The Rogue (46 page)

“A half moon cycle ago the Traitors came to our stone caves and broke all the stones,” Yem continued. Dannyl looked up and met the old man’s eyes as he realised what this must mean for the Duna. “We fear they are planning to make war. Maybe to invade Duna. Maybe to fight the Ashaki.”

“Why would they break your stones if they want to start a civil war with the Ashaki?”

“To be sure no magic stones can be used against them.”

“If they invaded Duna the Ashaki would do something about it.”

Yem nodded. “A fight with Duna is a fight with the Ashaki, whether we wish it so or not.”

Dannyl considered the news.
Surely the Traitors won’t bother invading Duna before attacking the Ashaki. But perhaps there was a strategic reason for doing so
. He’d have to think about that. The Duna people’s motives were clear, however.

“Did you tell me about the mind-read-blocking stones so that I’d warn the Sachakan king?” he asked.

“No,” Yem said firmly. “We seek friendship with Kyralia and the Allied Lands.”

Dannyl looked around the circle in surprise. All stared back at him expectantly.

Yem nodded. “We have long debated this. The Ashaki have learned that invading Duna is costly. The Traitors do not know this. But the Ashaki are more cruel than the Traitors. We know who we prefer as neighbours, but they do not want us.” He smiled grimly. “If Kyralia and Elyne agree, maybe we can help each other.”

Dannyl stared at the old man, who returned his gaze steadily. He thought about all that was being offered and predicted.
An alliance. With a people who have stone-making knowledge.
He smiled.

“I would be honoured to negotiate such an alliance,” he said. “And it would give me great pleasure if I could forge such a friendship between our peoples.”

The old man’s answering smile was wide and toothy.

And as they began discussing how the two peoples might help each other, Dannyl found that a journey that had been purely for research purposes was suddenly about everything his role as Ambassador entailed.

None of the magicians in the Administrator’s office made a sound when Lilia stopped talking. She looked around quickly. Some of them were staring at her, others looked distant and thoughtful. All were frowning.

Now that she had finished explaining everything that had happened since she had first spoken to Lorandra at the Lookout, she felt utterly drained. Her weariness wasn’t from magical exhaustion, since her powers had mostly recovered from the fight with Naki. It wasn’t physical either, since she had used Healing to combat tiredness from lack of sleep. She felt worn out from all the hope, fear, hurt, guilt, anger, relief and gratitude that had gripped her over the last day.

Her mood now was something between resignation and acceptance. She wasn’t sure whether she simply didn’t care what the Guild did to punish her for escaping from the Lookout and becoming a rogue, or whether she couldn’t bring herself to consider it. She was tired of the secrets, and glad to be rid of them.

Though it occurred to her she could try to hide the fact she’d been able to break the mind block, she suspected Sonea had arrived early enough to see her fighting Naki. What that meant for her future, she couldn’t guess. They could lock her and Naki up, but it wouldn’t be easy to keep them there.

Her mind kept returning to Naki’s betrayal.

“
I taught myself before we even met.
”

Why had Naki befriended her? Were the rumours about her liking for other women even true, or were her kisses part of the deception? Why did she encourage – perhaps even trick – Lilia into learning black magic? Or had she killed her own father by accident and arranged for Lilia to take the blame?

That didn’t make sense. For a start, Lord Leiden had been alive when Lilia had last seen him, and she’d been with Naki every moment subsequently until after their attempt to learn black magic.

Then she must have
planned
to kill him and blame me.

Surely Naki must have known that if Lilia didn’t have memor ies of killing Lord Leiden, then there could be no proof she was guilty. Perhaps she hoped that the other evidence – blood on Lilia’s hands – might be enough to convict her.

And how did the blood get onto my hands in the first place?

“How can there be so many differences between Lilia’s story and what Black Magician Sonea read in Naki’s mind after Lord Leiden’s death?” Lady Vinara asked, voicing what had bothered Lilia all along.

“I can see only three possibilities, and none are likely,” Administrator Osen replied. “Either Black Magician Sonea’s mind-reading failed, or Naki is able to confound a mind-read, or Lilia is able to.”

