainted with evil, ungovernable, and beyond hope. If Cassandra follows the law, she’ll lock you in a cell for the rest of your days.”

“Thabit, no!” Nin spun around to face him.

His green eyes blazed. “She is indefensible and do not say any other to me, for you do not know. You are only half-aware of what she has done, and it is not over yet. We go to the castle.” He grasped Alicia’s arm and led her through the house.

Though his words sounded bitter, Nin was relieved that he had controlled his desire for vengeance. She followed, ignoring the open-mouthed stares of Alicia’s father and the heavy sobs of Alicia’s mother drifting down from the loft where the family slept. She spotted the familiar dark brown cloak she knew to be Alicia’s and took it from the hook to give to her friend.

Outside, beyond the potter’s workshop, tension swelled through the village, the throb of it beat loud as a drum. Thabit propelled Alicia toward the horses. “Girl, mount the pony.” He glanced back. “Sparrow, you ride with me.”

Alicia scrambled onto Ice, who snorted and stamped. He shook his head and snapped at Alicia’s pale leg. Thabit crossed to the pony, took Ice’s head in his hands, and murmured phrases to soothe the horse. Ice pawed at the ground before he calmed.

While Ice had baulked, Alicia clung on and uttered no sound. She hid her face with her hood.

Thabit mounted the horse and extended his hand to pull Nin up before him. She settled into his embrace, and struggled to block the bitterness from her friend.

“What will happen to me?” Alicia’s voice wavered in the chill of the afternoon.

Thabit remained silent as they rode. Snow fell. The first flakes, fat and soft, drifted down.

“I don’t know, Alicia. Be quiet now,” she called back to the hunched figure on the pony.

Thabit clutched her close. His fury simmered and snatched at her as it moved in her mind. Strange so much of his rage was connected to her.

Their journey to the castle dragged on. Thabit’s anger lessened the farther they went from the village.
“You bring me peace when I need it most. I will find some way to thank you when all this is done. I hope you will accept my thanks.”

“Of course, I will.”
Nin laid her head back on his shoulder to enjoy his body next to hers. Something tortured him, and he did not share the cause with her. He kept his council. He blocked part of his thoughts from her mind.

The afternoon light dimmed, but they rode on, and try as she might, Nin couldn’t fathom how his anger with Alicia linked to her.

Now, with the key to the evil found, they would be able to take the next step. Until they could stop the swathe of destruction, the demon would only grow stronger. She swallowed down the bitter understanding of what it would mean to journey back to the plane of fire.

“Yes, my Sparrow, and the fire is only part of it.”
His thought told her there was yet more to understand in all this.

He tightened his arms around her so much she could scarce breathe. Alicia’s sorrowful moan broke the silence. Ice snorted, stamped, and bucked. Thabit dismounted to try again to calm the pony.

When he rejoined her, he flicked the snow off her hood. “Not much farther, Sparrow.”

Snow, now falling fast, carpeted the castle grounds, covering the many tents at the forest’s edge. The dark winter grass had disappeared beneath white. Few people moved in the last light of the short afternoon. Nin glanced back.

Alicia crouched, hunched over on Ice’s back. Only visible was the dark brown cloak and a limp pale hand on the reins. Ice did not arch his neck with pride as he so often did when he trotted over the drawbridge, but looked as unforgiving as Thabit.

Nin sighed. Alicia had fallen into evil and caused torment. Her spirit was lost, so far away she may never return.

They entered the castle grounds and dismounted at the stables. Thabit strode in front through the snow, a hand on Alicia’s arm, so she scurried to keep up with his long-legged strides.

Nin followed them into the entrance and through to the huge doors of the great hall. They opened on silent hinges at Thabit’s approach.

The great hall engulfed them in stillness. So hushed, their footsteps echoed on the stone as they passed the guards. Cassandra sat on her state chair next to the one occupied by Lord Farel, who tapped his fingers on the armrest of his seat. Cecile and Tab sat away from the dais, and for once, the flash of their smiles failed to greet her.

Thabit bowed. “Lord Farel, Lady Cassandra, this girl is the catalyst for all we have so far suffered, and the rest we will endure. I bring her before you for justice.”

Nin winced at his announcement, and as she pushed back the hood of her cloak, he left Alicia standing alone. He came across to her with a grim face and slipped her arm through his to lead her over to where Cecile and Tab sat. Nin clutched his arm tight, for she could not still the tremors rippling through her, each one stronger than the last. The need to scream with fear grew so strong she battled to still it.

“You must block her thoughts, Sparrow. If you do not, you will be in danger.”

She struggled to do as he said, and he kissed her cheek.

“Permit me help you.”

A sigh of relief passed over her as all became quiet in her mind, and she basked in his tenderness. They took their seats, and Alicia’s wide blue gaze settled on Nin. The bitterness in her eyes filled Nin with despair.
The physical expression of envy was obvious, and all Alicia had done stemmed from the emotion that had robbed her of any kindness.

