Chapter 36 Lena #2
“The stories say many of the korupted were human once, but killing one … it isn’t the same as killing a human,” he continued.
“I found that out the hard way not long after I’d turned fifteen.
My father’s smuggling had made him pretty well-known amongst the so-called heretics of Wyrecia.
They’d come to him seeking freedom only he could give.
Some he’d recruit to Queen Anja’s cause, but most he just helped across the sea, ensuring they were given entry into Verlond when they arrived. ”
He changed to her other hand, his brow furrowed in concentration.
“Unfortunately, the people he helped weren’t the only ones who knew of his reputation.
The emperor and his hunters did, too. One night, I came home from a supply run to find one of them standing over my father, a bloodied knife in his hand. I …” He swallowed.
Lena resisted the urge to reach for him. To tell him she knew what it was like to lose the only family you had left to the hands of the empire. But she was afraid that if she spoke, she’d interrupt this small piece of himself he was sharing with her.
So she stayed silent, breath held as Casimir told her his story.
“I didn’t think. I just saw my father lying there and grabbed the nearest weapon I could find.
The hunter didn’t even know I was there until the dagger was in his back, right in the place where I knew it would pierce his heart.
He died instantly, but my father … it was too late to save him. He was already too far gone.”
His hand stilled on top of Lena’s. When she looked up, his eyes were dark, filled with a quiet anger she recognized all too well.
“Taking a life is never easy,” Casimir said, “but sometimes it’s necessary. You saved Finaen’s life in that temple and got justice for the pilgrims that cultist slaughtered. He wanted to control you. To use you as a tool, and you fought back, Lena. You stopped the Haesta from achieving their goal.”
“Maybe you’re right,” she said, voice hoarse, “but none of it matters if I can’t break my bond to Dimas.”
“Well,” Casimir said, stepping back to withdraw something from inside his cloak, “perhaps this will help.”
It was a piece of old parchment, the edges torn, the ink scrawled upon it starting to fade. But she could still make out the Fateweaver’s symbol drawn in the center of the page, and below it, what looked like … an incantation.
Lena’s breath caught. “What is that?”
“This,” Casimir said, the smug smile on his lips annoyingly attractive, “is a ritual taken from a tome in the High Priest’s personal library, one that is meant to strengthen a Fateweaver’s power.”
Lena opened her mouth. Closed it again.
And then, in a sharp burst, she laughed.
“You did it,” she said, “you actually did it.”
Casimir looked offended. “Of course I did; I told you, I’m good at what I do.”
She could have kissed him then. The urge rushed through her, and Lena had to take half a step back from him to resist the impulse. “What do I need to do?” she asked instead, hoping Casimir didn’t notice the hitch in her voice.
“It isn’t the same ritual Dimas wants you to try after the rite, but it does mention casting this incantation in order to channel a large amount of power. I don’t know where we’ll find said power, but—”
“I do.”
The sealed chamber. The residual magic in the symbols.
If she could channel it, harness it, perhaps that, combined with using her magic on Casimir, would be enough to trigger the vision again.
Lena took yet another step back from Casimir, needing distance for the truth she was about to share.
“I didn’t tell you everything about the severing ritual.
I … I’ve already discovered where it’s hidden—in a chamber beneath the palace. ”
Casimir’s expression was unreadable, but she carried on.
“The vision I mentioned, it was a memory of the Zvaerna acolyte who hid the ritual by sealing the chamber door. I’ve been trying to summon that vision again so that I can learn how to open the chamber and retrieve the ritual inside.
I didn’t tell you because I wasn’t sure I could trust you.
But now …” She took a breath. “Now I’m sure that I can. ”
The smuggler had had every opportunity to betray her.
To walk away and never look back. And even though Lena knew he still needed her to honor her part of their deal, she was also starting to wonder if there was another reason.
One that had something to do with the gentle way he’d touched her just minutes earlier.
Still, a moment passed between them in which Lena feared Casimir would turn his back on her. A moment where she felt the desperate urge to reach out and grab his hands.
But then the smuggler simply said, “Has anyone ever told you that you have trust issues?”
A strangled laugh escaped Lena’s throat, the relief of the familiar warmth filling Casimir’s expression making her feel oddly delirious.
“It’s been mentioned, yes,” she replied. “I’m working on it.”
The smile that took over Casimir’s face was one that made Lena feel warm all over.
“Anyway,” she said, her gaze drifting to the fireplace, “the entrance is down in the tunnels beneath the palace. I need to get into that chamber. Tonight. My powers are still a little … unpredictable. If anything goes wrong down there, if I … lose control, you have to make sure I don’t leave those tunnels. ”
“You won’t lose control.” Casimir said the words with such conviction, such faith, that for a moment Lena let herself believe it.
She drew her cloak tightly around her shoulders. It was now or never.
Before her fear could return, Lena walked over to the hidden entrance, pressed her fingers against the sigil in the stone, and stepped into the dark.