“Hurry,” Qown said, “we have to mark this rune on as many people as possible.”

“Where’s Dorna?” I asked.

“I’m here! I’m here!” My old nurse ran out toward us, tripping once on the churned, muddy ground. She already had a glyph on her forehead, although hers had been inscribed with something wet and red, too dark to be fresh blood.

“Is that … is that chili sauce?” Brother Qown’s tone was incredulous.

“No time,” I said. “I’ll free the others. Mark Arasgon, then Ninavis’s crew.”

Arasgon had already pulled the tarp from a cage, revealing Tanner, Kay Hará, and Vidan. They stood, yelling for attention, but I had none to spare. I broke the lock on the cage door.

“Let Qown draw on your foreheads,” I told them. “His blessing will protect you from the witchcraft.” I moved on to the next cage. I had no time to talk them through explanations I didn’t possess myself. What Qown had done, or its ramifications for our souls, seemed unimportant if we didn’t survive.

I tore the lock off the second cage, the one holding Gan the Miller’s Daughter, Jem Nakijan, and Dango. Screams grew louder in the distance. I had expected to fight Baron Tamin’s soldiers, but those same soldiers had no interest in the tournament stands or the citizens trapped there. The soldiers had vanished, retreating even as everyone else made their bids to outrun the animate witch-smoke.

Next to me, Arasgon tossed his head. “Look to the castle!”

I did and froze.

The blue smoke rolled out in all directions from its initial starting point. Toward us, toward the town, toward the rest of the fairgrounds. And in a maneuver that would have been impossible, had the phrase black magic not been involved, it moved against the wind toward Mereina Castle.

“Snap out of it.” Arasgon slammed his head against my shoulder.

I shook my head and motioned to Dango. “Find everyone you can. Dorna will show you what to draw on their foreheads.” I assumed she would, anyway. If it had just been Brother Qown, I would have suspected he’d countered the smoke with a spell, but Dorna had no such power. She’d kept herself alive somehow through the clever use of condiments, so there was no reason to think she couldn’t do it again. True, Dango might have to hold people down, before they willingly let a strange old lady draw on their faces with pepper sauce, but I was confident he was the man for the task.

I pulled myself onto Arasgon’s back and offered a hand down to Brother Qown. “Come. We must ride fast if we’ve any chance of reaching the castle in time.”

To his credit, he didn’t shy away. I’d always suspected he was made from harder metal than he pretended.

One didn’t train to exorcise demons without possessing a mighty will.