by JA Andrews
A scabbard holding two identical swords leaned against the pack. Sini’s stomach dropped. One sword let out a thin cloud of blue light, the other a smoky black cloud. “You found it,” she whispered.
His gaze snapped to her face. “You know what those are?”
“Just that they exist.” She started to ask what they did, but Lukas interrupted her with a laugh.
“Of course you know about them.” He lunged forward and hugged her. His thin arms around her shoulders felt skeletal. From the burning stones on his hands and chest and robe, bits of vitalle seeped into and out of her in a chaos of impressions.
He pulled back and gripped her shoulders.
“What are you going to do with swords?” she asked. “Carry them into battle like some warlord?”
He snorted. “Do I look like the kind of man who strides into battle? These aren’t weapons for a common war. Killien was right about that. They’re swords for a purpose. A blade to surgically cut out infection, not an instrument to hack up a whole body.” He grinned at her. “Oh, how I’ve missed you, Sin. I have had so many puzzles and runes to decipher, and no brilliant sister to help.” He grinned, and for just a moment she saw the old smile. “You don’t know how happy it makes me that we’re together again. Name anything you want and it’s yours.”
The smile gave her a little hope. “I want you to stop.”
He looked at her without comprehension.
“Stop hurting people and crops and animals.”
“You always were too sensitive, Sin. Those things were the smallest things I could use. I could have hurt so many more, but I did only what was necessary.”
“How many people did you kill in Gulfind?” Sini asked him. “Hundreds?”
“That was not my fault,” he answered sharply. “I asked for a fair amount of gold. I offered to take it and leave them in peace. But they refused! They loved their gold too much to part with even a few cartloads!”
Sini stared at him. “And so you killed them?”
“Their greed killed them,” Lukas spat at her. “The world is not simple and easy. Sometimes you have to do unpleasant things. Do you think I wanted to kill them?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered.
“It had been years. I had to do something big. Something big enough to get their attention.”
“Whose?”
He cocked his head to the side, surprised at her question. “The Keepers. I had to create enough problems to draw out the Keepers. To draw out you.”
She stared at him. “You hurt all those innocent people, just to get the Keepers out of the Stronghold? Lukas, all you had to do was come to Queenstown and ask for them. They would have met you. You could have seen once and for all what they were like.”
“The Keepers”—his voice curled around the word with distain—“would have killed me on sight.”
“No, they wouldn’t.” His face hardened as she said the words, and she knew he wouldn’t listen.
“I understand that you feel a loyalty to them. I expected it. After all, we both felt a loyalty to Killien, didn’t we? And he kept us in slavery.”
“Please stop,” Sini said, trying to get him to listen. “I know you’ve read Mallon. I know you’ve been imitating him, eating away at the edges of Queensland to weaken her. But how could you model your actions after such an evil man?”
Lukas let out a little huff of disbelief. “You’ve bought into so many of their lies. Mallon wasn’t evil. He was just brave enough to try to break the current system and give the people something better. Like Mallon, if I succeed, this war will be the last. I’ll create a lasting peace and remove any of the leaders who lie to the people. We’ll have real peace, Sini. And we’ll have no masters or Keepers or owners.” There was a fanatical fire in his eyes.
“You don’t have to do any of this,” she pleaded. “Come back with me to the palace. Come meet the Keepers. They’re—”
“You have the power to stop all this,” Lukas interrupted her. “No other innocents have to be hurt.”
She backed up a step. “I’m not doing any of it.”
“Everything I’ve done is to draw the Keepers out so I could reach them. But if I have you with me, I don’t have to. Tell me where the Stronghold is, and I’ll go straight to them. I’ll leave everyone else alone.”
She stared at him incredulously. “No.”
“Sini, you can stop protecting them. I’ve been looking for you for ages, and now you’re safe. Safer than you’ve ever been in your life.” The look she recognized came back into his face. “You’re free.”
“Lukas,”—she took a step toward him—“I’m already free. I’ve been free since the moment I stepped away from Killien.”
He turned away and paced over to the fire. “I know Will and Alaric are at the palace, but I need to know where the others are.”
Sini shook her head. “I’m not telling you where the Stronghold is.”
“I could force it out of you,” he said offhandedly.
“You wouldn’t,” she raised her chin. “You promised me long ago that you would never use magic against me. That I was safe with you, and I have always believed that. I still believe that.”
“I’ve never wanted to hurt you. But you know I can get anyone to do anything I want.”
Sini’s stomach tightened, whether with anger or fear, she wasn’t sure. “With one of your compulsion stones?”
Despite her tone, his face brightened. “I’ve improved them so much. The original versions were like a huge hammer, pounding into someone.” He started pacing again, this time with a nervous energy. “The ones I make now, they’re like a chisel. I can select an exact thought or emotion, I can direct it toward a goal.”
“Yes.” A coldness sank into her at his excitement. “I ran into one of your rings along the western edge of Queensland.”
“Wasn’t it fantastic? You’re acting like it’s bad, but every time I used one it only took a few sheep dying before the people began to listen. I didn’t really harm those people. I just gave them the truth of who the Keepers are.”
