Death Marked (Death Sworn #2)(44)

“Welcome to my caves, Tellis,” Sorin said. “I have a proposal to discuss with you.”

The Renegai man couldn’t spit, because of the gag, but he jerked his head in a spitting motion anyhow.

Sorin got off the seat, calm and unhurried, and crossed the room. “If I remove the gag, I assume you’ll try to kill me with magic? Oh, I forgot. Renegai don’t kill. Ileni told me that, once.”

Tellis went very still.

“Yes,” Sorin said. “She’s still alive.”

Tellis closed his eyes, just for a second, relief and joy unmistakable on his face. Since his captive’s eyes were closed, Sorin allowed himself a scowl but kept his voice smooth. “I need your help to keep her that way.”

Tellis snapped his eyes open and glared at him with an absolute hatred that reminded Sorin of Ileni.

“We need her,” Sorin said, “and we need her alive. That’s why you’re here. To help her.”

He drew a dagger, reached behind Tellis’s head, and cut the gag. It fell to the floor, stained with blood and spittle. Tellis’s mouth opened.

“Kill me,” Sorin said, “and you fail her. Though I believe it wouldn’t be the first time.”

“You’re lying,” Tellis said. He was astonishingly handsome beneath his injuries—blond hair, blue eyes, chiseled face. Once he used magic to heal himself, he would be even more so. Not that it mattered.

“No,” Sorin said, allowing nothing to show in his voice. “Nothing I’m about to tell you is a lie. In fact, all I’m going to do is tell you the truth. Then you can decide what to do with it.”

Tellis drew in a breath. “Where is she?”

Sorin inclined his head.

“Sit down,” he said. It wasn’t a suggestion. “This might take a while.”





CHAPTER

16

By the time they reached the base of the mountain, up at least five staircases and four steep streets, Ileni’s calves were cramping painfully, and her upper arm burned where Karyn’s fingers were clenched around it.

They were halfway up the mountain, on a path littered with white and purple wildflowers, when Karyn finally broke the silence. “It’s difficult to get lost if you’re headed for the Academy. You just go up.”

Ileni gritted her teeth against the soreness in her legs. She didn’t want to waste the little power she had left, but as soon as she got close enough to draw on the lodestones, she could get rid of the pain . . . no. No, she couldn’t use the lodestones anymore. Could she?

She had to. Even knowing where the power came from, even with the old man’s scream burned into her mind. She had to keep pretending. She had to pretend harder than ever, now that she knew what she was fighting against.

“Thank you,” she said. “I’ll keep that in mind for next time.”

“There won’t be a next time.” Karyn’s fingernails gouged Ileni’s arm. Ileni hissed through her teeth and muttered the words of a spell, recently learned, that would send pain sizzling through Karyn’s hand. Karyn brushed the spell away with contemptuous ease and sent an arc of agony through Ileni’s body.

Ileni cried out despite herself. Then she gritted her teeth and reached for more power. But she had almost none left, and the lodestones were still out of reach.

“Be careful, Ileni,” Karyn said softly. “Do you want to go back to what you were? I can take the magic away in a second if I want to.”

You should. Shame swept through Ileni. She knew now, without the possibility of doubt, where the magic came from. She had seen the people whose lives would be ripped away to fill the lodestones with power.

And she still wanted it.

“I’m not sure why you’re angry,” she said, through her teeth. “You gave me permission.”

“To accompany Evin. Not to wander alone in the city.” Karyn gave Ileni’s arm a shake. “What exactly were you looking for?”

Careful. Karyn was only tolerating Ileni because she thought Ileni might be won over to the Empire’s side.

But Ileni had to say something, and she didn’t think she could keep her revulsion out of her voice. Besides, she wanted to hear Karyn’s answer. Wanted to hear that this was, somehow, different from what it looked like. “I’ll tell you what I found: the people you steal your magic from.”

Karyn stopped short, swinging Ileni around to face her. “We don’t steal it. It’s given freely.” Her lips were white, her eyes dark with fury and something else. Guilt? Fear?

“Freely?” Ileni tried to laugh, but what emerged was a sob. “I saw you torture that man.”

“He was already there,” Karyn snapped. “We don’t force anyone to enter Death’s Door, but if they do, they are agreeing to give us their power when they die. He made a promise, and he was refusing to keep it.”

“Agreed? In exchange for what?”

“Any number of things that people are willing to die for. Gold, sometimes, for people they love. More often, protection for their families, or a place for their children at the Sisters of the Black God. It’s worth it to them, and it’s their own choice.”

It was time to start pretending to be convinced. Instead, Ileni said, “So that’s the basis of all your power. Helpless people whose lives you steal when they are too sick to resist and have nowhere else to turn. You could help them, but instead you offer them your choice.” Power stolen, power misused, power drawn from pain and death. “You think forcing them to kill themselves is somehow nobler than straight-out murdering them? Just because they’re old and sick and weak?”