Sweet, blessed, Numahao.
Calivan.
Dilys released Andion and lunged for his mother, seizing her arms in a tight grip. “Nima? Where is Calivan? Where is your brother?”
Alysaldria stared up at him in mute horror.
“He’s with theSirena.” That came from Peris, whose eyes were grim, and whose lips were bracketed by tense, white grooves. “The Lord Chancellor offered to help her with her magic. Said he’d been poring over the ancient texts ever since he discovered she was a Siren, so he could be of assistance.”
“Where did they go?”
“I’m not sure. I think I heard him mention something about his laboratory, the one below the Siren library.”
Dilys turned and bolted towards the door.
“Dilys!” his mother cried after him. “Dilys, wait!”
He didn’t slow one bit. “Send for Ryll,” he called over his shoulder. “Tell him to meet me at Calivan’s laboratory with as many men as he can gather. And make sure none of them bear that mark!”
Chapter 29
With Biross and Tarrant and the two queen’s guards at her back, Gabriella followed Calivan and the other two guards through the door at the back of his lab into a glow-lit tunnel whose walls were covered with a smooth white surface that felt spongy to the touch. The door to the tunnel swung shut behind them, the sound of the latch clicking into place making Gabriella jump and turn in surprise. They were deep inside the mountain now, and Gabriella’s connection to the sun was severed completely when the door closed behind them.
“You mustn’t mind the automatic latch on the door,” Calivan remarked. “It’s a safety precaution, just like the energy-absorbing material covering the walls and the back of the lab door. Some of the spells I’ve tested have been quite potent, and even the smallest leak of magical energy could do a great deal of damage to my lab.”
“Of course.” She felt silly, being so jumpy when clearly she was in no danger. It was just that when the door closed and severed her connection to the sun, her sun-born weathergifts disappeared with it. The loss of the powerful, smoldering heat at her core brought back too many unpleasant memories of being collared and helpless. “I’m sorry. You must think I’m being ridiculous.”
“Not at all. Considering the traumatic experience you suffered, you’re doing splendidly.”
At the end of the tunnel another door awaited. This one opened to what looked like a large, round room entirely coated in the same energy-absorbing material as the tunnel.
“And this is my testing room,” Calivan said. Hisobahflowed around him as he strode into the chamber. “Here you can demonstrate your gifts without worrying about causing harm.”
Gabriella made it as far as the door—a door that housed heavy, retractable metal bolts that would extend into the surrounding wall to form an impenetrable seal when closed—before full-blown panic set in. There were no windows, no other doors in the testing room. No way in or out except the one door with its thick, retractable metal sealing rods. And the walls were designed to be impervious to even powerful magic.
She wasn’t sure that even a room reinforced against magic could hold hers—after all, she had Shouted the entire Trinipor Coast into the sea, taking Mur Balat’s fortress and the mountain on which it stood along with it. But if Calivan’s testing chamberwascapable of containing even her most dangerous magic, then stepping inside it would be like willingly clamping another of Mur Balat’s collars around her own throat. The thought made her heart pound and her breathing turn rapid and shallow.
“Sirena?” Calivan turned when he realized she hadn’t followed him into the room. “What is it?”
“I’m sorry.” She shook her head, backing away. Her skin felt icy, the normal heat of her sun-fed gifts extinguished. Her other, far more lethal power was rousing fast in response to her panic. “I’m sorry, Lord Chancellor, but I’ve changed my mind. I don’t think this is a good idea. Maybe later, when Dilys is available...”
Calivan might be Dilys’s uncle, but the memories of her captivity were still too recent, too raw. And it was only Dilys that Gabriella truly trusted. Only Dilys with whom she would ever allow herself to let down her guard and become truly vulnerable.
Calivan’s brow furrowed for a moment, then smoothed into an expression of understanding. “Of course,Sirena.Whatever you prefer. We’ll head back now. Perhaps you’d be more at ease if you began by reading the journals written by the ancient Sirens.”
“Yes.” She dragged a polite mask into place, unwilling to show the genuine face of her fear to anyone but Dilys. “That sounds like a wonderful idea.”
“Excellent. Let’s head back to the library.”
“I’m sorry,” she said again as he drew near. “My gifts are still too unpredictable for me to feel comfortable using them in an enclosed space beneath the city.” The excuse fell easily off her tongue, unburdened by even the slightest hint of remorse. It was true she was nervous about using her gifts, but that had nothing to do with why she wasn’t going to follow Calivan Merimydion into an enclosed, magically warded place. Later, she would confess her lie to Dilys, and he would give that husky laugh that made her shiver in all her most feminine places, then demand a forfeit of his choosing. She went damp at the thought. What he claimed as forfeit had gotten far more intimate—and exponentially more enjoyable—since their marriage.
“No need to apologize. There’s more than one way to catch a fish.” Calivan smiled charmingly, was still smiling charmingly when he slung one arm around her throat, clamped a hand over her mouth, and ate down her magic in great, ravening gulps.
The attack was so sudden, so unexpected, it took Summer a full second to realize what was happening, and by the time she gathered her wits enough to cry out against Calivan’s muffling hand and struggle to free herself, he had already drained her so deeply she had no strength to fight.
“My goddess!” Calivan breathed. “Such strength!” His voice was awed. And then, brutal with Command as he shouted in a Voice filled with stolen power, “Kill her guards!”
The four queen’s guards converged on Biross and Tarrant so quickly Dilys’s men didn’t have time to clear their swords from their scabbards before they were impaled on the sharp points of the queen’s guards’ tridents. Their bodies crumpled, blood pouring from the holes in their chests.
