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Cassia sensed a disruption of the Hesperine magic in the room, as if something shattered in her very veins.
Skleros shuddered and rasped a breath. “Thank you for freeing me from the Guardian’s shackles, Master.”
No, that was not Eudias. That was not Dalos, either.
Hespera help her. Was this Hypnos himself?
Man or god, he would have to get through Cassia to hurt anyone in this room.
She hoped Sanctuary magic would withstand his unnatural power. Ready to awaken the glyph shard at any moment, she dropped to a crouch behind Knight and extended a hand toward him.
The Master made a scolding noise. A spark of lightning danced across her fingertips. She swallowed a yelp and snatched her arm back.
Knight lunged at the Master. She caught a glimpse of brilliant tendrils in the air when his body slammed against them. He fell to the floor.
“No!” Cassia drove her hand into the shocks of magic, gritting her teeth against the pain. She could not reach Knight.
He shook himself, then leapt to his feet again. He tried his jaws next, only to recoil again from a web of lightning magic.
Cassia’s arm dropped at her side, numb to the shoulder. If she drove the glyph shard into the magic, could she free Knight? Or would the shrine’s ward refuse to be a weapon?
“Please don’t do that again, Cassia,” the Master requested.
“Shall I constrain her, Master?” Skleros asked, still kneeling.
“Patience, my eager Overseer. The less we disrupt such fragile material, the better.”
They thought her fragile? Surprise was a powerful advantage. She must not let them know she had magic at her disposal until the moment came to use it. She made no further motion toward her pendant.
The Master beckoned to Skleros. “Rise. Let us finish our work.”
The Gift Collector got to his feet.
Cassia walked toward the mages with her best posture and spoke in her most courtly tones. “As you are a friend of the king’s, shall we not have a proper introduction? To whom do I have the honor of speaking?”
“Address the Master with respect,” Skleros warned.
Cassia quirked a brow at him. “This uncouth knave works for you?”
“Indeed, he is one of my Gift Collectors. At ease, Overseer. Cassia has waited for this moment for so long.” The Master paced in a circle around her, looking her up and down.
She stood where she was and let him walk behind her. She would not show that she feared him. “So the bounty hunters work for you. What does that make you? A bored exchequer from Corona out for a little adventure?”
“You may think of me astheCollector.”
“Hm. No, didn’t leave much of an impression on me. Do refresh my memory.”
“I certainly shall, in time. We will become intimately reacquainted.” He halted in front of her. He met her gaze through Eudias’s eyes. The Master, strange and yet familiar, intelligent and heartless, looked out at her from within the apprentice. “Orthros is not the place for our reunion. However, since you have appointed yourself a novice in my field of expertise, I shall condescend to provide you with a brief explanation of what is transpiring.”
“What is your field of expertise?”
“I will characterize it for you in terms the mortal mind can comprehend. I am a legendary player of Kings and Mages. I have been playing since long before the Hesperines devised this little modification called Prince and Diplomat.” He swept a hand at the table of Cassia’s motionless allies and friends, antagonists, and enemies. “Everyone is my token.”
“I am no one’s token,” Cassia told him.
The Collector drew nearer. Bile rose in her throat.
“You don’t understand,” he explained patiently. “I designed the paths and the plane. I built the board. I made the tokens—including you. You were born because I require you. You continue to exist at my pleasure.”
