Chapter 25 Kasira
KASIRA
THE WALLS AROUND KASIRA CLOSED IN. CHAINS PULLED HER ARMS taut behind her.
Dessen stood at the cell door, a smile on his face as it swung slowly closed, cutting off the last sliver of light.
The cry budding in Kasira’s throat erupted, and she bolted upright, seeking an escape from that encroaching dark.
Someone tried to seize hold of her, and she threw out an arm, knocking their hand aside. “Lana!”
“Don’t call me that!” she screamed.
The world came into focus around her, the murky cell giving way to a morning-bright bedroom. Her bedroom. Allaster stood over her, his expression twisted into something she couldn’t discern and his arms a bracket around her, as if he’d meant to hold her. For one wild moment, she wished he had.
“Corynth,” he said instead, and it took her a moment to realize that he thought she meant the nickname.
She hadn’t known what she’d meant, wasn’t sure why she had said what she’d said.
She had been so lost in the nightmare that she hadn’t been thinking, but Corynth wasn’t the name she’d needed to hear.
They stared at each other—him waiting for her to explain, her waiting for him to ask. In the end, she said only, “The nightmares,” and Allaster didn’t push any further than that. Sometimes, she felt like all she was made of was lies.
“This is getting to be a habit.” He changed the subject, nodding to her bed. “I’d prefer if you stopped trying to get yourself killed.”
“How sweet of you.” Kasira sank back against the plush headboard with surprising ease. The pain and weakness she had expected upon waking was absent, her wounds reduced to pale scars like all the rest. The Library’s magic had done its work well.
“It takes months to build up enough stamina to endure what you put your body through,” Allaster chastised her as he sat. He’d pulled up a chair by her bed, his long legs crammed against the side of it. “You weren’t prepared to funnel that much magic.”
“You can do it,” she countered.
“My body is used to channeling magic. It has … adjusted. Yours hasn’t.
” He spun one ring around his finger, his leg bouncing rapidly.
“Though you do appear to have a natural proclivity for magic. I’ve never seen someone take to it so quickly or so effectively.
The fact that you could summon away Morvir’s sword like that …
” He eyed her as if he expected her to know the reason why.
“It sure doesn’t feel like that,” she muttered into the blankets. “One teleport and I felt like I had been hit by a Zeras. Everything after that was like wading through knee-high mud while someone set fire to my muscles.”
Allaster’s expression all but trilled, And you deserved it. “Yes, well, that was your body attempting to tell you that you were using too much magic. The same would happen if you tried to teleport too far or summon too large an object. The body can only handle so much.”
So that was why she had been able to keep accessing her magic, but it had been harder and more painful each time. She was lucky she hadn’t killed herself.
“Speaking of only handling so much,” he continued. “I had hoped to start introducing you to the continent’s leaders, but if you insist on insulting them each time I do, you’re going to struggle as Librarian.”
Kasira ran a hand through her unbound hair to push it from her face. “Well, how about you just don’t get yourself killed and then I’ll never have to be Librarian.”
Allaster went incredibly still at that. Then he was up and across the room, pacing from one end to the next.
“We’ve been neglecting the foreign policy aspect of your training.
It’s important that you be familiar with the leaders of each realm and the delicate political terrain you’ll be navigating.
Being Librarian isn’t all beasts all the time. ”
“I—what is wrong with you?” He was talking so fast he sounded breathless.
He came to an abrupt halt. “I had two cups of coffee and have had nothing to do but sit here. Now, are you going to get out of bed, or do I need to drag you out?”
The image of him pulling her from the sheets rose unbidden, near enough to make her flush, and she scrambled free of them before the thought could settle.
Allaster left so she could get ready. Iylis had yet to show himself, so she summoned her own food from the kitchen, a task that took several tries as the magic failed to respond at first. It felt almost sluggish, a sensation she was fairly confident had nothing to do with her after witnessing Allaster’s own troubles.
After downing a couple slices of toast and a cup of tea, she washed and dressed and met Allaster down in the main library. He was shelving a stack of books when she arrived, his brow furrowed in discontent. A leopard spirit sat nearby, looking castigated.
