The morning after they’d met with the Council of Elders, Treya stood in the private yard behind the guest house, feeling the frozen ground beneath her bare feet. Since coming north, she’d started wearing her lace-up boots to avoid frostbite, but for her exercises, she needed to be in contact with the world around her.

Focusing her attention inward, she breathed in deeply, filling her lungs with the chilly air. Then she squared off against a yellow birch tree, standing close enough to the trunk that when she punched toward it, her knuckles just barely brushed up against the bark.

She alternated arms, striking rapidly but never touching the tree with more than a slight graze. The goal of the exercise was to transfer all the energy of the blow into the tiniest, briefest bit of contact. Given a moment to prepare, Shana could hit just as hard with a single finger as she could with her entire fist. Treya had never managed it.

A voice came from behind her. “Are you trying to kill the tree?”

She turned to find Sarette. “You must think I’m crazy. You keep watching me do strange things.”

“Was that more practicing to be a mystic?”

“Yes. Something one of my teachers has been trying to show me.”

The other girl fidgeted with one of the straps on her coat. “Is that why you wanted to be bonded by a warden? To get better at it?”

“What? No. The thing with Corec was an accident.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize. How did it happen?”

Treya paused while she thought about what to say. The stormborn actually knew things about wardens, and she wasn’t sure how they’d react to the unintentional binding spells.

“We just weren’t expecting it,” she said carefully. “We didn’t know what was happening back then. We didn’t find out about wardens until later.”

“Oh, I see. Is it like the stories say?”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s an old children’s story about a stormborn wizard who wasn’t very good at what he did,” Sarette said. “He left Snow Crown after messing up too many spells, but while he was gone, he was bonded by a warden. He came back, and when the other wizards laughed at him, he challenged them to a contest. He won, and then he left forever. It’s meant to be a parable about not making fun of someone, because you never know what they might be capable of, but when I was little, I just liked the story because of all the magic.”

“Another warden told us it’s supposed to work that way, but we’re still new to it, so I can’t say for sure. I think it’s helped me with my healing, though.”

“Healing? You’re a priestess? I thought…” Sarette trailed off.

Treya thought back to their earlier conversations. “Oh, mystics aren’t mages. Being a priestess is something different.” It was still easier to think of herself as a priestess. She wasn’t sure how to talk to the others about being godborn.

The other woman nodded. “Do you think it could help me?”

“Could what help you? Wait, the binding spell? You want to do it?”

Sarette glanced around to make sure nobody was listening. “All I ever wanted to be was a stormrunner, but my gift isn’t strong enough. I don’t like being in the High Guard, especially as an officer, but my training doesn’t really lend itself to anything else. I was thinking about leaving Snow Crown to find work as a caravan guard, but that’s not any better.”

Treya led her over to a bench. “I’m not sure how to answer your question. None of us realized what was happening at the time, and I don’t think any of us would have chosen this if we knew, even Corec. He’s never actually cast the spell on someone on purpose—it would be a big step.”

“Do you think he’d do it for me?”

“I don’t know. You could ask him, but there’s a lot to consider. You’re coming with us to the ruins, but what about after that? Would you go with us or stay here?”

“I thought if he bonded me, I’d have to go with you.”

“Maybe, maybe not. But have you ever left the Storm Heights before? Do you really want to be away from home, at least for a while?”

“I would if it means I could fly the storms.”

Treya shook her head. “I don’t know what that means, and I don’t know how much it would help you. We really have no idea what the binding spell actually does. And it’s not just the spell. We’ve been attacked on the road a few times, and we keep ending up in fights. The other warden we met sent one of her bondmates to fight a group of demons. It could be dangerous.”

Sarette shrugged. “Being a soldier is dangerous too. There haven’t been any raiders in the mountains this winter, but we had to do an avalanche rescue two weeks ago.”

Treya sighed. She wasn’t sure whether she should be warning the other woman away or welcoming her. Then, she thought about how she’d felt when she’d been told she couldn’t be a mystic. What would she have done if Mother Ola hadn’t changed her mind?

“If you decide to ask him, I’ll support you.”

