Chapter 3
DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS
After cheating death, I hurried back to my cottage in the Apprentice Village. I’d survived the battle, but my clothes hadn’t. My shorts were ripped, and there was blood on my t-shirt. Huh. Where had that come from?
“I heard what happened in the Emporium.”
I glanced at Kato and smiled. “Well, I survived at least.”
He looked me up and down, but there wasn’t anything to see. I’d already changed my outfit. No blood. No tears. No burn marks from nearby exploding arrows.
“I’m fine.”
“I should have been there to protect you, Seven.”
“Protecting me is like a full-time job.”
It was supposed to be a joke, but Kato clearly didn’t find it funny. “I wish you would stay out of trouble,” he sighed.
“That’s not me. I don’t run from trouble.”
“No, you embrace it.” He allowed himself a small chuckle. “And don’t I know it. I saw that for myself on the very first day we met. You shot the Cursed Ones with water from a garden hose.”
“Good times,” I laughed. “Ow.”
Wincing, I clutched my stomach, right where the Templar had magic-punched me across the room. Maybe laughing wasn’t the smartest idea right now.
“Are you all right?” Kato asked.
“I will be. Once I get back out there,” I said, determined.
“You can’t possibly be thinking of—”
“Tracking down that Templar and making him lead me to Kylie and the other Apprentices? Yep. That’s the plan.”
Kato sighed. “Don’t do that.”
“I have to. I need to find out where the Order of Kings is holding the Apprentices they took.”
Kato sighed again. I seemed to make him do that a lot.
“What is it?” I asked him.
“I’m thinking.”
“I can see that. What are you thinking about?”
“I’m thinking about how reckless you are. And if there’s a spell to save you from yourself.”
“What would this spell do?”
“Keep you safely inside this house until you’ve had a chance to think things through logically and come to your senses.”
I snorted. “That won’t happen.”
“Your coming to your senses?”
“I’ll have you know that I am very sensible.”
His eyes honed in on my left wrist, exactly where the Templar’s iron grip had clamped down on me. I slid my sweatshirt sleeve down lower and tucked my hand behind my back.
“Come on, you aren’t going to trap me here,” I told him.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
His eyes were one hundred percent serious.
“You wouldn’t,” I said. “You’re too chivalrous to lock me up against my will.”
“That is the chivalrous thing to do, Seven: save you from the powerful enemy you foolishly intend to run after.”
“I need to talk to him, Kato.”
He gave me a flat look. “Because that worked out so well the last time.”
“I’ll do better this time. He caught me by surprise. I’ll have a plan this time. A good one. One guaranteed to work.”
“Savannah—”
“He’s a Templar, Kato. He can lead me to Kylie and the other Apprentices. He knows where they are. I have to find them. I have to save them.”
“You don’t have to personally chase down every wrong in the world and right it. Not everything is your responsibility.”
“Hey, I thought that’s what being a Knight is all about. Taking responsibility. Righting wrongs.”
He placed his hands on my shoulders and met my eyes. “It is. But if something were to happen to you…”
I set my hands over his. “Nothing is going to happen to me. Promise.” I smiled.
He didn’t. He just watched me, his brow furrowed with worry.
There was a pop of magic, and then Conner was standing in my living room. “Am I, uh, interrupting something?”
Kato and I both jumped. Our hands dropped to our sides.
Kato looked at Conner. “I hate it when you do that,” he grumbled.
Conner didn’t look the least bit sorry. His smirk was smooth and easy. “Hey, it’s not my fault that you’re so easy to sneak up on.”
Kato gave him a stony look. “Are you done fooling around, Conner? Because we have serious business to deal with. Savannah was just attacked.”
Conner’s smirk faded. He turned to me, his brows drawing together. “Are you all right?”
“Fine.”
His gaze dropped to my wounded hand. Just to be safe, I tucked both of my hands behind my back. Conner was ready for that. His hand flashed out, catching my wrist. He rolled up my sleeve, his lips curling back in anger when he saw the bruises.
“You don’t look fine.”
“It’s just a bruise.”
Conner peeled back my other sleeve, revealing more bruises.
“Huh. When did that happen?” I said to myself.
