“Why don’t you just kill me and be done with it?” Destin said.
Stop baiting him, Evan thought desperately, unable to watch. It was as if he felt every blow the general landed.
“I never said anything about killing you,” Karn said to Destin. “That would be too easy. Your mother has done her best to ruin you, but I’m going to make you a man if it’s the last thing I do.”
“Maybe it will be,” Destin said. “Is that why you brought half an army? Because you were worried you couldn’t handle it on your own?” That earned him another punch to the gut.
He wants his father to kill him, Evan realized. He’d prefer that to what’s in store for him. I’ve got to figure out some way to help him. The best way to do that is to convince Karn there’s nothing between us.
“I don’t want to be killed, either,” Evan whined. “I’m more useful alive than dead.”
“Is that so?” Karn said, rubbing his chin, eyeing him speculatively. “We always need mages in the Ardenine army. If you really are a mage. Have you ever thought about a military career?”
“No, sir,” Evan said, feigning eagerness. “But I would like to learn more about magery. That’s why I took this job.”
“You seem like a likely lad. Let’s see what you’re made of. Let him loose,” he said to the soldiers pinning his arms.
They released him and stepped back.
Karn pointed at Destin. “Hit him.”
Evan, his stomach sinking into his toes, looked from Karn to Destin. “You want me to hit him?”
“That’s what I said, didn’t I?” Karn pushed him toward Destin. “Don’t hold back,” he said. “Smash his face in.”
“General.” It was the only man there not dressed in soldier garb. “It’s already late. We’re going to have to leave soon if we’re going to catch the tide. We can’t risk spending another night here.”
“We’re nearly done here,” Karn said.
“Come on, handyman,” Destin taunted. “Give it all you’ve got.”
Evan looked into his eyes and saw the pleading there. He wants me to hit him. He’s trying to save my life.
Evan took a breath, made a fist, and aimed for Destin’s middle.
“Hit him in the face,” Karn ordered. “It doesn’t count if you don’t draw blood.”
Evan licked his lips, thinking, I can’t do this. Destin’s eyes said, Yes, you can.
Evan pulled back his fist and aimed for Destin’s already-bleeding nose. Blood is blood, he thought.
When he connected, Destin somehow wrenched free of his captors, lurched forward, wrapped his hands around Evan’s neck, and began to squeeze. As he did so, Evan felt him drop something into the neck of his shirt. It slid down his chest and landed in the waist of his breeches. It buzzed against his skin, and he knew it was Destin’s amulet.
“Stay here,” he hissed into Evan’s ear. “Don’t follow. Remember. Ruthless.”
It took three men to peel Destin off Evan.
“What was that—a last kiss?” Karn laughed. “That was quite a show. I wish we had more time.” He turned away, and his voice became hard and brisk. “Sublette and Howard. Take the handyman out in the woods and kill him. Meet us at the ship.”
Sublette and Howard looked unhappy at this assignment, but not unhappy enough to risk complaining.
“But . . . you said I had a future in the military,” Evan protested.
“You think we’d want a preening cock robin like you in the army?” Karn snorted. “You wouldn’t last a day.”
As his assigned executioners dragged him to the door, Evan caught one last glimpse of Destin. His eye was blackened, his face bloody, his nose probably broken.
But his lips were curved in a shadow of a smile.
All the way into the woods, Sublette and Howard complained about their assignment and Carthis in general. They were speaking Ardenine, so maybe they thought Evan couldn’t understand it. Or maybe they didn’t care.
“Saints and martyrs,” Howard said. “This is the only patch of green I’ve seen in this whole godforsaken country. Why anyone would come here willingly is beyond me.”
“This an’t the worst of it,” Sublette said. “There’s dragons and watergators.”
“There couldn’t be watergators,” Howard countered, “’cause there’s no water.”
“There’s a river,” Sublette pointed out.
While they were talking, Evan managed to slide Destin’s amulet out of his breeches and loop the chain around his neck. The amulet, warm and primed with flash, rested against his chest. Maybe he didn’t know any killing charms, but he’d find a way just the same.
“Let’s get this thing done,” Sublette muttered. “I’m not getting left here, that’s for sure.”
Actually, you are, Evan thought.
By now he guessed they were far enough away from the cabin that they wouldn’t be seen or heard.
Sublette drew his sword. “Kneel, boy,” he said. “If you hold still, I’ll cut off your head and you won’t feel a thing.”
“How do you know?” Evan said. “Have you ever been beheaded?”
“Stop wasting time and kneel!” Howard put his hand on Evan’s shoulder to push him down to his knees. Evan turned, pressed his finger into the soldier’s chest, and sent lightning rocketing in. Howard dropped like a rock.
“Howard?” Sublette stared at the dead man for a scant few seconds, which was all Evan needed. Reaching from behind, he pressed his fingers into Sublette’s throat and did for him, too.
Sometimes simple is best, he thought.
He wrestled Sublette out of his uniform jacket and pulled it on over his shirt. Working feverishly, he strapped on the soldier’s belt and shoved his sword back into the scabbard. The disguise wouldn’t fool anyone for long, but it might buy him a few seconds, and that might make the difference. There was nothing he could do about his hair, but it was nighttime, after all.
He sprinted back to the cottage, the unfamiliar sword banging against his hip, organizing his story as he ran.
He banged through the door, shouting, “General Karn! The handyman! He pushed Howard in the river and ran off!”
But the interior of the cottage was empty as a tomb. It appeared that Sublette and Howard
