He flushed brick red. The color drained fast and left him pale. “More than life itself,” he said. “She’s so … well, you’ve met her.” He smiled a little. “She told me about that, you know. You and your ridiculous campfire story.”
“So I’m a terrible liar.” I grinned. “Mercy’s something else. You’re a lucky guy to have her.”
“I don’t exactly have her.” He stared at the ground. “As far as she knows, I’m a monk. And monks don’t … engage in romantic relationships.”
“Then maybe you should tell her the truth.”
He snorted. “I can’t. She’d never believe me. And …” He looked at me with pain in his eyes. “You’re right. If Vaelyn knew about her, she’d use her to get to me. I can’t let that happen.”
Finally. “In that case, you’ll help me bring these guys down. Right?”
Calvin’s features shuttered instantly. “No. I won’t.”
“Damn it! You—” I drew in a breath and tried to calm down. If he wouldn’t let me play the damsel-in-distress card, maybe some of Ian’s pride bashing would help. “Are you that afraid of your sister?”
His mouth opened, closed. He sat down slowly. “I don’t fear Vaelyn. I fear … myself.”
“Oh, yeah. You’re terrifying, Calvin.”
He narrowed his eyes. “My legacy has not always been one of peace.”
“Right.” He sounded serious enough, but I couldn’t quite picture him as a warrior. “Let me guess. You caused the ten plagues of Egypt.”
“I’ve never harmed this world. But in the djinn realm, I was …” He looked away.
“You were what?” I got as comfortable as I could on the stone floor. “It couldn’t have been that bad. You seem like a decent guy.”
“Really.” He stared at me as if he were deciding whether I could be trusted. Finally, he said, “I came to your realm as a scholar, but not by choice. The Council banished us both—Vaelyn confined to her tether, and myself stripped of power for a thousand years. I was to have a hearing before my sentence expired, but by then the clan wars had begun and the Council had forgotten me. Which was just as well, because I’d already decided not to return.”
“Whoa. What did you guys do?”
He offered a rueful smile. “We were mages. Powerful even by djinn standards. We worked as mercenaries—the two of us, and our brother, for territorial disputes at first. Then we moved to more political missions.” He hung his head. “The particular talents of the Morai lend themselves well to torture and death. As I’m sure you’ve discovered.”
“Yeah. I learned that the hard way.”
“I can imagine. And for that, I’m sorry.” Calvin let out a sigh.
“Our reputation for violence, bloodshed, and absolute success made us known. Feared. It seemed we could not be touched by djinn law, until we accepted a mission to assassinate certain members of the Council. We failed. Our brother managed to keep his hands clean, but Vaelyn and I … well, we’re here, and he’s not.”
“Okay,” I said. “So you were a bastard. But you’ve changed, right? I mean, you’re a different guy.”
“I’ve tried. I entered the monkhood to find a place in this realm, but also to convince myself that I’m not the monster I was. To prove that I could dedicate my life to peace and knowledge, instead of hatred and violence. But I am still djinn. Still a Morai.” He stared at his hands. “I have spilled blood. Destroyed souls. I’ve done things so horrendous that I dare not speak of them. And I don’t trust myself not to turn back to my old ways.”
“I’m pretty sure you have a choice there.”
“Do I? To the djinn, and especially my clan, power is everything. We crave it. Hoard it. It’s in our nature to seek domination.” His eyes met mine, and I caught the weariness in them, the defeat. “Gahiji-an is right. There are no innocent Morai.”
Damn. Now I was feeling sorry for a snake. Ian would’ve kicked my ass if he’d been here. “I think he’s wrong,” I said. “People can change. Djinn too. I mean, look at me. I used to be a thief. I didn’t destroy anybody’s soul or anything, but I did a lot of stupid things. I’m not like that anymore.”
Calvin made a dismissive noise. “It seems to me you’re still doing stupid things.”
