I did that, Ramus thought again.

Lulah stepped back with a startled cry when two of Konrad's fingers snapped off in her hand.

LULAH HELPED SECURE the dying man to his saddle.

“Is there a cure?” Ramin asked, looking to Ramus. His voice was quiet, and in that hopelessness he already knew the answer.

Ramus shook his head.

For a few beats, Ramus thought that Lulah would mount up and ride away with the Serians. If that happened, he would not call her back, because Lulah could make up her own mind. He hoped that she would stay.

She stood beside Konrad's horse for a while, touching the slumped man on the cheek and snatching her hand back. She said something to Ramin, but Ramus could not hear her words through the rain.

Konrad's right arm looked gray and dead. His face was pale. His right hand was cracked and crazed, and it bore stumps instead of fingers.

Ramin mounted up and grabbed Konrad's reins, riding away without another word. He threw Ramus one final glance. There was hate there, and something else besides. Fear, Ramus thought. It was a new experience for him.

Lulah returned to the fire, keeping it between her and Ramus. “You did that?” she asked. “You did that with words?”

“More than words,” Ramus said. “I'm not sure what they are. I . . . was afraid.”

Lulah threw something through the dying flames, and it landed at his feet. “Konrad's fingers,” Lulah said. “You turned them to stone, and the rest of him is following. You've breathed another charm.”

Ramus took a step back, looking at the dark wet things before him. Firelight touched them and cast harsh shadows from their broken edges.

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

THEY SAW NO more marsh wisps. Nomi had ridden the rest of the previous day deeply troubled by the encounter, feeling as though the wisp had left her with something, changed her in some way. But she could not make out exactly what that was.

“Maybe you changed yourself,” Beko had said the previous night. They had sat close together at the fire for a while, and she had relished their proximity.

“How do you mean?” she had asked.

“You didn't believe the wisps existed. They do. Perhaps your world is opening up.”

“My world has never been closed,” she had said, but even as she uttered those words, the lie shone through.

Now, riding through the midday sun and starting to dwell upon whatever lay beyond the Pavissia Steppes, Nomi was startled by Rhiana's shout from ahead. The Serians blustered around her, Beko and Rhiana riding off to the east while Noon rode close to Nomi. She looked after Beko, trying to make out what had caused the upset, and then she saw the two shapes moving across a low ridge in the distance.

“Marauders?” she asked.

“Serians,” Noon said, but his voice was troubled.

Nomi squinted against the sun but could not see clearly. “And?”