“Then I suggest that both young women’s minds are read by Black Magician Kallen,” High Lord Balkan said.

Osen looked around the room. All of the magicians nodded, including Sonea. Lilia suppressed a sigh and braced herself for another mind searching through her own again.

Whatever it takes
, she thought.
I’ll accept whatever punishment I deserve so long as I’m not blamed for anything I haven’t done.
That was all she wanted, now that she was no longer in love with Naki.
I thought I was only telling myself I wasn’t, but I think it’s true. It’s hard to love someone who’s tried to kill you. Love isn’t as unconditional as the songmakers say it is.

“Have Naki brought here,” Osen ordered, looking at the magicians closest to the door. He nodded to Kallen. “You have permission to read Lilia’s mind.”

Black Magician Kallen moved from the wall he was standing against and stepped around the chairs to where Lilia stood, in front of Osen’s desk. He gave her a thoughtful look, then reached out and set his palms on the sides of her head. She closed her eyes.

This time the experience was subtly different to the last. His searching was slower, though that might have been because he was being more careful, knowing that Sonea’s mind-read had not picked up Naki’s guilt. Kallen looked at all of her memories, but she sensed nothing from him and he did not once speak to her. The only indication of a reaction was the way he skimmed past her early feelings for Naki rather quickly, once he encountered them.

She only knew it was over when she felt the pressure of his hands cease. Opening her eyes, she looked up at Kallen. He was staring down at her, frowning.

“I see nothing that she hadn’t told us,” he said. “No deceit. Everything she has said, she believes to be true.”

Kallen stepped aside. She saw that the Higher Magicians had turned to look toward the back of the room, and as she spotted what they were looking at, her heart wrenched. At the same time, she felt strangely panicky, and the disturbingly vivid memory of the sensation of a cold blade against her throat came into her mind.

“Bring her forward,” Osen said.

Naki’s face was pale and sullen. As she was pushed firmly into place by one of the two magicians who had been standing either side of her, she scowled. Her gaze flickered to Lilia. It became mocking and her lips curled into a sneer, but guilt didn’t rise in response.
She’s not beautiful any more
, Lilia realised.
Something has changed her. Something has changed
in
her.
Shocked and sickened, she moved away as far as she could without escaping the ring of magicians.

Kallen took hold of Naki’s head and stared at her for some time. All watched and waited silently. Naki’s eyes remained open, gazing somewhere beyond Kallen’s chest. Her expression remained mostly blank as he began the mind-read, though there was a little crease of concentration between her brows.

After an unbearably long time, Kallen finally released her. He took a step back and frowned down at Naki, clearly not happy, before turning away.

“She learned black magic before Lord Leiden’s death, by experimenting, but she didn’t realise she had succeeded. Otherwise she would not have encouraged Lilia to try it. A Thief heard about her and blackmailed her into working for him. He also ordered her to kill Lilia.”

“How did she remove the block on her magic?” Sonea asked.

“She thinks,” Kallen turned to regard her, “that it was never properly done in the first place.”

Sonea’s eyebrows rose, but she said nothing to that.

“I think these two young women had best be returned to their temporary cells,” Osen said. “Then we will discuss this in depth.”

Naki was escorted out first, and Lilia was relieved when she had gone. Other magicians were summoned to take Lilia away, so that Sonea, who had brought her to the meeting, could remain.

Before long, Lilia was walking down the University corridor, barely noticing the two magician guards as she puzzled over the fact that neither Sonea nor Kallen had been able to see into Naki’s mind.

And if
they
can’t do so using black magic, should I really feel so bad that I couldn’t either?

Lorkin woke with a jolt, to find his leg had slipped between the two sleeping mats and had come into contact with the icy stone below them. He rolled back onto the bedding and found himself staring up at the cave’s roof. Light was filtering through the wall of ice, casting a cool, blue light over everything. Looking closely, he could see where the warmth of Tyvara’s shield set the chilly external air steaming.

