“Why not just live separately, like the treaty says?” I asked. “What you’re doing here breaks the mage folk laws.”
He smiled. “That treaty was drawn up by pacifists who would let half our resources go to waste. Pacifists like them will sink this country. I like to benefit from things that have use for me. So prove you have use to the Order, and I’ll keep you alive.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Angus.”
“It’s ready,” Angus replied, stepping forward.
Blood drained from my face when I saw what he carried.
It was a helmet of black metal and stone, with wiry filaments over the crown. Gold streaks threaded through the sand-coloured stone.
“What is that?” I asked.
“Lie down,” Angus ordered.
“I want you to divine for me,” Madden said. His power pressed against my skin, numbing my fingertips as he attempted to compel me. “I doubt that you can. So Angus will use the helmet to confirm it.” His gaze didn’t leave mine. “You’re going to let him put it on.”
His compulsion had tried to force me, yet he hadn’t seemed to notice that it had failed.
When Cahir had searched me, he’d never thought to search my skin. The Algiz scar etched into my thigh would shield me from compulsion and from spells meant to harm.
If I played this convincingly, it could become more than protection. It could become leverage.
But the helmet was still concerning.
“What will this do to me?” I asked.
Angus lifted the helmet. Fighting every instinct, I let him place it over my head, as Madden tried to compel me to do. The stone warmed against my forehead.
Angus glanced at Madden, who nodded.
“There’s an area in your brain that activates when a diviner uses foresight,” Angus explained. “If you’re truly having a vision, the helmet will register it.”
“Is it sanguinite?” I asked.
Surprise crossed his face. A Healer, perhaps.
“Yes,” he said after a moment. “The gemstone helps draw out the presence of Sight in the correct places we need.”
Madden watched me closely. “Tell me the truth. Can you divine for me?”
“Yes,” I rasped, letting it sound dragged from my throat.
“Who knows I shuffled the Mage Lord’s threads?”
His gaze bore into me until my temples throbbed.
“Me,” I murmured. “Reagan. Varian. The Second and the Third.” I mentioned only the ones he would have already assumed.
Angus monitored the top of my head.
This was dangerous. At any moment they could realise I was resisting the compulsion.
Madden narrowed his eyes, and for a heartbeat I thought he saw straight through me.
“Varian must have told them,” Cahir said quietly. “He’s a loose end.”
Madden hummed, gesturing vaguely in my direction. “But if she’s a diviner, she might have seen it.”
“It’s ready when you are,” Angus said.
