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Excerpt fromWindwitchby Susan Dennard
Merik swiveled his wrists slowly.
He felt it falling, though.
Just as he felt the new, burned flesh on his hands stretching beneath torn gloves.
The assassin in the night.
The fire on theJana.
The attack of a Waterwitch in Pins Keep.
Each event had led Merik here, to Nodens temple.
To a fresco of the gods left hand.
So why not continue using the fear invoked from that name?
Was Merik not doing the Furys work by bringing justice to the wronged and punishment to the wicked?
So was it not Meriks moral duty to keep her off the throne?
This was Nodens will.
It throbbed in Meriks wounds.
It shivered across his scalp and down his raw back.
Take the gods gift.
Then he turned away from the Furys gruesome fresco and set out to bring justice to the wronged.
Punishment to the wicked.
With a single thought, Meriks witchery sent him leaping over the fence unseen.
Merik had been a boy then, just eleven years old.
It had also been daylight, and more importantly, hed been invited.
Yet none of the clumsy guards noticed Merik stalking from one shadow to the next.
Power, power, power.
It pumped through Merik, so easy to tap into.
So easy to command.
So Merik kept moving forward.
Toward the truth about the assassin from Judgement Square.
After all, easy was good.
Easy let ships sail without fear and crews reach home unharmed.
But easy did not mean trip-wires.
His hands swept up; his winds shot out, a charge of power to counteract the moving line.
Merik watched, breath held, as it stilled.
As the whole world stilled, shrinking down to that cursed string and his booming heart.
It thundered loud enough to give him away.
Yet no alarm went off.
So carefully, Merik swiveled his head to trace the path of the wire.
Into the shadows it went, where iron held glass walls in place.
Then up the string shot before ending at a brass bell.
Meriks breath kicked out.
That had been too close.
Which suggested that Linday was meeting someonesomeone he didnt trust or someone he intended to betray.
Meriks brows drew tight, gaze sweeping over every space in sight.
After all, learning who Linday feared (or who ought to fear Linday) could be valuable information.
But Merik hadnt the time.
So after checking his hoodstill firmly in placehe resumed his approach.
Twice more, he came to hidden trip-wires, and twice more, he bypassed them.
Kept the trip-wireswhatever they were attached tofrom activating.
At last Merik reached the center of his greenhouse, where Vizer Linday came into view.
Water bubbled behind the man, soft, serene, and completely at odds with the mans frenetic energy.
Everything, actually, clashed with the young vizer.
The pristine grass that his finely-slippered toe tapped into mush.
Even the moonlight trickling through the glass ceiling seemed too bright, too pure for Lindays antiquated black robe.
This wasnotthe vizer Merik had watched earlier.
The one whod challenged Gwendolyn and oozed with possessive passion.
Nor was it man one who ran the citys prison or controlled every room he stepped into.
But a scared vizer was an easy vizer.
And easy was, of course,good.
Merik slipped to the edge of the clearing, to where grass gave way to flagstones.
Behind Linday, and still out of sight.
Then he towed back his hood and offered a rough, Hello, Vizer.
The mans breath punched out.
He deflated completelyspine wilting, shoulders dropping over his knees.
Merik stepped out of the shadows.
You mistake me for someone else.
At that, Linday tensed.
Then his head snapped around.
His eyes met Meriks, raking up.
Clearly taking in Meriks scarred face, his shredded clothes.
Merik almost smiled as warring expressions settled across the mans face.
Relief mingled with horror and confusion…before shuttering back to relief.
Which wasnt quite the emotion was hoping for.
He stalked to the fountain.
Not even when Merik gripped his collar and yanked him close.
Do you know who I am?
This close, the mans face was a mask of fine lines.
He looked twice the age Merik knew him to be.
No, Linday rasped.
He was trembling now.
I dont know you.
They call me the left hand of Noden, Vizer.
They call me the Fury.
At those wordsat that titleheat frizzed down Meriks back.
Power, power, power.
Linday shook all the harder in Meriks hands, andthatwas more like the reaction Merik wanted.
Im going to ask you a few questions now, Vizer, and I want you to answer quickly.
