I can feel cold stone under me and the echo of bare walls around us. The Blade lays me on the floor. His pale hands grasp my bloody shoulder and the savage ice-fire of his healing burns through me. It doesn’t help as much as I hoped. Even as I struggle to sit up and lean against the wall I can tell it will take several hours to recover.
“Where are we?”
He’s not interested in answering. Seems he has furious questions of his own.
“Why did you listen to him? He has no fighting skills. You could have killed him easily.”
I try to remember why the Emperor’s few words were so compelling but the strange sense of coercion is already fading.
“Because I already didn’t trust you. I still don’t. He took advantage of that.”
He stares at me coldly. “You should not have listened. His words are poison, empowered by Nagal. That is why you are not recovering as fast as you should. Now I have to work out what to do next, and quickly, before the Emperor discovers Maratic.”
“Why is that so important? Marin and I would both die before we help him make use of it.”
He glares at me. “Because he already has his own adept, chained in the dungeons below the palace, ready to transfer Maratic’s power direct to his legions. Prepared by Nagal before he bound himself to the Emperor.”
And then he is gone, leaving an icy shiver in the air that wraps itself around my exhausted body. The weariness goes deep, as the despair and uncertainty I felt since the moment he reappeared in my life crawls out of the pit where I had tried to bury it.
When I wake, I know from the chill in my bones and the dried blood on my arm that I have slept for a hell of a long time. And the Blade still hasn’t returned. I drag myself to the nearest hole in the stone wall to try to work out where I am. Even in my wounded state I can tell he had not carried me very far from the palace. Maybe Nagal’s power weakened him as well as me.
I am on the top level of a crumbling stone tower near the edge of the palace grounds. The broken staircase leading down from this floor allows neither escape nor access and the buildings around the base are little more than heaps of tumbled stone.
This place makes no sense. A total contrast to the well-ordered condition of the rest of the gardens and parkland. Why leave this small part of it to slowly rot and crumble back to nothing?
Even as I study the scene below the answer comes. This must be the ruined tower that Marin was exploring, the adventure that saved his life the day his mother died. For whatever grief-stricken association this place had for his father, he must have ordered it left untouched, a bramble-covered relic in a half-forgotten corner of the palace grounds.
A faint scraping outside one of the window openings has me scrambling to my feet in alarm. I draw one blade, still unsure how weak my injured arm might be.
A slender form swings easily through the opening and a familiar soft voice greets me.
“Ariel, put up your weapon. I took a chance, hoping you were still alive and loyal to the Eldrin.”
“Deris!” I stumble into his arms and he grabs me before I collapse. “How…?”
“I can’t stay long.” The powerful Fae warrior gently lowers me back onto the window ledge and props my shoulders against the wall. “Marin sent a message from the Northlands to Maratic. He was worried about you. I guessed if you were on the Blade’s mission you would be around here somewhere and Tal soon found you.” He glances up through the collapsed tower roof to the gyrfalcon circling overhead, dark against the sky.
“Deris, I failed. The Emperor used his voice on me and I was distracted…” I wave a despairing hand at my injured arm. He settles himself beside me on the ledge and runs his hands along the length of the partly healed cut. The warmth of his touch floods through me, painful and yet welcome and cleansing. I instantly feel stronger but the fact that he can now heal with that level of force brings a sinking feeling to my stomach.
“So my healing did more than just get rid of your fever.” It’s not even a question. I can sense it in him. Yet again I have brought harm to someone close. Deris gives a non-committal shrug, refusing to sink into self-pity.
“Jantian has been helping me to keep it under control. I should be able to use it to some advantage, at least in the short term. We don’t know how far it will go but for now we just have to focus on freeing this country from the invasion.”
I struggle with conflicting feelings of relief that I am not alone in this shadowy compromise––and guilt that I have dragged him into the same situation. Until his friends have to kill him.
Focus on what we have to do right now.