“The truth? By lying to them about who sickened the sheep?”
He shrugged. “A small deception to teach a greater truth. The Keepers do not keep them safe. And they should stop expecting them to.”
“Those men attacked us! One of my companions almost died. Several of the attackers did.”
“And you, I heard, performed a near-miraculous healing. Don’t you see, Sini? Both you and I have learned so much. Let’s throw off the people who taught us by trying to control us, and step into the life we deserve. Between you and me and the dragon, we’ll be unstoppable.”
He grinned at Sini and pulled out a necklace from under his shirt.
It glinted red and blue, and Sini took a step closer. It was a dragon scale, blood red and shimmering in the fire light, and set in the center of it was a bright blue aquamarine. The stone left a long, glittering trail of blue light as it moved. “Sini, I’ve learned so much. I’ve been dying to talk to you about it. I don’t even need to touch Anguine any longer to control him. I just need to be nearby.”
“Anguine?”
“The dragon.”
“You can control him? Fully?”
“Not with words, but with emotions. And I’ve discovered how to make it go both ways. I can feel what he’s feeling, get a vague impression of what he sees.” An excitement glittered in his eyes. “He doesn’t see like we do. He sees…more. The warmer something is, the brighter it is. Cold things are muted, but he can see a deer in the woods at night as though it were glowing!”
“That’s…terrifying.”
Lukas laughed. “It is. But I control him. I put desires in Anguine’s mind for specific things and he acts on them, as long as I’m asking him to do dragon-like, predatory things.”
“Doesn’t Anguine know he could overpower you? Why does he submit?”
“Because I have something he wants more than anything else.” Lukas gestur
ed to the outside. “Like Pest. Everyone can be controlled if you know what to offer.”
“You can offer Anguine something he can’t get on his own?”
“Oh, yes.” Lukas smiled enigmatically. “He’ll obey you, too. I’ll see to it. He’s amazing. So much power and fire. To ride on his back with the whole world spread out beneath you…” He shook his head. “You’re going to love it.”
He let out a long breath. “We have a long way to go, but I want to send word to my troops. I’d rather be rid of all those groveling fools, anyway.” His face was relieved. “Now that you’re here, we can stop the invasion and I don’t have to use any of the weapons I made. No killing animals or tainting water supplies. Just tell me where the Stronghold is. Everything else can go away.”
She searched his face for something familiar, something to give her hope.
The shock of seeing him had faded, and for the first time—maybe ever—she could truly see him. His face was not the one she’d trusted when she’d first been made a slave. His eyes were not the ones that had seen her and understood her. The way he stood breathed arrogance and hatred and hardness. He was his own person, utterly separate from what she had thought of him. Utterly unconcerned with who she wanted him to be. The image of him she’d clung to blew away like smoke. Whoever that had been, it was not Lukas.
She glanced back at the swords. The black one had definitely changed him. He couldn’t hear anything but his own violent plans.
The truth of it wrung something in her heart. “I’m not going to tell you.”
“Things are already in motion, Sini,” he said, a hint of exasperation in his voice, “Tell me where they are and I can stop it all.”
“No.” Something deep inside her cracked as she accepted the truth. “I wish things were different. I wish you were different. Or maybe I wish you were the same person I used to know. Or I was the person I used to be. Whatever has happened to us, we are not who we once were.”
He fixed her with a stern look. “That’ll all go back to normal once you’re out of here. You’ve been my sister for years—that’s not something that disappears. Even when you join my enemy and betray the goals we once had.”
“Join your enemy?” A flicker of anger cut into her sorrow. “I have defended you at every turn. I have spent months studying your movements to see where you are, to prove that you weren’t the threat everyone thought you were.”
“I told you they hated me.”
“You are the threat!” She flung the words at him. “You’re everything they said of you and more!” The small fracture inside her widened. Tears pricked her eyes and she blinked them away furiously. “I believed—I actually believed—that you were still the man I knew. I know you’re angry at what happened to us. But your anger has twisted everything. You’re not seeing anything clearly.”
Lukas’s gaze turned cold. “You’re not a child any more, Sini. Stop being naive. Tell me where the Stronghold is so I can make arrangements and you and I can leave.”
“No.”
The muffled sound of voices outside came through the small window.
Lukas looked up sharply. “Did you tell anyone where you were going?”
Sini looked at him. It ached to admit it, but he was too changed, too damaged to even hear her.
“Goodbye, Lukas.”
He spun around. “You’re not leaving.”
“Think about what you’re doing. Please think about the lives you’re ruining.” She turned her back on him and reached for the door.
“You are not leaving.”
Her legs froze, her feet locked into the floor. Fear swirled in her gut as she tried to yank them free. She heard his footsteps come up behind her.
“I don’t want to do this to you, Sini.” His voice sounded strangled.
“You promised me you’d never use magic on me.” She twisted to look him in the eye, wrenching at her legs. They didn’t budge. A wave of anger rolled over her. “You promised me.”