“That’s more than just one bruise,” Conner said. “You look like someone pounded your arms with a meat hammer.”
“I’m fine.”
“You and I have very different definitions of fine, Red.”
Kato looked at him and nodded. “For once, we are in total agreement. There’s another one, you know.”
Conner grunted. “Yeah, on her stomach. I can see it peeking out from her shirt. She’s trying to hide it.”
“I’m not trying to hide anything.” I planted both hands on my hips and gave Conner and Kato my best rendition of a hard stare. Neither one of them looked impressed.
“If you truly have nothing to hide, then sit down and show me every bump and bruise on your body so I can heal you.” Conner took my hand.
I let him lead me to the sofa. “Fine. I will.”
“Lie down.” He pointed at the sofa.
“Lie? You said sit.”
“That was before I realized you can’t even walk straight.”
“This is ridiculous,” I protested. “They’re just bruises.”
“Do as he says.”
I rolled my eyes at both of them, then plopped down on the sofa. “You’re both being incredibly melodramatic. I’m f—”
“Don’t say you’re fine, Seven. Because you absolutely are not.”
“I am!”
“Only someone who’s not fine would so stubbornly—and repeatedly—insist that they’re fine.” Conner set his hand on my forehead.
“I didn’t call you two here to baby me. I need your help finding and defeating the Templar. And we’re wasting time!”
“Let Conner heal you,” Kato said. “Then we can talk about whatever reckless danger you want to throw yourself into next.”
I blew a frustrated puff of air out of my mouth. Conner’s hands started to glow, and a soothing warmth flowed into my body. My bruises faded. My cuts and scratches knitted together before my eyes.
“Who sent the Templar after her?” Conner asked Kato.
“I’m right here, you know. You could ask me.”
Conner grinned at me. “Yeah, but you’re not seeing clearly right now. You wanted to charge into battle with blood oozing out of you.”
“I don’t have blood oozing out of me.”
“Not anymore. I fixed that for you.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re very welcome. If you’d kept going, you would have passed out long before you found the Templar.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
Conner gasped, pretending to look offended. “I would never!”
“My cuts were tiny.”
“Haven’t you ever heard the idiom ‘death by a thousand cuts’?”
“Are you referring to my injuries or hinting at something else?”
Conner chuckled.
“He has a point, Seven,” said Kato. “You do have a tendency to take on too many problems. Those problems wear you down, little by little.”
“Or sometimes not so little,” Conner added. “You lost a lot of blood because of your confrontation with the Templar.”
I rubbed my forehead. “That would explain the dizziness.”
“It also explains your impaired judgment,” Kato said.
I shot him a sardonic smile. Har, har, very funny.
“Drink.” Conner handed me a glass of orange juice.
I emptied the glass in a single go. It was good, and I was really thirsty. “You know, it’s a lot less fun for me when you two agree instead of argue.”
They both snorted in unison.
I looked at Kato. “May I sit up now, or are you going to threaten to lock me in my house again?”
Conner turned toward Kato, clearly surprised. “You threatened to lock her in her house?”
“For her own safety.”
“Wait, you were actually going to do that?” I choked out.
Conner laughed. “Why are you so surprised?”
“Well, it’s a bit extreme, don’t you think?”
Conner shrugged. “Yeah, because Kato always deals with problems in a relaxed and understated manner.”
“You would have done the same.”
“Lock her in her house? Absolutely not! That’s barbaric.” My smile faded when Conner followed that statement up with another, less enjoyable one. “I would have just used a spell to put her to sleep.”
“You’re both insane.” I rose slowly from the sofa.
Conner rose too, hugging me to him. “And that’s why you like us so much!”
He pulled Kato into the hug. And Kato actually let him.
Then, when we all finally pulled away, Conner said, “Ok, now that that’s settled, tell me about this guy who attacked you.”
So I told them all about the Templar who’d attacked me. And the Masked Metamorph who’d attacked him. They were both very curious about the second guy.
“This mysterious cloaked man…he saved you?” Kato asked.
“That’s the thing. I don’t think he was there to save me. I think he was there to capture the Templar.”
That made them even more curious about the mysterious cloaked warrior.
