“When wild and mage together come, one in six or six in one. Empires rise or empires fall, the unborn child begins it all.”
Her hand moved unbidden to her belly. Soothsayers who lived far enough in the future to give voice to “prophecy” were so insane every word could have a dozen different meanings. Danika had heard rumors that Emperor Leopald kept Soothsayers at the Imperial Court, but she’d had no idea he was actually mad enough to use them to determine policy.
As the lieutenant explained why they weren’t to be murdered, the sound of retching pulled Danika’s attention back to the road in time to see one of the soldiers send Jesine sprawling as she tried to move toward Annalyse, now bent double, spewing her half-digested breakfast onto the dirt.
Time to stop pretending she didn’t speak Imperial.
“Sergeant Black!” He started and turned, drawn by the command in her voice. “That woman is a Healer.” Danika nodded toward Jesine, who drew herself up onto her knees, gold-flecked eyes narrowed, teeth bared. “And that woman…” A nod to Annalyse, a line of saliva stretching between her mouth and the stain on the road. “…requires her services.”
“She can’t do a healing with the tangle on,” the sergeant pointed out, one hand raised to hold the surrounding men silent and in place, his eyes locked on Danika’s face.
“Healing isn’t only about mage-craft, Sergeant.”
After a long moment he nodded, hand moving so his thumb could stroke the thick scar along his jaw. “No, it ain’t. All right, then. Tell her she can do her healin’, but if her hands touch the tangle, Hare’ll shoot her.” As Sergeant Black spoke his name, a soldier slightly older than the others, his dark hair streaked with gray, lifted his weapon to his shoulder. “And just so you know, m’Lady, Hare’s got one of the new rifled muskets and he never misses.”
“Thank you for the warning, Sergeant. You can go to her, Jes,” she continued in Aydori. “Don’t touch the gold net.”
“Or what?” Jesine muttered, crawling to where Annalyse was now dry heaving. “They’ll shoot me?”
“Yes.”
“Wonderful.”
“Not really.”
“This doesn’t mean you lot can start talkin’.” Sergeant Black cut Stina off before she managed more than an indeterminate sound. Understanding the tone, if not the words, Stina shut her mouth with a snap and glared up at him. If looks alone could kill, the sergeant wouldn’t have survived the encounter.
“You speak Imperial very well.”
Although her heart slammed against her ribs, Danika kept herself from visibly reacting to the sudden presence behind her. The younger Pack members were always playing stalk and pounce; those who reacted, soon became a favorite target. “Thank you, Captain Reiter.” His voice was deeper than the younger officer’s.
“And how well do the others speak Imperial?”
“Everyone speaks a little Imperial, Captain.” Stina spoke a very little, but Danika had no idea how much she understood. Jesine could manage if everyone involved spoke slowly. Kirstin was as fluent as Danika was—there was no way she’d allow her rival the advantage. Danika wasn’t certain about Annalyse as she’d known the younger woman for barely a week. “The language, like the empire, is…pervasive.”
“True. Stand up.”
“You don’t give me orders, Captain.”
“And I don’t have time for this.”
His hand around her upper arm was more competent than cruel, but intent mattered very little given the sudden flare of pain when he hauled her to her feet. When he released her, she staggered forward, stumbled, and flung out her arms to stop herself from falling. The sudden movement added yet more pain, and it raged through her body like a storm before dissipating through the soles of her feet. She sagged with the relief of its going, then straightened her back, slowly lifted her head, and turned to face the captain.
Reiter was younger than Danika expected; tall but lean with pale eyes, a beak of a nose, hair that indeterminate color between blond and brown, and reddish-brown stubble over a pointed chin. He might have been attractive if not for Lady Berin’s blood still smeared over his face. The competence in his touch extended to his expression. He had the look of a professional soldier, a man who would get the job done no matter how distasteful he personally found it.
“Good, they can walk.” He spoke Imperial with the careful diction of a man promoted from the ranks and thrown in among the sons of aristocracy. “Tie their hands behind them.”
“They can’t remove the tangles, Captain.” The lieutenant, whose name Danika hadn’t yet heard, was clearly one of those privileged sons. His uniform had not merely been tailored, but made-to-measure, and his accent had the supercilious sound of the Court about it. “Removal requires another artifact.”
“Does it? Tie their hands anyway,” the captain continued, “as I doubt they’ll take your word for it and I don’t want them damaged beyond their ability to walk.”
“So kind,” Danika murmured, carefully inclining her head toward him.
His cheeks under the patina of blood flushed slightly, but that was the only sign he’d heard. “One man in each squad keeps them upright and moving. You go back the way we came in.”
Was he not going with them? Danika wondered. The lieutenant’s youth might make him easier to manipulate, but he looked like the type who felt he had to keep proving his power.
Before the lieutenant could acknowledge the captain’s order, Natali’s cursing grew louder as, finished with the soldiers themselves, she began to wish nightmares and diseases on their descendants. Danika heard Kirstin giggle and then bite the sound off before it slid into hysteria.
The next sequence of sound began with a musket butt slamming against bone, the impact of a body with the ground, a slight scuffle, and a sudden uneasy silence broken by the baby’s hiccup.
Captain Reiter turned just far enough Danika could see past him to where Natali lay crumpled on the ground. The others stood glaring but still, and Marinka’s maid—Danika hated that she couldn’t remember the girl’s name—cuddled little Talia, her cheek pressed against the baby’s golden hair. When the captain turned back, his gesture took in all five of the captured mages. “Is one of you the mother?”
She did not look at Marinka’s golden-furred body, not wanting to bring the contempt these men had for the Pack down on her child. Hands curled into fists, she could feel her fingernails cutting into her palms. “No.” She didn’t trust her voice with more than the single word.
“Good.” The captain also did not look, a muscle jumping in his jaw as he stopped himself from turning his head. “Tie the servants. Make sure the girl can tend the baby.” When no one obeyed immediately, his lips drew back off his teeth. “Move!”
Ryder couldn’t have done it better.
The thought brought a different kind of pain. Danika whispered her husband’s name, allowing the breeze to take it. It would find him.
She missed the captain’s instructions to the lieutenant, but heard the younger man ask, “Where will you search?”
Search? And then she remembered. The prophecy had sent these Imperial soldiers into Aydori to capture six mages, not five. Six. One in six or six in one.
“She can’t be far.” He glanced back along the long curve of the road toward the city. “I see no carriages heading up from Bercarit, so I’ll take the boys up the road; take a look at what’s around that corner. Move as fast as you can. Don’t wait if you get to the wagons before we catch up.”