Someone was shouting, over the cries of the babes, demanding to know what had happened.
A woman stood over him and he blinked up at her.Nora stared at him, surprised and shocked; her eyes were filled with horror and regret.
“I cut your throat,” she whispered.
The Bonded wailed.He was commanded.
He turned away from Nora, rolled onto his hands and knees, not strong enough for much else.Weak, trembling, drained and exhausted, but the Bond demanded he—
Witless had beaten him to it and was cradling Xykeir in his lap, hushing the babe and rubbing his back.They were surrounded by crying babies, all naked on the bare wooden floor.
“Kill him,” came a scream of outrage.
Xykeir held out his hands.The Bondedcommanded.
The mage kept crawling.
Nora grabbed his hair and pulled him to his knees again.“Riven, what have you done?”She hissed, her blade in her sticky, bloody hand.
“Stop,” Avice commanded.“Wait.Don’t you see?”
“The babes are not bonded.”Queen Satia stared in fury at the unmarked wrist of a crying infant.
“Buttheyare,” Nora grabbed the mage’s wrist and twisted it up to show The Queen.
Satia cried out in horror.“No, no, no!”
He stared at his own skin, the bond-mark clear on his wrist.He invoked his mage sight, to see—
There it was, pure gold bands, floating and weaving around him, and Witless, and Xykeir, moving and drifting and tightening, pulling him.It tugged him toward the Bonded, and only the Bonded.
Staring at Xykeir, he started to crawl again.Nora’s hand slid from his hair, releasing him.
“This cannot be,” Queen Satia spat.“Check the babes, all of them,” her voice grew shrill.“And shut them up!”
Witless had Xykeir in his arms, sitting there with no blood, no scars, just a wide smile as the mage drew near and sat beside them.Xykeir held out his hands and the mage found the strength to pull him into his own lap.
Witless comforted the other children as the Bondmaidens checked their wrists and dropped them into his lap.He wrapped his arms around as many as he could and chortled.The babes quieted, growing content.
“None of them,” the Queen raged, piercing and shrill.“None of them bear the mark, except the idiot and the mage.All that time, all that money.”Her voice rose in a shriek.“What happened?”
Nora stood over them.“Riven?”
He looked up at her lovely face.Safe within the Bond, safe within the golden net he was sure pressed into his own skin, he smiled at her.
“My name is Tassos.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
In the Palace of Xy
Nora had Riven’s…no…Tassos’s warm blood on her hands.
The muted voices around her intensified even as the Queen’s outrage coursed through the Bond.Satia was demanding explanations, the babies were shrieking and crying loud enough to rattle the windows.Avice, Caris, and Mira surrounded the Bonded, trying to calm her.
Their voices were muted and indistinct.Nora’s vision narrowed to just one precious sight.
Riven sat in the calm center of the room, staring at her.In his eyes she saw regret, relief and something else she wasn’t ready to identify.
