He heads back to the main part of the library and sits at the table. I take my seat again and continue to peruse the history book, wondering if I should instead try to look into some of those super secret, dangerous volumes that make my hair stand on end.
Renel’s focused, reading the book he picked, his hair pulled back on one side only, his dark hair cascading onto his forehead, the sight knotting my chest. I’m so foolish. I consider staring at Ziven instead, but he rejected me too. The truth is that I need to try to find something useful in these books instead of drooling for Renel.
I bet Astra would love to see these books, and maybe even read this one, since it’s about Tiuris.
“Found it!” Renel’s voice startles me. “I knew it. I knew it.”
Mirella gives him an odd stare. “That has to be magic, Renel.”
Renel points at the book. “Dark magic, obviously.”
“Yourmagic,” she says. “To find something so quickly.”
He smirks. “I’m just really good at research.”
Mirella shrugs, and Ziven asks, “What is it?”
“They’re calledtethershere, but I’m assuming it’s the same. There are,” his nose wrinkles in disgust, “complex rituals to achieve them, but you basically tie your life to other people, and you share your life force and attachment to this world with them. You can only die once they’re killed.”
“But if they can’t be killed…” I’m not even sure how to finish the thought.
He waves a finger. “That’s the thing. The anchors also keep each other alive, and the main magic wielder keeps them alive as well. There’s an exchange of life force. Now, the anchorscanbe killed, but they’ll return to life soon, unless all the anchors and the beneficiary of their magic are killed within a certain window. Here it says something like less than an hour, but thesetethersneed to be in close proximity. It’s not the case with the Witch King, Zorwal, and I suppose Otavio. There is some writing here implying research on extending the distance needed for the tethers to work. Still, from what I’m seeing, the anchors must be killedbeforethe Witch King.”
Ziven exhales a shaky breath. “So Marlak is doomed, then. Whatever he did, it won’t have worked.”
I think about what they told me, that Marlak went to the Shadow Lands to face the Witch King on his own, all alone.
Renel tenses, perhaps imagining what’s happening to his brother, then sighs. “It might have worked—temporarily. Astra also beheaded the Witch King and for a few minutes at least, she got rid of him.”
Mirella leans forward on the table, as if to try to look at the book closely. “Why do we learn that he was defeated by beheading? If that won’t work?”
Renel snaps his fingers. “Tiurians built his prison. Beheading worked just enough for them to imprison him. But we can’t count on doing that again. It took a lot of Tiurian magic and it was done by dozens of Tiurian magic wielders. Even if we find the records on how that prison was built, how can we find enough Tiurians to power it? Tiurians with magical knowledge?”
Ziven pulls the note from his pocket. “I need to tell them that right now. What should I write?”
Renel takes a deep breath and covers his eyes with his hands. “It’s too late, but tell them that killing the Witch King will accomplish nothing if Otavio and Zorwal aren’t killed first, not long before he’s killed. If they can contact Marlak, they should ask him to return—if it isn’t too late. Tell them to be aware that regardless of what he did, the Witch King is still alive, so they must be careful.”
Ziven scribbles some words fast, his face grave.
“Does it say how these anchors can be killed?” I ask.
Renel shrugs. “Fire, of course.”
Ziven mock grimaces. “So freezing and throwing an anchor from a high window won’t kill him?”
“Not evenfirewill kill him,” Renel says. “Not unless the other anchor and the Witch King are killed soon afterward.” His face then turns somber. “Ifthere are only two of them.”
“It’s only them,” I say. “I heard their conversation, and they would have mentioned a third anchor. I think. They also… They kept mentioning the heart and the bonds. Zorwal thought Otavio had cut them, but Otavio probably knows it was Astra. The one thing that comes to mind is that Otavio suggested betraying the Witch King. Emprisoning him. So it’s possible to be done without killing them.”
“He’s Tiurian, is he not?” Renel asks.
“It seems so,” I say.
He lifts a shoulder. “That explains it. Maybe they don’t need that many Tiurians to imprison the Witch King again, or maybe they, as anchors, can do it more easily. Still, I’d rather get rid of him once and for all.”
I try to think. “Marlak can’t be in three places at once, though, and, from what I heard, it seems that they were going to go their separate ways. Perhaps imprisoning the Witch King could be easier.”
“He could,” Ziven says. “I don’t mean being in three places at once, but within a short period. With a strong transcender.”
