“She can’t do this,” Emeline said, awe and fear vying for control in her voice. “She can’t hold the whole mist barrier in place when the Master of Crows is pushing at it, without even the circle.”
“Watch… me…” Asha managed from between gritted teeth. “Stones are just there to contain and focus… this is… easy!”
It really didn’t look easy to Sebastian. If anything, it looked as though the effort of it was slowly burning up through her, devouring her from the inside out.
“I’ll ride with Cora and cover us against being found by our thoughts,” Emeline said. “Sebastian, you’ll have to ride with Asha.”
“Quickly…” Asha said, her eyes closed in concentration. “No time to… waste.”
Sebastian nodded and leapt up. Out in the mist, he could still hear screams and the sounds of violence, but they seemed distant somehow, spread out and unreal.
“I’ll pick a path through them,” Emeline said from in front. “Ride exactly where I say, and don’t stop!”
Sebastian didn’t need the warning. In the mist, he had no hope of finding his way without running into enemies, while Emeline might be able to both find a route between the soldiers and shield them from the Master of Crows talents.
Together, moving as quickly and quietly as their horses would let them, they set off into the mist.
CHAPTER SIX
Sebastian led his horse through the fog, following behind Emeline, Cora and Violet, every step the creature took echoing against the silence of it. Before, there had been the sudden, violent terror of battle, but now there was a different kind of fear pressing in on him: the fear of not knowing.
He didn’t know where the enemies were. He didn’t know how many might be coming at them even now. Emeline was leading the way, using her powers to pick out the men of the New Army, but Sebastian had no way of knowing if some of them would slip through, attacking them from nowhere.
“Trust her,” Asha murmured from behind him. “Emeline will get us through.”
Sebastian could hear the strain in her voice. A glance back showed beads of sweat on her forehead, her hand clasped tight around the heart stone taken from Stonehome.
“Are you all right?” Sebastian asked her. He wasn’t sure what would happen if Asha lost her concentration and the fog around them slipped. If the Master of Crows saw them now…
“I’ll hold,” Asha promised him. Sebastian didn’t even mind that she’d read his mind to do it. “To keep her safe, I’ll hold.”
Her, Violet, his daughter. She was quiet now with Cora, gurgling a little, but not crying or reacting to the violence around them. Sebastian would do anything to keep her safe, but he had to admit that he found it surprising that someone like Asha would do the same.
“With all that she’s destined to be?” Asha said. “I will do all that I can to protect her. I would die to see her safe.”
Sebastian hated the thought that everyone believed his daughter to have some destiny that she had no choice in. Right now though, the fact that Asha would give so much to keep Violet safe was hard to question.
They kept going, the fog obscuring everything around them. Sebastian could just make out Cora and Emeline ahead of his horse, but the others in Stonehome were little more than shadows in the fog, the sounds of the battle muted by it, the screams and the clatter of metal on metal reduced to something distant and unreal.
Then it became far too real as two men stumbled close to them. Both were soldiers of the New Army, dressed in their ochre uniforms, spattered with the blood of the people they’d killed already. They stared up at him and the others, clearly trying to make sense of what they’d just stumbled upon.
Sebastian reacted without thinking, swinging his sword at the first of them. Asha and Emeline needed to concentrate, while Cora was holding Violet. That left him. He hacked down at the closest of the men, catching him before he could raise his sword. He felt the steel cut down through the man’s flesh, breaking through his collarbone and bringing a shriek as the air rushed from his lungs. Blood sprayed, and the man fell, almost dragging Sebastian’s sword from his hand.
The second of the men managed to lift a musket while Sebastian was dragging it clear, and Sebastian saw it levelled at him. He threw himself from the horse, hearing the boom of the weapon echoing through the fog in a way that seemed to fill the space.
He felt the impact of the floor, and for a moment, Sebastian found his sword jarred from his hand. He rolled, and the soldier attacking him jabbed down with a bayonet. Sebastian kicked out, catching the man on the knee, then fell with him, punching and elbowing until he was able to break clear. He grabbed for the sword on the floor, and felt the soldier kick him, stopping him short.
“The Master of Crows will reward me when I bring him all of you,” the soldier said. He lifted his musket, raising the bayonet over Sebastian. “And the best bit is that he doesn’t care if you’re alive or dead.”
Sebastian made another lunge for the sword, and felt his hand close around the grip. He thrust upward blindly, and felt it slide in through flesh. The soldier stood there, looking down at the blade protruding from his torso, then fell back. Sebastian struggled to his feet.
“Hurry!” Emeline called. “They’re coming closer. They must have heard the fight.”
Sebastian dragged himself over to the horse and mounted it.
“We’re going to have to move quickly,” Emeline said. “Stay close.”
Sebastian saw her heel her horse forward, and now he had to ride hard to keep up with the twists and turns that she took. Emeline had the advantage of knowing where the minds of the New Army were; he could only follow her using all the riding skills that had been drilled into a royal prince since he was old enough to get on a horse at all.
The stone wall to Stonehome lay ahead, and Sebastian saw Emeline and Cora’s horse leap it, its hooves clipping the top.
“Hold on!” Sebastian called out to Asha, before kicking their mount into its own jump. It leapt, and Sebastian felt it knock stones from the top of the wall, then had to fight for control as it landed and scrambled for purchase in the ditch beyond. Somehow it kept its footing, and then they were out onto the moor beyond the settlement.
“Slowly now,” Emeline called from in front of Sebastian. It took another moment or two to bring her into view. “Cora, keep Violet quiet.”
They went from running to creeping along, and the worst part was that Sebastian couldn’t even see why. He knew that there had to be soldiers out there guarding the way, maybe even looking for them now, but he didn’t know where they were. All he could do was keep his sword ready and hope that none of the shadows they saw hints of in the mist looked towards them.
How long did they keep going like that for? Hours, perhaps? It was impossible to tell, when the mist obscured even the passage of the sun across the sky, and the tension Sebastian felt stretched every moment out into something like a lifetime. They walked their horses through what had to be the heart of the New Army’s lines, out onto the moors, pushing forward a step at a time.
“He’s fighting it,” Asha said behind Sebastian. “His birds are trying… to clear away… the fog.”