If you do not…
He twisted his fist, tightening Lindays collar.
Choking off the mans air.
Linday instantly rasped: Ill answer, Ill answer.
Merik dipped his head back, eyes thinning and burnt skin stretching.
You sold a prisoner in Judgment Square.
Lutsa was his name.
I need to know who bought him.
Lindays breath slashed out.
Dont lie to me.
I must, I must.
Lindays eyes began to cross.
I…mustor hell kill me.
Fresh rage slashed through Merik.
He wrung Lindays collar all the tighter.
Neither, the man choked.
Pleasethe shadow man comes for me.
just help me and Ill tell you everything you want
A bell rang.
A soft twinkle to fill the greenhouse.
Vizer Linday went limp, as if his knees could no longer hold him.
Merik released the man, stepping back as Linday crumpled before him..
A second bell tolled.
Chills raced down the back of Meriks neck.
He whirled around…
To find a wall of night slithering through the greenhouse.
Approaching this way, it slipped and slid and coiled and gripped.
Shadow hands that tendriled forward, over the ground, across the foliage, along the ceiling.
Instinct told Merik to run.
Told his muscles toflee.
Yet something else warred inside himsomething hot and waking.
Something not to be trifled with.
Merik let his fury come.
It roared to a fiery life right as the darkness scuttled across him.
The shadow man had arrived.
There was no other way to describe what prowled into the clearing.
Eaten alive by darkness.
The man, themonstertowered before Merik, his features impossible to distinguish.
What little of his skin was exposedhands, neck, facemoved like a thousand hagfishes skippering upstream.
He rocked back two steps, almost tripping over Linday.
The shadow man laughed at that.
A sound so deep that Merik almost couldnt hear it.
The voiceif it could even be called thatwas accented.
Arithuanian, and almost…femininein its seductive drawl.
Give me what Ive come for, Vizer, or everyone here dies.
This friend of yours.
A whimper split the darkness, forcing Merik to lower his arm.
To open his eyes and look at the shadow man, snaking closer.
A creature with all the power in the room.
All the power in the world.
Merik made himself watch.
Made his mind think, his muscles move, and his own power wake up.
It was strangely weak.
And all heat in Meriks fury.
Where is it, Vizer?
The monsters voice rippled and scraped.
Scales rubbing against the sand.
We had a deal.
I c-couldnt find it.
Lindays teeth chattered, louder than his words.
The shadow man laughed again before kneeling beside the vizerand leaving Merik all but forgotten.
So Merik drew more magic to him, backing away as he did so.
The magic was still frozen and off, yet it rose all the same.
A subtle breeze to curl around him.
To expand while the shadow man reached for Lindays throat.
It was an almost loving gesture, were it not for the death hissing beneath the monsters skin.
This was your last chance, Vizer.
You knew that when last we spoke.
Give me the book or
A root punched up from the earth.
Lindays magic driving the massive root straight into the shadow mans chest.
A screamhuman and beastly, living and dead tore through the greenhouse.
Unlike the spoken words, this sound was real.
A physical thing that smashed apart Meriks skull and flayed the burnt flesh from his cheeks.
He had just enough time to lock eyes with Linday before the shadow mans fist squeezed in.
He crushed the vizers neck as easily as a grape.
Darkness splattered from Lindays throat.
Sprayed from his mouth.
With the little power hed managed to grasp, Merik sprang backwards.
Branches cracked; leaves slapped; bell after bell after bell rang out.
The shadow man pursued, but he was hurt.
Merik had a head start.
Night air coursed over him, freeing.
Andfinallyhis witchery could truly ignite.
Fast and high, winds bellowing beneath him.
Black erupted over himjust as it had before but tenfold stronger.
Athousandfold stronger, and instantly his magic winked out.
Spinning and blinded by darkness.
Heavy and choked by death.
Until at last he hit something with such force, it snapped his bones.
Yet he even then, didnt stop falling.
He simply moved more slowly, sinking.
Water, he thought as lungs bubbled full of it.
Then he was too deep to know anything else beyond drowning and darkness and Nodens watery court.
