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Another contradiction. I didn’t know what to believe. And his motives were unclear, so I asked him, “Why do you want to go back to the living world?”
His burned face creased with anger. Fire erupted on his shoulders. “He sent me here to spend an eternity in misery. But his descendant released me, fed me power in exchange for knowledge and obedience. My master is strong, but not that strong. I have exceeded my savior’s power. Now I want to regain my life that had been stolen from me.”
“Who sent you here?”
“An Efe traitor named Guyan. Now do we have an agreement? If not, then you will remain here.” He shrugged as if my decision didn’t concern him too much.
Guyan’s name was familiar to me. He was Gede’s ancestor. So my new Story Weaver was in league with the Fire Warper. Perhaps Gede was also their leader Jal. I would have to remember that tidbit the next time I had a lesson scheduled with Gede. I choked out a laugh. At this point, there would be no future sessions for me.
I scanned the flat plain, peering into the red-tinged light. A gray shape swooped from the air. It dived and danced over a figure. I moved closer. The shape was a bat. But there weren’t any insects or sources of heat to warrant its actions. Yet it picked and yanked at the figure. Another torture on the poor soul?
“What do you see, Yelena?” the Fire Warper asked. “Your future?”
“Perhaps.” I turned away.
“Will you come back?”
“Yes.”
He held out his hand. I grasped it. My world melted in a blaze of heat and cooled just as quickly in a swirl of ash and smoke. I lay among the ruins of the stable. Charred beams rested in crooked angles, twisted pieces of blackened metal littered the floor, and the scorched smell of burnt leather hung in the air.
I stumbled from the still-warm pile of wood. Singed holes peppered my clothes and soot streaked my skin. My cloak was gone. The hair on my arms had been burned away. I reached for my head, stopping when I encountered half-burnt stubble instead of hair.
My ruined boots crunched on the remains of the stable and shuffled through ash-filled puddles as I walked out, seeking Kiki. No response to either my mental or physical calls.
A loud bang sounded behind me and I turned to see Valek standing in the doorway of the cottage.
I laughed at his expression of complete and utter surprise. Then my legs turned to liquid as I realized what I would really lose when I kept my promise to the Fire Warper. My efforts were so focused on trying to protect him—protect everyone—I hadn’t considered the cost of keeping them safe. I fell.
He was beside me in an instant. Caressing my face with a feather-light touch, he looked uncertain.
“Are you real?” he asked. “Or just some cruel joke?”
“I’m real. A real simpleton, Valek. I should never have said…I should never have done…” I drew in a deep breath. “Forgive me, please?”
“Would you promise never to do it again?” he asked.
“Sorry, I can’t.”
“Then you certainly are real. A real pain in the ass, but that’s who I fell in love with.” He pulled me close.
I clung to him with my ear pressed against his chest. The beat of his heart, steady and solid, comforted me. His soul, nestled within its chambers, was unreachable with my magic, but he had given it to me freely.
“Why were you so determined to push me away, love?”
“Fear.”
“You’ve faced fear before. What’s different?”
Good question. The answer horrified me. All this time I believed I wanted to protect my friends and family from the Fire Warper. “I’m afraid of my magic.” The words tumbled from my mouth, breaking through the invisible barrier I had built between us. “If I harvested enough souls, I know I would possess ample power to defeat all the Warpers, including the Fire Warper. That’s tempting. Tempting enough to want to protect you from me.”
Valek pulled back and tilted my head so he could meet my gaze. “But all you need to do is ask. We wouldn’t hesitate to give you our souls to defeat the Warpers.”
“No. There has to be another way.”
“And that would be…?”
“When I figure it out, you’ll be the first to know.” Before he could comment, I added, “You never answered me. Am I forgiven?”
He sighed dramatically. “You’re forgiven. Now come inside, you reek of smoke.”
Valek helped me to my feet. I swayed on unsteady legs for a moment. “Where’s Kiki?”
“Once you disappeared into the stable, she ran off and hasn’t come back.”
I wanted to find her and reassure her, but my body lacked the energy.
We walked to the cottage. The bright light of midday burned in the sky. I could no longer think of the sky without remembering my deal with the Fire Warper. Unease wrapped around chest.
“Where’s Bavol?” I asked to distract myself.
“The Daviian Warper captured him while I tried to douse the fire. Will they kill him?”
“No. They need him and all the Councilors for a while to keep up the pretense that the Council and Master Magicians are in charge.”
“How long will it last?”
“Not very.”
“Will they come after us here?”
The Fire Warper had gotten what he wanted. “No. But we need to retake control.”
“We, love? I thought you could handle this by yourself.”
Dealing with the Fire Warper was my task, but, for the rest, I required assistance. “I was wrong.”
Valek heated water and filled the cast-iron tub. He removed my pile of burnt clothes. By the time I finished bathing, he had brought me a clean outfit.
“What’s this?” He held Opal’s glass bat.
I told him about my visit with Opal. “As a fellow artist, what do you think of the construction?”
Valek examined the statue, turning it this way and that. “It’s an accurate reproduction. The coloring matches one of the smaller jungle bat species. It’s sticky with magic. I feel it, but can’t see it. Can you?”
“The inside glows as if molten fire has been captured by ice.”
“That would be something to see, then.”
Thinking about what the Fire Warper had done to show me his world, I touched Valek’s shoulder and opened myself to him, letting him see the bat through me.
“Ahh…spectacular. Can everyone see this?”
“Only magicians.” And the Commander, I thought.
“Good. That lays that debate to rest. I am not a magician.”
“Then what are you? You’re not a regular person either.”
Valek pretended to be mortified.
“Come on,” I said. “Your skills as a fighter have an almost magical air. Your ability to move without sound and blend in with shadows and people seem extraordinary. You can communicate with me over vast distances, but I can’t contact you.”
“An anti-magician?”
“I suppose, but I’d bet Bain could find it in one of his books.” I told Valek about the tunnel and about the Councilors’ families, describing the pond to him.
He considered. “That sounds like Diamond Lake in the Jewelrose lands. It’s near the Bloodgood border. The Jewelrose Clan had built a series of lakes that resemble shapes of jewels and the water reflects the colors.”
“Why red?”
“Because the Jewelrose Clan is famous for cutting rubies into diamond shapes. The Commander even has a six-carat ruby on a ring, but he had stopped wearing it after the takeover. I wonder…” Again, Valek’s gaze grew distant.
“What?”
He looked at me as if deciding whether to tell me something important. “Have you shown your bat to the Commander?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
I hesitated. I had promised the Commander to keep what he called “his mutation” a secret. Would telling Valek about the bat break that confidence? “I know about the Commander, love. How could you believe that I
spent the last twenty-one years with him and not know?”
“I…”
“After all.” Valek made a scary face. “I am the anti-magician!”
I laughed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“For the same reason you didn’t.” He wrapped my bat and placed it back into my pack.
“The Commander saw the glow. I think his body contains two souls, but I have no idea how or why it’s magical. And if he does have magic, why didn’t he flame out after puberty?”
“Two? Ambrose’s mother died during his birth and there was some confusion. The midwife insisted a boy had been born, but later his father held a baby girl. They searched for evidence of a second child but found nothing. They chalked it up to the midwife being upset about losing her patient. Ambrose used to blame this invisible twin whenever he was in trouble, which from his stories was quite often. His family indulged him when he began wearing boy’s clothes and calling himself Ambrose. It seemed mild in comparison to a few of his other antics.”
“Was his mother a magician?”
“She was considered to be a healer, but I don’t know if she healed with magic or with mundane remedies.”
