“I’ve saved your life,” Rolan said grimly.
He lifted Luc up, supporting him easily, and helped him limp deeper into the cave. There he carefully sat him by the cache, then took truth salve from his own belt.
“You’re hurt bad,” he said.
“Badly,”Luc muttered.
“That too.” Rolan lit a fire. This time his hands did not tremble, and the torch he held up flooded the cave with a much warmer light than the one surrounding him like a blue bubble. “Let me help you.”
“You shouldn’t… have used…”
“Would you rather I left you to die?” asked Rolan. “Just hush and let me finish saving your life. You know, everyone tells me how stubbornIam, but what aboutyou?”
Luc groaned.
“Was that him, then?” Rolan asked. “The giant cryptic?”
“No,” Luc said. “He was big. Not that big, though.”
With a shudder, Rolan opened the truth salve and scooped out a handful, smearing it thickly over the gouges in Luc’s chest and side. The Arcanist would need stitches and a lot of rest.
Luc groaned and shut his eyes, letting his head fall back against the cave wall. “Why are you here, boy?”
“To warn you,” Rolan said. “To prove to your stubborn hide that youneedme. Hoff is the one who set your house on fire. It was him and this fence, Cabbot. They’re working together to drive you away… or worse.”
Luc grunted, his eyes still closed.
“Don’t tell me you already knew!” Rolan burst out.
“I didn’t know. But does it matter? There will be more behind them, and more after that.” Luc gave a sharp, bitter laugh. “They’ll always hate the Arcanist, no matter who bears the title. It’s what they do, and it’s what I deserve.”
Rolan’s head snapped up. “You don’t deserve any such thing! Yourisk your life every day to keepthemsafe, and all they give you in return is suspicion and hate! It’s not fair!”
“Isn’t it?” Luc’s eyes opened just enough for him to peer down at his own hand, which he opened and closed as if he were pumping a heart. “You don’t know anything about me, boy.”
“Yes, I do! I know you’re a great fighter, and that you loved your family before you lost them, and that you believe in honor and all that even though it seems stupid at times. I know you’re agoodperson, better than just about anybody else in Crisanth, and I know that I want to—” He choked down the words, feeling suddenly foolish.
I want to be like you,is what he’d almost said.
But Luc was gazing at him as if he could read Rolan’s thoughts… and didn’t like what he saw.
“You don’t know anything about me,” he said again.
Rolan opened his mouth to argue, but at that moment, his body went weak. The Arcana drained out of him, and he sank trembling to the floor. His vision began to blur, and the last thing he saw was Luc gazing at him with soft, sad eyes.
“After the power,” whispered the Arcanist, “comes the secret.”
- CHAPTER 33 -TRUTH
The vision swept through Rolan on fine grains of sand. The scene assembled grain by grain before him, putting him in the center of a reconstructed view of Verity Square. A sour fog haunted the city, and the statue of Duke Benhald loomed behind him. He could tell by the shadow it cast across the cobblestones, and he instinctively tried to turn to look at it. But of course, this was not his secret, not his memory to control. He was a helpless witness, trapped in the body of whomever this secret belonged to.
The eyes he was peering through shifted then, grazing over the face of a man in blue.
The duke, standing in an empty square, complained about the cost of grain imports.
Ugh,boring. What kind of secret was this?
But then another voice cut through the memory, high and sharp, ragged with desperation.
