Death Marked (Death Sworn #2)(6)

“I’m looking forward to it,” she said.

“Good.” Karyn seemed sincere, which puzzled Ileni.

“This way,” her new guide said, and waited for her to start walking before he led her out the door and into the Imperial Academy of Sorcery.





CHAPTER

3

Having a solid wall between her and the assassin was a huge relief. Ileni tried to put Arxis out of her mind as she followed Evin through winding passageways. These corridors were narrower and prettier than the ones in the Assassins’ Caves, better lit by glowstones that lined the walls in decorative, fanciful patterns. The air was filled with a faint flowery scent that struck Ileni as unpleasantly artificial, a peculiar contrast to the hulking, solid stone that surrounded them.

Magic.

And that was the key. The Empire was vast and powerful, but it depended on magic for everything from transportation to communication—and, most importantly, to win its wars, quash its rebellions, and defend itself against the relentless strikes of the assassins. Without magic, there was no way it could keep control over its vast territories. If she could take that magic away—or even cripple it—that would be the beginning of the end of the Empire.

“So,” Evin said, as they trotted down a few shallow steps, “looks like things are going to get a little more interesting around here. Where did you say you were from?”

Ileni took a deep breath. Might as well get it over with. “I’m a Renegai.”

Evin nodded politely. “Oh, really? From the Kerosian Grasslands?”

There were other Renegai? Did the Elders know? “No. From the Kierran Mountains.”

“Oh, right! The separatists in the grasslands call themselves the Singers. My apologies.” His voice was higher than she was used to hearing from men, and she realized that what she had thought was Karyn’s high-pitched voice was actually the way people spoke here.

They reached a fork in the passageway, and Evin took the corridor on the left. He was tall and lanky, and walked with a loping, casual stride. It looked awkward to her, compared to the focused grace she was used to from the assassins. From Sorin.

His voice, too, was nonchalant. “What happened back there, with you and Arxis?”

He didn’t sound condescending, but he did sound amused. Gullible, romantic village girls, Arxis had said. Ileni bristled. “It’s not what he said. It was a misunderstanding.”

“Do you always solve your misunderstandings with knives?”

“I find it saves time.”

He looked at her sideways and grinned. “I’d better be careful what I say around you, then.”

“I would advise it.”

Evin’s eyebrows rose. Ileni knew she sounded unfriendly, but that was all right. He was an imperial sorcerer. She had grown up hating him, even if he had grown up not knowing who her people were. “How long has he been here?”

“Arxis? Not long,” Evin said.

“What does he—” she began, but then they turned a corner and, all at once, weren’t underground anymore.

They never had been.

They were standing on a ledge on the side of a mountain. Below the ledge—very, very far below—a mass of tiny treetops swept downhill in a cascade of blurry green. Above, the sky unfurled, brilliantly blue. The rocks stretched up behind her, steep and craggy, with a hardy bush clinging to a crack in the cliff face above her.

“What is this?” she breathed.

“The way to the testing arena, of course.” Evin was already walking along the ledge—which, Ileni realized, was actually a path that hugged the side of the mountain. His feet practically touched the edge of the ledge, but he seemed not to notice the precipitous drop. “The Academy spans a couple of mountain peaks. You can see why it’s the ideal location for magic-users.”

Ileni didn’t see that at all. But she nodded. “Right. Of course.”

Evin continued down the path, clearly expecting her to follow. Ileni wanted nothing more than to shrink back into the darkness of the cave, far from the vast space below. She couldn’t make her feet move forward.

We know how to overcome fear, Sorin had told her once. She could imagine his scorn. He might have been afraid, if he was here, but he would never let fear stop him.

She set her jaw and took one step out, then another. The ledge was solid white stone, but terribly narrow. She put one hand flat on the pitted rock of the mountainside and inched forward. She kept her eyes focused straight ahead and did not—did not—look down.

Evin glanced back. His surprise was a prickle of heat against her skin, but she couldn’t force herself to move faster. Once, she would have been as fearless as he was, but now she didn’t have the safeguard of magic. One misstep and she would fall, shattered to pieces far below.

Her life was full of fears like that now, reminders of small safeties she no longer had.

By the time she caught up to Evin, her entire body was shaking, little tremors that made her legs weak and her hands unsteady. Evin waited for her at an archway that led back inside the mountain. The opening, where light shaded into darkness, was such a welcome sight that Ileni stopped caring how pathetic she looked. She lunged past Evin into the dimness, pressed her back against the rock, and took several deep breaths.

“Fear of heights?” Evin said sympathetically. His face was open and earnest, his mouth twisted slightly, but with empathy rather than mockery—another difference from the caves. “I’ve seen it before. It will pass.”