Lukas’s face was tortured, but he clenched his hand into fists. “You are leaving me no choice,” he snarled. “Tell me where the Stronghold is.”
“No.” Sini cast out toward the tiny window, looking for vitalle, trying to draw in any sunfire she could find. But the window was too grimy, the world outside too clouded. The bit of sunlight that leaked through was barely enough to feel. She drew vitalle from the fire and poured it into her legs, searching for someway to break the hold, but her legs were being held by something she couldn’t find.
Someone outside shouted something that might have been her name.
“Here!” she shouted.
Lukas clamped a hand over her mouth, his fingers pressing into her cheeks. His eyes burned with a savage fury, and he pulled a thin silver circle out of somewhere in his robe. It was large enough to be a crown, and trails of blue light bled from a handful of small gems set in it.
He breathed heavily, his face in front of hers. “Why are you making me do this?” His voice was hoarse with anger. “Tell me what I need to know.”
Outside there was no more noise, and when she didn’t try to scream again, he loosened his grip on her mouth.
Sini tried to pull her legs away from the floor, fury and anguish warring in her. “You promised,” she whispered.
Lukas pressed his eyes shut and waved his hand. Sini’s arms froze as well.
“Lukas!” she pleaded. “Stop!”
Without meeting her gaze, he gave the circle a tug and it opened. He wrapped it around her neck, and it clicked together behind her. The cold metal lay around her neck like a collar.
He stepped back and Sini felt a wave of peace push away everything else. The fury in her faded to the background and a new feeling grew. She wanted to make Lukas happy, wanted to see the smile she remembered from long ago. It would be so easy.
She scrabbled to keep hold of her anger. She shoved again against whatever held her legs, but everything faded away but Lukas. If she made him happy, it would make her happy. There was nothing else worth being bothered with. Her shoulders relaxed and at another wave of Lukas’s hand, her arms were freed.
She felt tears roll down her cheek, but she couldn’t fathom why. Lukas had tears of his own, and it broke her heart to see them. She couldn’t stay quiet, not when she could help her brother.
“The valley lies behind the Marsham Cliffs.” She brought her hand up to wipe the wetness off his face as she told him how to find it. And he did smile. Not with the happiness she’d hoped for, but it was a start.
“Thank you, Sini,” he said quietly.
Some part of her mind cried out an alarm. The Keepers were there. Rett was there. “Lukas—“
Another yell came from outside.
She paused. That voice sounded familiar.
“It’s time to go.” Lukas’s voice grew stronger. “I can’t carry you, I have my own things to carry. So I’m going to release your legs and we’ll head out the back. We’ll be home before you know it. You’ll stay calm?”
“Yes.”
Her legs stumbled forward, free. Lukas grabbed her arm to steady her. He gave her a probing look. “Ready?”
She nodded again and he smiled at her. Her heart soared at the expression and she grinned back at him.
Promised! The word rang in her mind like a feral beast, pounding against the tranquility that filled her. It held so much agony that she paused.
“Let’s get Rett out of the palace,” he said, leading her toward the door. “I’m sure you can convince him to come with us.”
“But Rett…”
“Sini!” The muffled voice from outside was familiar.
“Roan?” she whispered.
Lukas slung the belt with the swords over his shoulder and picked up his pack. He set a hand on her elbow and guided her toward the door. “It’s no one, Sini. A ghost from your past. Not important any longer.”
She nodded, but she cocked her head to listen again. A woman’s voice called out her name. The angry voi
ce in her mind wanted her to listen. She pushed back against his hand. “Wait, that’s Sora.”
Lukas stiffened. “She tracked Pest?”
There was a tingling at Sini’s neck. Vitalle seeping in along the cold line of silver. She raised her hand to feel the band. She tried to look at it, but it was snug up against her throat, and all she saw was the trail of blue light.
Compulsion stones.
The anger in her flared again, and before the foreign serenity could drown it out, Sini grabbed for the sunlight from the window. It was too little. She pulled energy from the fire. The collar was already open to her, pouring in a need to help Lukas. She used those paths to pour in whatever vitalle she could find. These stones were so much stronger than the ring the man in the woods had worn. These must be well-cut, unflawed gems and they drew in the vitalle gladly.
But there was still a limit. There was always a limit to what the stone could hold. She poured in the energy from her own body. She drew it from Lukas where he still touched her arm. He yanked his hand away.
“Stop it!” He reached for her again, his face furious, but stopped before touching her. She grabbed his arm and the skin on her palm burned as she pulled vitalle from him and shoved it into the stones.
One stone cracked. Four more continued to lap up the energy.
Lukas wrenched his arm away with a cry.
Voices outside the window grew louder. Someone pounded on the front door of the shop.
The front door shouldn’t be locked. The thought wormed its way through Sini’s mind. Had Pest locked her in?
She shoved more energy into the collar and another gem split. Its vitalle dribbled out harmlessly.
Lukas stared at her, his face furious. A huge part of her wanted to stop, to fix things. To fix him.
But the wild voice inside her was too strong.