Page 5 of Witchlight
Then the man’s feet twitched, since, like Shitpants, he was not dead.
Aeduan’s nostrils flared. He inhaled all the way into his stomach, letting his witchery ease away like ripples on a pond. The blood off Shitpants’s wound still keened in Aeduan’s nose. The wind still tugged at his cloak. Nearby, the rats from the shadows and rafters were poking out curious noses. They were too hungry to be afraid, and there was a very real chance they would eat these brothers as soon as Aeduan got out of the way.
So Aeduan got out of the way.
THREE
Vivia Nihar stared at the doorway before her, a sliver of blue light carved into limestone. Lush ferns hugged it close, brushing their fingers against the edges. A snag of grapevines too, with their leaves fluttering on a salted breeze. Cicadas clicked in the thick foliage. A gull cried overhead.
And magic rolled over Vivia, moving in time to waves off the nearby sea. Each caress made her hair stand more on end and her teeth grind inside her ears. She knewofthese doorways, but seeing one was different from hearing about them. And having one simply appear overnight near Noden’s Gift was downright alarming.
“See?” Cam said, motioning with his floppy limbs to the light. “That’s it. That’s a door that’ll take you into the mountain. I don’t know where it will take us, exactly, but I’m pretty sure once we’re inside, I can find the under-city in Lovats.”
“Pretty sure?” Vivia’s eyebrows lifted.
“Verysure,” Cam amended. The boy had come sprinting into the captain’s cabin in Noden’s Gift half an hour ago, hollering aboutmagic doorsandsecret tunnelsandsneaking into Lovats, then Azmir with soldiers.Then he’d half dragged Vivia and Vaness all the way to the seashore, just below the Origin Well perched atop its fox-shaped peak.
“It is… small.” This came from the Empress of Marstok, who stood on Cam’s other side. She had lately taken to wearing a Nubrevnan-style blouse tucked into sailor’s breeches. It suited her. Softened her imperial lines—as did the sea and tides nearby, always tugging her hair from her braided bun. The only lingering reminder of her title and heritage were the iron bracelets she was never without.
Right now, they swiveled like snakes around her wrists. “I do not see how we can fit soldiers through there, much less the forces needed to claim back Lovats or Marstok.”
“Right.” Cam nodded as if he hadn’t just proposed they do preciselythat. “Well, we could go single file. Then… you know: hope the doors don’t close up behind us.”
“Right,” Vaness said, mimicking him. “The doors closing up behind—a minor detail. Not worth fretting over.” She fixed her gaze onto Vivia, eyes hooded. The heat of midday daubed color onto her cheeks. “As you know, I have traveled these doorways, Your Majesty. So while I certainly appreciate and understand their utility, I also understand their dangers. For one, ifwecan use them, then so can the enemy—which, you may recall, the Raider Kingdiddo when he tried to invade Lovats.”
Of course Vivia recalled. And with stark clarity she’d prefer didn’t haunt her sleep most nights. Ragnor’s troops and his seafire had gotten much too close to destroying the entire capital.Hercapital.
“For two,” the Empress went on, “as Cam has already pointed out, these doorsdohave a tendency to open and shut without warning. You and I have walked by this spot every evening for a month, and only now is there a magic doorway appearing.
“And for three,” Vaness finished, her voice regal and clear, “when I was in the mountain with Safiya fon Hasstrel and her Hell-Bards, the cavern was in a state of total collapse. Stones falling everywhere. Ice crawling and eating all in its path. It is not a space I would take anyone through, whom I wanted to keep safe. So not an army, and certainly not… you.”
Vivia felt her face warm. Her chest too, and she had to force a breath through her nose. A big inhale that expanded her uniform and made old buttons wink in the sun. It was hot in this uniform at midday, but there were appearances to maintain. Vivia was queen, even if her father had fortified himself in Lovats and refused to give up the throne.
Vivia inched closer to the door. Magic scraped and tugged against her. With cautious fingers, she brushed aside a fern. Carvings appeared on the stone. Triangular shapes worn down by weather and time. Familiar, although Vivia had no idea why.
Think beyond,came a voice that sounded like her mother’s.
“Are you listening?” Vaness demanded.
“Hye, hye,” Vivia mumbled, although truth be told, while she’d certainlyheardwhat Vaness had uttered, she’d also immediately discarded it.
Because this was the first change in fortune she’d had in a month. Serafin had lifted the siege chain, sealing off all of Lovats in a magical dome through which no enemy could pass, and for weeks, Vivia, Vaness, Cam, and Shanna, the lead captain from Vivia’s Foxes, had tried to devise a way into the capital.
They could wage war directly at the Sentries of Noden, where the siegechain connected. Or they could send stealth units in through the Cisterns. Or they could turn their attention to Azmir and hope to reclaim Vaness’s throne first.
But none of it had seemed viable, so instead, they’d done nothing. And the sitting still was proving a very,veryquick path to madness.
Serafin was holed up in a city with only limited provisions and tens of thousands of refugees from across Nubrevna. The citizens would starve if Vivia didn’t do something. Soon.
Wind snarled across her. Sand scraped her cheeks, and salt burned her nose. The ferns she held whipped and waved. “How do we know,” she asked carefully, “that this goes where you think it goes, Cam? Maybe it doesn’t lead inside your mountain at all.”
He winced. “S’notmymountain, Majesty. It’s the Sightwitches’. And… well…” He shrugged. “I don’t know where it goes. But I could walk in right now. See what’s on the other side, if you want.”
“And what if you step into a trap?” Vaness snapped. “What if this was all designed by the Raider King? Or by the usurpers of Marstok and Nubrevna? What if you find yourself a prisoner—or worse, dead?Thenwhat, First Mate?”
Cam gulped.
“Or,” Vaness continued, the flush on her cheeks reaching her neck. Her ears. “What if this magic is simply fickle, as you yourself suggested, and the door seals up behind you? Then you will be stuck inside the mountain for all of time.”
