Chapter 21

“It doesn’t make any sense!” Ellerie exclaimed, shutting the ancient book and setting it to the side. “I have no idea if we’re in the right place or not. It’s just miles and miles of dead land!”

“Things change over time,” Bobo said.

“Not this much! There aren’t any landmarks left. I don’t even know if the river we crossed yesterday is the right one. There was no bridge, and it was miles from where it should have been.”

“Rivers can change course,” Josip said. “I’ve seen it happen.”

“I know, but that doesn’t help! The river that the author crossed might not even exist anymore. Now we’re supposed to head east through prairies and farmland until we reach a forest, and then we turn north. But there are no prairies and no farmland, and I doubt there’s any forest. I knew this part would be difficult, but I thought there’d be something to go on.”

“Should we just turn north now?” Bobo asked.

Ellerie rubbed her temples. “I don’t know. Maybe we came the wrong way. Maybe there used to be two roads through the swamp. If we’d exited to the southeast, we’d have gone around the barrens entirely. There was definitely farmland to the south. We could have followed that, and maybe there’s a forest on the other side.”

“That’s worth looking into if we don’t find anything here, but it doesn’t make sense to stop searching until we know there’s nothing to find.”

“Yes, I suppose,” Ellerie said, sighing. “You’re right. But where do we search? The barrens are huge, and there’s nothing to go on.” She opened up the well-worn map they’d found in Aencyr that showed the lands east of the Skotinos Mountains. Tapping her finger on their current location, she said, “I feel like I’m missing something.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, are we sure the map is accurate? It doesn’t show the rivers. What else is missing?”

“I’m sorry about that,” Josip said. “It was the only map I could find that showed the true shape of the barrens. The mapmaker insists he circled around the entire area, taking measurements the whole time.”

“You said these were flood plains, right?” Ellerie asked, pointing just beyond the jagged eastern edge of the barrens.

“That’s what the writing says.”

“So it’s like the flooding from the storm the other day, but wider? It’s got to be from more than one river. Look at the pattern. There are four big wedges eating into the barrens, and then they all join together into the flood plains beyond that. Four rivers flowing east to the coast. And there’s a smaller wedge south of us—that must be from the river we crossed yesterday.”

“Sediment,” Bobo said. “Even in the barrens, the rivers are transporting soil from one place to another. Better soil, it seems, if the flood plains aren’t considered part of the barrens.”

Ellerie nodded. “Exactly. And what if the flood plains weren’t there?”

“What do you mean?”

“Ignore all the little irregularities around the border. Ignore the wedges, and extend the barrens about halfway into the flood plains.” Ellerie traced a perfect circle on the map with her finger. “The barrens used to be larger ... and round.”

Bobo furrowed his brow. “There’s no way to know if that’s true.”

“Look at the borders. Before the flood plains existed, what would the barrens have looked like?”

The two men stared at the map.

“I suppose it could have been round once,” Bobo said.

“Not just round. A circle.” Ellerie traced her finger around the map again. “The borders have changed over time, maybe for different reasons in different spots, but the barrens were once a circle.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that the interesting part will be at the center.” Ellerie pointed to a mark on the map that matched where she imagined the middle of the barrens had once been. “What’s that? A mountain?”

“It’s labeled Lone Peak,” Josip said. “I think that’s just a description, not an actual name.”

“The book doesn’t mention any mountains on the way to Tir Yadar,” Bobo said.

“Are you sure?” Ellerie asked. “What about the hills you said were in the city itself?”

“They’re not described in any detail. The author says he went up the hill to visit his cousin, or down the hill to watch the horse races. A few other spots like that; nothing useful.”

Ellerie tapped the map again.

Bobo said, “You think the city was built on the side of the mountain?”

She shrugged. “What I think is that we should go there and see if we can find anything interesting. But first, let’s head out of the barrens and resupply, so if we do find something, there’ll be time to explore.”

“You look lovely, my dear,” Queen Merice said, brushing imaginary flecks of dust off of Yassi’s wedding gown.

It was cut modestly, like a Zidari dress, but was bright red, befitting a wedding ceremony conducted by the Church of Pallisur. Yassi hated it. She stared at herself in the mirror, wishing the compulsion magic would allow her to cry. She’d tried to kill herself after Rusol had decided she was going to marry him, but he’d caught her at it and ordered her not to make another attempt.

“She’ll do, I suppose,” Sharra said. “Though she’d never have been allowed to graduate from the Three Orders with that posture. Stand up straight, girl!”

“I just wish Rikard could be here today,” Merice said. “He’ll be so surprised when he finds out his little brother got married before him.” She whispered to Yassi conspiratorially, “He’s stationed with the knights in Fort Hightower, you know.”

Sharra rolled her eyes, and Yassi couldn’t bring herself to remind the queen of the truth. The Hightower story was a new one Merice had come up with to explain her son’s continued absence.

