“I wasn’t going to say a thing!” Leo protested as they leaped over a fallen evergreen. “Though I do think the entire conversation was very—”
“Leopold Arlen Wolfgang Diederich, don’t you dare.”
“Fetching.”
She opened her mouth to insult him—not that she could ever think of an insult that could get the best of him—when Sasha’s thoughts arrowed into her own, a silver-quick image of Gabril sagging against the back wall of the pub, blood pouring from a wound in his chest and puddling on the cobblestones at his feet.
The breath left Lorelai’s body, and panic curled through her stomach. Not Gabril. Not like this. Her lips trembled as she started running for the village.
“What are you doing?” Leo demanded as he caught up to her.
A rush of magic burned down Lorelai’s arms, and she clenched her fists. “Gabril is hurt.”
Bleeding fast, fast, fast. Big wound. Sasha’s thoughts darting through Lorelai’s mind, showing Lorelai an image of a crudely made spear lying beside Gabril, its sharp tip covered in blood.
A homemade spear one of the villagers had thought to use against the Eldrians but had used against Gabril instead. Why? Because his wards were helping the Eldrians escape? Because Gabril had tried to stop the mob himself instead of going to the mayor’s wife, Risa, for help?
It didn’t matter how Gabril had been wounded. All that mattered was that they get to him in time to save his life.
Lorelai leaped over a tumble of stones and skidded around an oak with drooping brown leaves still clinging to its branches. Leo sprinted past her, his longer legs eating up the ground. He reached the gate ahead of her, threw the bar to the ground, and heaved it open, his eyes full of the same desperate fear that pounded through Lorelai with every beat of her heart.
Gabril was all the family they had left. He was their surrogate father, their protector, their mentor, and the rock-solid foundation upon which they’d rebuilt their lives.
He was not going to die.
It only took a few moments to run from the north gate to the alley behind the pub, but it felt like forever, the distance stretching endlessly before them while Gabril’s blood poured out of him with every passing second.
Leo reached him first and wrapped his arms around Gabril as the older man stumbled toward him on legs that shook.
“We’ll take him to Risa’s. She can send for the physician,” Lorelai said as she put her arm around Gabril and helped Leo support him.
“The physician left town a month ago,” a woman said from the pub’s doorway.
Lorelai turned to find the owner of the pub standing behind them, her watery blue eyes full of anger.
“Then Risa will know where to find medical supplies.” Lorelai turned away. “Come on, Leo.”
“There be no medical supplies in Tranke. And even if there were, you wouldn’t be getting any of them.” The woman spat on the cobblestones and crossed her arms over her chest as Lorelai turned to stare at her again. “Best be leaving now, girl.”
Magic stung Lorelai’s fingertips, and it took effort to sound calm as she said, “We can’t leave. He’s badly wounded. Risa will know—”
“Risa won’t have anything to do with you after what you just did. Not if she knows what’s good for her.” The woman’s voice was as hard as the look in her eyes.
“But we’ll help you. We’ll get food for the village, I promise. Just as soon as Gabril is stable, we’ll—”
“What good is your promise to help us sometime later on when you just denied us help we need now? You get out of here before I stop telling my husband he doesn’t get to kill all three of you and take your possessions as payment for the Eldrian riches you just stole from us.”
“You think you can kill us?” Leo’s voice vibrated with fury. “Do you have any idea who we are?”
“You’re the fools who chose loyalty to a pack of Eldrian strangers over your own people.” The woman spat again, only this time she aimed the spittle at Lorelai’s feet. “If you aren’t out of this village in the next few minutes, I won’t be held responsible for what happens to you.”
Leo opened his mouth, but Lorelai beat him to it. “We’re leaving. Come on, Leo.”
“But Gabril—”
“Will die if we don’t get out of here.” Lorelai’s hands burned, her power begging for release she wouldn’t give. The woman was right. Lorelai and Leo had taken the possibility of Eldrian riches out of the villager’s hands, and the desperate people in Tranke weren’t concerned with the morality of saving innocent strangers when it meant condemning their children to starve to death.
The only way to help Tranke and villages like it was to step up her plan to take down Irina. Hit another garrison and steal more food. Break loved ones out of dungeons where they were rotting away for the crime of being unable to pay taxes to the queen due to the blight.
But she couldn’t do any of that until she saved Gabril’s life. Without another word to the pub owner, Lorelai and Leo helped Gabril back to their tent outside the village, bandaged his wound as best they could, and then quickly left Tranke behind.
NINE