RECKONING
JACEN
Jacen had begun to feel marginally better, in that he was no longer convulsing or arguing with ghosts. The blinding pain in his head had faded, and the last time the guards tossed him a piece of stale flatbread, he had actually kept it down.
There was about three days’ worth of stubble on his face. Between his robes stiff with dried sweat and vomit, his greasy hair, the overflowing bucket of waste in the corner he’d missed more often than not . . . the dreadful stench seemed to have settled into his bones. At least his broken nose was clogged enough to dull his sense of smell.
Soon, he became aware of another presence nearby. Not the guards. They were always three in number and kept their distance, tense as bowstrings, hands never far from their weapons.
He didn’tthinkhe was hallucinating again. The other presence flitted about like a moth, drawn to the spark of Jacen’s consciousness. Another telepath.
Nines?he ventured.
You’re alive. She was taken aback. I haven’t been able to sense you in a while.
Where are you?
A cell, I think. Inquisitors came to the chapel. I had time to send a pigeon to Seth, but I don’t know if they saw. I didn’t see where they took me. It’s dark.Her mental voice was far more expressive than her physical one, conveying a depth of anxiety that made Jacen sick with guilt.
How long have you been down here?
A few days, maybe? I’m all right. They didn’t hurt me.A pause.What happened to you?
Jacen couldn’t stop himself from laughing aloud, a harsh, congested bark that made a guard peer into his cell. He faked a coughing fit, though there wasn’t much point. They’d heard worse from him.
I broke into the archives without a plan. Got caught. Stupid idea.
He hesitated.I’m so sorry you got dragged into this.
Nines did not seem angry with him, but most telepathic novitiates were adept at concealing that.
What are they waiting for?Jacen wondered, mostly to himself, but Nines answered.
There’s something going on up there. There was a telepath with the guards, but he had to leave, and they couldn’t spare anyone to replace him.
Jacen could not disguise his astonishment. Even at his best, he would not have been capable of such a perceptive range.Nowhe could barely sense what was going on in this very room.
Ged,he surmised, once he’d gotten over it.Akkani knew what he had planned. I must have accelerated his timeline.
Perhaps this would be to their advantage. Chaos on the surface might well provide them with an opportunity to escape.
The coup?Nines asked.
Jacen winced. Of course, she was already imprisoned for complicity.Yes.
A moment passed, then Nines said,What next?
Jacen had grown lucid enough to be surprised he was still alive. Each new breath came unexpected, every heartbeat a reminder he had not thought this far ahead.
I suppose we wait for an opportunity. In the meantime . . . there are some things you should know.
Nines took the truth rather well.
Perhaps because she was so young, had not spent Jacen’s additional two decades steeped in dogma and tradition. She was not yet so far gone that she had to wrestle with the futility of her whole life’s work. She listened with pensive curiosity as he told her all he’d discovered and what Akkani had revealed. When he’d finished, Nines mused,
I wonder where the gods get their bodies.
I haven’t figured that out yet.The god—the archdemon—in the tower storeroom had inhabited an ordinary man. Maybe that had been a temporary, discreet alternative to the ethereal beings to which Jacen was accustomed.