Alicia now stood alone in the center of the hall. The hem of the damp red gown stirred over the flagstones. Heat from the blaze in the hearth seemed not to warm her. She rubbed her hands together as though she were cold and hunched her shoulders as if to avoid a chill wind.

Nin could think of nothing in Alicia’s favor, for her friend must have known what she did was wrong and she could have sought help.

“You are right, my Sparrow, if she’d had the courage to ask for aid, much could have been avoided, but she did not.”
Thabit interlaced his fingers with hers.

Nin waited to hear her friend’s fate.

“You have conjured and obeyed a diabolical creature, inflicted death and destruction, brought famine and pestilence upon our people and land. You gave this evil the means to thrive, and the innocent have suffered. Can you explain why you have done this?” Cassandra’s voice echoed through the hall. Today the usual soft tone held an edge of crystal sharpness. Lady Cassandra demanded answers.

A shudder passed through Nin to find the tranquil lady so grim. Biting her lip, she glanced at Thabit. His expression remained solemn. He, too, focused on Alicia, as did Lord Farel. Even Tab and Cecile seemed to have lost their gentleness. Both appeared forbidding today.

She sent a silent prayer that her friend would live to repent all she’d done.

“If she has a thread of good left in her, she may.”
Thabit’s thought soothed.

Alicia remained silent, a bowed-headed figure before them. Strands of her snow-damp hair reflected the light of the fires. Only once did she look up. She moved her mouth as if to speak, but no sound came.

Cassandra leaned across and whispered to Lord Farel, who nodded, before she beckoned to Cecile and Tab. “Her silence is not enough, but I fear I will get no more here today. The girl is terrified to witless, and the power of evil still clutches her mind. Take her to the workroom. There will be guards should she try to leave.

“She will speak alone with me. Do not move from her side and keep her
from
the hearth.”

Alicia took stiff, slow steps behind Tab and Cecile, who led her out of the hall. At Cassandra’s nod, three guards moved to follow the small group of girls.

“Well, my lady?” Thabit asked as he got up from the bench.

“Oh, gods, I don’t know. It is as you said, a case of great stupidity, I fear. I know that changes nothing. We must deal with the consequences, and show justice being done. But despite it all, I cannot bring myself to fury with her.” Cassandra sighed.

“I can!” Thabit snapped. “What will you do, my lady? You cannot train her. It is much too late. You know she will be a magnet to evil for the rest of her life.”

“Yes, I agree. The wretched girl will sadly never be anything more than she has become,” Cassandra said.

“Please, my lady? There must be a way to help her?” Nin had moved from her seat to stand beside Thabit. “You two are powerful. I’ve seen it and I know it. You must be able to help Alicia.”

“No, it’s too late, my dear. Whatever power this girl might have developed is lost or corrupted beyond repair. The thirst for magic will be ever present within her, but should she attempt any kind of enchantment, the result will turn to evil despite any good intentions she may have. I can keep her here, but the girl will never be whole, never grow to become anything other than she now is, and she will provide a conduit to forces beyond her control. She will call them to her. She is lost, and if she ever truly accepts responsibility for her actions, it may be one lifetime will not be time enough to right her conscience.”

“Yes, yes. Now, if are done with the magical source of the problem can I go and speak with my commanders who are dealing with the wretched populace.” Lord Farel rose from his seat. “I still don’t see why we can’t have a public trial and execution!” He strode down the length of the great hall.

Cassandra gave a huge sigh. “It has taken me some time to convince my brother such a course would do nothing but be a show of vengeance.”

Thabit nodded at Cassandra’s troubled words, and Nin closed her eyes against the terrible thought.

Cassandra rose from the state chair, the shimmer of her sky gray gown rippling in the firelight. “I must go and see if I can get her to speak with me while we consider what shall be done with her.”

“My lady, when this is done, can you speak with my Sparrow about the second element to our plan?”

Nin glanced up at his tone. Something hurt him, and his pain ached in her bones. He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it. “I will seek you out later, Sparrow. Go with Cassandra.”

He strode quickly across the tiles and out the door. Not since Nin first went to his tower had his mind been so closed to her. The depth of his anger remained hard to understand.

“My lady, tell me please. Why does he continue to be so disturbed? Is the fault mine?”

Cassandra shook her head and gave her a faint, soft smile. “Once the problem of the girl is dealt with, I will try to explain.” Cassandra put her arm around Nin as she led her from the hall.

Cecile and Tab both gave audible sighs when one of the guards opened the workroom door. Cassandra slipped her arm from around Nin’s small waist. “All of you go down and check on the patients in the infirmary. Once you have done so, the rest of the evening will be your own. Oh, and Cecile, don’t allow Rollo up out of bed yet, no matter how hard he begs.”

Nin’s dark troubled eyes, pleaded. “Can I not stay with you? Alicia will tell me what you need to know.”

“Your compassion is too great and not yet tempered by experience, my dear. For you to remain could be dangerous. Go with the others, Nin. I will come to you later.”

Nin curtsied with Tab and Cecile, and their heads close together, the three young women murmured as they left.