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With a curse, I grabbed for the iridescent moss again. My first attempt reached the magic and managed to pull it back in the direction of the unconscious fae – but that second, eerie bit that had escaped the crash grew even thinner at the same time, drifting farther away from us. When I tried to pull it back, it was instead the magic that swiftly wandered off.
‘They’ve been separated.’ I returned to the magic with a pounding heart, only to lose my grip on the other element again when I pulled at it. ‘His magic and his … the thing I linked it to. I can’t get them both to return to him … Oh,damnit—’
‘It’s fine, Em.’ Lyn rubbed her eyes with a joyless chuckle. ‘I doubt he’ll have much use for his powers anymore.’
True, admittedly – but he’d need that other little part of him even less. I bit out a curse and yanked the magic back towards me, back towards our test subject, dragging it below his skin the way I’d accidentally sent it into the glass before.
It slipped back, shimmering for a last moment before seeping into his gaunt body. At the same moment, that insubstantial element I’d pulled from just below his skin dissolved into the moist autumn air, never to be seen again.
I stared at the spot where it had last been, not daring to believe the consequences of this experiment for a moment. ‘If you break it – if you break the new container of the magic – I think you can only get one of two back. Unbound magic or whatever else you lost.’
‘Orin’s fucking eye,’ Tared muttered.
‘And it doesn’t return to its rightful possessor by itself,’ I added, feeling like screaming. ‘So for all we know, she just snapped all those pens in two the moment you turned your backs.’
Ophion told us she can reverse the bindings, though, Creon signed.
‘Oh. Yes.’ I bit my lip, clinging to that thought. ‘That suggests she may have kept them, then?’
‘Not just that,’ Lyn said, although she had gone pale. ‘She’s been promising some communities that they may get back their fertility if they prove themselves loyal to the empire. I doubt it’s ever been her intention to let all of the magical world go extinct. Just to let the rebels die out and keep the lineages willing to bend to her rule.’
‘But then she must have tens of thousands of pens – or whatever else – in storage,’ I said slowly. ‘Somewhere.’
‘Yes.’ Lyn glanced at Creon. ‘Any ideas?’
He shook his head slowly, thoughts spinning behind his eyes.
‘If they’re somewhere at the Crimson Court, you’d have known,’ I said, hoping that was at least true. ‘Are there any other places large and safe enough to keep them hidden? Mysterious underground caves? Towers with lots of “do not enter” signs around the entrance?’
Half a smile grew around his lips.Not that I’ve ever seen or heard of, but then again …
‘You wouldn’t be the first person she’d tell,’ I finished bleakly.
His shrug suggested agreement.
‘Well, fuck,’ Lyn said, glowering at the broken glass. ‘Anyone else we could ask? Iorgas might have known, but …’
Tared let out a grim chuckle.
I suspect Thysandra knows, Creon signed with a near-imperceptible glance at Naxi. Her pensive frown stiffened only for a moment.She did most of the administration around the bindings as far as I know. Apart from her …His soundless groan betrayed he wasn’t too happy about his own suggestion.Agenor?
‘Don’t you think he’d have told us?’ I said.
I don’t think he knows where the bindings are stored. But he might be able to give us a few well-defended locations he’s never been allowed to enter for the past eight centuries.
‘Well,’ Tared said coldly, clearly loath to go along with any idea proposed by the Silent Death, ‘it’s not as if we have any better sources at hand. Any chance we can get him to Tolya? I’d prefer not to let the island out of sight for a few more hours.’
Lyn groaned. ‘Helenka is going to skin us alive if we bring him here.’
‘Don’t think she’ll do worse than a few scratches,’ Naxi said gleefully, jumping up. ‘I’ll have a word with her. Good luck with that thief of yours, Em – I think he’ll wake up in a few minutes once I’m no longer keeping him under.’
And with that meagre warning, she skipped off, her dancing pink skirts swallowed by the forest within a heartbeat or two.
Chapter 28
Thethiefdidindeedwake up in a few minutes, dizzy and disoriented as he clawed the forest floor to haul himself upright.
Then he froze, staring at his own bony fingers where they lay curled around a clump of grass.
