Death Sworn(59)
He handed her the knife again. “Try using your non-throwing arm to help you aim, the way we did back in our first lesson, and control the release. You threw too hard, and it spun too fast.”
“I know what the problem is.” And she did. She knew exactly how she had to move, what her body had to do. The problem was making her body do it.
He stepped to the side. “Then solve it.”
As if it was that easy. But it was, for him, the same way a problem shaping a spell would have been easy for her to fix. Didn’t he understand that her body wasn’t honed the way his was, that she couldn’t solve problems just by throwing perseverance at them? If she had her magic, she would show him. . . .
She stopped, knife in hand, poised in mid-throw.
“Ileni?” Sorin said.
She threw without paying attention, with predictably disastrous results. The knife spun wildly and hit the wall to the left of the target. It thudded to the floor, and she turned to Sorin. “Any assassin in these caves, even the teachers, could hit a target without half-trying.”
“You’re only starting to learn.” He headed toward the targets yet again. “And you have a real talent for—”
“So why,” Ileni said, “would any of them use magic to knife Cadrel?”
Sorin stopped in mid-step. “I assume it was to get through some sort of ward.”
“No. That spell was to throw the knife. If they used a spell to get through a ward, that was a separate thing. Why would an assassin use a spell to throw a knife? Under what circumstances would you do that?”
Sorin spun to face her. “None that I can think of,” he said slowly. “So there must be a reason I haven’t thought of.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” Ileni said, and then almost laughed at the understatement. Of course it didn’t. Nothing made sense. She was lost in the dark, doing everything wrong, and somewhere, the master was laughing. Somehow, he had trapped her in the center of a web of intrigue she didn’t understand, predicting every move she would make. . . .
“Ileni?” Sorin said. He was right in front of her. “We’ll figure it out. If it does have to do with the spies, we’ll know more about that soon. We just have to wait. Sometimes it’s better to gather the pieces than to try to put together an incomplete puzzle.”
By now she was well used to that practiced, reverent tone. Another of the master’s sayings. The vise around her chest grew tighter. Trusting Sorin, even a little, was stupid. He wasn’t his own person.
And yet. He was inches away from her, a blade in his hand, but she wasn’t the slightest bit afraid of him. And it wasn’t just because of her ward.
It was because she was stupid.
She took a deep breath. “So we wait.”
“We do.”
She held out her hand. “While we’re waiting, let me try that throw again.”
Chapter 14
Two nights later, Ileni rolled out of bed at a knock on her door, relief flooding her mind and wiping it clean of restless dreams. Finally, it would be over.
Anticipation was written in every line of Bazel’s body. He greeted Ileni with a curt nod, and she nodded back. They walked without speaking through the dimly lit corridors, scrambled in silence over the labyrinth of rocks, and finally made their way down the narrow ledge that led to the river.
Sorin must be following them—he had been watching Ileni’s room since the night before, when Bazel had told her the spies were on their way—but hard as she strained her ears, Ileni couldn’t hear him.
The spies were waiting for them this time, lounging on the flat rock at the water’s edge. Now that she knew what they were, Ileni found it impossible to greet them with anything resembling friendliness. She stuck close to Bazel, hoping his obvious happiness would somehow encompass them both. Fortunately, she hadn’t been all that friendly last time. Maybe no one would notice the difference.
They didn’t. They traded and bantered and exchanged jibes, and the spies were relaxed and Bazel was happy, up until the moment Sorin appeared at the bottom of the path.
He was so silent that even Ileni, who had been expecting it, couldn’t have said when he stepped onto the flat rock. He was just there, his arms loose by his sides, his black eyes moving swiftly over the scene.
Bazel swore. Ileni tried to look startled, even though she wasn’t certain what the point of that was. The blond man scrambled to his feet, drawing a wicked-looking blade from beneath his tunic. This appeared not to concern Sorin at all.
Cypess, Leah's Books
- Archenemies (Renegades #2)
- A Ladder to the Sky
- Girls of Paper and Fire (Girls of Paper and Fire #1)
- Daughters of the Lake
- Hiddensee: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker
- House of Darken (Secret Keepers #1)
- Our Kind of Cruelty
- Princess: A Private Novel
- Shattered Mirror (Eve Duncan #23)
- The Hellfire Club