Tyvara …

He turned to look at her, half covered by the blanket. The covering wasn’t necessary since the air within the shield was warmed with magic, but he had to agree that it gave an impression of protection that he’d appreciated as the storm winds whistled and wailed outside. His mind couldn’t shake the conviction that it was cold, and that it wasn’t sensible to leave his skin exposed.

His body, however, approved of Tyvara’s lack of clothing. He longed to reach out and touch her, but resisted. The sooner she woke, the sooner they would have to part. So he lay there and gazed at her, hoping the image would remain clear in his memory forever.

I will come back
, he told himself.
If Father had had such a reason as this, I’m sure he would have returned, too.

Since his conversation with the Traitor queen, he’d wondered if there had been anything between her and his father, but he’d decided it was unlikely. They had met so briefly and there must have been quite a difference in age between them. Perhaps there had been some kind of bond formed through the blood ring, but, if there had been, it sounded as though the death of the queen’s daughter had ended it.

He considered the blood ring. It was useless now that the maker was dead. Yet the queen hadn’t thrown it away. Perhaps it had symbolised the agreement she’d made with Akkarin. What had been her side of that agreement? What had she failed to do, but now hoped to achieve by sending Lorkin home?

Perhaps an alliance between our lands. That would have required her to convince her people that it was a good idea. Not an easy task to take on, but she was younger then and maybe she hadn’t realised how hard it would be.

Tyvara’s eyes fluttered open, and he felt his heart sink, but as she turned and smiled at him it lifted again. She rolled over and they kissed for a while. When he hoped this might lead to more, she pulled away and stood up, the blanket falling away. She turned to regard the wall of ice and sighed.

“We slept longer than we should have,” she said, starting to get dressed. “I ought to have headed home as soon as the storm passed. You never know how long it’ll be to the next one, this time of year.”

Lorkin felt a pang of worry for her, not quite eased by reminding himself that she was a powerful magician, and well capable of surviving storms. He got up and began pulling on his clothes. “Do you often travel at this time?”

She shook her head. “No, not if I can avoid it.”

He looked at her sternly. “Well, I’m glad to have a little longer with you, but if it means you might not get home safely then I’m afraid I have to insist you leave right now.”

She laughed, then her smile faded rapidly. Moving close, she kissed him firmly. “You take care as well. You’re not quite out of the mountains yet.”

“I will,” he told her. “Kyralia has snow and hilly parts too, you know.”

Her eyebrows rose.

“Which you’ve never been to, except on the way to Sachaka, at a time of year when there was no snow.”

“Darn. I shouldn’t have told you that.”

She shook her head and pulled away, moving to the sledges. “Do you need me to run through the directions on how to get back to Arvice?” she asked, packing away the sleeping mats and utensils from the previous night’s meal.

“Take the sledge down the valley to the hunter’s shack. Leave it there and walk to the road. Slaves will be waiting to take me to the local estate and arrange transport from there.”

“That’s right. If you don’t encounter them for some reason, it’s the estate with four big trees either side of the entrance road. You shouldn’t encounter any Ashaki. They don’t tend to travel at this time of year. If you do, tell them who you are and request to be taken back to the Guild House. They’ll be politically obliged to help you.”

While she sounded confident, there was a worried look in her eyes.
What’s the worst that could happen?
he asked himself.
The Ashaki might toss political obligation aside, reason that I’m a Traitor now and not protected by any diplomatic rules, and try to kill me. But they probably wouldn’t without first trying to read my mind.
He rubbed the base of his thumb, where the mind-read-blocking stone lay beneath the muscle. It still itched a little, though he’d healed the cut. Tyvara had recommended the pos ition for it, since a newly inserted stone did tend to itch, and a slave rubbing at sore hands wasn’t unusual.

He’d not had much time to learn how to feed fake thoughts to a mind-reader.
Even with Tyvara’s magic, I doubt I could fend off an Ashaki attack for long. If the Ashaki then senses that his mind-reading is failing, he might try to torture information out of me. I don’t know if I could withstand that at all, or for long. Better to get to the Guild House and into Ambassador Dannyl’s protection unseen.