Death Marked (Death Sworn #2)(14)

“I’d say it was pitting them against each other in the first place,” Evin observed.

Karyn looked at him. “You have something to say?”

Her expression could have shriveled grass, but Evin just lifted one shoulder. “Nothing that would do any good, I’m sure.”

“Then please don’t bother.” Karyn looked again at the twins. “Well?”

Lis and Cyn glared at each other stubbornly. The silence was broken only by the sound of blood hitting the stone in a series of uneven splats, until Ileni couldn’t take it anymore. She pulled up the power that wasn’t hers, curled her fingers into a well-practiced pattern, and muttered a few words.

Lis gasped, but this time it wasn’t in pain. She lowered her bloodstained arm and blinked at it. Cyn snapped her head around.

Ileni couldn’t help smiling. Not at their shock—she hadn’t been at all sure how they would react—but at the ease with which she had wielded those long-ignored skills. It was like stretching a muscle that had been cramped for months.

Even though she knew how wrong and treacherous that magic was. Even though it had almost killed her less than an hour ago.

Karyn stepped toward her. “What did you do?”

“Healed their cuts,” Ileni said. “I’m sorry if bleeding to death was supposed to be part of the lesson.”

“We weren’t in danger of bleeding to death,” Lis snapped.

“You’re welcome,” Ileni said sweetly.

Karyn stalked forward. She passed a hand over Cyn’s arm, and a surge of power made the bloodstains vanish. Karyn grabbed Cyn’s wrist, yanked it upward, and stared at her smooth, unblemished skin as if she had never seen an arm before.

A chuckle next to her made Ileni glance sideways. Evin was grinning openly. “You are full of surprises, aren’t you?”

“I’m glad they provide you with so much amusement,” Ileni said tightly.

Evin cocked his head to the side. “So am I.”

Karyn dropped Cyn’s arm and strode over to Ileni. “How did you do that?”

“Um,” Ileni said. “There’s this thing called magic—”

“Do it again.”

“How—”

Twin surges of power from Karyn, and blood welled again from both twins’ arms.

“Hey,” Cyn snapped, but a glance from Karyn silenced her.

Ileni choked. “What is wrong with you?”

“Heal them,” Karyn said. “I want to pay closer attention to the spell this time.”

The healing spell to knit skin was a relatively simple one; the Renegai used it for everything from paper cuts to difficult childbirths. But it had taken Ileni a year to learn the basics of magical healing, before she had been allowed to start attempting spells. Karyn was an experienced sorceress, but even she wouldn’t grasp it from one demonstration. How many times would the twins let their skins be ripped open so Ileni could heal them?

She didn’t really wonder. Once she had seen a boy leap from a window to his death, at the command of his master and in service to a greater cause. Why shouldn’t the imperial sorcerers have the same dedication, the same blind obedience?

“No,” Ileni said.

Karyn’s face went very still. “You are not a guest here.”

“I thought I was a student,” Ileni said. “Not a teacher.”

“I didn’t realize—”

“That I had anything worth teaching?”

Silence. The loudest sound was the twins’ harsh breathing. Karyn’s fingers twitched.

“I’ll teach you,” Ileni said. “But not like this. Step by step, the way I learned.”

She felt power coil around Karyn, and knew Karyn could sense the power rising within her. She had no doubt that if it came to a fight, Karyn would win. Ileni didn’t know the first thing about combat magic.

The plateau was dead silent. Over Karyn’s shoulder, Lis’s face was chalk white, her jaw clenched. Cyn leaned back, eyes flickering speculatively between Karyn and Ileni.

“All right,” Karyn said finally, and the power within her drained slowly away. “In the mornings, then, before breakfast. Just you and me, to start.”

Ileni blinked, so startled she held onto the power for a moment longer—a moment that made Evin draw in his breath audibly—before letting it go.

“Is that acceptable?” Karyn asked acidly.

It was, but it didn’t make sense. Karyn had all the control here. She could banish Ileni from the Academy, or order her killed, with a word. Why was she agreeing so easily?

She must really want to learn healing magic.

Or she must really want Ileni at the Academy.

Karyn gestured at Evin without waiting for Ileni’s answer, and he walked to the center of the plateau, brow furrowed. Lis, for some reason, smirked as she strolled over to stand next to Ileni.

It was only when Evin and Cyn were halfway through their next sparring match that Ileni wondered: How would her people feel about her teaching Renegai magic to imperial sorcerers?

Well, if her people found out any number of the things she had done since leaving her village to serve as tutor to the assassins, they would exile her forever and speak her name in horrified whispers. Besides, if she decided to be the weapon she had been designed to be—if, in the end, she fulfilled Absalm’s plan and became the Renegai who toppled the Empire—it wouldn’t matter. Anything else would be not just forgiven, but forgotten.