“Maybe. But I’m choosing the things I do. Before, I was hiding behind the thief role, using it as an excuse to do what I wanted. Now I’m taking responsibility for my decisions.” I shrugged and stared at the ground. “I’ll never be completely innocent—but I wouldn’t want to convince myself that I was. Because if I did, it’d be easy to make the same mistakes all over again. I won’t bury what I’ve done.”
“So you believe I’m hiding?”
“Not exactly. I just think you’re trying too hard.” I smirked at him. “You don’t have to be a saint. Nothing wrong with embracing a little of your dark side now and then. Hell—er, heck, if I let go of everything that made me a thief, Ian and I would’ve died when we went up against Lenka.”
“Hmm.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You say that a lot.”
“Yes. You frequently rob me of words, apprentice.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Only that I don’t often hear such wisdom from tadpoles.”
“Hmm.”
“Isn’t that my line?”
I grinned. “Guess I should be glad to be a tadpole. It’s better than pond scum, right?”
“I suppose you’re not as terrible as I thought you were,” he said.
“That sounded convincing.” I frowned. “So why are you really helping me? I know it’s not because I talked you into it.”
He stared past me for a minute. “Because you may be able to stop Vaelyn. And I’m not certain I can. She must not be permitted to have a child—especially not with Gahiji-an.”
“Why? Will it blow up or something?”
“It’s worse than that.” A heavy sigh escaped him. “A pure djinn, born of this realm, would not be bound by the limitations of a tether. Under Vaelyn’s upbringing, this child could, and likely would, tear your world apart.” His eyes grew haunted. “I never should have released her. You must destroy her … even if it means destroying me too.”
“That isn’t going to happen.” I couldn’t take killing another innocent djinn. “If I’m as strong as you think, I’ll find a way to work things out. That’s a promise.”
“I do hope you’re right, apprentice.”
“I am.” No pressure, Donatti. Now three lives were riding on my being able to tap into this alleged earth magic. Four, if you counted mine. “So let’s get back to work. Maybe you can show me some of those badass spells you know.”
“You may not be so eager to learn after I demonstrate them on you.”
“I can take it.” I stood and tried to stretch out some of the kinks left over from yesterday’s crash landings. “Okay. What are we doing?”
Calvin opened his mouth—and then his relaxed expression hardened. “Vaelyn,” he whispered. “And … no. It can’t be.”
“What?”
“Shield yourself. Now. Get as far back as you can.” He stood and took a step toward the cave opening.
“Why? I don’t—” I felt it then. Bright ribbons of power, seeking, invading everything. The fury behind it chilled my bones.
I decided not to argue. I went invisible, retreated back into the cave, and concentrated everything I had on putting up shields.
Unfortunately, I had the sinking feeling that it wouldn’t be enough.
I tried not to breathe too loudly.
Calvin held a hand out and produced another ball of blue flame. Ahead of him, the roots parted to admit two figures in white robes. Vaelyn and the mystery djinn, who had the hood pulled up to conceal his face. At least they hadn’t brought any of their thugs along.
“Hiding again, brother? You know you can’t hide from us.” Vaelyn moved in front. “We grew weary of waiting and decided to come and fetch you.”
“It looks
like I’m not the only one hiding something.” Calvin’s voice was tight. “How long has he been here?”
The other djinn spoke. “Fifty years. Give or take.”
“You …” Calvin backed up a step. “It was you. Not Barzan. You took his form for the ba’isis.”
Vaelyn let loose a frigid laugh. “Poor Barzan. We may have unhinged him a bit when our brother confronted him, wearing his face. But we wanted strong scions, and we knew you would never perform the ba’isis for us. Barzan served his purpose.”
“So you did drive him mad.” Disgust filled Calvin’s voice, and he turned to the hooded figure. “Did you run out of lives to destroy in our realm? Bastard. You should have been sealed away long ago.”
The figure stepped forward. “Why, Khalyn. You don’t seem at all happy to see me. You’re ruining our little family reunion, brother.” He held a hand out just as Calvin’s came up. “Careful. You may be older, but my scions give me strength. And you know what I’m capable of doing.”