#

“And then she asked me to cast the binding spell on her,” Corec said, relating the story to Katrin, Shavala, Treya, and Ellerie.

They were in the library of the guest house the Council had provided. It was a governmental building, intended for visiting dignitaries, and the elders had made it clear they’d offered it because of his status as a warden. He’d attempted to refuse, since he’d done nothing to deserve it, but the Council had insisted.

Boktar and Sarette were out obtaining supplies for the journey through the mountains, and Corec hadn’t mentioned the gathering to Bobo. He wanted to get opinions from the people he’d bonded before telling the rest of the group.

“Are you going to do it?” Katrin asked.

“I wanted to see what the rest of you thought about it first.”

“You’re not considering it, are you?” Ellerie said. Her mood was difficult to read, but she’d spent the morning talking with the others rather than locked away in her room with a stack of books.

“I didn’t think you’d be as concerned if she actually asked me to do it.”

“No, I suppose I wouldn’t be, but we hardly know her. Do you really want to be stuck with another stranger for a thousand years?”

“She just wants to be a stormrunner, and she thinks this’ll let her do it,” Treya said. “She’s spoken to me about it a couple of times.”

“What’s a stormrunner?” Ellerie asked.

“I gather they’re something like knights, but with magic,” Corec said. “I didn’t want to ask too much about it until I’d made a decision, but she moves like she knows how to fight.”

“You really need to know more about her than that. What if she just disappears like that demonborn woman did?”

Treya said, “She’s willing to come with us if that’s what it takes. Or at least that’s what she said yesterday.”

“Is that what it takes, though?” Corec asked. “Razai proved we don’t have to stay together. I could just cast the binding spell, and then she could stay here when we leave.” He didn’t mention the faint urge he’d had to head south ever since Razai left. He wasn’t sure whether it was real or his imagination.

“Yelena said you can only bond eight people,” Katrin reminded him.

“She did?” Ellerie asked, a startled look on her face.

“Oh, I guess I only told Katrin and Shavala about that,” Corec said, then shrugged. “Yes, that’s what she said, but I don’t know if it matters.”

Shavala tilted her head to the side. “That depends. Are you going to be a warden, or are you going to not be a warden?”

“What do you mean?”

“You told Katrin you were thinking about ignoring it all. If you do that, then it doesn’t matter who you cast the binding spell on, or what they do afterward.”

Treya nodded. “But if you’re going to be an actual warden, like Yelena, then you’ll need people like Venni—people who know what they’re doing. The rest of us...don’t. Not really. Except for Boktar, but he’s not a mage so he can’t be one of us.”

“Venni didn’t know what she was doing when she was first bonded,” Corec pointed out. “She was just like us back then. And she’s a friend, but honestly, I’m just as happy she’s with Yelena instead. I’m not sure we’d get along if we were stuck together.”

“That’s not really their point,” Ellerie said. “Shavala’s right—are you going to set yourself up like Yelena did, or are you going to go back to working as a caravan guard?”

Corec exhaled slowly as he thought about it. “I don’t know. I’d like to do something more important with my life than I’ve been doing, but what would that mean? Work for some duke and spy on everyone, the way Yelena does? Is that what the rest of you want?”

“Not me,” Ellerie replied. “As soon as we find a way to end the bond, I’ll go my own way…unless you’re still interested in helping to find Tir Yadar?”

“If you want me to, sure. It helps to have a goal while I think about everything else.”

Ellerie nodded. She no longer seemed annoyed at the thought of their continued association, which Corec took as a good sign.

“I don’t mind if you want to be a warden,” Katrin said, “but I’m not like Venni. I can’t go off on my own and fight demons. Maybe we do need to find someone like her.”

“What do you want to do, though?” Corec asked her. “Are you still going to try to find a bard teacher?”

“Anise didn’t think they could teach me much. Maybe if we’re ever in Valara, I could ask at the school she attended.”

He nodded.

Shavala said, “I have to return home someday, but I’d like to come back and visit you. Perhaps if you need my help, I could divide my time between both places. Can you live somewhere near the forest?”

“Tyrsall’s the closest major city,” Corec said. “I don’t think Yelena would like that, at least while she’s still there.”

