Chapter 6

Ariadne thumbed through the two spell books. “You found these in the same chamber as the king’s weapons?” she asked the elf.

“Yes,” Ellerie said, “but Bobo and I were too busy exploring the city to finish translating them. Do you recognize them?”

Ariadne raised an eyebrow. “Why would I? They’re just spell books.”

“One is labeled. Bobo translated it as Fundamental Materials. Does that sound familiar? It’s not like any spell book I’ve seen before.”

“The label is handwritten,” Ariadne said, skimming through that book more carefully. “It’s just there so the owner can identify it separately from her other spell books. I’m sure she has a lot of them.” She grimaced. “Had a lot of them.”

“She?”

“If you found them in the king’s chambers, these must belong to Gaiana, his consort. Argyros isn’t a wizard. These look like formulae for shaping materials. Stone-shaping, metal-shaping.” She flipped to the end of the book. “And the spells to create and shape them.”

“You can read the wizard language?”

“I am a wizard.”

Ellerie glanced at Ariadne’s metal armor but didn’t comment.

“Can you tell me more about it?” the elven woman asked instead. “I’d already figured out that the book explains how to create some of the metals your people used, but I’m having trouble understanding even the parts we’ve already translated.”

“I’m not a shaper.”

“Anything you know would be helpful.”

Ariadne shrugged. “Shaping is used to construct materials that can’t be created through normal means. For shaped stone, you start with the stone that’s already there, and then add other components based on what type of stone it is. You’d have to read through the book for details. You use one spell to turn all the components into a liquid and mix them together, and then another spell to create the shape you want and return it to solid form. The inner city is mostly built of shaped stone. The builders added enchantments to ensure the structures could never collapse or crumble, but shaped stone holds up well on its own.” Which left more questions. How had the shaped stone in Fortress West melted? How had the entire eastern section of the city collapsed?

“What about metals?” Ellerie asked.

“There are a lot of shaped metals, but most are rare and just used for specific purposes. This book only includes a few of the more common ones.”

“The first one is like the armor you’re wearing now, right?” Ellerie asked, indicating the cuirass Ariadne had borrowed.

Ariadne had to stop for a moment and think about how to translate the name. The necklace didn’t provide a direct translation, so she had to split up the component words and translate them separately, then recombine them.

“Yes, silversteel,” she said. “It’s used for armor or jewelry, or sometimes expensive dinnerware.”

“It’s steel?”

“I’ve never studied shaping. I don’t know if it’s truly steel or if that’s just what it’s called.”

“What about the others?”

Ariadne sighed and glanced down at the book again. “The next ... I’m not sure what to call it. Fortisteel, perhaps? There isn’t a precise translation in this language. It’s used for weapon blades and certain tools.”

“Like the weapons we found in the armory?” Ellerie asked.

“Yes.” Ariadne flipped through the pages until she reached the next formula. “This last one is mirrorsteel. It’s expensive to create, and hardly ever used outside the Mage Knights, or certain war mages who can benefit from its properties. It’s similar to silversteel, but can be easily infused with temporary enchantments. It also dampens spells cast against the bearer.”

“That’s what your own armor is made from?”

“Yes.”

“Is that why you can cast spells while wearing it?”

“No.” Ariadne didn’t elaborate.

The silence stretched uncomfortably long, and then Ellerie said, “I’m sorry about our last conversation. I really do want to help you, but I also want to learn as much as I can about the Chosar and Tir Yadar. I think we can help each other.”

Ariadne hesitated, then nodded. “We’ll see.”

“There’s a warden in Aencyr by the name of Hildra. She claims to be over two thousand years old, and she’s heard of the Chosar before. Corec has spoken to her, and says she didn’t seem to know much about them, but if we tell her what you know, she might have some ideas we haven’t thought of yet.”

Another of these false wardens. Or, perhaps, she should simply think of them as new wardens. Ariadne had seen the six blue sigils along Corec’s arms a few times when he’d been sparring shirtless, and three of them matched the sigils she’d seen on Leena, Shavala, and the redheaded human—Katrin. Ariadne wasn’t sure who the other sigils belonged to, though she suspected Ellerie was one of them. It seemed a strange ruse to keep up if Corec wasn’t actually a warden. And if he was, then perhaps this Hildra was as well.

She nodded again. “We’ll see,” she repeated.

“There’s something else I wanted to talk to you about,” Ellerie said, looking uncomfortable. “We’re granting you two shares from the expedition’s profits.”

“I don’t want your charity,” Ariadne said, scowling at the other woman.

