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The Collector caught her wrist in an iron grip and forced her hand back down to the bed. “Where did you develop such a loyalty to the Hesperines? This is a very unfortunate position for you to hold.”
She struggled with all her might against his grasp. “I won’t tell you anything, no matter what you do to me.”
He laughed softly. “You need not tell me. I am a mage of dreams. I can see into your thoughts.”
Lio slid his hand behind Cassia’s head. His presence filled her mind and memories. He was everywhere, even in this moment in the past when she had not had his mind ward to protect her.
“No,” Cassia cried. “No!”
“I will handle you with caution,” the Collector assured her. “You are far too valuable for me to be careless with you. I am not like your father, who wasted your mother in a petty fit of temper.”
Cassia faltered. “He what?”
“He is the fire mage who killed your mother, I’m afraid. I had nothing to do with that, I assure you. Thalia was very valuable, and she could have borne other valuable daughters like you. You can make Lucis regret his mistake. What are the Hesperines to you, compared to your mother’s life? Don’t you want revenge on your father for her death? Would killing a few heretics be too high a price to pay?”
“I will not give you information on the Hesperines.” But she knew her protests were in vain.
He was a mind mage of Hypnos. He could take anything he wanted from her.
“I’m with you, Cassia,” Lio said. “He can never hurt you again. You’re safe with me. This is only a memory.”
She turned her face away from Miranda, resting her cheek on Lio’s palm. He kept talking, his familiar voice soothing, quoting the verse from their window seat at home. “Awaken unto me, to my certain embrace, under the wing of darkness, where together we find shelter…”
She focused on his voice, his touch, as the Collector clawed into her mind and plucked her most precious secret from her thoughts.
“The Hesperines saved your life and disposed of your sister’s remains?” The Collector’s voice was icy with rage. “There is rarely a complication I fail to predict. And when there is, the Hesperines are always to blame. They will regret this.”
Lio’s mind magic rended Cassia’s memories, staining her visions of Paradum red. His voice split the Collector into fragments. “No. You will regret that you did this to her. No matter how many epochs it takes me, I will punish you for daring to lay a hand on her thoughts.”
The Old Master’s words snapped back together slowly, in disjointed pieces. “I can see that your loyalty to the Hesperines is very strong. But life debts are meaningless compared to the forces of death. I will give you one more chance to change your mind.”
“Never. No matter what you do to me, I won’t betray them.”
“Allow me to explain why you should.” He traced Miranda’s finger down Cassia’s breastbone. “Your Lustra magic is the most difficult of all paradigms to tame. It has taken me centuries to devise a process for displacing your affinities, and my experiments severely reduced the number of surviving Silvicultrixes. If you give me your magic willingly, it will be much less painful for you.”
“You think pain is enough to make me surrender? Every day of my life has caused me pain you cannot imagine.”
“Not pain like this. I will not be able to render you unconscious for the experience. Once I begin displacing you, I must not use my mind magic on you again. If I so much as touch your thoughts, your magic will use the connection to escape me and return to you. Do you understand, Cassia? You will be awake through it all. You will feel everything.”
Fear seized her, more powerful than any she had felt in the king’s presence. But she looked the Collector in the eye. “I will fight you for everything you try to take from me.”
“What a pity. You would have made an excellent Overseer. But perhaps your love for the Hesperines will be of use in the long game.”
Miranda’s hand flicked, and Cassia’s spade flew across the room. The leather straps seemed to come from nowhere, snaking over her. She thrashed against her bonds, but to no avail.
Miranda took hold of Cassia’s hand and slashed her palm with the knife. Cassia hissed in pain as Miranda squeezed the wound over a bowl. Dipping her knife into Cassia’s blood, she painted an eye of Hypnos on her breastplate.
When Miranda spoke again, it was in her own voice. She was hoarse, as if the Collector had ruined her throat when he had torn her magic out of her. “You are my first task for him. Let us see how you feel without that precious magic of yours.”
“No,” Cassia pleaded. “Please, Miranda, don’t do this. I never wanted any of this to happen. Give me a chance to earn your forgiveness.”
“It’s too late. I’ve made my choice, and so have you.”
“Please! There are other ways to escape the temple than serving him. He is not offering you freedom. He has only put you in his cage.”
“You don’t understand. You can’t feel the power that’s flowing through me even now. And you never will. I’ll leave you just enough magic to keep you alive and sane. And then I’ll take your memories. You’ll never even know you were a mage.”
Miranda’s hand curled into a fist, aimed at Cassia’s heart.
