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Where have all of these people come from? There are far more than can be just from the bug club. How many are past students, how many other followers Torstem drew in from across the city—and who knows where else?
I have no way of knowing when I can’t see their faces.
When I glance at our escorts again, they’ve drawn back the lower part of their shrouds’ hoods to fix their own masks in place. One appears to be a stoat, while the other looks like a snake.
It takes all my self-control not to shudder.
“Join us!” The call goes up from the figures already around the fire, first from one and then echoed by a dozen other voices. We hustle over to fill the space that opens in the ring.
The fire’s heat crackles against my face through the illusion. Sweat trickles down my back beneath my gown.
A particularly imposing form whose illusion makes him look like a hawk steps closer to the fire and walks along the inside of our ring of bodies. He holds up a large clay carafe.
They might be casting illusions on our faces, but they aren’t bothering to disguise voices any longer. I recognize Ster. Torstem’s authoritative tone the instant the first word leaves his mouth.
“Greetings to the newcomers and those already initiated! Tonight the Order of the Wild joins together in our worship of the gods and the old ways that have been forgotten. We’ll tap into the essence of who we are and what the world should be. Let us Wildings drink to that!”
He stops by my companion from the cart first and taps her chin. The girl tips her head back, farther at his second nudge, her lips parting.
Torstem holds her chin in place as he pours a dollop of the liquid in the carafe down her throat. My stomach twists, watching.
She has no choice but to swallow. Even through the illusion, the bob of her throat is visible. And Torstem doesn’t release her until it happens.
He turns to me next. My magic flares between my ribs, urging me to propel him away, to knock the whole lot of them down.
Would it be enough to destroy this group? Is everyone important here? Could I put an end of the conspiracy just like that?
Even if I could, what would happen after? I don’t know where I am, don’t know what’s nearby, and have no way of communicating with anyone who’d care.
Maybe it shouldn’t matter, but images from the stories of evil riven who slaughtered entire villages flash through my mind. I balk, and Ster. Torstem’s hand comes to rest against my jaw.
My head tilts automatically, away from his touch. I force myself to open my mouth.
If I can manage to swallow only a little and spit out the rest after…
But the sour liquid sloshes into my mouth so forcefully it’s either swallow or choke. I gulp, half gagging, and an unsettling lightness sweeps through my body before the stuff has even hit my gut.
The law professor pats my shoulder approvingly and lets me go. I clamp my mouth against the urge to vomit.
If I did, I suspect he’d come back to insist on another dose.
As he prowls on around the circle, distributing the drugged drink to disciple after disciple, my head spins. The figures around me expand and distort, like monstrous versions of the animals they’re hiding behind.
They are monsters. All of them. If I’m going to be a monster, wouldn’t slaughtering the lot of them be the most honorable kind of viciousness I could carry out?
Kosmel, I think, as loud as I can.What do you want me to do? I can’t unleash that kind of power without you guiding the backlash. I don’t know what other disaster I might set off.
Killing one man years ago left all the gardens in the surrounding neighborhood decimated by the explosion of insects. What would happen if I killed twenty?
How would I explain the end result to King Konram? I’d have gone against his orders. I haven’t discovered who infiltrated the palace’s defenses or how yet.
No answer feels right.
My stomach turns, and not just because of the toxins working their way through it. My body sways forward and back like a sapling in the wind.
The godlen of luck remains silent. He’s left me to take my chances on my own.
Torstem finishes his circle and tosses the clay vessel into the fire. He lifts his arms, turning to take us all in with the fire warbling at his back. “The Order of the Wild remembers the wildness of our past! We will live as humans were meant to be!”