“Deris, The Emperor told me that Shadow deceived me, that even if I do manage to kill him and enable the killing of Nagal, it won’t save Marin from breaking his oath to the Eldrin.”
Deris stares out of the window for a few moments before answering.
“I suspect the Emperor’s skill at coercion is a more aggressive version of what I can do, now he is bound to Nagal. The closer it is to your own existing fears, the more powerful it becomes. And there is something else he would have recently learned. Something else the Blade chose not to tell you. Look.” He points to the southern horizon. The sky is smudged with grey smoke rising into the dawn.
“Jantian received a message from Shan’domir, who said he had met with the Khalim and persuaded him to form an alliance with Samaran. The Annubian army will cross the border into Rapathia and attack––but only on condition that Tandarion prevents reinforcements returning from here.”
“So… I can see that makes sense from the Khalim’s point of view, but how would the king ensure the Rapathian army stayed here even if he wanted them to?”
Deris points to the south. “Tandarion ordered Ramil and the southern militia to burn the Rapathian fleet.”
I watch the distant smoke curling into the sky, remembering the day Deris and I freed Jared and the other slaves to form the start of a new militia under Ramil’s leadership. It felt as if we had achieved at least a small victory. Until Marin told me they had simply captured more slaves from the city streets.
And now this.
“Everything we achieved has been manipulated into serving the Blade’s purpose! It makes no difference whether I succeed or not. The Rapathian military is stuck here and there will be a terrible battle.” I can’t bear to watch the smoke any longer and turn away.
Deris turns me to face him and holds my gaze. “Ariel, of course it makes a difference. Focus on what we have achieved together. Almost half the Rapathian army either destroyed or indentured to work in the Northland mines. A valuable spy still in place in the Rose Mansion because Akadian could not return to reveal Alina’s identity. Sarinder and the king alive and safe with the Eldrin. Alliances with the Northlands and with Annubia. Two of the most powerful Rapathian houses still at each other’s throats. Now Akadian is dead that situation will probably get worse before it gets better.”
“It buys us a respite, but we won’t be able to drive the invaders out if the Emperor and Nagal are still in control.”
“Ariel! Stop blaming yourself and being defeatist.”
There is such depth of strength and determination in his eyes it makes me ashamed of my despair. He clasps my hands in his.
“We all do whatever we can. And we do it together. Jantian told me to remind you there are some things that neither Blade nor Nagal understand. Things that ultimately make us stronger than they are. Loyalty. Trust. Friendship. No matter how bad things seem, never forget that.” He glances outside. “The Blade will be back here soon. I have to go.”
He plants a brief kiss on my forehead and runs down the first circuit of crumbling staircase. When the steps disappear to nothing he swings easily onto the vertical stone and descends using the uneven cracks in the mortar until the clinging ivy hides his progress.
A few moments later Shadow appears through the window. He looks around suspiciously as if he can sense someone has been here, but he says nothing. I point to the smoke from the burning ships.
“I remember exactly the words you used. It wasn’t a direct lie but you wanted me to think I could save Marin if I agreed to help you kill the Emperor and make the Rapathians return home. When you already knew that was no longer possible.”
I didn’t really think it would bring a new wave of honesty and trust into the way he operates so at least I’m not crushed by disappointment at his answer.
“Marin’s purpose is to serve my interests. The total destruction of Nagal and the corrupt Empire that supports him. When the Eldrin captain betrays his oath, their Order will be destroyed. I will inherit Maratic and the legion of adepts that he will soon create. With my warrior princess at my side.” He runs pale fingers through my hair as if he already owns me. “Now all that remains is for you complete the final part of your training to kill the Emperor. It must be done by stealth before he can use the power of his voice on you again. Then I destroy Nagal, and it will all be ours.”
“And if I refuse?”
“And condemn your country to generations of enslavement? Your sister to the Palace of Thorns? I don’t think so. And you have already completed six of the moves.”
He drops something cold into my hand. A Tican piece, worked from clear crystal.
The Nishan.
The conscript who becomes an assassin in seven moves.
