Death Sworn(55)

Sorin sketched a mocking half-bow. “Of course.”

Ileni swallowed hard, feeling her shoulders relax a little. “All right. How did Absalm find that . . . Black River?”

Sorin’s shoulders rose and fell. Shadows gathered in his eyes, and when he spoke, his voice was a near whisper. “I took him there.”

“You did?”

“I found the Black River soon after I was brought here. I used to like to explore the wilder parts of the caves. To go places only I knew about, so no one knew where I was.” He said it tightly, his eyes darting briefly away from hers. “I didn’t have an easy time adjusting, from being a wild street child to this life.”

Something other than shame colored his voice, something like pride, or longing. Had he ever truly adjusted to this life? “But you told Absalm?”

“He asked me about underground rivers. He said what you said—that there are spells that require proximity to running water. Is that true?”

If the spell involved manipulating the water, or breathing underwater. The sorts of spells that could only have one purpose: escape from the caves. Ileni folded her arms over her chest. “It’s not your turn to ask questions yet. Was Absalm the only person you told?”

In the moment of silence that followed, she was acutely aware of the strength of his body, of the short distance between them.

“Yes,” Sorin said curtly.

“Then Absalm must have been the one who told Bazel about it.” Had he told Bazel about the traders, too? How had the traders known there would be someone waiting for them on that flat rock? Ileni dared one more question. “How do you know Absalm drowned there?”

“One of us found his body downstream, while coming back from a mission.”

“Who? Can we ask him—” The expression on his face stopped her. Her next sentence wasn’t a question. “Whoever it was is dead.”

“It was Jastim,” Sorin said.

The silence stretched. Ileni had a brief, vivid memory of a wiry body leaping through a small dark window. Then Sorin crossed the room and sat on her bed, without asking.

“My turn,” Sorin said. “Tell me what you were doing at the river with Bazel.”

Ileni tried to think about what she should leave out, what she could get away with, what it would be advantageous for Sorin not to know. But she couldn’t work through all the tangles—and besides, she wasn’t sure she could get away with lying to Sorin just then.

So she told him everything.

When she was done, he leaned back on his hands. Even in repose, his body seemed clenched, ready to strike.

“You,” he said finally, “cannot possibly be as stupid as you seem.”

“I wouldn’t be so certain,” Ileni said coldly.

He shook his head and got to his feet, shoving her crumpled blanket to the side. His eyes were hot as coals. “They’re not traders, Ileni.”

“Of course they’re—”

“They’re spies.”

She was shocked into silence.

“Spies for the Empire. They’ve been trying for centuries to find out more about us, to find a way to stop us. And Bazel gave them a way in.”

Ileni remembered Karyn asking, with elaborate casualness, where Sayon had been sent. And the blond man goading Bazel with questions about the succession. And Bazel—at ease, trying to impress Karyn, unafraid for one of the few times in his miserable existence—letting slip one piece of information, and then another.

“I don’t think Bazel knows,” she whispered.

“But he should have.” The lines of Sorin’s face were hard and uncompromising.

Ileni took a deep breath and stepped away from the door. “So should I.”

He pressed his lips together. “You’re not trained to evaluate a situation the way he is.”

“Then maybe the fault lies with his teachers.”

“He received the same lessons as the rest of us.”

“No,” Ileni said, “he didn’t.” She took another step toward him. “You sat in those lessons surrounded by friends. You were allowed to take pride in who you were and who you were becoming. Bazel never had any of that. Is it any wonder he let his guard slip a little, when he finally found himself among people who didn’t think he was worthless?”

Sorin’s fingers curled slightly as if around an imaginary knife hilt. He bit off his words as he spoke. “That’s no excuse for endangering us all.”