It wasn’t just the damning revelation of what I was up against now—the other mercenary, the twins’ brother, who had a fuck-ton of scions running around powering him up—that made my spine crawl. It was his voice. I’d heard that smug, superior tone before. But I couldn’t place it, because all the Morai I’d ever spoken to besides Calvin were dead.
Vaelyn glided past Calvin and kicked at the smoldering remains of the cooking fire. “Where is the mongoose, dear brother? We’d like to take him along.”
“He’s gone. Probably halfway home by now.” He kept his gaze on the other djinn.
“Is he, now?”
I felt something push against my shield. I pushed back, as hard as I dared. Eventually, it moved away.
“Vaelyn,” the brother said. “Don’t concern yourself with that insignificant Doma spawn right now. He’ll come to us eventually. Perhaps he’ll find the Bahari brat Taregan and bring him along, and save us the trouble of seeking him out again. But I’m not finished with Gahiji-an yet. And Khalyn will accompany us back now.” He gestured, and Calvin’s fireball went out. “Won’t you, brother?”
“As if I have a choice.” Calvin glared at him. “Why did you come here?”
“To take what I should have had centuries ago. And this time, I have the blessings of the Council—or at least one of them. The only one who matters, really.”
“You’re working for Kemosiri.”
“Better the devil you know. I would have destroyed Gahiji-an for nothing, but to be rewarded for it is so much better.”
If my blood ran any colder, my teeth would start chattering.
“Our time grows short, brothers,” Vaelyn said. “The ba’isis must be performed soon. And if we do not have our child, we shall be very disappointed indeed.”
“Lead the way, sister. Khalyn will follow you.”
They filed out one by one, with Calvin moving like someone had shoved a tree up his ass. The brother stopped at the mouth of the cave. “If you are in here, thief, it’s here you’ll stay,” he said. “Unless you’d like to exchange Gahiji-an’s tether for your own miserable life. It’s your only chance to survive. We will find you.”
Fuck you. It was hard not to say it out loud, but I managed.
He waited a moment, then backed out and spoke a few djinn words. The whole cave rumbled and shook—and the faint light from the entrance vanished behind a curtain of rock.
Chapter 23
I stayed huddled in my corner and made myself wait as long as possible before I lowered the shield. They were gone. They hadn’t found me. But I was still completely fucked. I couldn’t dig through stone unless I figured out a way to transform something into a couple sticks of working dynamite.
Something told me with absolute certainty that djinn magic wouldn’t work like that.
I took slow, deep breaths to calm my racing mind. I had to think, before I went crazy and started beating on the walls or trying to claw through them. I wasn’t exactly claustrophobic—just allergic to being trapped. Holing up in a place with only one way out was hard enough, and this cave now had zero ways.
Not thinking about that yet. Instead, I worked back through the overheard djinn conversation and looked for something useful. I got that Kemosiri had enlisted the brother to kill Ian. Not exactly shocking. The old bastard probably hadn’t bargained for his daughter being destroyed in the process, but I had a cold suspicion he might not care.
The Bahari brat comment gave me a little hope. It seemed Tory had managed to escape. Wherever he was now, at least he was free of the compound, so I’d only have to worry about getting Ian out. Right after I tunneled through solid rock.
Finally, I lingered on the bit about the scions, and how the brother had fathered them. What did Calvin say? You took his form. This guy had made himself look like Barzan to fool Calvin into performing the fertility spell on him. That was a pretty handy fucking trick. And as limited as my knowledge of the clans was, it didn’t seem like something a Morai should be able to do. Illusions were Bahari specialties.
Barzan’s warnings seemed to leap from the walls around me. Beware the deceiver. He of two worlds will destroy all. Two worlds … two faces? He had to be talking about the brother. The guy made Lenka look like a slightly perturbed, declawed kitten.
And that voice. Damn it, I knew I’d heard it before. How was that possible?
My muscles twinged in protest of the cramped position I held. Time to wander uselessly around the cave, looking for an exit that didn’t exist. The only way I’d get out of here would be to somehow figure out how to access earth magic, and then guess how to use it. And I needed it now, before the Morai decided to come back and make an actual effort to find me.