“Let me guess, more reading?” she asked, wishing now she’d had a cup of that coffee herself.
“What? No. I just needed something to do while I waited. You took forever.”
“It’s been ten minutes.”
“As I said. Come with me.” He quickly placed two more books on the shelf and then spun toward the far door, striding across the room as if the ground might melt beneath him at any moment.
She hurried to keep up. “Why are we walking?”
“So that you know the location of this room.”
She cast him a sidelong glance. “And the coffee.”
He winced. “I would appreciate it if you never let me drink it again.”
They crossed through two rooms and ascended a spiral staircase to a circular tower chamber much like his study.
But where she had yet to see proof his office actually had a floor beneath all its clutter, this room was sparse but welcoming.
A small fire burned in the hearth, and the walls were adorned with various maps, from individual countries to the continent as a whole.
In the center sat a circular table surrounded by familiar faces.
May waved her over, and Kasira took the chair beside her. Allaster remained standing at Kasira’s other side, rifling through a pile of papers placed before his seat.
“I tended to Gievra while you were gone,” May told Kasira. “He’s eating well, but he still won’t leave his enclosure.”
“Thank you. I’ll check in on him after …
whatever this is.” She scanned the table, spotting Warrin and Elyae, who sneered at her.
There was also an older, bespectacled Jacari mage wearing a brightly patterned scarf bent over a pocket-sized notebook.
They lifted their head long enough to give Kasira a curt nod before returning to their notes.
May looked between Kasira and Allaster and released a small sigh.
“This is the Library Council. One mage from each nation is elected by their leaders to represent them at the Library. Sans Avaria, of course, and we’ve been sharing the Kalish position.
We meet to discuss the state of the continent and Library business. ”
Kasira surveyed the faces at the table. She still had no idea who the Kalish spy was, but they had been well informed.
If she had been looking to turn someone to her side, she would have started with this council, seeking someone with a weak point she could press.
As they had been sharing the responsibilities of the Kalish position, they would all have had the opportunity to encounter Vera.
Allaster laid down his papers, tapping his fingers atop them to a beat only he could hear. “Elyae, will you begin?”
Elyae stood to address the room. “The bodies of Lord Morvir Finnodor and one of his guards were discovered an hour ago in the Crystal Palace. The remainder of his delegation are demanding answers of Queen Sarren. They’re calling it an assassination and are taking it as a sign that Ayador is siding with Amorlin against Kalthos. ”
It took all of Kasira’s considerable experience not to react to Elyae’s news.
She had been so exhausted and on edge that she hadn’t considered what would happen when the bodies were discovered, and she couldn’t help the little flutter of relief at the realization that this meant the boy had kept his word and not exposed her.
“Send a statement that the Library is not allied with Ayador and express our regret regarding the lord’s death,” Allaster replied with the swift precision of a Malik commander.
“And keep me informed. Kalthos is likely to use this as an excuse for further animosity toward us, so it wouldn’t go amiss to drag your feet a bit in facilitating correspondence. ”
The tension in Kasira released a little at that.
Amorlin often ferried messages between countries, the portal room enabling far faster communication than travel across land, but the slower the investigation unfolded, the better for her.
Aside from the boy, there shouldn’t have been anything left to incriminate her, but it reassured her nonetheless.
When Elyae didn’t sit, Allaster raised his eyebrow, and she continued, “I find it highly suspicious that this occurred right after your and the Assistant’s visit to Ayador.”
“Are you implying that myself or the Assistant were involved?”
“Not yourself, no.” Elyae didn’t look at Kasira, but everyone else did. She didn’t need to defend herself though, as Allaster’s response was immediate.
“To question the Assistant Librarian is to question me, Elyae,” he said in a tone that brooked no argument. “So unless you are accusing me of being involved in Lord Morvir’s death, we’ll proceed as if you hadn’t mentioned it.”
Elyae’s golden skin flushed a light pink. “But—” She cut off at Allaster’s level look and dropped grudgingly back into her chair, frowning at Kasira as if Allaster berating her was Kasira’s doing. It had to be clear to her by now that Allaster had chosen a side, so why keep pressing the issue?
Allaster looked to the Jacari representative beside him. “Talthari?”