Hazan gaped at his now-empty hands.
Cyrus approached the center of the room with an eerie calm. “If you’re ready,” he said with a nod to Alizeh, “I’d like to begin.”
Alizeh felt at once a shock of nerves, dropping the small piece of crystal in her haste to steady herself, the dull plink echoing in the newly deserted space. She bent to retrieve it, realizing as she did that it was the only item in the room that hadn’t disappeared. Alizeh looked up into Cyrus’s heated eyes and knew, without knowing why, that he’d allowed her to keep it.
“Very well,” she said softly, discreetly tucking the bit of crystal into her boot before she straightened.“What do I need to do?”
“Nothing,” said Hazan, who was striding toward Cyrus. “Not yet. This first part will only affect the debtor.”
Cyrus looked at him. “Have you come to chaperone?”
“Joke if you like,” said Hazan gravely, “but I’ll be here to make sure you don’t die in the process.”
“Die?” said Alizeh sharply. “Has that happened before?”
“Yes,” they both said at the same time.
“But –”
“There’s nothing for you to do if it comes to that,” Cyrus was saying. “Once the oath is spoken aloud, the magic cannot be stopped.”
“If your skin comes detached from your body, perhaps not, but you won’t speak until later. Should there be any early sign of danger, I’ll intercede.” Hazan hesitated. “You’re certain you’ll be able to manage the enchantment even as it tortures you? Traditionally, this sort of thing is conducted by a Diviner, as most people wouldn’t be able to endure the pain long enough to complete the oath –”
Cyrus looked irritated. “I’ll be fine.”
“Wait,” said Alizeh, trying to hold on to calm. “I just – Cyrus, is it common for people in Tulan to be so magical?”
He hesitated before saying, “No. Not exactly.”
“Then is it safe, what you’re about to do? If there are so many risks involved, should we not wait, perhaps, for a Diviner? Someone professionally trained?”
He turned his eyes to the floor. “I am professionally trained.”
“But you are not a Diviner –”
“No,” he said, lifting his head. “I am not.”
“Then –”
“He trained at the temple for almost seventeen years,” Hazan offered before glancing at Cyrus, who stiffened. “He was enrolled at the temple by age three, and took preliminary vows to join the priesthood when he turned eighteen. He’s as close to a Diviner as a person can be.”
Alizeh experienced a sharp pain in her sternum, so shocked she could hardly find the words. “What?”
“A Diviner?” said Kamran, stunned. “Him?”
“Rather a fall from grace, I think,” muttered Huda.
“You wanted to become a Diviner?” Alizeh shook her head. She felt inexplicably heartsick. “Heavens. Your mother once told me you’d been studying magic since you were child. I can’t believe I didn’t understand then what she meant.”
Cyrus returned his gaze to the ground. He sounded angry when he said, “I don’t care to discuss it.”
“Surely wemustdiscuss it,” Huda insisted. “What a fascinating revelation. Oh, how I wish I had a cup of tea –”
“I don’t understand your reticence to speak of it,” said Hazan. “You guard this truth as if it’s a secret, when in fact it’s widely held information. Just earlier I asked your mother whether she knew why you never wore a crown, and she told me right then that you’d refused adornment since the day you decided to take your vows. It took little prompting to come by the rest of the details. Hell, I was offered firsthand accounts from your otherwise tight-lipped staff – some of whom have worked in the palace since you were a boy.They heard us discussing your past and offered to tell me the story of your old nursemaid, how you once bounced off the roof –”
“That’senough.”
“He bounced off the roof?” said Huda, delighted. “Who told you this? Was it the housekeeper?”
