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“Honor and I will help,” Zehr said.
I leveled a look at him. “I don’t need you to protect me.”
“He wasn’t around for Damyn’s speech,” Caldren said.
“Please get out of here,” Damyn said through gritted teeth. I wasn’t sure which one of us he needed to escape.
“We all need to get out of here,” Caldren said. “Let’s take Joachim and move. If he can survive the trip.”
“He’ll survive,” Damyn’s promise sounded unpleasant. He and Branok released Joachim’s shackles. Then Damyn bundled Joachim over his left shoulder, carrying his sword in his right as we left the house.
We would shadow travel but there were already armed men rushing at us from the forest, and if I started taking my men away, we’d abandon the last ones to their attackers.
Damyn dropped Joachim on the ground. “We’ll make our stand here.”
Branok leaned over his father, frantically trying to break the spells on Joachim to save his twin. His magic glowed around him, so bright it looked like a star.
“How do I help?” I demanded.
Damyn moved to shield us, cutting down every attacker who came his way with powerful strokes of his sword. The rest of my men formed a protective circle around us as Joachim’s guards swarmed from the woods, trying to rescue him.
Then something chased the guards from the woods, leaping on them and ripping out their throats.
“We’ve got Scourge coming in too,” Talisyn called urgently. He gave me a quizzical look. “Honor, did you…”
I shook my head. “I didn’t summon them.”
Branok reached inside his cloak. “Honor, take this potion.”
His magic illuminated the potion bright pink as he whispered a word the second before our fingers overlapped. I didn’t even question him; his thumb popped off the top and I took it, immediately raised it to my lips. The bitter taste of the potion filled my mouth.
The next second, pink magic lit up around me.
I was carrying someone’s curse. I looked down, trying to see where the pink magic zinged around me.
“The pendant,” Damyn’s voice was urgent.
The magical glow seemed to be centered on my mother’s pendant.
I yanked it off and flung it away from me. But Damyn grabbed it and frantically searched the room for a bag. Magic glowed between his fingers as he muttered the words of a spell, blue sparks flying around the bag. Then he slipped the charm inside.
“Whoever put this spell on you, we don’t want them to know their spell isn’t working anymore,” Damyn said. “It might be useful later.”
“It was Kallus.” I said the words tightly, feeling sickened. Then I thought of how my mother had urged me to wear the pendant, and a sick feeling opened in my gut. But I didn’t have time to parse the story of her ghost.
“But what does the pendantdo?”Tal demanded. “Honor, is Zehr controlling the Scourge?”
“Zehr?” I shook my head. “I’d know.”
It would be better if Zehr were controlling the Scourge, because he would keep them from harming us.
But the Scourge were sweeping toward us now. My men boarded up the doors, but it didn’t matter. Scourge were swarming over the rooftop, trying to get to us. Outside, Joachim’s men were screaming.
“How?” Tal demanded.
“I’d feel it,” I said. “It’s not Zehr. It’s got to be Kallus or maybe Joachim... unleashing the Scourge on their own people to stop us.”
The Scourge were wild and indiscriminate in their killing when they were hungry.
