Spirit Binder (22 page)

The Chancellor returned, his eyes on Theo while he addressed Dougal and Rhea. “The spellcasters cannot break through the magic hiding the Preacher’s force from sight. Knowing the magic is based on Theodora’s blood, which is why it is so strong, only helped them actually see and identify the spell, not penetrate it.”

So that was the ‘enough’ information they’d gleaned from Davin’s mind. The Preacher’s shield was built with her blood.

“So we still have no idea how many men or what weapons he has brought. Nor do we know if we choose to face this darkness without sight if we can even fight within it,” Dougal said.

“There is one thing,” the Chancellor hesitantly offered, and he looked to Rhea, who stiffened.

“Absolutely not! I won’t have it!”

“What?” Dougal asked.

“Well …”

“I said no.”

“Rhea! We cannot fight what we cannot see and you cannot even feel!” Dougal seemed weary, like this was a fight they’d been repeating for hours.

“It’s unnatural and far too dangerous.” Her mother refused to even acknowledge the Chancellor’s suggestion out loud, so Theo did.

“How much of my blood?” she asked, and Hugh sprung out of his chair, but then didn’t protest further. “A drop, freely given, would be more powerful than his stolen bandages, would it not?” Blood magic, as far as Theo could discern, was temperamental and fickle. It could help a caster build and trigger powerful spells or it could simply destroy. Stolen blood was even more unpredictable, as if it was sentient, and could choose whether or not to cooperate.

“I have already made my ruling, Theodora.”

“A single drop contains my spirit in enough quantity to help the casters break through the Preacher’s cloak of darkness?”

“They believe so.” The Chancellor was pained by ignoring Rhea’s protests. “The casters believe that blood recognizes blood, and therefore will obey a command pushed through even by a single drop.”

“The use of blood magic is outlawed for a reason.” Rhea attempted to be calm. “The casters cannot know what such power will actually do. They could kill us all.”

“That is a little much, Rhea,” Dougal chided. “One drop is unlikely to kill us all, even misused or misdirected.”

“It is Theodora’s blood we are discussing. You would give the casters access to her power? Especially now, as you put it, that she is wholly empowered?”

“No.” Dougal seemed unsatisfied with his own answer.

“One drop?” Hugh verified.

“Yes,” the Chancellor responded.

“Overseen by us, not just the spellcasters.”

“I will not participate. I will not have my daughter participate.”

Hugh actually held up a hand to Rhea and she, shocked, actually shut up, though she looked like she might choke.

“Blood magic is powerful,“ Ren attempted to join the debate.

“As evidenced by the mark on your arm,” Hugh snapped.

Theo hadn’t thought of that, that she had Ren’s blood underneath her skin as he did hers …

“It’s barbaric!” her mother declared.

“Yes,” Hugh agreed. “But I imagine it was the only binding that would work on Ren.” He looked to Dougal for confirmation. Dougal nodded. “And Ren, how much stronger were you after you accepted Theo’s mark?”

“I was always strong,” Ren sneered.

“Practically invulnerable,” Dougal announced, but looked steadily away from Rhea’s incredulous expression.

“Was that it? Why you encouraged them? To make your boy more powerful?” her mother spat.

Theo caught Ren’s eye. He shook his head, as if to deny Rhea’s accusation as it applied to him, but she had no way of knowing whether or not he was telling the truth.

“And that was when Theo didn’t have access to her mind mage powers,” Hugh continued, not acknowledging the new tension that rebounded around the room.

“The power would have always been in her blood, even if she didn’t have access to it,” the Chancellor clarified.

Hugh turned to Theo. “Dougal is right. We cannot fight what we cannot see. Can you feel anything? Can you penetrate the darkness that hunkers down outside my father’s home?”

She couldn’t, no matter how formally Hugh asked. Not that she’d thrown everything she had at it, but she’d tested it enough times to know she could lose herself within that darkness.

“One drop. We make sure the spell uses every trace of it, so nothing remains to be exploited by the casters. We oversee the casting. Like all magic, we should be able to feel if the spell is … correct?”

“Correct!” her mother sneered. “There is nothing correct about blood magic!”

