Chapter 13 #2
She comes to her feet just as the door opens again. This time, a man follows Ranos into the interrogation room.
At first, when he’s still in the shadows by the door, all she can see is that he’s tall and imposing. And then he steps into the light cast by the chandelier, and the flames flicker over stern eyebrows and messy dark hair and the two bars tattooed on his right hand, and she recognizes him.
Theren Forint.
He stops at Rava’s shoulder and waits, his hands clasped behind him.
For the first time, it occurs to Elegy that he may be here of his own free will.
When she imagined him in House Vidar, she thought of him locked in some basement cell subsisting on bread and water—-not serving as Rava’s special truthsayer, the one she uses when her other one fails.
Maybe Kesia kept Theren’s true loyalties to herself when she talked to Isre.
Maybe this was all a trap, and Elegy just fell into it.
Rava turns toward Theren, and he inclines his head to her, respectful. She puts a bent knuckle under his chin and tips his head up so he’s looking at her.
For a moment she just stares at him, and it’s strange, the way her face goes slack, like she’s not looking at anything at all.
Then she blinks, like she’s surfacing from sleep, and says, “Your time belongs to me. Why, then, are you late?”
“It won’t happen again, my lady.”
“No, it won’t.”
She removes her hand. Theren’s next swallow is labored.
“You won’t be able to fool this one with your training, smuggler,” Rava says—-to Elegy, even though her eyes are still locked on Theren. “He reads hearts.”
The only Fever gifts Elegy knows about—-apart from the augurs’, of course—-have to do with memories.
Seeing them. Sharing them. Even erasing them.
She’s never heard of a “heart reader,” whatever that is.
Her best guess is that he can feel the emotions that memories provoke while he reads them, which is bad news for her—-her feelings are bound to give her away.
Which means that if Theren Forint has turned traitor, and he realizes who she is . . . she’s dead.
“Get to work,” Rava says to him, in Talusar this time.
He turns to face Elegy as Rava recedes into the darkness near the door. She braces herself for his recognition, not sure if it will benefit her or be her downfall . . . but it doesn’t come. It’s as if he’s never seen her before. Is she that forgettable?
“I hear you’re a smuggler.” His voice is quiet.
“She doesn’t speak Talusar,” Satka says, still plucking at her cuticles.
“Yes she does.” He crouches in front of Elegy, putting them on the same level. “Don’t you.”
It’s not a question. Light shifts across his face, and she realizes that he’s beautiful now. Time has carved out his jawline and cheekbones, and stolen the boyishness from his face. His eyes are dark and focused.
“You’re not a smuggler. I think you’re a soldier.”
She doesn’t know what to do now. She tries to let her mind go blank. Tries not to react, even emotionally, to anything he says. But her heart betrays her. She is a soldier. A part of her always will be.
Theren nods. “A spy, probably. Easy enough to figure out, since you’re certainly not here to fight. I wonder what it is you want to know.”
“She works for the Sword,” Rava says. “What concerns the Sword most in Valla?”
“You do,” Theren says simply.
Elegy has no idea what he’s seeing, what she’s projecting, but she’s had enough of it.
“I’ve never heard of an interrogation without any questions,” she says, in English. She’s not going to confirm that she speaks Talusar, no matter how obvious it now seems.
“A spy for the Sword in Valla. Here to observe Rava Vidar. Alone,” he says, as if she didn’t speak at all, and then he frowns. Shakes his head. “No. Not alone. How many others?”
She feels a thrill in her chest, despite her efforts to remain neutral. She didn’t come with any others. If he believes she did, then he can’t possibly be as good as Rava Vidar thinks he is.
“A partner? No, more than that.”
He shifts closer to her. From here, she can see how spare he is—-muscled, but no softness anywhere, the bones in his shoulders showing through his too--large shirt.
“Two?” he asks, and then he nods.
Rava turns to Satka and barks an order: “Lock down the city. Offer a reward for information.”
“Yes, Commander.” Satka leaves the room.
Elegy doesn’t dare move.
“Enough for now,” Rava says. “It’ll be easier once we find her coconspirators. Let them all decide how much they trust each other.” She smiles a little. “Let her wonder what’s become of them.”
Theren looks at Elegy for just a moment longer, his expression unreadable. He’s exhausted, she thinks, and she’s not sure why she thinks it, because he’s Rava Vidar’s truthsayer, and why does she care if a traitor looks worn all the way through, like a scrap of old fabric?
Then he stands. Rava moves into the light again.
“I’ll expect you to be ready once we find them,” she says to him. “Don’t be inattentive again.”
Theren is taller than her, and since he wasn’t that tall the last time Elegy saw him, she supposes the rumors are true—-the Fever can regenerate a person larger than they were before.
That explains Rava’s extraordinary height.
He bows his head to her, and she puts a hand on the back of his neck, briefly.
It’s not affectionate—instead, it seems almost threatening.
She watches the halting rise and fall of his breath.
Then Rava releases him, and he walks out of the room, leaving Elegy with Rava and Ranos.
“No one surprises him,” Rava says, in a murmur, like she’s talking to herself.
“Your orders, Commander?” Ranos asks.
“Tie her to a chair. I don’t want her to sleep.”
She raises an eyebrow at Elegy, then sweeps out of the room.