Clash of Wills (9 page)

“I’m hungry and tired, but I’ll be better once I eat.”

Thunder crashed and rolled overhead. Yawning, Samantha sat up. “I can’t believe I dozed off with that noise. I was supposed to be taking care of you.”

“Thank you for that.” He doled out the provisions onto metal plates. “I’m afraid we’ll have to eat with our fingers.”

She laughed. “My mother would be mortified, I’m sure. But after everything else that has transpired, it’s of little importance.”

After they ate, the storm seemed to ease. They set the pan and plates outside to let the rain cleanse them.

“I’m surprised you made such a good fire during a gale.” Wills’ gaze fell to the fire pit. “How curious. Although I haven’t stoked the fire, it’s still burning strong.”

“Perhaps it’s magic.” Samantha averted her eyes. “After all, the Uncharted Region is a m-magical place.”

The quaver in her voice drew his attention. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. It’s just…” her voice trailed off and tears filled her eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

Although he wasn’t quite sure what prompted him to take such liberties, Wills pulled her into an embrace. To his pleasant surprise, she clung to him. Unwilling to interrupt the moment, he said nothing for a long time. Finally, she raised her face to look at him. His gaze fell to her lips, but before he could kiss her, she broke away.

“I’ve a confession,” she said. “The screaming you heard in Elturon came from those highwaymen. They attacked me in the alley and I-I cursed them. Their hands burned and their knives melted.”

Wills gasped. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I don’t know! It had just happened and I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

His temper flared.
She’s played me for a fool!
“You might have mentioned you can work magic.”

“I can’t work magic, exactly. It…was an accident.”

“That’s absurd.” Confusion about his feelings for Samantha mixed with resentment in an explosive combination. He snatched the blanket off the ground and began to roll it up. “You don’t trust me.”

“That’s not so!”

“More to the point, I don’t trust
you
.” He glanced outside. The rainfall had finally stopped. “Our deal is off. We’re heading back to Elturon.”

Her heart sank. “What?”

“We had an agreement,” Wills said. “You promised not to lie and you couldn’t last half a day. I suspect you’ve been working magic on me from the time we first met.”

Samantha’s protest died on her lips.
For Wills’ safety, I must send him away—far away—from me.
“Yes, you’re right,” she lied. “I wanted to go to my brother so badly I cast a spell of, um, glamour on you.”

His jaw dropped. “Your behavior is despicable.”

“I’ve always had a tendency toward wickedness.”

Dislike and hostility radiated from Wills—cutting her as painfully as any knife could have done. “After we cross the river, I’m taking you home to Paloran.”

She hung her head. “I understand.”

He shouldered his pack and edged toward the stairs. “Let’s go while there’s a break in the weather.”

“You start down first.”

“I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

“It’s only to break the spell. Once you’ve taken about five hundred steps, the spell of glamour will be broken.”

“I can’t wait.” Wills left, descending the stairs almost at a run.

Samantha bit back her emotions until she was certain he was out of earshot.
Wills is an extraordinary man and now he hates me.
Sobbing openly, she emptied her pack on the ground, picking out only the bare essentials to bring with her.
I must lighten my load to move as quickly as possible now.
She extinguished the glowing fire pit with a word, shouldered her pack, and began to ascend. With every step, her heartbreak grew ever more painful.

After hours of climbing, Samantha would have done anything to take her mind off the burning in her legs. Although she tried humming and singing nursery rhymes, nothing helped. At the second lookout, she allowed herself a brief respite of ten minutes only.
I dare not stay longer or I’ll never be able to move.

When she reached the top of the Stairs of Tears at last, twilight was fast approaching. Staggering with exhaustion, she sank onto a flat rock, drank deeply from her water skin, and tried to get her bearings. A grassy ledge about twenty yards deep and fifty yards wide spread out in front of her, at the base of a short cliff. On one side of the ledge, a small waterfall fed a pool. Over a dozen dark, tunnels were hewn into the rock face. Samantha consulted her locator device, but the needle only pointed at the cliff itself.
I have no way to know which passage leads to the city of ice without the map.
Once again she emptied her pack and checked the contents. To her horror, the map was nowhere to be found. She covered her face with her hands as she realized Wills had the map. I
didn’t think to take it when I rebalanced our packs. Without that map I’ll need days or even weeks to figure out which tunnel is the right one.
Overcome with exhaustion and reeling from emotional turmoil, Samantha sank to her knees and wept.

