Page 76 of A Dark and Drowning Tide

They slung his arms over their shoulders and hoisted him to his feet. He moaned in protest, his head lolling against her shoulder. Her legs still trembled with exertion, but she could manage this much. The real challenge would be getting him onto Sylvia’s demonic mount.

“He’s lucky he is so slight,” Sylvia muttered as she struggled to drape him across the mara’s back. The beast stomped one hoof in the snow, clearly displeased with the extra burden. Sylvia made a frustrated little sound and glared at Lorelei accusingly. “Are you even helping at all?”

It seemed the best remedy for her ill-advised feelings was the very woman she harbored them for. Lorelei had half a mind to drop him, just to spite her. “Shut up and push.”

Once they got him onto the mara’s back, they picked their way back down the mountain. Sylvia held fast to the mara’s mane with one hand, guiding it on foot. Lorelei walked ahead of her, the enspelled lantern swaying at her side. With the snow reflecting its unearthly light, all the world seemed aglow.

And yet, all she could think of was that scrap of Ziegler’s journal. The rest of it had to be somewhere on the ship. Ludwig wouldn’t have kept one meaningless sheet of paper and destroyed the rest. There would be no point to it.

Maybe, she thought,he wanted me to find it.

And she would, even if she had to tear apart thePrinzessinboard by board.

In the distance, she spied a fire burning brightly against the night. Three tents stood sentinel over the camp, made imposing in silhouette. By the time they arrived in the clearing, Johann had emerged from his tent to intercept them. His hand rested on the pommel of his sword, and it seemed he did not know who to look at first: Sylvia, in her tattered, bloodstained jacket; Lorelei, sporting a collar of bruises; or Ludwig, unconscious and hanging off a deadly horse like a rag doll.

He looked as though he’d seen a pack of ghosts.

“Don’t just stand there gawking,” Lorelei snapped. “Tend to him.”

***

The four of them sat around the campfire while they waited for Johann to reemerge, Lorelei and Sylvia on one side, Adelheid and Heike on the other. The flames rose like a solid wall between them, but thehissandpopof burning wood and sap filled the silence.

After what felt like an eternity, Johann’s tent rustled open.

Sylvia sprang to her feet. “How is he?”

“I’ve given him medication for the pain, but his survival is entirely up to chance.” Johann removed his glasses and rubbed at his bleary eyes. “Either the curse will work its way out of his system, or it will kill him.”

“That is all the esteemed Herr Doktor Johann zu Wittelsbach has to say for himself?” Heike’s tone was as viciously droll as ever. “Incredible.”

“What will you have me do?” He replaced his glasses and leveled her with an impassive stare. “Cutting him open won’t do any good at this point. The roots go deep.”

“I’m sure you’ve done all you can,” Adelheid interjected with a warning look at Heike.

She rolled her eyes. Turning to Lorelei and Sylvia, she asked, “What took you two so long?”

The question was a trap waiting to be sprung. Although Heike spoke with an eerie calm, the days they’d been gone had not been kind to her. Her hair hung limply around her face, as dull as tarnished copper, and her skin was red and chapped with cold. Even Adelheid watched her like she would a wild animal.

Lorelei had been dreading this. The subject of the Ursprung’s location would have to be broached with more delicacy than usually employed.

Sylvia, ever tactful and patient, puffed herself up defensively. “We took a detour to search for the Ursprung.”

Lorelei flinched.

“That is not the plan we agreed on.” Adelheid’s eyes glittered viciously in the firelight. “Your dallying may well cost Ludwig his life.”

So much for delicacy, then.

“And what did you three do while we were gone? Play cards? Walk in circles?” When Adelheid said nothing, Lorelei sneered. “That’s what I thought. We found Ludwig, and we made it to the summit. The Ursprung isn’t here.”

Shock extinguished all of Adelheid’s outrage. For a moment, she stared at Lorelei with her lips parted. She recovered quickly enough, shaking her head. “That’s impossible. All the data we collected led us here.”

“As you said before, our data lead us toasource of magic, not necessarilythesource.” As she explained what they had found, Lorelei retrieved her sketchbook from her bag. She sketched what the vision had shown her: an island rising from a vast lake, flanked on either side by two isles. “Do you recognize this place?”

Dread wrote itself across Adelheid’s face. “Unfortunately, yes.”

“Unfortunately?” Sylvia asked.