"Hweilan?" he said. "Are you-?"
"I'm well enough. But we need to get you out of here and be gone." The words from her dream came to her suddenly-Death comes… empty dens, dead hearts.
"Leave me," said Lendri.
Much to Hweilan's surprise, Lendri looked even better than he had when she had last seen him in the queen's palace. Not good. But not just half a shade from death either. He bled from dozens of cuts, but few of them looked very deep. Hweilan suspected the worst of his injuries were more to his spirit than his flesh.
"How badly are you hurt?" she asked.
Hweilan heard Menduarthis walk up behind her, and Lendri's eyes focused on him. "What's he doing here?"
"Helping us escape."
Lendri barked something that was part laugh and part sob, then let his head fall again. "Get out of here while you still can, Hweilan. But don't trust that one."
"Weak words, coming from you," said Menduarthis. "But we can play Menduarthis-was-right-all-along-and-oh-how-I-should-have-listened later. After we are well away from here."
Hweilan looked up at Menduarthis. "What's the matter with him? He looks better than when we saw him at the palace."
"The queen's had him tortured," said Menduarthis. "Several times. But before he can die and be out of misery, she has him healed again, then starts over."
"Help me free him," she said.
Menduarthis looked down at his two captives. "You heard the lady. Double quick!"
The sentries stared spears up at Menduarthis. They'd heard that Menduarthis suspected that Kunin Gatar was headed their way, and a great deal of defiance had returned to their gazes.
"Don't make me twirl my fingers." The one Menduarthis held with his left hand tried to thrash out of his grip, but Menduarthis held on and shook him. "Just for that, I'll burst your chest first. Go on! Free my hand!"
Wind gusted, rattling the branches of the old tree and spraying them with snow. By the slight widening of Menduarthis's eyes, Hweilan knew he hadn't done it. But that was apparently lost on the guards, and they jabbered something to him in their own tongue. Menduarthis answered in kind, then let them go. They stepped away, each of them rubbing their arms where Menduarthis had held them.
"Stand back, Hweilan. Let them work."
She did. The two guards stood in front of Lendri. They began a sing-song chant, more mutter than song, and passed their open palms over the thorns, beginning low down where thick tangles of vines held him around the waist. As they did so, the vines peeled away, unwrapping themselves.
"Why didn't they bind his legs?" Hweilan asked Menduarthis.
"He can struggle more that way. The more he struggles, the deeper he cuts himself."
The nagging beat in her mind was screaming at her now. "Hurry!" she told the guards.
Lendri seemed to sense something as well. He raised his head and sniffed at the air. "Hweilan, run!"
The guards had removed most of the vines from his torso and shoulders, and as Hweilan watched, the last coils sloughed off his neck. But many still encased his arms, holding him upright but limp, like a puppet hung from a peg on the wall.
"We're not leaving without you," she told Lendri.
"Don't be foolish," Lendri and Menduarthis said at the same time, then glared at each other.
Seeing the vines sloughing off him, more and more skin revealed, Hweilan realized a flaw in their plan. They'd brought no clothes for Lendri. After they left the Feywild, it might not be as cold, but winter was still holding on in the mountains.
She turned to Menduarthis. "Why didn't you tell me he'd be naked?"
"How would I know?" he said. "But this one can take care of himself."
"He'll freeze!" Hweilan took Lendri's pouch that she'd rescued from Roakh out from her belt and laid it on the ground before her. She knew there were no clothes in there, but there might be something to give him a little modesty at the least.
"He won't," said Menduarthis. "Trust me. He can-"
Lendri screamed and lunged for Menduarthis. Most of the vines had been taken away by the guards, and the few that still clung to his arms ripped away, taking more skin with them.
But Menduarthis sidestepped, and Lendri sailed past. He hit the ground and turned, already preparing another lunge. Menduarthis stood ready, one hand held before him, another raised over his head, the eldritch glow of a spell pulsing in both fists.
"Stop it!" Hweilan screamed, and jumped between them.
Lendri crouched before her, hands like claws before him, lips pulled back over his teeth like some rabid beast.
"Stop this! Lendri, stop! Menduarthis saved my life and risked his own to free you. We're leaving here with him."
Lendri recoiled as if slapped. The fury melted from his face, but he didn't relax. "You can't trust him, Hweilan."
"More so than you," said Menduarthis.
The two guards, seeing their captors distracted, fled. One headed for the tunnel, the other ran over the lip of the hollow and disappeared into the woods.
"Let them go," said Menduarthis. "Doesn't matter now." Still holding his magic and standing guard against Lendri, Menduarthis spared a glance at the darkening sky and the wind rattling through the branches of the great tree. "Come with us or don't, Lendri, but we are leaving. Now."
Hweilan winced. The pounding in her head was so intense now that it had gone beyond annoyance or anxiety to actual pain. She took Lendri's pouch that she'd found in Roakh's roost and handed it to him. "Please," she said. "Let's just go."
Resigned, Lendri stood, took the pouch, and reached inside. He pointedly avoided looking at either Menduarthis or Hweilan.
Menduarthis straightened, the magic in his hands dissipating.
"You have something for the cuts?" said Hweilan.
"I'll be fine," said Lendri. He took out the copper ring she had seen in the pouch and slid it on one finger. Hweilan could see his hands trembling.
Menduarthis shouted, "Hweilan!"
She turned. A figure stepped from the tunnel. Or shambled more like, as if it were hurt or carrying a great weight. Shadows seemed reluctant to leave it. Darkness clung to the thing like a cloak. But as the figure stepped onto the snow, the fey light illuminated his features.
Soran.
But he had been… not hurt. Savaged. The flesh and skin along one side of his face hung in bloody tatters, and the eye in the midst of it was only a dark, wet socket. The lips and cheek were gone, showing his teeth in a lopsided, savage grin. His few remaining clothes hung off him in tatters, and great gouges of flesh along his torso had been ripped away. He dragged his right leg as he walked. In his left hand, he held a sword, broken about halfway above the crosspiece and ending in a jagged shard. Bits of vine hung off him, and in his right hand he held what Hweilan first took for a tree branch. But as he walked, the thing in his hand flopped, and she saw that it was an arm, still dripping blood and steaming in the cold air. Hweilan feared she knew what had happened to the guard who had fled into the tunnel.
The thing fixed its one good eye on Hweilan, its bloody half-grin widened, and it increased its pace.
"Run!" Menduarthis spread his arms in a flourish worthy of a tavern bard, and his fingers began to twist in their intricate pattern.
Lendri grabbed Hweilan by the forearm and pulled her after him, heading downslope toward the woods.
She looked back.
Menduarthis brought both hands around in a sweeping motion. Wind crashed down like a wave, driving snow and ice and compressing it into a wall that rolled toward the Soran-thing. It struck him full force, stopping him in his tracks. Snow and ice continued rolling over him, encasing him.
"Ha!" Menduarthis cried.
But then the spell was spent. Thick ice encased Soran up to his waist. He thrashed like a live fish thrown onto a hot pan, striking at the ice again and again with his sword and fist. His strength was far beyond anything human, and the ice was not glacier solid.