Chapter 14
RENEL
I’m suffocating, unable to fight back. For a second, I’m a child again, powerless, afraid. As if I was any different now.
Mirella, for her turn, has grown into a young woman, but her malice hasn’t changed.
A jet of water hits her face, and I realize Ziven’s fighting back. The air flows again to my lungs and I gulp a big breath of air.
Mirella raises her hands. “Stop. I’ll stop too. I’m here in peace.”
I laugh. “Do you even know what that word means?”
Her chest sags slowly and she relaxes her hands. “It’s the space between ocean and sky. Nothingness. But I mean no aggression. I’m not your enemy.”
“Oh. What are you, then?”
She scowls and looks like her younger, petulant self. “Your ally.”
“Why are you choking us then?” I ask.
“I stopped,” she says, this time sounding like a regretful child. “And I was afraid you’d fight me.”
“What do you want?” I snap, hating myself for failing so early, and fearing that Zorwal or one of his creatures might be approaching.
“I’m here to help you.” Her voice is quiet, almost a whisper. “Just listen. You want to rescue Tarlia. I know where she is and how to get her out of here without alerting Zorwal.”
“Why would you help me?”
She stares at me, her eyes hard, then looks down. “I’m not Zorwal’s puppet. Not anymore. We have an enemy in common. More than one enemy. I’ll help you get Tarlia out of here, and then… I want to come with you. To… my brother’s house.”
“To lead Zorwal there.”
“Zorwal… I spent years and years on that island, years and years in a nightmare. I blamed you for a long time. Blamed myself. Still do.” She closes her eyes and lets out a bitter chuckle.
“Zorwal’s the one behind it all, and if he’s connected with the Witch King…
I can’t take him. Can’t kill him, not on my own.
Now he knows I betrayed him, but Tarlia might have information that could help us.
Let me guide you, then take me to my brother. I’ll explain to him what I was doing.”
Her words don’t make much sense. “You found him at the Jewel without any issue. Why would you need my help now?”
“I can find Marlak. You’re right. But I don’t want him to think I’m a threat, to think I’m helping Zorwal. And we need to free Tarlia.”
Ziven looks at me. “You could make a deal, couldn’t you? It would protect you both.”
I glare at Mirella, wondering if I can peer through her layers, look into her poisoned heart to find the reason for her strange behavior, and yet I do not know the answer. “You’re saying you can tell me where Tarlia is?”
“Yes, but you shouldn’t go there.”
“Am I supposed to rescue her by telepathy?”
Mirella shakes her head. “It’s a trap. Zorwal wants you. Why, I do not know. But it’s a trap. He’s waiting for you.”
“How am I to rescue Tarlia?”
She points at Ziven. “He can go. And you’ll need to use that dagger to cut her bond.”
How can she know that much? “Dagger?”
She sighs. “I can see you. I don’t know why.
I thought it was Marlak that I was seeing, but no.
It’s you.” The thought of Mirella peering on me chills my bones, and I don’t think she likes the idea either, as she grimaces.
“I know everything you planned. Everything. And I know you need to defeat Zorwal. I want to defeat him too. It’s why I joined him, to learn his weaknesses. ”
“Did you learn anything?”
“Tarlia might have learned something, but I couldn’t ask her.
She’s being watched. It’s a trap for me too.
Let’s make a deal. I know you hate me. I…
” She closes her eyes. “Have no affection for you, Renel. And I know… I know we don’t get along.
I’m not asking you to like me or to trust me without any guarantees. Let’s just make a deal.”
Mirella is poison and torment condensed in one person.
Her words sound reasonable, but she’s obviously hiding some kind of trick.
At the same time, I don’t think Ziven can defeat her.
How am I going to get to the castle when she’s standing in our way?
I’ll have to play whatever game she wants to play, and then later find a way out.
“Can it be a life-binding deal?” I ask her, already predicting that she’ll refuse it.
She raises her eyebrows. “You want to bind your life to a deal?”
“Yes, I have nothing to hide, and no need to deceive anyone.”
She pauses, thinking, then says, “So I’ll help you rescue Tarlia and you’ll take me to Marlak. Does that work?”
“You’ll come with us, and you’ll meet Marlak when we do.
You’ll use no magic to attack, humiliate, hurt, deceive, or harm us.
” I’m sure she can find a way to twist these words.
“Actually, you’ll use no magic at all on me, Ziven, or Tarlia.
