Chapter 29 #2
“Yes.” The word came out of its own volition.
Sinan had no more control over his truthful answers now than he had over continuing to breathe.
He could try and not speak, but the urge would eventually overwhelm him.
Fine. He wanted Rixende to know the truth.
“But Gallmau doesn’t want to hurt you, he wants to rescue you. ”
Rixende waved that statement away with a flutter of her fingers, but Valentina gripped her arm. “Ask him if he can perform death magic for you, like calling up an undead spirit.”
“No, I can’t.” Sinan was forced to choke out the words. “But I am one of the Blessed.”
Rixende pressed her sword in until it stung, and a trickle of wet blood ran down Sinan’s neck. “Only answer the question, nothing more.”
“Ask him if he’s Gallmau’s lover.” Valentina might be going a bit far with the game at this point. Hopefully Rixende would be too embarrassed to ask that question, because Sinan couldn’t stop himself from answering it.
“Have you tumbled my brother?” Rixende didn’t as much as blush.
“Yes.” Sinan tried hard to bite that one back, because it was none of her business, and why had Valentina picked this particular spell to try and help him?
“More than once?” Rixende prompted and pursed her lips when Sinan had to answer in the affirmative again. “I know Gallmau can’t resist handsome men, but I find it hard to believe he’d seduce a Bone Lord. Still, why would he send his poet lover to lure me into a trap?”
“There’s so much that’s unclear.” Valentina touched Rixende’s arm again, and the princess turned to her. “Magic and curses, and too many men telling you what to think. Don’t do anything rash. Talk to Gallmau and find out his side of the story. He’s your brother.”
“Ask this man to submit to a test of Amor Vitriol.” Zhang Jue came up on the other side of the princess, a glass sphere in his hand.
There were a good deal fewer of the blue rocks inside than in the one Meri had thrown into the fireplace at the chateau, but it still would wipe away what little glints of magic Sinan had been able to regain. If he never heard of or saw the mineral again, it would be too soon.
“Submerge this into a bowl of water, and if he’s unaffected, we’ll know he’s innocent of necromancy.”
Sinan struggled again to break the bony cage pinning him to the wall.
Zhang Jue wasn’t trying to use the Amor Vitriol on him.
The Sorcier du Roi had caught on that Sinan wasn’t able to use his necromantic powers.
Zhang Jue wanted to use the substance against Rixende.
Maybe he had hoped to kill her with it, but he couldn’t attack a descendent of the Grimoard line directly.
What he could do was trick her into using it against herself.
“No.” Sinan could still talk, as long as he spoke the truth. “Don’t listen to him.”
“It’s a dangerous magical substance,” Valentina added hastily. “It could make your curse even worse.”
“Ask this poet if anyone in the room would be harmed by the Amor Vitriol if they weren’t a necromancer.” Zhang Jue’s words were as soft and silky as the cloth tie in his hands. “He can’t lie—Valentina did the charm correctly.”
Sinan bit down so hard on his lip he drew blood, but when Rixende blurted out the question, he couldn’t stop himself from answering. “No, it only harms the Blessed. That’s why it’ll hurt you .”
“I’m not a Bone Lord.” Rixende stomped one foot for emphasis, and all three Azhdarchids followed suit. “I’ve been cursed by the real Prince of Shadows—who’s not some pretty-boy courtier my brother’s bedding—and I’ll prove it.”
She snatched the sphere of Amor Vitriol from Zhang Jue’s hand and walked over to a table holding a washing bowl and pitcher. Like everything else in the cave, the porcelain objects were exquisite, a translucent white with a blue underglaze detailing fish in a lotus pond.
Valentina shouted a final plea for her to stop.
But the princess tossed the glass object onto the water in the basin. Rixende watched with interest as it floated and bobbed on the surface.
Then the explosion came, a rush of blue fire throughout the room.
Sinan braced himself for more pain or perhaps even unconsciousness, but he felt nothing more than an unpleasant crawling sensation all over his skin.
The bone cage around him collapsed and Sinan lunged forward to attack Zhang Jue. He landed a punch to one side of the man’s face, sending him reeling backward and hopefully disrupting whatever spell the weather mage might be about to use on him.
