Eva’s lower lip trembled, but she turned her head.
Séverin’s gaze went to the lyre. Time seemed to move slower, and he wondered how hard he might have hit his head. He could see the strings glowing. Their delicate filament seemed softly hued, a rainbow glimpsed through an oiled pane of glass.
Ruslan sighed. “You don’t give me much of a choice.”
The Sphinx advanced on Enrique and Zofia.
“No!” Séverin tried to scream, but the matriarch clapped her hand over his mouth.
“Speak and you’ll kill us all,” she whispered harshly.
“What will motivate you to use your powers?” asked Ruslan. “I know you have them. I know just what yourtouchcan do, Mademoiselle Laila.”
Laila began to plead, and Ruslan sighed.
“Fine, I’ll start with your lover, then,” he said. He turned to one of the Sphinx. “Would you be so kind as to deliver me Monsieur Montagnet-Alarie?”
The Sphinx left.
“I imagine that will be an unfortunate surprise,” said Delphine, glancing up at the Mnemo screen. “I was told to throw you in a jail cell and wait with you, but as you can see, we took quite a different route.”
“Eva, please,” whispered Laila.
But the other girl did not turn.
When the other Sphinx returned to the room empty-handed, Ruslan’s smile fell.
“Gone?”
The Sphinx nodded.
“Well then, go find him! And make sure everyone is accounted for! Every matriarch and patriarch, every bloody fool with a ring on their hand. Go find them and make sure they know,” he said. “Make sure they know who did this to them. Oh, and, wait—”
He paused, turning around to grab something lying on the ice. Séverin’s stomach turned. It was Ruslan’s hand. Or, rather, the hand of the real patriarch of House Dazbog.
“Slap them in the face with this,” said Ruslan. He started laughing and then turned to Laila and Eva. “Truly?Nolaughs?”
Eva looked stricken.
“Perhaps I’m no dabhandat humor,” said Ruslan, punctuating the word with a shake of the severed hand. “But hear me well, for I mean it, my dear. I’ll even demonstrate on our good friend who wants to be listened to so dearly. I’m sure he’ll appreciate the sentiment more than most.”
He stalked toward Enrique. Too late, Séverin saw a flash of metal slice through the air. Enrique cried out, blood running down his neck…
Ruslan had sliced off his ear.
Laila shrieked, straining against her bonds, but Ruslan ignored her. Enrique fell to the floor, writhing painfully.
“An ear for an ear? Is that not a phrase?” mused Ruslan, kicking Enrique’s severed ear across the ice. “Pity. Anyway.” He turned to Laila. “You have ten minutes to make your decision. Time starting…now!”
Séverin jerked back from the matriarch’s hold, catching his breath.
“We have to go,” said Séverin. “We have to save them.”
The matriarch watched him sadly. “There’s nothing you can do for them. You cannot rush up the leviathan and free them. The leviathan can barely be held in one place with those broken tethers. Can’t you see I’m saving your lives? We’re leaving right now, through that pod—” she said, gesturing to the podlike device at the narthex. “From there, we can get to Irkutsk, and I can call for help. It leaves just enough time while he fools around thinking that girl has the Lost Muses bloodline.”
But they could not do that in ten minutes. Which meant that Enrique, Zofia, Laila… all would die.
“You want me to let her die?” asked Séverin. “But you… you like her.”
