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“We can—” Ana looked around. Things had only gotten worse. There was more blood. More agony. More bedlam. “All right. Here’s what we’ll do. Let’s recruit some help in taking as many of the sick or injured back to the tavern as we can. Maybe you’ll do better somewhere safe, and there’s plenty of room to get everyone laid out safely. While you do that, I’ll go find the physicians.”
“Right.” Tyreste nodded furiously. He met her eyes in relief. “Let’s do that.”
“Guardians, there you fucking are!” Rikard cried out and rushed over. “Tyr, we need younow.”
“What?” Tyreste asked. “What is it?”
Rikard’s throat jumped. “Addy.”
“No.” Tyreste shoved his brother. “No, don’t lie to me. Don’t you dare lie to me—”
“She’salive,but she needs younow.”
“Go!” Ana screamed. “I’ll find the physicians,go!”
She watched Rikard and Tyreste sprint away and turned back toward the scene in the market. Wherewerethe physicians? All she could see was blood and terror blending into a single stream of reality.
“Where are the physicians?” she cried out, running down the fairway. “Someone tell me where the physicians are!”
“One is dead. The other two are over there,” a man said hurriedly as he passed. He jutted a thumb behind him and rushed on.
Ana followed where he’d pointed. They’d cleared out a section near the field, and atop a sea of canvas, pulled from tents, were dozens of dead and sick. The two physicians tending them both looked as though they’d been run over by a cart. One vomited off to the side, narrowly missing a young woman.
She was astounded at how fast everyone had come together in a crisis, but she knew better than to be relieved. Magda would take as much as Magda wanted. Not a drop less.
“There’s no help coming,” she muttered to herself. There wasn’t time to wait for more to arrive. Nor was there time to help everyone. She had to choose, and there was only one choice she could make. It would expose “Nessa,” who had said she had no magic in her, for a liar, but did she care anymore what anyone thought of Nessa? Or her, for that matter?
Addy.
Ana gathered her skirts, turned, and ran straight into—
Magda.
She tried to gasp, but it emerged as a pitiful squeak.
“You thought a bolt could stop me,” Magda said with a slow smile. She turned her eyes toward the side in appreciation of her work. Her shoulders lifted with a little shudder of pride. “How did you suppose you were ever going to best a warlock when you’re still thinking like a child?”
Ana shook her head, wide-eyed and unable to speak.
“I told you what would happen.” Magda stepped forward, and Ana retreated. They kept up the dance, moving backward down the fairway. “If you crossed me.”
“These people are innocent!” Ana cried. “They had nothing to do with us!”
“You made the choice for them to suffer. You had all the power here.”
Ana laughed through her sobs. “What power? What power have I, koldyna, against you? Why would you feel the need to show me what I have already seen and know I cannot beat?”
“Ialone know where Niko is.” Magda pushed her pace, causing Ana to stumble. “Ialone can release your father from his pain.Ialone decide what happens to the pitiful tavern boy you’ll run to seconds from now.” Magda stretched her hand out and hooked a nail under Ana’s trembling chin. “So go to him.Savehis baby sister. And then come back to me, girl, for we both know there’s only one way this ends.”
Ana turned toward the direction of the tavern, and when she turned back around, Magda was gone.
Shivers seized her from head to toe. She stumbled sideways and gripped a bare tent pole, fighting for calm.
But there was no time forcalm.
Ana dropped her hood, lifted her skirts, and raced for the tavern.
Chapter15
