“I need to run a test.” The shrewd look in Ksenia’s bloodshot eyes didn’t comfort Caris at all. “You’ll be helping me with it.”
“A test?”
Ksenia pushed open the door to the laboratory, gesturing for Caris to enter. “It’s taken round-the-clock work, but we’ve mapped the spell that keeps the clockwork metal heart beating. Back when Petra was first given Tock, she allowed several wardens to study it when she came in from the poison fields. We were able to work off those reports in the archives, and it helped cut down our research time immensely. We still have work to do, but I’m having difficulties with the mind magic portion of it. I need to see how he reacts with his trigger.”
Caris’ heart sank at that statement, but she entered the laboratory anyway. It was different from the one where the initial exam had taken place. It still had a wealth of machinery tucked out of the way, alchemist tools scattered across worktables. It was not unlike the laboratories Caris had worked in while at university, but none of them had what amounted to a cell built into the corner.
She took a step toward that walled-off space and the man who sat on the cot there. Two days since they landed and discovered the shocking origins of the spell that bound Nathaniel’s will and Caris hadn’t had a moment to herself or with him.
“Nathaniel,” Caris said, his name unsteady on her tongue.
He stared at her through the bars, fingers plucking at the blanket wrapped around his shoulders. It was cool down in the underground laboratories, a chill never quite leaving the air. Someone had given him a shirt, the linen wrinkled and threadbare at the cuffs, but it covered his chest. Caris could admit that seeing the vivisection scars on his body left her wanting to cry.
“Caris,” Nathaniel said, letting the blanket pool on the cot he’d been given as he stood. It revealed a metal collar around his throat, studded with clarion crystals. While it wasn’t a bank number tattoo, it was still a reminder of his status.
She made to go to him, but Ksenia stuck her arm out, blocking the way. “Not yet.”
“I just want a moment with him,” she begged.
Ksenia shook her head, unmoved by Caris’ pleas. “We need to discuss what must happen first. Follow me.”
Ksenia led her to a door that opened up into an adjacent laboratory, one whose cabinets were filled with vials and jars of various liquids, neatly labeled with names that made Caris recoil. The amount of poison stored in the room could wipe out a small town. Growing up in the Eastern Basin, she was intimately aware of the dangers poison could inflict on a population.
She looked away from the cabinets, attention snagging on the exam table in the center of the laboratory. Gears were neatly lined up on it in the shape they’d been taken apart in, showcasing the remnants of the clockwork cat that had faithfully followed Petra around before it attempted to murder Ksenia. With the revelation that the clockwork cat and Nathaniel’s clockwork metal heart shared a foundation—one apparently of warden origin—the alchemists had been working nonstop on the problem.
The knowledge had been like disturbing a beehive. Caris wasn’t privy to the inner workings of wardens, but even she knew that their magic and science wasn’t meant for the atrocity that had been done to Nathaniel and all otherrionetkas.
Caris shivered when she looked at what remained of Tock, teeth set on edge from the discordant hum that rang at the very edge of her hearing. The clarion crystals used in the clockwork cat’s creation certainly weren’t pleased with being broken down to their components. It reminded her of the sound she’d heard when around Nathaniel after he’d arrived in Veran and before the orders that turned him into a puppet tried to kill her.
Ksenia shut the door but didn’t lock it, crossing her arms over her chest as she stared at Caris. “You want to speak with him?”
“Yes,” Caris said.
“Good. I need you to have a conversation with him when I’m not in the room. I need to see what the orders do.” Ksenia peered at her with a keen gaze. Caris felt as if the master alchemist was taking her measure and finding her lacking. “You may discuss whatever you like. I will leave the laboratory, and you will remain in it.”
“Are you certain he’ll think we’re alone?”
“I’ve set tracers into his mind to map the damage, matched to a clarion crystal in the lab. The chemicals we put into his veins will neutralize the self-destruct spell and allow for the spell to work for a limited time.”
Caris’ heart lurched in her chest. “You found a way to stop his heart from breaking?”
“I am a warden and master alchemist, princess. A warden’s job is to undo a wrong. If I couldn’t do that, I’m not worth the title the last governor gave me.” She shrugged, never looking away from Caris’ face. “It’s not a cure, mind you, more of a temporary reroute that needs sustained application.”
“I see.” Caris eyed the dark circles underneath Ksenia’s eyes that looked like bruises. “Have you even slept?”
“That’s what stimulants are for. Now, what I need to know is how he acts when the orders are activated. Tock provided an illuminating map of the heart. I need you for the mind.”
Caris bit her lip. “Will it hurt him?”
“I can’t promise it won’t.”
There was no hesitation in Ksenia’s answer, no attempts to prevaricate. Caris appreciated the warden’s forthrightness, no matter how much it made her want to flinch. “What should I ask him?”
Ksenia shrugged before moving away from the door. “Whatever you like.”
Ksenia tapped her free hand against the wand on her belt, the sturdy brass hilt of it extending from the casing. From what Caris had discerned, few on the island were magicians. She assumed the demographics here were the same as across Maricol—magicians simply weren’t as numerous as the general population. The genealogies had recorded fewer and fewer over the generations. It made Caris wonder if there’d ever come a day when magicians ceased to exist.
If it ever came to pass, the wardens would still do their duty. Of that, she was certain.