“That’s how Rowen died, then?” Theo asked her mother gently, but it was the slump of Dougal’s shoulders that answered her question. So, yes. They’d lost their sister to blood magic. It must have been a mighty spell, or perhaps even a weapon fortified in blood, to vanquish a wielder as powerful as Rowen must have been given her familial connection. In fact, as triplets, they shared the same blood, which made Theo wonder if Rhea or Dougal had had their own blood used against their sister. That would explain a lot of the history between the two.

“But you … both … taught me to not be afraid of magic or spirit, for they are the same thing. One just manipulates the other. I won’t have people die for me, but if I cannot help it, I certainly won’t have them die unseeing or in darkness. I know a little of what that feels like.”

Her mother simply rested her forehead in her hand, and Dougal stopped his pacing to sit beside his sister.

“All right, then. It will take a couple of hours, maybe more, to set up the spell. I’ll let them know to proceed.” The Chancellor was actually rubbing his hands together as he headed for the library door.

“No need to look so eager, Father,” Hugh said. “No one will be accumulating this power.” This last was said with tinge of a warning and the Chancellor locked eyes with his son for a moment, but then was the first to break the gaze.

“Everything is about power.” Dougal rested his head back against the high-backed chair. “Don’t fool yourself, boy. We wouldn’t be here if it didn’t always come to that. Even Rhea, who would prefer to hide behind benign spirituality, wouldn’t have been able to do so if she hadn’t been so powerful and known how and when to use that power.”

The Chancellor exited the library without participating in the discussion. His point having been made by Dougal, Theo supposed.

“Theo,” Ren turned to her, with some sort of an apology on his lips.

“Not the time, Ren. It might never again be the time,” she sighed.

“When you go walk among the warriors, Theodora, make sure you don’t take that attitude with you,” Dougal spoke firmly, though his arm rested over his eyes.

“I thought you wanted me to be more than a figurehead?” she couldn’t keep the sneer from her tone.

“Perhaps I overestimated your abilities.” Her uncle was more weary than nasty, but her mother rose to her defense nonetheless.

“Dougal.”

“Fine. I’ll ready the troops to die for me. It’s the least I can do, short of sacrificing myself.”

Everyone but Dougal looked at her sharply. “You were less childish without the mind mage powers. I liked you better that way.”

“No one has to die,” Hugh interrupted, “if we make this a battle of spirit and not swords. Words can —”

“You get the upper hand much quicker with a sword in your hands,” Dougal retorted.

“I won’t be that weapon,” Theo declared, as she crossed for the exit. She was eager to put this conversation behind her.

“You don’t have any choice,” Dougal called after her. “It has already been written for you. You’ll play a part no matter what any of us do, no matter what choices we make here.”

It always came back to the prophecy. No matter what path she tried to choose, she always ended up right back in the middle of someone else's interpretation of her prophecy.
She is the fountain through which Spirit flows. Her strength shall unite air and fire, earth and water, with human and beast. Through her, all become Spirit, and Spirit reigns.

She shut thoughts of the prophecy and Dougal out of her mind as she shut the door behind her, though not before she heard her mother and uncle task Hugh and Ren to look after her. She was getting pretty tired of being wounded and trembling. She was getting pretty tired of being rescued and protected.

Ultimately, she didn’t feel she deserved any of it — neither their admiration, nor their hate — none of it was based on who she actually was, only on the power that ran in her veins and the prophecy written on her Spirit.

Theo walked among the warriors.

They were divided by loyalty into camps around the castle grounds. The Chancellor’s gardens were being trampled, though someone had attempted to erect a protective barrier around the roses, since the Chancellor had future fairs to win after all. The castle wasn’t built with defense in mind, and it was being seriously tested by the influx of warriors from the Chancellor’s vassals, Rhea’s private guards, and Dougal’s elite.