Need. Djinn magic worked on need. Maybe earth magic worked the same way.
I shifted forward, knelt, and put my hands on the cave floor. I need out of this cave. I need to get to Ian.
Twin shocks slammed up my arms. For a minute I thought it was another aborted attempt. Then it hurt like hell—or like a tortured djinn chained to a wall. I was with Ian again, but it was different this time. It took me a few seconds to work out why.
I could still see the cave.
Ian’s vision was superimposed on mine, like a double-exposed photo. Blurred snatches of rough block walls, wood stairs, and a hard-packed dirt floor splattered with blood ghosted over the dark contours of the cave. All the pain was his. My own body felt warm, as if I’d been sitting in front of a fireplace for a few hours. Everything inside me tingled with the pins-and-needles sensation of blood flowing to numb flesh. The magic was waking up.
Holy shit. I’d actually done it—I’d broken into the entire fucking planet. For an instant I could feel the enormity of it, the sheer power it contained, and thought I’d pass out. I’d never experienced anything this intense. I could feel the earth’s heartbeat, a massive, pulsating thrum that wound through and connected everything in existence.
And I knew how to get to Ian. I could move through the earth, the same way the djinn moved through mirrors. His blood on the floor was a compass guiding me there.
The moment I understood, I sank into the cave floor without thinking.
Mirror transportation was cold, but this was hot. Like climbing into a car that had been sitting under the sun in an open parking lot for hours. The heat lasted a few seconds, and then, like a cork surfacing in water, I popped up through dirt into cool darkness. A surprised gasp whooshed out of me. I shook myself and stood.
Ian spit in my face.
“Thanks,” I murmured, wiping away blood and spittle with my jacket sleeve. “Nice to see you too. Hope you haven’t contracted any diseases lately.”
He shivered hard enough to rattle chains. “Thief ?”
“Yeah.” Christ. His voice sounded like metal scraping on pavement. A quick glimpse told me enough to keep from really looking at him, unless I wanted to lose my last meager meal. “Time to go. Talk later.”
“Destroy me.”
“I ca
n’t.”
“Blast … compassion. Do not wish to live.”
“Will you shut up? I can’t, Ian. I tried. It didn’t work.” An odd combination of adrenaline and terror pulsed through my veins. I’d made it here in one piece. Now, how the fuck was I going to get both of us out in the same condition? I couldn’t go back the way I’d come in. I had nothing to anchor to. This was obviously a basement, but I had no idea where it came out. I’d have to try and get a look around, and then come back for him.
Ian laughed. The haunted sound ripped at my soul and left it bleeding. “No escape,” he whispered. “You will die. Both realms burn.”
“No I won’t. Now be quiet.” My own voice broke at the end. Whether it was the bond between us or just being physically close, I felt the aching emptiness in him every time he spoke. He’d already died with Akila, but his body couldn’t let him finish the job. Saving him was almost crueler than leaving him here. At least the torture occupied his mind for a while.
I couldn’t take the time to explain everything now. Couldn’t even heal him yet. If anyone came down here and found him unhurt, they’d know he had help. “I have to check things out,” I said. “I’m coming back for you. And this is gonna sound weird, but—try not to think about me, all right?” If he managed to pull me into his anguish while I was skulking around the compound, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to maintain a shield.
“No! Please … r-release me.” He tried to look at me, but his eyes wouldn’t focus. Tears shimmered in them. “Begging you.”
I had to turn away. “I can’t.”
A single choked sob followed me when I went invisible and started up the stairs, inflicting more damage than a bullet in the gut.
Six steps led to a landing, and then a door. Metal, with vents at the top and bottom and long vertical slits in the middle. And a guard on the other side. I could smell him—sharp sweat and stale cigarettes. He didn’t move around much, but I knew he wasn’t asleep because that would be lucky for me. The slits were too thin to shoot him through. I could open the door, even if it was locked. Then I’d either have to hope he went past me to investigate, or try to engage him and take him out before he sounded an alarm.
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