Death Marked (Death Sworn #2)(18)

Ileni concentrated on slowing her breathing. This wasn’t as bad as she had feared. If Karyn didn’t realize that Ileni was trying to destroy the lodestones—if she thought Ileni just wanted power of her own—she would let Ileni stay.

Ileni rubbed out the chalk pattern with her foot—no point in leaving clues to enlighten the sorceress—then braced her legs apart.

“What do I have to do,” she said, “to get one?”

Karyn shook her head, slowly and smugly.

Ileni strove to keep her voice steady. “I told you I’d give you information.”

“And that will be a pleasant conversation, I’m sure. But you could be so much more useful if you were working with us.”

I never will. She managed not to say it, but she couldn’t stop her chin from going up. “What do you want me to do?”

“Not yet,” Karyn said. “I’ll tell you when the time is right.”

“When I’ve been away from the assassins longer,” Ileni said, “and am more willing to betray them?”

Karyn’s smirk turned into a grin. “Exactly.” And at Ileni’s suspicious glare, it became a laugh. “I see no reason to lie to you. You must realize I’m not letting you stay here for whatever tidbits of information you learned from your assassin lover. You can be far more valuable than that, once you’re willing.”

It was stupid to argue—she wanted Karyn to let her stay—but Ileni dug her fingernails into her palms. “And you assume I’ll be willing because you’ll give me power?”

“Yes,” Karyn said. “That tends to be effective.”

“In the Empire, maybe.”

“Oh, right,” Karyn said. “I forgot. The assassins murder out of pure idealism. They’re not after power.”

The savagery in her voice shocked Ileni into silence. Karyn kept her smile, but it seemed more like a thin veil for a snarl.

“Oh, yes,” she said. “I hate them. Every bit as much as your people hate us. And I’ll do whatever is necessary to put an end to them.”

Ileni bit her lip. It was like talking to Sorin. . . . or to the master. Was everyone in the world full of passion and certainty except for her?

Once, she had hated the Empire—and everyone in it—just as much. Things had been a lot simpler then.

“I spent years infiltrating the caves.” Karyn rubbed her thumb over her wrist, where her lodestone bracelet would have been. “I gave up more than you can imagine to do it—people in my position don’t normally go out on spying expeditions. But Arum and I were the only ones willing. Now, thanks to you, Arum is dead, and the assassins are aware that there’s a back way into the caves. I’m sure they’re guarding it now, so I’m right back where I started. Unless you can help me.”

Arum. The blond man, Karyn’s companion, who had died in a spray of red blood on white stone. Ileni found her voice. “I didn’t kill him.”

“No. You led your assassin friend to him instead. Do you think that makes you innocent?”

“I didn’t—I mean, I didn’t know—”

“That things would get messy, once you started exposing secrets to killers?” Karyn’s laugh, too, sounded like a thinly disguised snarl. “Are all Renegai as deliberately simpleminded as you?”

Rage came to Ileni’s aid, wiping away her uncertainty. “If by simpleminded you mean pure, then yes. We don’t need elaborate explanations of whose fault murder is or when it’s justified.”

Karyn’s face went blank, just for a moment. Then her lashes swooped down to shield her eyes. “Well,” she said, “I envy you that.”

She sounded sincere, which was not what Ileni had expected. Sorin would have responded with scorn.

When Karyn’s lashes swept up, though, her expression was speculative. “You should be getting back to bed. I have something to take care of tomorrow, so I won’t see you, but you’ll still get to play with magic all day. Have fun.”

Ileni tried not to react, though she wasn’t entirely sure what she was concealing. Guilt? Joy? Anticipation?

Whatever it was, she knew by Karyn’s pleased expression that she had not succeeded in hiding it.





CHAPTER

7

In the large, echoing training cavern, dozens of assassins whirled and lunged at each other, wielding swords and garrotes and metal discs. But Irun, as he advanced on Ileni, bore only a knife. It was already dripping with her blood.

Kill him, Sorin whispered. He stood behind Ileni, hands firm on her waist, lips pressed to the nape of her neck. Ileni leaned back into him, resting against his chest. Kill him, and prove that you are one of us.


Ileni woke with a start. Confusion swirled as she blinked at walls that were not slick black rock but pink-speckled gray stone.

“Sorry,” Cyn said from Ileni’s chair. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Ileni shrieked and whirled. The blanket tangled around her legs, and she nearly pitched sideways off the bed. She caught herself on the edge of the mattress and struggled to sit straight, kicking the blanket away.

“What are you doing here?” she snapped with all the dignity she could muster. Which wasn’t much.

Cyn shrugged, pretending not to notice Ileni’s display of grace. She was wearing a shockingly bright red gown. “Karyn couldn’t come. I was sent to tell you.”