“I need to capture the Templar. This is our chance, guys. The chance that we’ve been waiting for to rescue the kidnapped Apprentices and uncover the Government traitor who is collaborating with the Order of Kings.”
Whoever this traitor in the Government was, he’d sold the Apprentices to the Order for a few crates of supplies. I mean, what kind of degenerate person did that sort of thing? Just thinking about it made me want to punch something.
“If you’re looking for a traitor in the Government, I feel the need to point out that the General was just apprehended for questioning,” Conner said.
“Yeah, I saw that too,” I replied. “But, you know, I’ve had some time to think this over, and I really don’t think he’s the traitor. He’s so straight-laced.”
“The General didn’t get where he is today by playing nice, Red. And you have to admit that the timing is suspicious. This Templar showing up just when the General is brought in for questioning.”
He had a point.
“Ok, maybe it’s the General. Or maybe it’s someone else. But in either case, the best way to find out is to find the Templar and make him tell us everything he knows about the traitor and the missing Apprentices.” I slid Conner a hopeful smile. “Do you think you could brew up another truth serum?”
“I thought you didn’t believe in giving people truth serums?” The grin on Conner’s face was positively diabolical.
I took a page out of Kato’s book and countered it with a stony stare. “I don’t believe in giving my friends truth serums. Evil masterminds are fair game.”
“Oh, evil masterminds. Now I’m intrigued.”
“Intrigued enough to make it for me?”
“Well, the thing is, Red, truth serums are tricky to brew. Unfortunately, making them lies outside my vast magical knowledge.”
“Vast magical knowledge,” Kato repeated in disbelief.
Conner patted his best friend on the shoulder. “Yes, you’re right to be jealous, Kato.”
Kato didn’t look like he appreciated the comment.
“So if you can’t make truth serums,” I said, “how did you get your hands on the one you used on my friends?”
“Angel made it.”
“Any chance Angel could brew up another truth serum?”
“Sorry, Red. Angel’s on a Quest right now.”
Damn.
“I could ask Altair to make us a truth serum...”
Kato sensed my hesitation. “You don’t trust him?”
“It’s not about Altair,” I said. “Right now, I don’t trust people in general. Not with this. Bronte was a spy. Who knows how many more of them there are. And, besides, Altair seems like the kind of Knight who always follows procedure.”
“He is,” Kato confirmed.
“Red’s right,” Conner said. “It’s not just the General who’s under investigation. It’s the whole Castle. If you ask Altair to make you a truth serum, he will want to know why. I’m not sure we should tell anyone what we’re up to. Knights gossip, and if the traitor has ears in the Castle…”
Kato finished Conner’s sentence, like they were one mind. “Word will get back to the traitor.”
“Someone else needs to make us the truth serum,” I said. “Someone who doesn’t mind breaking the rules and withholding information from the authorities.”
“Why are you looking at Kato?” Conner teased me. “He’s the perfect Knight. Following the rules and disclosing information to the authorities is written into his DNA.”
“He’s always kept my secrets. And yours too, Conner,” I reminded him.
Conner’s impish smile faded, and his face took on an oddly serious look. “That’s true.”
“Can you do it?” I asked Kato.
“In terms of Alchemy magic, I can make enchanted weapons, but my potion-making skills aren’t up to brewing a potion of this complexity.”
I wasn’t surprised that Kato had gravitated toward weapon-making.
There were so many spells out there. Too many for any one person to learn them all.
People tended to focus on what interested them.
And Conner was right. Kato did like using his sword.
I’d seen him with it. He was really, really, really good.
Even in Shadow Fall, without his magic, his swordplay was superb.
I considered our problem. “There might be someone who can help us with the truth serum. Someone who doesn’t mind bending the rules and thinking for himself.”
“Ren,” Conner said.
“Yes.”
Conner’s jaw tightened and his eyes drew together. “Ren is…”
“Very weird,” I offered.
“Eccentric. I was going to say eccentric.”
“He is that,” I agreed. “But he’s also kind of brilliant. And that’s why some of the most powerful people in the Many Realms are after him. I know he can make the truth serum. The only question is: will he?”
“There’s only one way to find out.”