Sage's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

The horses left the kingdom road at dusk. Sage rode with the crew through a stand of dead pines, close enough now to see the enemy castle. It sat black against the sky, one hill away. She had traded her braid's loose strands for a tight knot and dressed in gray. The cold of the wind cut through the trees and pulled at the old scar under her ribs. Noah reined in beside her. He did not soften his voice. "One hour," he said. "You go in, you find the grimoire, you come out. If you're not back, I come for you." "You won't need to," Sage said. "I mean it." He held her eyes. "I don't lose people I can't replace." She looked away before he could see her face. He meant her skill. He always meant her skill. Kael slid off his horse and crouched low. He pressed one palm to the dirt. The scar over his eye tightened as he read the ground. "Guards on the wall," he said. "Two patrols. There's a gap on the east side. Short." "How short?" Sage asked. "Count of forty. Then it closes." He stood and wiped his hand on his knee. He did not wish her luck. He never did. Auryn stepped forward last. Blue fire flickered low in his cupped hand, then died to a spark. "I can't light your way in there," he said. "My fire draws their mages. You'd be blind and loud." "Fine.” Sage said. "I work better dark." Auryn studied her. "Their walls are warded. I felt it from here. The wards taste for magic. Yours too." He said it flat, like a weather report. "Move fast and they may not catch the shape of you." That was new. Sage's throat went tight. Her shadow spell was the one thing she trusted. Now it might be the thing that got her killed. "Then I use it once," she said. "To cross the gap. Not inside." Auryn nodded and stepped back. He had told her the risk and moved on. Noah pressed something cold into her hand. A thin gold ring. "Turn it if you're taken," he said. "Auryn will feel it. We'll know." Sage closed her fist around the ring. She said nothing. She left the horses and crossed the last hill on foot. At the base of the east wall she pressed flat to the stone and waited. A patrol passed above. Kael's count began in her head. Forty. She pulled the shadows around herself and felt the wards prickle her skin like heat. She ran through the gap and reached the wall's dark seam. Behind her, a bell began to ring on the tower. Not a full alarm. A single note. A question. The wards had tasted her. They knew a shadow had passed. Now Sage stood inside the enemy's stone, alone, with a castle waking above her.