“Can’t turn my back on you for a moment, can I?”

Startled, Samantha looked up. Swaying with fatigue, Wills staggered from the staircase landing and lowered himself to the grass beside her. Shock and amazement captured her tongue for several moments until she managed to speak.

“Wills…after everything I told you, why did you follow me?”

“Call it a leap of faith.” He glanced skyward at the gathering gloom. “Let’s make camp before it grows too dark.”

Wills set up a tent and fashioned a campfire inside a circle of rocks. Samantha didn’t even bother to gather firewood; she just told the circle to burn and it obeyed. Wills was impressed.

“That’s a handy trick.”

“It’s the only magic I know—if it is indeed magic.”

“What else could it be?” He cast a longing glance at the pool nearby. “Do you suppose you could heat that water? I could use a hot bath.”

“What a wonderful idea! I’ll try.”

Unsure exactly what to do, Samantha accidentally set the pool on fire with her first attempt. After extinguishing the flames, she managed to heat the pool gradually by visualizing a pot of simmering water. Wills tested the temperature with his hand before shrugging off his coat and tunic. Her eyes grew wide when he reached for his belt buckle.

“Wait! What are you doing?”

“I can’t take a proper bath with my clothes on. Turn around if you’re shy. Better yet, could you fetch the cake of soap I brought in my pack? If we’re to share a tent tonight, I think you’ll be glad I’m clean.”

As she hastened toward Wills’ pack, she heard a big splash as he jumped into the pool. A groan of pleasure echoed off the rocks. When she returned with the soap, he gave her a teasing smile. “You’re more than welcome to join me. Plenty of room, and the water feels marvelous.”

“Thank you for the invitation, but I’ll wait my turn.”

As Wills lathered himself with the soap, his naked torso gleamed in the light from the campfire. She kicked off her boots, rolled up her trouser legs, and sat down to dangle her legs in the pool. The hot water caressed her weary feet and she breathed a deep sigh of contentment.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” she said. “Why did you decide to follow me?”

“I didn’t get too far down the stairs before I realized you’d lightened my pack. Such considerate behavior made me think I’d accused you unfairly. What was all that silliness about a glamour spell?”

“I thought it would be better if you left. I-I may be dangerous.” She almost told him about the bowing demons, but such a revelation was still too disturbing for her to put into words. “I burned those bandits without meaning to. I cursed them, even though I had no idea what I was doing.”

A muscle worked in his jaw. “They held a knife to your throat. When I return to Elturon, I’ll hunt them down to make sure they’re dead.” He paused. “Your curse saved my life. The men were using you to lure me into that alley, weren’t they?”

“How did you guess?”

“I had a lot of time to think when I was climbing stairs, and I remembered a few things. That scarred man goes by the name Maggot. He used to work for my father, but we fired him when he turned out to be a thief.”

“I thought you didn’t recognize him.”

“He wasn’t scarred back then and that’s what threw me off. It wasn’t happenstance he tried to rob us. He knew who I was and more than likely wanted revenge.”

“Luckily, he didn’t succeed.”

“It wasn’t luck, Samantha, it was you. If you hadn’t struck that archer when you did, he probably would have shot me. And if you hadn’t burned those bandits in Elturon, they would have sliced me to ribbons.
That’s
why I followed you.”

“So you don’t think I’m evil?”

“Far from it. Magic is only evil if the wizard’s heart is black.”

“I wish my father felt that way.”

“What does King Tomas have against magic?”

“He never speaks of it to anyone, but I found out his mother was a very powerful wizard. When she died, my father never recovered from her loss.”

“I can understand his grief, but it has nothing to do with you or your brother.”

“It doesn’t make any sense and my father was wrong to drive my brother away. If he sees Julian again, maybe he’ll admit it.”

“
When
he sees Julian again, I’m certain he will. Now turn around while I get dressed. You can bathe in private while I fix dinner.”