You’ll promise you mean no harm to Tarlia, that your help has the goal of freeing her, and that your instructions are correct. ”
“I think my instructions are correct. I could be wrong.”
“You better not be wrong.”
She sighs, then stretches her hand. “I bind my life to you that I want to help you remove Tarlia from this castle, that I won’t tell Zorwal or anyone working for him about you, that I mean no harm to you.
I will use no magic on you until after we meet Marlak and you say so, and I vouch that my instructions for freeing Tarlia are correct based on my observation and shouldn’t get you hurt, harmed or imprisoned.
You will take me to Marlak, and will not use physical force against me. ”
“Except for self defense,” I say.
“Self defense against what? I already promised not to use any magic on you.”
At once, I realize the gap in the words I suggested. She could still poison the air around me. “No magic on me or near me.”
“Renel…” Ziven mutters, as if I was being unreasonable. The problem is that he doesn’t know her.
I add, “And no physical aggression against us.”
Mirella rolls her eyes. “I’ll use no magic while near you and will not attack you physically or conspire against you. I’ll help you rescue Tarlia, and then you’ll take me to my brother.”
“Stepbrother,” I correct her.
“Yes. You’ll take me to Marlak.” She still has her arm stretched, palm up.
I place my hand on top of hers. “I’ll take you to Marlak when I return to his house, after we rescue Tarlia. I will use no physical force against you unless needed for self defense. It’s a binding deal.”
She presses her lips together. “The deal binds us.”
My own promise is not life binding, but either she doesn’t notice it or lets it slide. I still don’t know what nefarious plan her twisted mind is devising, but right now, I have no choice but to play along.
Hopefully she’ll indeed help us rescue Tarlia.
ZIVEN
Iwatch quietly as Renel makes a deal with Mirella.
She looks healthier and less crazy than last time I saw her on that dreadful, cursed island, when she spent most of her days as a giant monster bird.
Renel is obviously quite suspicious of her, and, to be honest, so am I, but it makes sense that she hates Zorwal, and makes a lot of sense that her plan was to betray him.
Then again, she could be plotting some revenge against Renel. Still, if it’s true that she can’t lie, and if her deal is indeed binding, I don’t see how she can trick us. Does she even want to trick us? I see a hurt girl who might be lost, but being lost might be the problem.
There’s no way to know what she wants. Not yet, at least. The only thing I do know is that Marlak will be delighted to see her again. I recall his desperation to save her, his worry. We got her out of that nightmare island, but the question is how much of the nightmare still lives within her.
“What’s your plan, then?” Renel sounds grumpy and suspicious. “For Tarlia.”
Mirella points at him. “I fear Zorwal could track you, so he should be the one to go in.”
Renel crosses his arms. “All right. How?”
Mirella glances at me. “Tarlia’s in the upper cells, and—”
“Cells?” Renel’s voice cracks like a whip.
“Yes. I can take him to a lower level guard deposit, where he can take a uniform—”
She doesn’t even address me. In fact, she refers to me as if I was a horse or something.
This is too much. “Are you going to ask me? Talk to me? I’m here.”
She blinks, but turns to me. “Sure. So you can dress as a guard. The ears… Your hair will hide them. I’d rather do no glamour. Then I’ll give you the key to her cell, you’ll get her out, get in a secret passage, and leave as soon as you can.”
“Sounds doable.”
She gives me a short nod. “Very much.”
“I should go,” Renel says. “I know the passages.”
“It’s a trap for you,” she tells Renel as she shakes her head. “He’s expecting you. You shouldn’t go to the castle.”
Renel’s chest rises and falls in a strangled breath as he watches me.
I try to reassure him. “I’ll get Tarlia out of the castle, don’t worry.”
He glares at me as if any of this was my fault. I understand that he doesn’t trust Mirella, but I’m the one sticking my neck out there.
“Wait here,” Mirella tells Renel.
I can see his mind spinning, trying to come up with a reason to come along or to be the one to go in the castle, and I fear he’ll be stubborn like he was this morning, when no arguments swayed him.
All he does is pass me the extra cape, then he scowls at Mirella. “If this is a trick, I swear you’ll pay.”
She grimaces. “My life is not that worthless for me to throw it away just to trick you, Renel.”
Mirella turns around and I follow her to a small opening in the rock at the base of the castle.
Inside, it leads to a tall spiral staircase.
We climb in silence, then emerge in a hallway where she points to a door.
It’s indeed a deposit with some uniforms. I grab one and change quickly, making sure to put back the cape as soon as I can.