Page 86 of Queen of War and Ruin

I open my mouth, then close it.

Because my mother was an orphan. My father said she came from the other side of the mountains, across the Vederill Pass. That the traders brought her and left her in Dungal.

My mother refused to talk about it. She said she didn’t remember anything before Dungal.

“Your ears,” Varitan continues. “They teased you about them when you were a child, didn’t they? All the other, normal children teased you.”

My jaw clenches. You’ll grow into them, my mother told me. It runs in the family, Petrys said. We all looked like you when we were little.

“And let me guess,” he continues. “You never have trouble lighting a fire? Or you’ve always been good with animals? Perhaps you’re a very fast healer?”

I don’t reply. Varitan makes a sound in the back of his throat.

“Elven ancestry,” he declares. “It’s the only reason humans are able to access magic at all.”

“That’s—”

I stop myself before I can say impossible. The silver chain glints under the table. The chain that should have hit me, twice, but that froze in midair instead.

“Indeed,” Varitan replies with a sniff. “It is quite disgusting. Humans will fuck anything, but most elves have standards. Still. Here you are.”

I swallow hard.

“All elves have magic,” Varitan continues, pacing in front of the long table. “Fire, animal handling, illusions, healing. It’s nothing special, really. But, some of us⁠—”

He turns to me. His eyes flash in the light streaming through the massive windows.

“Magicians,” he says in a low, deep voice. “We hold the real power. We can manipulate the magic of others. Turn it into great and terrible things.”

My throat feels dry, and my chest is tight. I remember dust rising in the air as Laurance’s pathetic imitation of an army tumbled into the gaping black maw that had just opened in the middle of the battlefield.

“You’re saying I— I’m a⁠—”

Varitan laughs, sharp and hard.

“Oh, stars, no,” he spits. “You’re just a human with some dull flicker of magic left over from an elf who couldn’t keep their legs closed. Like a mongrel a few generations removed from a purebred bitch.”

“So I’m not like you at all,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest. “Why not let me go, then?”

Varitan laughs again.

“Oh, you think you’re clever, do you?” He snorts. “You’re useful, human idiot. A dull flicker is better than nothing. Even a mongrel can be trained.”

He turns back to the table and waves his hands over the strange assortment of crap piled on the polished wood.

“Most of this is shit,” Varitan says, waving a hand at the table. “Stage dressing, you understand?”

Of course. He wouldn’t want Malrik to know what he really needed.

“Silver is what’s important,” Varitan continues. “Silver can hold magic. Magic that I will teach you to use. Are you still following me?”

I frown. I don’t want to give this asshole the satisfaction of a response.

“Obey me,” Varitan says in a voice that’s almost a growl, “and you’ll have power few have even dreamed of.”

I try to swallow. My mouth still feels dry, and my body is cold. Varitan’s boots click across the floor until he’s standing in front of me. He reaches down and grabs my chin in his long, cold fingers until I meet his eyes.

“Disobey me,” he says, “and I will hurt her. Badly.”