As she walked among Dougal’s warriors, many who greeted her familiarly, she struggled to keep specific memories at bay. Now was not the time to indulge. She hadn’t been overly friendly in the past, so her restraint didn’t seem unusual. It also probably helped that they now knew who she actually was; the daughter of the Apex, the prophesied Manifestation of Spirit. Still, she kept
 
a smile on her face and her hands clasped behind her back, to discourage wayward contact. Ren ran interference by chatting with the warriors as if they were his own, which made her realize that Dougal must have promoted him to second. She wondered how much that promotion was due to the mark of her blood on his forearm, and then pushed the thought away. She wasn’t going to solve anything tonight, and it was best if she just focused on her duty.

As they crossed by the gates and turned into the practice area of the keep, she murmured to Hugh, “I imagine the Chancellor is regretting not building that moat now.”

Hugh laughed quietly, which was the biggest response she’d gotten from him all evening, but Ren was confused. “A moat? Out here? Why would he ever have need of one?”

“It was a joke, Ren,” she said, and Ren fell silent as they began to approach the Chancellor’s guard. Many of his warriors had chosen to be housed in tents, giving up their soft beds for those ranked higher. Their reactions to Theo’s walkabout were more formal and more intimate than Dougal’s elite. Almost all these warriors carried her blessing. They eyed Ren and nodded to Hugh.

The energy was jovial. Weapons and armor were readied and admired. A fight was to be relished, no matter the foe, no matter that it could be their brothers or teachers or childhood friends waiting in the darkness. Even if his crusade had been strictly underground for years, the swiftness of the Preacher’s momentum since Theo’s return was almost unbelievable. Had she not felt the darkness seething outside the castle walls, she would not have believed it herself. She could see how those in power, Rhea and the Chancellor specifically, could have discounted it for so long.

“I still think that this is the stupidest place to have taken Theo. How did you think to defend her here?” Ren took all the tension he felt by being surrounded by warriors not under his command and flung it at Hugh.

“I had no idea you’d come running with an army at your heels,” Hugh calmly replied.

“The castle of the Apex would have been the right place to make our stand.”

“Which one? While it is true her summer home, Hollyburn Castle, is protected on three sides by the mountains, leagues of land and the Great Sea surround the Winter Palace. You can see an enemy approach from miles away.”

“The Winter Palace?”

“In the northern Drylands? I guess you’ve never been invited.”
 

“Why would I have?” Ren snapped, and Theo moved off to see Gia, who’d beckoned to her. She was lucky that Ren and Hugh weren’t at each other’s throats given the circumstances, but the bickering was almost more wearing.

“My lady,” Gia said. “May I offer you a drink? Would you sit by the fire for a moment?”

“I would be honored to do so.” Theo glanced back at Hugh and Ren in argument, and then turned to focus on the warriors gathered by the fire. They were trading stories of their exploits. Nathan, who she’d disgraced so badly in the practice yard, briefly caught her eye and nodded. He was ready and willing to stand at her defense even without her blessing. She felt humbled and awed to be so completely accepted by this loyal group of warriors.

Bryan appeared out of the shadows and snuggled at her feet. His cheek was smudged with dirt and he smelled of hay. He’d probably been visiting the Beast in the stables. Theo indulged herself by touching him lightly on the head, and he smiled up at her so purely that she almost forgot the war waiting outside the gates.

Except Ren and Hugh’s argument was escalating, and their voices were getting a little difficult to ignore. They were drawing the attention of the warriors around the fire, who really didn’t need any extra underlying tension added to their anticipation of the looming conflict.

As if they had timed it, the Chancellor and Dougal approached the fire lit area via different avenues. Dougal came from the direction of his guard, and the Chancellor from the kitchens. They saw Hugh and Ren and immediately crossed to them.

Ren and Hugh were suddenly standing too close to each other.

Theo excused herself from the fire and stepped toward the four men. Bryan, along with all the eyes of the warriors gathered, followed her.

They were without a doubt fighting about her. Ren was currently disputing their “forced betrothal,” but Hugh had been the testy one earlier when Ren broached his prophecy.

“Perhaps it is better to leave this all until after this conflict is resolved,” Dougal cautioned, as Theo approached. “Then, if you so request, Theodora will most likely choose one of you over the other.”

Hugh and Ren didn’t take their eyes off each other, but it was the Chancellor who responded to Dougal. “There is no choice, there is only destiny.”

“Oh, please,” Dougal snorted. “My sister might believe in such things —”