Colin rounded on the wagon. Laughing, the soldier kicked him in his stomach. The boy bent over, gasping and coughing. Then he hit him with the butt of his dagger on his forehead, sending him crashing to the ground. His head bleeding, he curled into a ball.
“No! Please . . .” His mother pressed her fingers to her lips.
Square Shoulders stood him upright. “There’s a river a mile off. Go catch yourself a fine fish.”
Xavier felt me move. “Maggie . . .”
I ducked his grab and jumped out of the wagon. “A fine fish?”
“Maggie, get back here!” Xavier called.
“From the dried bed? Did you see any fish? Were they invisible? Were they some sort of magic fish who could swim in nothing more than a thimble of water?” I yelled at the frowning soldier. “The boy can barely stand. He’s starving. His mother is starving. What kind of monsters are you?” I growled.
The smug soldier laughed in my face. “Better them than us. That loaf is for our supper.” He shoved me. “Get back in the wagon or you can go hungry tonight too.”
I stormed toward the wagon where the soldier had stashed the loaf, my intention obvious.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Square Shoulders said.
“There’s plenty enough for us to eat in the wagons.” I snatched the loaf of bread from beneath the cover, then brought it back to Colin. He sat up, holding his head, but didn’t take it from me.
“If he takes it, he’ll lose his hand.” Sir Raleigh dismounted and pulled his sword. Colin didn’t run but he turned away.
Raleigh padded close enough to speak in quieter tones. “Just as you should’ve yesterday when you stabbed Moldark.”
“What are you saying? Stabbed who?” Xavier started to climb down but stopped when he saw Sir Raleigh shake his head.
My heart gave in to the terror that ripped through me, pounding so hard it hurt. He too had known all along. I didn’t get a close look at the soldiers, but any of them could’ve been with the prince and Raleigh when the draignoch saved me from the same fate Raleigh was threatening to inflict on the boy. I lowered my head, but my eyes remained fixed on Raleigh’s.
Sir Raleigh took the loaf of bread from me. “Take your seat before you cause the boy and his mother more trouble. Prince Jori is expecting you. I assured him you would be delivered safely to the castle, along with Xavier. It’s your choice if you want to arrive bound and gagged. Makes no difference to me.”
I ground my teeth. “May I please help this boy safely back to his house?”
Raleigh arched a single curious brow, but stepped aside, making room for me to help the boy stand up. His shoulders were so frail, I could feel his skeleton.
“Load up, men!” Raleigh shouted.
The gash on Colin’s head was so deep I saw bone. Blood snaked down his face. Dizzy, he tripped twice on the way to his mother’s waiting arms, where he collapsed.
“Colin?” She patted his cheeks, but he didn’t wake up. “No!”
My hand heated. The slow hum I’d heard in the tavern returned, buzzing my ears. Although I couldn’t see the moonlight touching me because it was masked by the glare of the lowering sun, I could feel it. The pit of my stomach joined my palm, warming. I still had no idea what I was doing, but if I had a chance at healing this boy’s head, I had to try.
With my back to the soldiers, I closed my eyes and pressed my hand to Colin’s wound. In the darkness, I saw cracked bone smooth to whole. Skin seal. When I opened my eyes, Colin was looking up at me, smiling.
His mother gasped. “How—”
I shook my head, cutting her off.
“Maggie!” Xavier yelled.
“Go,” I whispered.
Colin and his mother went into the house and shut the door.
I stared at my hands, covered in Colin’s blood, transfixed in wonder, then at the moon. The same moon I’d always seen. The scar on my arm burned. I cringed, unsure what that meant.
“Maggie!” Xavier yelled again, growing impatient.
“I’m coming . . .”
Colin’s frail smile appeared in the window. Then he did the strangest thing. He held up three fingers and set them against his forearm. My scar. He’d seen it. Sir Raleigh’s shadow fell over me. I had completely forgotten he was there. “In the wagon, Maggie.”
There was a change in his tone, in his demeanor. He seemed . . . unnerved. There was only one explanation. He had seen, and yet he said nothing about it.
As I climbed into the wagon, Raleigh squeezed the bread. “The boy was right. Fools,” he snapped at his men. “The loaf is stale.” He tossed it back at the house and mounted his horse.
We camped in a small grove out of the wind. The soldiers stayed away from us, taking care of the horses and standing watch over the wagons. Xavier disappeared into the woods to practice. He asked to go alone. I was happy to be rid of him for a little while. They put up a tent for me, but I always preferred sleeping under the stars. I set my bedroll near the fire, ate the apples and hard cheese Raleigh brought, and fell into a deep exhausted sleep.
The next day was more of the same, long flat roads running by blighted pastures. The soldiers continued to pillage anything that resembled a dwelling. That night, long after I’d fallen asleep, Xavier woke me in a panic. He dragged me away from the smoldering fire’s delicious heat, into the dense darkness in the woods, away from the prying eyes of the soldiers.
“It’s not working. Maggie, we cannot go into the Walled City if the magic is gone.” The wall looked even bigger now, and we were still miles from it.
“There’s no turning back, Xavier. Show me what you’ve been doing? Maybe there is something you’ve forgotten. What are you trying to do?”
He gestured to the ground.
Our rabbit lay unmoving, a bloody wooden sliver beside him. “Why would you do this?”
“I was trying to heal it.” He held up his hands, which were covered in hair and blood. “It didn’t work!”
“Clearly.” I ground my teeth. The rabbit’s side lifted. At the very least, he was alive.
“What are we going to do, Maggie?” he whispered harshly.
“Go on then. Let me see what you’ve been trying before our prop bleeds to death.” By the looks of him, he wasn’t going to last more than a few minutes.
Xavier fumbled with the gem strapped to his head and the others on the backs of his hands. He picked up his staff. He raised his arms over his head, chanting, then touched the rabbit with the bottom of the staff, nudging. Standing still as a statue, he watched the skies while I watched our furry friend.
“You see? No moonlight and the rabbit . . .” He threw the staff on the ground.
I saw only a frantic soul standing on the precipice of failure or greatness, with a sad rabbit dying at his feet. But pretended I saw something else. “Yes.” I picked up the staff. The shaft warm, it felt heavier than usual. What was I going to do? Xavier couldn’t keep harming our animals. We didn’t have very many, and those we kept had taken time to catch. Time we didn’t have. Not to mention barbaric butchery hardly seemed like a stunt that would be a crowd-pleaser. But then I had another thought. “Hold your staff as you did at the tavern.”
He took it from me, shifting his hands up and down the shaft, then posed. “Like this, wasn’t I?”