“It’s not charity. As the last liv— ... as the last resident of Tir Yadar, you’re entitled to a portion of what we found. It comes out to a bit over ten percent. It should be enough to help you do ... whatever it is that you want to do. You’re going to need money and resources if you want to find out what happened to your people.”

“I suppose,” Ariadne admitted.

“And your shares are separate from the Mage Knights’ equipment and the king’s swords,” Ellerie continued. “We figure those things belong to you and your people, and we don’t have any claim on them. The same with the necklace and the bracelet.”

Ariadne scowled. “I didn’t take the damned bracelet.”

“Then why didn’t you say so before?”

“Because what I do or don’t do is not your concern!”

Ellerie took a moment to visibly calm herself before responding. “Perhaps that’s true, but if you didn’t take it, then it actually was stolen, and we don’t know who by. It would have been helpful to know before now.”

“You’re all thieves. What’s the difference?”

“We don’t know if it’s dangerous! Do you know what it does?”

“I’d never heard of it until you mentioned it. If it came from the Enchantment Repository, I’m hardly the best person to ask. It’s just luck that I recognized the Necklace of Tongues—I’ve spent enough time in the Fortress complex to have seen someone wearing it before.”

“Would you recognize anything else from the Enchantment Repository?”

“No,” Ariadne said. Then she shrugged. “Maybe from stories.”

“Would you be willing to look at the other items?”

“To what end? To aid in your looting?”

Ellerie looked down, a disappointed expression on her face. “Never mind,” she said.

Ariadne wanted to shout at her, to argue with her about what the group had done to Tir Yadar, but she couldn’t muster the energy. She was tired of being angry all the time. Besides, after thousands of years, even by Chosar law it wouldn’t be considered looting. Worldly goods were of no use to the dead.

“I’ll consider it,” she said.

Tears blurred Yassi’s vision. Jasper was dead? That sweet old man?

And it was all her fault. She was the one who’d found him for Rusol. She was the one who’d sealed his fate when he could instead have continued to live his old life in Westport. First Samir and now Jasper. How many more deaths would she be responsible for? She’d found Rodulf too. Would he be the next to die?

“Are you paying attention?” Rusol snapped.

“How did it happen?” she asked.

“How did what happen?”

“How did he die?”

“You’re still going on about Jasper? I’m trying to talk to you about something important!”

“Rus, please!”

Rusol growled, then relented. “He wasn’t ready for a battle, even with the new spell books. It’s unfortunate, and I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do about it now. I need you to find me some real wizards—ones who actually know how to fight. Stop looking in Larso. We’re only finding the dregs here. Look in Matagor instead.”

Just like that he’d already forgotten Jasper. He thought nothing of the old man’s death, just as he thought nothing of the compulsion spell he’d laid upon Yassi’s mind, or the orders he’d given her that had slowly stripped away more and more of who she was. She had to face the truth. To Rusol, other people only mattered to the extent he could get something from them. Sometimes he’d say something that let her believe there was more to him, some part of him that wanted to do the right thing, but in the end, it always came to nothing. He was friendlier to Kolvi and Magnus simply because of the power they brought him. He’d forced Yassi to marry him only because marriage gave him an air of respectability—or perhaps because he’d wanted a bedmate. There was nothing more to it, and there never would be.

“Yassi! Are you listening?”

“I’m listening,” she answered in a dull tone, not meeting his gaze.

“Look for wizards or other mages we might be able to hire. In Matagor, they won’t be hiding, so it should be easier than the ones you’ve found here. If we find more than we need, that’s even better. I’ll bond the best of the bunch, and turn the others into hunters.”

He wanted her to find him more puppet slaves, and since he’d ordered it, she wouldn’t have any choice in the matter.

“Why are we talking about this in front of him?” she asked, indicating the other man in the sunroom, who stood staring blankly at a wall.

“Do you remember Sir Barat, from our last visit to Northtower?” Rusol said. “It seems he’s an elder witch, from one of the northern clans. He’s not very strong yet, but I bonded him and Kolvi’s going to work with him. I need you to find chambers for him near hers.”

Yassi shivered at the dead expression on the young knight’s face. “Why is he like that?”

“I don’t think he’s going to be happy about what I did, and I didn’t want to deal with him on the trip back, so I left the other compulsion spells on him. Tonight, I’ll sit down and come up with a list of commands to make sure he won’t turn against me. Once that’s done, I’ll remove the other spells.”

Yassi kept her face expressionless as she considered what Rusol had said. Despite the compulsion magic he’d woven into the modified warden bond, he was still concerned one of his bondmates could act out against him if he didn’t give all the right commands. But how? Yassi was forced to obey anything he said, and he’d given her so many orders, she’d practically forgotten what it was like to make a decision for herself. Was it possible he’d missed something?