Death Sworn(76)

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. But it has something to do with Absalm’s plan. He’s the one who contacted her, and it wasn’t just because he wanted chocolate. Bazel said he was asking her about magic. . . .” Ileni took a deep breath. “If she’s still here, I have to find her. And I can’t do that without your help.” She reached for his hands again. “Sorin, please.”

Sorin leaned closer, his face all lines and shadows by the dimmed light of the glowstones. “Why do you need my help? Can’t you use magic?”

Ileni hesitated. She should tell him the truth, finally. She had come to him because she trusted him . . . but that was before he had brought up the master. “I have nothing of hers to use in a finding spell. If she’s somewhere in these caves, we’ll have to rely on your skills to find her.”

“And what skills would those be?”

“I don’t know. Can’t you track her or something?”

“Starting where? The caverns extend so far that no one has explored them all, not even me. Karyn could be anywhere. We could spend years looking and never find her.” Sorin stood. “Couldn’t you try to detect her magic use?”

“She knows I’m here. She’ll be shielding against me.”

“And you’re not powerful enough to break her shields?”

She couldn’t find her voice. Fortunately, Sorin misread the reason for her silence, and held up both hands. “I’m sorry, Ileni. I didn’t mean—”

“Will you help me, or not?”

Sorin let out a breath and said, his face remote, “We’re thinking about this the wrong way. If Karyn is still here, she didn’t come back to hide somewhere in the distant regions of these caves. She wants something. If we go back to the river, maybe she’ll find us. Or at the very least, be close enough for us to find her.”

Ileni swallowed a thank you she suspected he didn’t want to hear. “You might be right.”

“Well, then.” Sorin pulled her to her feet. “Let’s go.”



The riverbank was dark and silent when Ileni and Sorin made their way down the narrow path along the cliff. Ileni, who had used Sorin’s basin to wash the blood off her hands—and, less successfully, out of her hair—stepped off the ledge with a breath of relief and wrenched her eyes away from the large dark smear on the white rock.

Sorin partly unrolled the thick coil of rope he had retrieved from a storage room on their way and tied a loop at its end, then closed his hand around the four-pronged hook at the other end.

“The rope Bazel used is gone,” he said. “Does that mean she came back and pulled it up?”

“Not necessarily. She could have created it with magic, and it would have vanished shortly afterward.” A feat that would have drained even Ileni at the height of her power. If she was wrong about Karyn’s motivation, it would take a sorceress that powerful less than a second to kill her.

Ileni swallowed hard. She was carrying a knife, strapped to her side beneath her tunic—Sorin had insisted—but she felt completely defenseless. She resisted the urge to step closer to Sorin.

He nodded, leaned back, swung the rope in a few rapid circles, and flung it up over the cliff. The metal hook at its end thudded sharply high above them. “Do you want to go first?”

She looked at him incredulously.

“Right.” He had a way of smiling without smiling. It was her favorite of all his expressions. “There’s only one rope, so we’ll have to go one at a time.”

“Couldn’t we just go around the path?” Ileni suggested weakly.

“Straight up would be easier for a sorceress, no? If Karyn wanted to hide deeper in the caves, she would have gone straight up the cliffside. If we go that way, too, I won’t miss anything.” He tugged the rope twice and turned to her. “I’ll pull you up after me. It’s not that hard.”

“Right.”

Sorin put one foot up against the cliffside, leaning back. The rope went taut. “You should probably have your own magelight, or it will be pitch-black once I’m gone.”

Ileni shook her head. “I should conserve my magic. If I do have to fight her, I’ll need every bit of power I have.”

“Right.” Sorin blew out a breath, and a new magelight flared to life above Ileni’s head. Then he turned and was gone, shimmying up the rope with a speed that made her heart catch in her throat.