Master of Iron (Bladesmith #2)(29)

And then another set of courtiers approaches, and Ravis makes me repeat the whole ordeal.

I suppose it gets a little easier to say the words after about the fifth time, but I feel my energy draining, each set of nobles carrying away a little bit of it as I speak.

I’m literally winning over Ravis’s nobility for him. I’m guaranteeing him more funding, rallying support. On top of that, I am making the weapons that will help take over all of Ghadra.

I’m doing all the bloody work for him.

I’m dooming all of Ghadra by myself.

I never knew I had such power.

A stupid sailor’s hat bobs in the corner of my vision. Kellyn’s got a glass of something in his hand, and he appears to be doing his best to charm the guards on either side of him. They laugh at what he says but don’t loosen their holds on his arms. He just effortlessly manages to win people over. He’s probably looking for openings to get us out of this. How does he do it? I can barely think as I try to block out all the stimuli around me.

When a new song strikes up, Ravis leaves, inviting one of the ladies of his court to join him on the dance floor. Someone asks Elany to dance, and she also leaves. I start to panic when courtiers try to approach me, but my guards fend them off before they can reach me. It would seem no one is allowed to speak to me without Ravis present.

Thank the Sisters.

I shut my eyes and massage my temples. It’s been weeks and weeks of bladesmithing and magicking. I feel my soul wearing down little by little each day, and I just want it all to stop.

But I don’t see how we can escape. The only way to get out of this is by stealth. We need to sneak away without being spotted. We can’t be followed. Ravis has too many men at his disposal, and if we’re caught, we’ll surely be overrun.

Maybe I could craft a weapon that would make us unseen?

But how would I do that when I’m constantly under guard, and any weapon I make with new abilities goes straight to Ravis? And if I started swinging a weapon around upon finishing it in an attempt to escape, the guards would slit Kellyn’s throat before I could get to him.

I need to make something that doesn’t kill. Something that won’t hurt Kellyn if he gets caught in the cross fire.

The wheels start turning in my head.

Ravis wanted me to make an impression on his nobles. I wonder what would happen if they were to know I was suddenly gone …





CHAPTER NINE


If Elany notices that I’m fidgeting more than usual, she doesn’t say anything.

Two separate needs clash within me. On the one hand, there’s survival. If I’m caught trying to escape, I don’t know what Ravis will do to me or Kellyn. I’m absolutely petrified that something will go wrong. There are a thousand ways it could.

But on the other hand is the desperate desire for freedom. The need to see what’s become of my sister. Kellyn and I must warn our friends that war is coming.

I’m going to execute my plan today.

My hands shake as I pull weapons from the kiln and begin magicking them one by one. Every time Elany opens her mouth, I startle, convinced she’s going to call me out on what I’m planning—as I try to work up the nerve to magic another too-powerful weapon.

“What are you thinking about when you use your magic?” she wants to know this time.

I steady my breathing before answering, “The people I care about usually. It helps to focus me. I have to coax the metal gently. Usually, I have to … give of myself, in a way. But it’s different every time.”

Did any of that even make sense?

“Give of yourself? What do you mean by that?”

“Sometimes it’s physical. The metal needs the wind of my breath or the touch of my skin.” My blood and sweat have landed on weapons before. “Sometimes I just share my thoughts and feelings with the weapon, whether I verbalize them or not.”

And the more I give, the more powerful the weapon—I hadn’t noticed until Petrik made the observation while questioning me for his book.

Another pang of longing fills my breast. I miss my friend. His sharp wit and open way of looking at the world. He would have come up with a much more clever plan for escape and executed it more quickly, too.

As self-doubt sets in, I lose my resolve and magic the weapon I’m currently holding to do the same as the others that have come before. Return to the wielder’s hand when disarmed. I hand it off to a waiting smithy, who stacks it with the others before retrieving another bastard sword from the kiln.

Kellyn looks much improved after several weeks spent healing from his sliced ear. The color has returned to his face, and he doesn’t scratch about the bandages the way he used to. He’s also growing more restless, and I can’t tell if that’s a good or bad thing. As a mercenary, Kellyn is used to movement. Traveling from place to place, swinging his sword. He likes to be active, so he can’t be happy standing around the forge day in and day out. Being captured has been worse for him than it has for me.

Good, the selfish part of me thinks. If he didn’t want to suffer, maybe he should have kept his big mouth shut.

It was that or die, the nice Ziva argues, surfacing now, perhaps, because the hope of escape is before her. He saved you by revealing your abilities.

At what cost? He saved himself. And, yes, me. But in exchange for the lives of an entire kingdom if Ravis gets his war.