“Circle Bay’s not far, though,” Katrin said.

“Or Matagor,” Ellerie suggested.

“Matagor doesn’t have a Three Orders chapter house,” Treya said.

Corec raised his eyebrows. “You’re coming with us? I thought, even if you decided to keep the bond, you’d want to go off and do your own thing.”

“Maybe this is my own thing. I’d have to finish my journeying first, but not all mystics travel, and I could probably do more with my healing if I stayed in one place most of the time. There are rules I’d have to follow, but I could find work like Enna does for the Princeps.” She blushed for some reason. “As a bodyguard, I mean. But I’d like to be near a chapter house.”

Corec tapped the table with his fingers as he thought. Circle Bay, High Cove, and Ironholt were all possibilities, and if Katrin wanted to join a bardic school, Valara wasn’t much farther south than Circle Bay. There were smaller towns too, like Four Roads, that were closer to the forest and had a Three Orders chapter house. He had to go back to Four Roads at some point anyway; he was still renting a room there.

He said, “I don’t want to do things the way Yelena does, but if the rest of you are on board—not you, of course, Ellerie—we could look for a place where we can try to work together. I’m still not entirely sure what that means, but I suppose I could find bodyguard work like Treya. Let’s keep to our plan, though; we’ll search for Tir Yadar first, and a way to end the binding spell. Then we’ll decide.”

“What about Sarette?” Treya asked.

“Well, it seems I’ve got some control over the binding spell now. If I’m going to try to be a real warden, we should avoid any more situations like Razai. If I bond anyone else, they have to be willing to stick around. If nobody has a problem with it, I’ll talk to Sarette to see how she feels. But we should take the time to get to know her first, to make sure she fits in.”

“I like her so far,” Treya said.

“I’ve barely spoken with her, but we should have more time on our way to the ruins.”

“What about Razai?” Katrin asked. “Are you going to look for her?”

“If I get close, I’ll track her down—I owe her some money for helping with the demons. But otherwise, if she wants to find us, she can. I don’t think she will.”

#

Corec swung at the wooden practice dummy he’d borrowed, avoiding actually hitting it since he didn’t want to dull the edge of his new sword. He was still getting used to the balance. The ricasso was longer than he was accustomed to, giving him a bit more control when he was fighting in close and couldn’t swing the blade in wider arcs.

The air was still crisp, but the activity had warmed him up, so he removed his chain shirt, and the padding and undershirt below it. Five runes blazed on his upper arms. Razai’s, a pair of crossed shapes similar to the curved blade of her daggers, had appeared just below Treya’s the day they reached Lanport.

Corec had been working out for an hour, and had just started incorporating his spells into the routine, when he realized Shavala had come out to watch. He took a break and went over to speak to her.

“Hey,” he said, “you must be bored if you’re out here.”

“It’s a pleasant enough diversion,” she said, glancing at his bare chest with a smile.

When they’d first met, she’d flirted openly with him, and he’d thought there could have been something between them if he hadn’t been pursuing Katrin at the time. Katrin had never seemed to mind the flirting, even after the two of them had started walking out together, but it had gradually died off. He’d been disappointed—the flirting was fun, though he tried not to reciprocate much. He wasn’t sure how far Katrin’s tolerance extended, and he didn’t want to do anything to hurt her.

He and Shavala still had a close relationship, though. She was the person he spent the most time with besides Katrin, and it would be hard to see her go once she returned home. She was quiet when the whole group was together, but was good company when it was just the three of them.

“That seems unlikely,” he said with a laugh. “What’s everyone up to?”

“Katrin’s looking for that harpist Anise told her about, and Boktar is still out shopping with Sarette. I’m not sure about the others.”

“We’re back now,” Boktar said, coming around the side of the house with the stormborn woman. “I think we’ve got most of what we need, with a few surprises. You should see what they use for trail rations here.”

“Any problems?” Corec asked, scrambling for a towel to wipe off the sweat, then looking around for his shirt. He hadn’t expected Sarette to show up in the yard. She stared at the runes on his arms.

