“Don’t touch me,” she croaked. “You’ve done enough. I curse—”
“Me,” Saeldian said. “You curse me. You welcomed me, and I did this. I owe you.”
Helfyra cocked her head. “What do you owe? Speak.”
“We didn’t know, and it doesn’t matter. But I started this, and I will go back to fix it. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Take me back.”
“Why should I?”
“Because I think what’s happened to you is tied to me,” Saeldian said. “If it can be undone, I have to be there to undo it.”
“I’m coming too,” Jubilee said.
“As will I,” Lorzok answered. “The land is my charge. I can help.”
“We’re all coming,” Kell said. “Please bring us.”
Helfyra surveyed them all, staring into Lorzok’s eyes, then Jubilee’s, then Kell’s—and he felt that gaze in his very being, looking into him for truth.
He let her feel his sick surprise and pain, the urgency to heal a wound he’d made happen.
Helfyra stared at Saeldian even longer before she finally shut her eyes. Tears slipped down into the bark on her cheeks, then she nodded.
“Hurry, then, and let us see what you can repay,” Helfyra said. “Follow close.”
She turned to the wide trunk of a cedar and drew the outline of a door in the air. It shimmered. She limped through it, gnarled around the magic that blighted her, and Kell had only a moment to remember their packs still rested in their rooms before the light outshone everything as they passed into Hearthaven.
Apples and rot.Black-furred mold dangling off the shrubs. Hearthaven’s Repose staggered under blight, and Saeldian ran for the lakeshore only to dance impatiently on the barge until the rest caught up. They grabbed Helfyra’s good hand and pulled her aboard as the barge struggled to sail in water choked with strangling weeds.
“How long has it been? It’s so far gone.” Jubilee had a dagger in one hand and a crossbow in the other. She watched the island, where everyone gathered and fought…
Kell squinted, trying to make sense of it. “Are those people?”
He took a step forward just as the barge twisted under his feet. A long vine erupted from the water, sending the barge tilting. Kell landed on his hip and grabbed wildly for anything to keep from sliding into the grasping water.
Lorzok planted his foot, and Kell caught it by one hand as a chorus of splashes cut through the air.
Saeldian had grabbed a railing with one hand and shot spells at the tendrils. Jubilee fired her crossbow and scrambled backward, countering the barge’s tilt. By the time Kell had braced himself to fire his own crossbow, Saeldian stood at the bow, blasting every vine that broke the surface ahead of them and keeping the way to the island clear.
They did it like it didn’t take effort or even thought. Wherever Saeldian pointed, the horrid animated vines became dust floating on top of water that looked oily.
“Beware,” Helfyra said, handing him a drawstring pouch. The gem. It must have fallen from his pocket. Helfyra helped him to his feet with her good arm and stared at him with unchanged eyes squinting past the lacy black mold growing from her cheeks. “You’re no good to us dead. Keep your eyes open.”
“Those vines disintegrated in one hit,” Saeldian said. “It’s even stronger here.”
“Strong enough to scour this place?” Helfyra asked. “Can you cleanse this blight?”
“I think I’m drawing power from Hearthaven itself,” Saeldian said.
“I don’t care where it’s from,” Helfyra said. “Save my lady.”
“But it might hurt the domain.”
“Nothing else is as important.”
The barge ran aground, and Saeldian leapt to the beach. Sulfur rose into the air from Kell’s boots landing just behind them.
“Shit.”