The Azhdarchids shrieked in fury as Sinan scrambled for his sword, which he leveled at Zhang Jue as he tried to see who the Archaics wanted to eat first. The beasts showed no sign of aggression.
Instead, the three of them huddled together, their enormous eyes fixated on the floor as they made a low, keening sound of mourning.
Rixende Grimoard, the Dauphine of Soissons, lay crumpled on the carpet.
Valentina had gone to her side, laying her hand on her forehead as she used her healing powers. The princess’s fox ears and tail remained—the physical Blessings of his people weren’t affected by Amor Vitriol, and Sinan had no idea why his own internal Blessing had been taken away by the substance.
“If you weren’t a traitor to your training at the Noviodunam you’d be using your Gift to end her life, not save it.
” Zhang Jue regarded both Valentina and the steel blade Sinan had poised at his neck with contempt, even though Sinan was close enough to be inside any magical armor the weather mage could summon.
“And to think I protested when Odart insisted I send you an invitation.”
Valentina hadn’t been attacked merely because she was with Jacques. Odart had wanted the medica to die here so her death could be blamed on the Blessed as well.
“If you weren’t a traitor to your Queen and your office, you’d be trying to help the heir to the throne.” Valentina shot the words back at the Sorcier du Roi as she worked, her face tight with the strain.
Sinan shot another glance at the three Azhdarchids, who were rooted to the spot, watching as the medica tried to save their beast master.
How they could tell Valentina wanted to help Rixende wasn’t clear.
Real intelligence lurked behind their enormous eyes.
Maybe they could be of help, even if the princess wasn’t able to control them directly.
“There’s no cure for necromancy.” Zhang Jue kept arguing with Valentina, but he didn’t resist as Sinan bound his hands with the fabric the Sorcier du Roi had planned to use to gag the medica.
There was nothing Sinan would enjoy more right now than running Zhang Jue through with his sword.
There were two problems with that. One, Valentina’s powers would be diminished by the death, and she might not be able to save the princess.
Two, if they succeeded in freeing Rixende and escaping, a living Zhang Jue would be a damning indictment of the treason of the benandanti.
“We have to get out of here.” Sinan scanned the front of the cave. Gallmau and Meri’s distraction wouldn’t work for much longer.
“She’s small enough that I can carry her down the steps.” Valentina gave an offended glare at Sinan’s expression of surprise. “I’m stronger than I look, and anyway, you’re the one with the sword. I’ve stabilized her, but it would be better if I can keep physical contact to help with the healing.”
“Fine.” Sinan turned to the Azhdarchids.
Animal magic of any sort was notoriously difficult for anyone but beast masters to use, and he knew less about it than even his few ghost spells. But he didn’t need to control the giant Archaics, only communicate with them.
“This man wants to hurt your master.” Sinan gestured at Zhang Jue. “We want to help her.”
Plumette cocked her massive head at that, then bent down to shriek in Zhang Jue’s face.
The Sorcier du Roi backed up against the wall, raising his bound hands over his face.
Electricity crackled from his skin, a type of magical armor Sinan had seen used passively by the Shields of Thaschus.
Zhang Jue’s would be stronger, but it was a purely defensive magic.
Once again, the weather mage was at a disadvantage.
The Archaics slammed their beaks into the crackling field of energy around the Sorcier du Roi, growing more enraged as their attacks failed to land. That should keep him busy for a while.
Sinan sheathed his sword and went back to Rixende’s crumpled shape, preparing to lift her onto Valentina’s shoulders. The medica gasped, and Sinan whirled toward the cave entrance.
Odart of Dol stood outlined in the entrance, two fireballs floating above each hand. Jacques stood beside his father, his face unreadable. Three Shields came up behind the mages, and the sight of the bound prisoner they herded in front of them sent a stab of fear through Sinan.
Meri.
That meant Gallmau was captured as well. They had taken their chance, and lost.
Odart gave Sinan a cold smile and raised his right arm to ready his fireball. “You’re no prince, necromancer, and now you don’t even have your shadows. Burn in Hell, death witch.”