Everything seemed hopeless. Samir was dead, and it was all Yassi’s fault. She’d tried and tried to get him to see what was happening, hoping that if he knew the truth, he’d somehow make it all go away. He and Rusol had been friends for years—surely he could have made the prince see reason. But once he did learn the truth, everything happened too quickly. Before Yassi had even realized what was going on, Samir was dead. She’d killed her brother just as surely as if she’d been the one to cast the spell that did it.

If only she could speak to King Marten about what Rusol had done, he would put a stop to it all, but Rusol’s orders ensured she could never tell the king the truth. As far as Marten knew, Samir had gone mad and tried to kill both Rusol and Yassi when he discovered they were mages.

The story given out to the public was that Sam had died stopping a crazed intruder from killing Rusol. Marten hadn’t been happy with that decision, not wanting the family to show weakness—even now, most people believed Rikard’s death had been an accident. Rusol had prevailed, however, insisting that Samir be remembered as a hero. He’d told his father it was to help Yassi and her parents, and that they didn’t deserve what people would think of them if the truth, as Marten knew it, came out.

Yassi despised the lie, but it gave her parents a small amount of comfort. Even if she’d been capable of telling them the truth, she couldn’t take that away from them. Marten was the one who needed to hear the truth, but Rusol had made sure that would never happen. And then, after the month of mourning, he’d decided to carry the lie even further by insisting she marry him—announced publicly as a reward for her brother’s heroism. Marten had thought it was an excellent idea, seemingly happy to see his son settle down, and now Yassi was being forced to wed the one person she hated more than any other. Her entire life was in ruins, and there was no possible way to escape.

Sharra snapped her fingers at one of the servants. “You! Take the queen and give her her medicine.”

“But I wanted to go to the ceremony, Sharra!” Merice protested. “That medicine makes me so tired.”

“It’s my son’s wedding, you old bat. I won’t have you ruining it with one of your episodes.”

The queen continued complaining as the servant led her out of the room. Before the door could close, Rusol strode through, wearing a dark suit.

“Hello, my dearest!” he said grandly, giving Yassi an elegant bow. Then he turned to Sharra. “And Mother, of course.”

“Why are you here, Rusol?” the concubine asked. “Shouldn’t you be with Cardinal Aldrich right now?”

“Soon. I just came to tell my bride that her parents have arrived.” He faced Yassi. “They’ve taken their seats already, but they’ll speak to you after the ceremony.”

She nodded curtly, not meeting his eyes. How could he pretend nothing was wrong? How could he act like she wanted this?

Rusol sighed. “I’d like to speak to Yassi alone, Mother. Everyone, please leave us.”

“Right now?” Sharra asked. “The wedding’s about to start!”

“Please, Mother!”

“Fine, but you’d better not be long. It took me a great deal of effort to prepare this wedding in so short a time.” Sharra led the remaining servants out of the room.

When they were alone, Rusol grasped Yassi by the arm. “What’s wrong with you?” he hissed. “I’ve let you mope around this place for two months, but it has to stop! This is our wedding day. If you can’t be happy, then at least pretend to be when others are around!”

Yassi grimaced. Now the compulsion would force her to act like she was enjoying herself.

“How can I be happy?” she said. “You killed my brother!” She wanted to complain about the wedding too, but after the third time she’d begged him not to go through with it, he’d ordered her to stop bringing it up.

“That wasn’t my fault!” he said. “He attacked me—you saw it!”

“You could have talked to him! You didn’t have to kill him!”

“It never would have happened if you hadn’t let him see—” Rusol stopped short, growling deep in his throat and shaking his head angrily. He never spoke out loud about the things he’d done to her. “We’re not going to discuss this again. From now on, you’re never to talk about Samir’s death to anyone, including me, other than to say how much you miss him or to confirm the story we told everyone.”

Yassi drew in her breath, an icy feeling in her chest. Rusol had already been the only person with whom she could discuss Samir’s death truthfully, and now he was taking away even that. Bit by bit, he was removing everything that made her who she was.

“Please...” she begged, unable to say any more.

“Enough,” he said. “When you get out there, you’d better act like it’s the happiest day of your life. Make everyone believe it.” He headed for the door, but stopped and turned back. “I suppose I should tell you I’ve received a messenger from Leonis. Tomorrow, once this wedding is behind us, I’ll be returning to Fort Northtower to deal with him. I’ll take the others with me, but you can stay here. When I get back, I expect to see a better attitude out of you. You’ll be queen one day. Learn to act like it.”

Ellerie found it easier to navigate during their second trip into the barrens, after they’d stopped to resupply in a village by the name of Livadi. From there, they’d headed almost due north, hoping to catch sight of the mountain. On the fourth day, it had appeared on the horizon, and after that, all they had to do was aim in that direction.

It took three more days to reach it. By the third morning, they could see man-made structures near its base. Ellerie’s hopes had risen, but had then been dashed a few hours later when she was close enough to get a better look. The collection of buildings had been a town, possibly even a large one, but it was no great city.