Page 80 of Take No Prisoners
"Where is my nephew?" The ghost's voice sounded real enough as she barred their path with arms akimbo.
"He's returned to the main island."
In the moonlight, Niall could see the woman's resemblance to Vadim. They both had the same broad nose and fierce gaze. "Will Martiz hang him for his crimes?"
"His trial starts tomorrow. You should come."
"Your tree gives me the willies. You know this."
"The trial will be in the open-air caves beneath the tree. You can access them from the back way."
"Hmph." The woman dropped her arms to her sides and took a step backward toward the hut. "He is such a delicate boy. He's suffered enough. Martiz should end his suffering now and be done with it."
Niall couldn't believe his ears. She wanted Vadim to die? Niall still didn't like the death weaver, but he didn't wish him harm. A powerful death weaver was always good in a fight, or so Niall had heard. They would need him to win the war against Coryn.
"Martiz is not the only person on the council." Niall's grandmother's voice rang with finality as she tugged on Niall's elbow.
They continued on the path. Niall directed his gaze at the halo of light beneath the hovering light globe, though the area between his shoulder blades itched, as though the strange woman's gaze could pierce his shirt and set his skin aflame.
"She claims Vadim has gone mad," his grandmother whispered.
Her voice was well camouflaged within the night sounds of owls, bats, and insects, but Niall kept his voice low, too. "He's so logical, it's scary. How could he possibly be mad?"
She nodded. "The world has gone mad around him. He probably wishes he were mad, too. Five years ago, he came to me begging for a way to save Hugo, so I sent him after Coryn. I don't know if I made it better or worse."
"You knew then what he'd done to my parents."
She nodded, and the little ball of light bobbed with her head. "I knew the truth of it, that Willamina had wanted to stop running. Some fight their fate to the bitter end, and some give in too soon."
They finally reached the narrow shoal that formed the southern sweeping legs of the horseshoe. They had been dry at high tide earlier in the day, but now, they were submerged beneath a few inches of water.
"They're still visible at low tide. We can't hide them completely without flooding the island. We'll need to make a decoy instead, and hope they find us during the day."
"How?"
"Partly through earth moving. We form a horseshoe of sand to the southeast and hope Efren's tweaked enough of the emperor's star charts to make it believable. Then, we can swap the image of this island with that one using our balance of life and death weaves. Your weaves might even stand up to starlight, but mine do not. They're too ethereal in the dark."
Niall heard her words, but they didn't make sense until he had a chance to weave the spell himself. In the darkness, the spell shimmered too much to be land. Without the reality of earth magic, he couldn't find the right balance of light.
His grandmother's side looked even more ghostly in the moonlight. "That will have to do," she said when they were finished. "It should buy us some time, at least."
"What happens if they find the island?"
"I know what Coryn seeks on Stony Eel island. We have a statue with the same capabilities here, hidden in the caves. Elsie and I are the only two who know where it is."
"Elsie?"
"Vadim's aunt." She sighed. "I suppose that means Martiz knows where it is, too."
"I don't like him," Niall admitted. There was something about Martiz that made his skin crawl, and it wasn't only his blatant disregard for the animals he so carelessly injured and then healed.
"You shouldn't. Though Martiz is many despicable things, he'll never be one of Coryn's loyalists. We can trust him with this secret, at least."
"What about Elsie?" Niall asked. "Do you trust her?"
His grandmother nodded. "If anyone hates Coryn more than I do, it's Elsie." Niall thought she would expand on that, but she patted his shoulder instead. "We need to get you back to the mainland before Efren starts to worry."
"There's no skiff!"