“Prices are higher here,” the dwarf replied. “About half again as much. I’ll need some more coin from everyone.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem.”

“We found a stable too, with room for all the animals for the next two months.”

Corec nodded. They couldn’t take the horses and mules on the trails they’d be following, at least not in the winter. “I hope it doesn’t take that long.”

“We’ll be on snowshoes for much of the trip,” Sarette said. “It’s slow going, and we’ll have to pull sleds to make sure we’ve got enough food along. There’s a reason why we don’t let outsiders travel the mountains in the winter—they’re never prepared for it.”

“I wonder if we should come back in the summer,” Corec said. “This sounds like it could get complicated.”

Boktar shrugged. “We’re here now, and it took a while to get here. The other mountain ranges we need to look at are mostly well to the south. By the time we got down there, we’d have to turn around and come back. If this place can give us a clue on where to go next, I’d say it’s worth it.”

“All right. Snowshoes and sleds, then.” Corec turned to Sarette. “Are the shoes like the ones you had on our way in?”

“Yes. We’ve got someone coming by tomorrow to fit you for them.”

“What about the other thing the councilor mentioned? Skis?”

She laughed. “The scout will have skis, and I may bring mine, but you don’t want to try learning them on the trails we’ll be following. You should stick with the snowshoes.”

He nodded. “Oh, I had a question for you…”

“Yes?”

“That coat you’re wearing—is it padded like a gambeson?” The coats were popular all around the city, not just with the High Guard. The High Guard’s coats were a dark gray, but the citizenry wore a variety of colors.

“There are different styles. In the winter, everyone wears the padded kind, mostly because it’s warmer. In the spring and fall, they switch to coats without padding. The High Guard always wear the padded armor or the chainmail, or both. There’s also a coat with armor plates, like brigandine, except the plates are sewn into the inside.”

“How long would it take to get one of the gambesons for Katrin?”

“And anyone else who wants one?” Boktar said. “Maybe I can convince Ellerie to try it.”

“We could get them quickly if you don’t need a specific color or fabric for the outer layer. It only takes an hour to re-fit them.”

“Great,” Corec said. “Shavala, do you want one?”

“My coat is warm enough.”

“I was thinking more for the armor padding.”

She bit her lip, then made a motion as if she was drawing back a bowstring. “No, I don’t think so. They’re too tight. It was hard enough to find this one.”

Corec figured Treya would say the same thing. “All right,” he said. “Sarette, could you help with that tomorrow while I speak to the historians?”

“Sure.”

“Thank you. Boktar, will we be ready to go after that?”

“Yes, if the snowshoes can be done that soon.”

“I think they will be,” Sarette said. “They’re already made. You just need to be measured for the bindings.”

“Then let’s plan on leaving the day after tomorrow,” Corec said, then shook his head, irritated at himself. “I mean, if Ellerie will be ready by then.”

“She should be,” Boktar said. “She and Bobo were going to visit that museum today, to see the things the stormborn have found in the ruins.”

“I found an arrowhead there once,” Sarette said. “Four-bladed broadhead. It must have been buried there for thousands of years, but it was still sharp and hadn’t rusted at all.”

“I didn’t realize you’d been there.”

“I was just a kid. My father took me with a big group. It was just for fun—all the important parts had been mapped and explored years ago. I’ve never been there in the winter before.”

“Still,” Corec said, “it’s good to know the scout won’t be the only person on the trip who’s been there before.”

She nodded, then looked at him nervously. “Have you thought about what I asked you earlier?”

“I spoke to the others and we made a few decisions. Let’s go talk.”

#

“Exalted,” Melithar said with a deep bow, after sneaking into Queen Revana’s chambers through the secret passage she’d tuned to him many years earlier.

She sat propped up in her bed, looking thinner than the last time he’d seen her. Her eyes were closed, but she opened them when he spoke.

“What do you think you’re doing here?” she asked, her voice as strong as ever. “You’re supposed to be watching over Ellerie!”

“She doesn’t need me. Between her stoneborn friend and that new group I wrote to you about, she has more than enough protection.”

The queen’s eyes narrowed. “Did you annoy her enough that she sent you away? I thought you were trying to track down the assassins.”

