Starsinger

In Slumber

Three nights earlier, the tavern burst into an entirely new kind of chaos when Jace and Sapphire dragged Aaron's wildly struggling body inside from the stable.

"Move." Raelyn cracked her voice like a whip and the crowds parted. Delia shouted for a doctor and hoisted the limp stablehand into someone's arms before pounding up the stairs after her team.

They laid Aaron in his own bed, ready to strap him down, but his flailing had already ceased. He breathed in wrenching gasps and tears streamed down his face. Jace clenched a hand around Aaron's shoulder and shook him until Delia pushed the striker away. Sapphire babbled out the story of what she'd seen, the black-eyed Raven, the obsidian stone, the thick tongue of darkness that lashed out at Aaron's temple—

"Get water," Delia said to Raelyn. She laid a hand on Aaron's chest and hissed. "Gods above, he's ice cold."

Jace and Sapphire shrank back as the princess and the mage set to work, lighting a fire in the hearth and packing hot coals wrapped in cloth in the blankets of Aaron's bed. Delia laid a glowing emerald hand on his head and nearly fainted. "Feels wrong," she growled.

"Sit." Raelyn shoved a chair under her. "Try again."

Jace's pulse thudded in his ears as the women whirled through the room like a tornado. He couldn't help. He could only watch in panic as the color slowly drained from Aaron's face. There was no blood, no wound, only magic, whatever twisted sorcery that black-eyed bastard had infected his friend with. No, you can't go, not like this. Not after everything they'd been through, not after everything Jace had sacrificed. I didn't get to tell him. I didn't get to tell him the truth—

Beside him Sapphire swore and shoved to her feet. Jace jerked up. "Where the hell are you going?"

"Somewhere I can be useful," she snapped. "You coming?"

Mercali's headswoman caught them in the tavern, demanding to know what had happened and what was being done about it. When they told her a would-be murderer had left two people seriously injured before escaping into the night, she immediately dispatched a handful of the village's best hunters to join Sapphire and Jace.

"Bring the attacker back, and we will show him how Mercali deals with justice," the headswoman said with a steely nod.

The trail from the stable led straight into the grasping black shadows of the Wistful Wood. Sapphire took the lead, the violet scarf still wrapped tightly around her blue curls as she picked her way through the underbrush with uncanny skill. Jace organized the hunters into two flanks to search the Wood as they went. One of the hunters had brought lanterns, and the concentric rings of light bobbed and weaved through the trees like boats on a swollen river. Jace followed close behind Sapphire to illuminate the Raven's tracks, but she hardly seemed to need it. She kept darting forward into the darkness, picking out spots of blood and upturned earth long before Jace's eyes could detect them. It sent shivers up his spine.

Instantly he thought of the half-written report, marked with its secret seal, stashed in a hidden compartment deep in his pack. No. This is not the time. Tonight he only had one mission. Even Vance would have to understand that.

The night was just greying into dawn when Sapphire stopped. Through the foliage Jace could see the looming mouth of a cave. They exchanged a wary look.

"Do you think...?" Jace asked.

"Maybe." Sapphire looked at him hard. "Do you trust me?"

She was here with him. Aaron was lying shivering in a bed and she was sprinting headlong into the Wood beside Jace to track down the rat who had put him there. It was hard not to trust someone who'd do this much for his friend.