“Then I’d suggest you discuss your security measures with the Death King.”
“You don’t trust the Death King either, do you?” I said. “What’s your problem with him?”
If the Death King headed the original House of Spirit, he’d once been on an equal footing with them. While being a lich meant being cursed to spend an eternity as a zombie, there was no denying that his magical prowess far outmatched the other Houses. Perhaps Harris felt threatened by him. It was as good a guess as any.
“He has no right to send you here to tell us how to take care of our prisoners,” said Harris.
Maybe he does, given your track record. “Was the guard who died killed by a cantrip?”
“So it appears,” he said. “I seem to remember you took the other one.”
I threw my hands up. “Just consider for a moment that I might be trying to help find who’s killing your people. Also, you might want to listen to the Death King’s warnings. I know for a fact that he told you the Order of the Elements is under the control of the enemy—”
“Get out,” he said. “I’ve heard enough from you. Tell the Death King that there will be no alliance between our House and his as long as he keeps information on the nature of the enemy from us.”
Okay, that made no sense whatsoever. “He’s not keeping anything from you.”
He looked down at me. “Then he doesn’t trust you so much after all.”
Anger scorched my cheeks with heat, but I managed to refrain from tossing a fireball at him. If I lost my temper, I’d end up in a cell myself, so I turned heel and left, retracing my steps to the node.
After I landed in the swampland, I walked back towards the gates, fighting the urge to go and pick a fight with Adair. It wouldn’t do any good to start anything with him while I was already hopping mad.
Ryan accosted me on the other side of the gates. “Where’ve you been?”
“The House of Fire,” I said. “Another guard died the same way as the head jailor did.”
“With a cantrip?” they asked.
“Apparently,” I said. “Also, the guard at the House of Fire told me that he won’t cooperate with the Death King as long as he supposedly keeps secrets on the nature of the enemy from everyone else. Including us.”
Ryan’s eyes narrowed. “He what?”
“I’m not sure if he was telling the truth,” I said hastily, “but I think it’s safe to say the Houses have cut us loose.”
“They can’t have,” said Ryan. “We took their prisoner off their hands, and they need to keep up their end of the bargain if they want the Death King to stay on their good side.”
“I’m not sure they care either way,” I said. “Harris pretty much shoved me out the door. Wouldn’t give me the cantrip to look at either, so I can only assume it’s the same as the last one.”
“What about that supplier?” they said. “Did you speak to them?”
“We did,” I said. “The Spirit Agents don’t think Dawson is guilty of making the cantrip himself, but I didn’t want to pay him to identify the spell for me. Also, I’d rather not put a target on my back by asking an expert.”
“I bet Liv’s friend Devon can figure out what it is,” said Ryan. “She won’t tell tales, either.”
Liv. Again. “Can she identify the person who carved it?”
“No,” they said. “But she can take a reusable cantrip and identify the previous spell used on it. I’ve seen her do it.”
“I guess it can’t hurt.” I was all out of ideas, and besides, it wasn’t like I had anything to lose by asking. “All right.”
I’d expected the Air Element to ask the Death King’s permission, but instead of going to him, they went to one of the rooms near the Elemental Soldiers’ quarters which had once been used as a dormitory for the contenders during the Fire Element contest. On a bed inside the room sat a woman of around Liv’s age, with heavily bandaged hands. Her short brown hair stuck up in all directions as she looked up from the book she was reading. “You’re the new Fire Element, right?”
“That’s me,” I said. “I’m told you’re an expert on cantrips. Can you look at this one for me?”
She dropped the book onto the bed. “Sure. Not much else I can do until my hands heal up.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“Got on the wrong side of one of those inferno spells.”
I winced. “Sorry.”
She took the cantrip from me in her bandaged hands. “What’re you looking for? It’s blank.”
“I hoped you could uncover which spell was used on it before it wiped itself clean,” I said. “It was used to kill a guard in the House of Fire.”
She laid it down on the bed. “You might’ve led with that part before dumping this on me. Liv does this kind of thing all the time.”
I’d rather she stayed out of this one. “Doesn’t she work for the Order?”
Did she know they were under the control of the enemy?
“Not exactly.” Devon turned the cantrip over in her hands. “I’ll have a look at this and get back to you later.”
She wanted to keep her friend’s secrets, then. Understandable. If the Death King knew of the Order’s corruption, it was a safe bet he’d told Liv, too, but what if the enemy’s influence on the Order was creeping into the Parallel, too? That might account for the Houses’ sudden reticence to consider a deal with the Death King, even after we’d kept up our end of the bargain. The Family’s signature on the back of the blank cantrip was a screaming reminder that they were never as far away as they seemed.
I halted in the doorway. “That signature on the back of the cantrip… have you seen it before?”
“This?” She peered at it. “Nope. I can’t identify a signature unless I’ve already encountered the