“Circle Bay was a dead end. She killed the nilvasta, and nobody knew who’d hired him.”

“Where is my daughter now?”

Melithar sighed. He’d been hoping she wouldn’t ask any questions he couldn’t answer. “I don’t know. Some demonborn woman got the drop on me when I caught her spying.”

Revana sat up straighter. “You think Ellerie’s safe because you lost track of her after another assassination attempt?” she exclaimed.

“An assassin who bandaged my injuries and dragged me to a temple? No. She wasn’t a hired killer, and I don’t think she was looking for Ellerie. Maybe for someone in the new group.”

Unfortunately, there hadn’t been a real healer at the temple, and the gash in Melithar’s side had become infected. It had been a week before he’d been able to sit a saddle for even part of a day. He’d tracked Ellerie back to Circle Bay, and discovered she’d gone north from there, but he’d been too far behind to catch up.

“I didn’t give you permission to use her name!”

“Fine,” Melithar said, his jaw clenched. “Her Exalted Highness, then.” He wasn’t sure what’d he’d ever seen in Revana. The woman had been beautiful once, but she’d spent her life immersed in the backbiting politics of Terevas. It had turned her ruthless and spiteful, and as her illness progressed, she’d grown almost cruel.

And now Vilisa, who he’d always had high hopes for, would be stuck taking over. It should have been Ellerie, but the queen’s eldest daughter had abandoned her responsibilities, and Melithar had never been given permission to drag her back.

“You didn’t stay long enough to find out where she’d gone?” Revana asked, glaring at him.

“I suspect she’s on her way to the Storm Heights. She should be safe enough there—the High Councilors’ influence doesn’t stretch that far. Her Exalted Highness is still convinced she’s a historian…or a treasure hunter.”

“She’s supposed to be helping to track down the assassins! That was the price I offered for her abdication!”

“Since when has she ever cared about what she’s supposed to be doing? I admit, she helped me out in Circle Bay, but she wasn’t happy about it, and I’d rather work alone. Besides, I don’t think we’re going to find the trail on that end—the people who knew anything are all dead. We need to focus on this end. Have you had any luck?”

Revana frowned. “There haven’t been any attacks since Vilisa…killed the last group. I made the councilors aware of the aftermath. In detail. That seems to have quelled any further direct attempts, but the sentinels discovered the body of a maid who was about to start working here. They think someone was going to try to take her place inside the palace, but abandoned the plan when the body was found. All of the councilors already have spies here, though, so I don’t know who the replacement would have been working for.”

“A spy who’s willing to pass along tidbits of information isn’t the same as a spy who’s willing to commit murder,” Melithar said. “Did you hire another maid after the first one died?”

“Jorel recruited his own niece,” the queen said. Jorel was in charge of the royal family’s security. “He’s also limited movement between the inner and outer palace. Only two dozen servants are allowed in the inner palace, and they’ve all been with us for years, other than his niece.”

Melithar nodded. “Jorel can’t be the one responsible; he’s had too many opportunities in the past. The councilors are still the most likely suspects. We just need to figure out who’ll gain the throne if something happens to you and…Their Exalted Highnesses.”

“There’s no clear frontrunner. If the vote took place tomorrow, it could be anyone.”

“Publicly, perhaps, but in private, they must have started making deals by now. Are you attending the council meetings?”

“I can hardly walk anymore. Vilisa attends in my place.”

“I’ll start going with her. If I can watch the councilors interact, I might be able to figure out who’s positioning themselves to take over.”

“Jorel’s been watching them, and Vilisa’s secretary is one of my own agents.”

“They’re not as good as I am.”

“If I find out this is a ploy to tell her who her father is…”

“I know better than that,” Melithar replied. Vilisa was conscientious enough that if she discovered her father wasn’t of noble blood, she’d abdicate, and then there’d be a race to get Ellerie back to Terevas before the High Council elected a new ruler. If Ellerie really was in the Storm Heights, she’d lose that race, and that was if she was even willing to return. It was better for Vilisa to remain ignorant of her parentage. With an unknown father, only her mother’s bloodline would be considered.