Free Rise of the Fire Tamer (The Wordwick Games #1) by Kailin Gow

can make an inn disappear…” he stepped over to the door, putting a hand on it. “ Ephemeral .”
    One minute the door was there, the next it wasn’t. Kat stood there open mouthed, mostly because it had hit her that, since this wasn’t a game, there was actually a real place where they could do things like making doors temporary enough to disappear. It was probably also handy if you lost your keys. Realizing that she was wasting time, Kat quickly whispered the word “surreptitious” and led Jack outside. She was cautious. She knew the word wasn’t as good as really being invisible, and now that she knew that injuries would really hurt, she suddenly didn’t feel like being spotted by any guards.
    “We should get our stuff,” Kat said. She tiptoed her way over to the longhouse, trying to keep to the shadows. She needn’t have bothered. There were a few people further off, but no one was nearby. She peered around the edge of the longhouse door, then jerked her head back. Sebold was at the far end of the room, casting yet more runes. For a moment, Kat thought about pointing at him and saying deleterious, just to see if it would work, but she remembered what he had said about wearing protective charms. In any case, Kat wasn’t sure about whether she could do that to someone who wasn’t a character in a game, who was actually real .
    Instead, Kat settled for sneaking inside just long enough to steal back her sword and shield, along with Jack’s bow, from where they’d been set in one of the spots beside the table. There was no sign of their rings. Kat guessed Sebold had those on him, and since even tiptoeing out balancing all the weapons made her heart hammer in her chest, Kat wasn’t going to risk trying for them. She passed Jack back his bow.
    “Right, let’s get out of here before they notice we’re gone.”
    No sooner had she said it than Kat heard a commotion over by the shed. Not waiting to hear more, and especially not waiting to hear the words “there they are, get them” she grabbed Jack’s arm and ran for the edge of the village. Maybe it was the words keeping them hard to notice, or maybe they were just lucky, but either way, no one tried to stop them.
    Even so, Kat didn’t stop running until they were well into the trees. When she did, Jack more or less collapsed.
    “We did it,” he gasped. “We actually got away.” He punched the air feebly. Apparently it was all he had the energy for.
    Kat nodded, and was about to start celebrating herself, though possibly in a slightly less exhausted way, when she remembered something.
    “We can’t stop. Sebold won’t just have sent one note. He wanted all the rings. We have to warn the others.”
    “So we head back to the inn?”
    Kat shook her head, even though she wanted, really wanted, to say yes.
    “First, we’ll have to stop by where they caught you, in case one of the others is already on their way. Do you remember where it was?”
    Jack nodded.
    “I think so.”
    Kat had half been hoping that he would say no. Instead, she had to hope as she jogged through the woods that there would be no one there. The sword and shield she wore weren’t the comforting presence they’d been when she got them. The thought of having to fight again sent shivers down her spine.
    Those shivers turned to full blown terror when she heard the sounds of a fight ahead, but Kat didn’t stop running until she reached the edge of a track where Rio was fighting a pair of Sebold’s men, his broadsword slamming into their shields. For a moment, Kat thought that he might be winning, but then she saw the third man, back in the trees, the one that the other two were driving Rio towards.
    For several seconds, Kat stood there frozen. The sight of the sword in the third man’s hands made her think of just what might happen to her if that sword struck her. She didn’t want to die. Kat looked to Rio again. His attackers forced him back another step, then another, laughing as