Death Sworn (22 page)

She would be the easiest kill any of them had ever made.

So she had better hurry.

When she reached the cave entrance, Sorin was sitting atop a short rock pillar. Ileni stared at him through the twisted columns of colored rock, feeling oddly blank inside.

“Shouldn’t you be with Absalm?” she asked.

“It seemed a waste of time. I knew even the master wouldn’t convince you to take our power.” Sorin shook his head. “You’re not ready yet.”

Ileni looked at his sharply planed face, so familiar and so foreign. She started walking again, circling to the edges of the cavern so she wouldn’t have to pass right by him. Her hastily filled pack, misshapen and lumpy, thumped against her back.

“Ileni.”

She didn’t stop.

“You could stay.”

Almost, he managed to keep his voice expressionless. She stopped walking. He sat poised and powerful, both hands clenched at his sides.

“No,” she said.

“No one will force you to do anything. I’ll protect you.” His throat convulsed. “You can trust me.”

Until he found out what she had done. She had no illusions about whether he would protect her then.

“Sorin.” Her chest was so tight she could barely breathe. “No.”

His dark eyes searched her face. “But you love me,” he said finally.

She had no reason to deny it. Ileni lifted her shoulders. “I’ll recover.”

He flinched, and the intentness turned to anger. “You think it will be that easy?”

“I do not,” Ileni said, “think it will be easy.”

His eyes were like dark fire now, and she willed herself to be afraid—it would make this easier—but she couldn’t, despite his rage, despite what she had seen him do, believe he would hurt her. Even when he pushed himself off the rock and strode toward her.

They walked side by side until they reached the narrow opening to the outside world. Ileni looked out at the vast gray-blue sky, the wisps of pale pink clouds floating across it. Then she realized she was only standing still because Sorin had stopped walking.

The first step was the hardest, wrenching herself away from his side. The second took her under the sky, steadily lightening and stretching forever. A stray breeze brushed hair away from her face, something she had once—a few weeks ago—thought she would never feel again. The breeze was gentle and warm. She blinked away the blurring in her eyes.

On the third step, she stopped and turned around.

“You could come with me,” she whispered. Not entirely sure she meant it, but not willing to leave it unsaid.

From the darkness of the cave entrance, Sorin shook his head.

In the silence that followed, Ileni thought he was going to say he wasn’t letting her go. She didn’t want him to . . . oh, yes. Yes, she did.

Their eyes met. Sorin took a deep breath. “Ileni. You’re the most important person in these caves.” His words emerged in a sudden rush. “What Absalm said . . . you could change
everything
. You could destroy the Empire in a stroke. Bring us the victory both our people have been working toward for centuries. You could think about it. You could change your mind.”

And she probably would, eventually. If she stayed.

“I can’t,” Ileni said. “I can’t just let myself believe what everyone else believes. I need to see for myself.”

He blinked. “You’re not going back to the Renegai?”

“No.” After all that had happened, she was almost startled he would ask. Then she realized what he was really asking. “There’s nothing for me there. And no one.”

Sorin’s expression didn’t change, but his shoulders relaxed the tiniest bit. He stared at her, and then he smiled in sudden realization, a grin that made the dimness look bright. “You’re headed into the Empire.”

“I am.”

“You think you’ll find answers out there?” He shook his head. “I can tell you from experience, you won’t.”

“Maybe not.” She lifted her chin and met his black eyes. “But nobody in these caves even knows there’s a question.”

He was silent for a moment. Then he said, “When you do find those answers, you’ll be back. All you’ll have done is wasted your time.”

She couldn’t deny it. She couldn’t say he was right. She turned on her heel, shifted her weight to take the fourth step.

His voice was so quiet she almost didn’t hear it. “I’ll be here, Ileni. When you do come back.”

She didn’t turn around. She took the fifth step, and the sixth, and the seventh, and then she stopped counting. The sun was rising in the gray sky, scattering the clouds. She set off down the road, toward the end of the shadow cast by the black mountains behind her.

 
Acknowledgments
 

Death Sworn
is the first book I ever wrote with the knowledge that it would more likely than not be published. This was both reassuring and frightening, and I owe an extra measure of thanks to the people who kept both me and the book on track throughout the process.

First and foremost, to all my readers.

To my editor, Martha Mihalick, for making me cut the things that didn’t work and improve the things that did, for always pushing me to be better, and for pictures of jumping sheep.

To Anne Dunn, for careful copyedits and an email that made my week.

To everyone at Greenwillow, especially Virginia Duncan, Lois Adams, Patty Rosati, and Mary Ann Zissimos.

To Sylvie Le Floc’h, for an amazing cover that perfectly captures the feel of the book.

To Bill Contardi, for being in my corner.

To my family, for their excitement and enthusiasm, and for Googling me and then forwarding only the good stuff.

To Leah Clifford, for invaluable caving expertise. I’m sorry for fictionally destroying Lechuguilla Cave.

To all the Codexians, for everything, and especially for helpful answers to panicked mid-revision questions.

To Shanna Giora-Gorfajn, for supplying me with hot cocoa, even if she didn’t have to row through an underground river to do it. (You would have anyhow, right?)

To Autumn Rachel Dryden and Janina Wilen, for throwing knives. I mean, not really. Okay, yes, really. But not at
me.
Actually, thanks for that, too.

And last but most definitely not least, to everyone who commented on this manuscript in its various stages (especially the frantic I-didn’t-realize-this-was-the-last-revision stage): Tova Suslovich (x2 or 3 or 100!), Christine Amsden, Cindy Pon, Bethany Powell, Brant Williams, Anaea Lay, E. Catherine Tobler, Kat Otis, Deva Fagan, Gwendolyn Clare, Laurel Amberdine, Sol Kim-Bentley, and Sharona Vedol. Your input and advice were invaluable.

About the Author

L
EAH
C
YPESS
is the author of the acclaimed
Mistwood
and its companion
Nightspell
, as well as numerous short stories. She lives with her husband and three small children in Boston, Massachusetts.

Visit
www.AuthorTracker.com
for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

Credits

Cover art © 2014 by Mariusz Pocztowski, Joel Tippie, Slava Gerj/Shutterstock.com and MO_SES /Shutterstock.com

Cover design by Sylvie Le Floc’h

Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used to advance the fictional narrative. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.

Death Sworn

Copyright © 2014 by Leah Cypess

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cypess, Leah.

Death sworn / by Leah Cypess.

pages cm

“Greenwillow Books.”

Summary: “When a young sorceress is exiled to teach magic to a clan of assassins, she will find that secrets can be even deadlier than swords”—Provided by publisher.

ISBN 978-0-06-222121-6 (hardback)

EPUB Edition JANUARY 2014 ISBN 9780062221230

[1. Magic—Fiction. 2. Secrets—Fiction. 3. Assassins—Fiction. 4. Love—Fiction. 5. Fantasy.] I. Title.

PZ7.C9972De 2014  [Fic]—dc23  2013037379

14  15  16  17  18  CG/RRDH  10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

FIRST EDITION