The Traitor Queen

me.

Perhaps they were hoping he’d kill her. Perhaps it would give them the excuse they needed to read his mind, or worse. Once he was officially a criminal they could do anything to him.

The more he thought about it, the more convinced he was that this was their plan. Why else were they locking her in the cell with him every night? If he went on Healing her he would soon use up all the power Tyvara had given him. But that couldn’t be their only aim. There were plenty of other ways they could sap his strength, if that was what they wanted. If they only intended to break his resolve by torturing others, why leave the slave woman in his cell? They could always lock her up close by, just out of reach, so he witnessed her suffering but couldn’t help her.

Suddenly he wanted to kill her, just to spite them.

No, I don’t, he told himself quickly, shuddering at the thought he might be turned into a murderer so easily.

“Kill me,” came the whisper again. It sent a shiver down his spine.

Was there a way he could kill her that would leave no evidence he had done it? If the injuries the interrogator gave her are bad enough... No, he would have made sure they weren’t. Yet from the sound of her breathing something inside her chest was damaged. Perhaps a rib was cracked or broken. If he could manipulate it...

But that would be using Healing power to kill. Healers were supposed to heal, not harm.

Well, that’s always been a complicated philosophy. Cutting open a body to remove a tumour involves harming in order to heal. And then there’s the argument for helping people die. And my mother used Healing in defence, to kill some of the Ichani invaders.

“Www...”

A soft scraping noise came from the girl, and he reluctantly turned his head to look at her again. She was reaching toward him. No, he corrected himself, she’s reaching toward my legs.

“Wwwater,” she gasped.

Relief came as he realised that now she was only asking for something to drink. He pushed himself up into a sitting position. The food-bearing slave had brought a meal. Lorkin had tried to share it with the slave woman but she’d refused to eat. He reached for the jar of water and froze, remembering the warning glyphs that had indicated it was unsafe.

I wonder how unsafe...

He shrank from the thought, but it sprang straight back into his mind. If the water was poisoned and she drank it, she might gain the death she wanted without anyone but him knowing it was his fault. Well, except for the Traitors who left the warning. He felt a shiver go up his spine.

If the slave woman was a Traitor, she might know about the warnings. She might know the water would kill her. He turned to look at her. She gazed back at him, her eyes seeming to say, Yes. Free me.

If she was a Traitor, they must know she was here. Had they provided her with a means to kill herself?

But would the water kill her? He dropped his arm. The Ashaki must be the one adulterating Lorkin’s food. Surely they weren’t trying to kill him? He was of no use to them dead. Most likely the poison in the water was meant to make him sick, or force him to use up more strength by Healing himself. Still, they might reason that the stronger the toxin, the more magic he would be forced to use. It could be a lethal dose.

The woman made a low noise and stretched her unbroken arm toward the bottle. Outside the cell, the watcher eyed them both.

Kill me. Free me.

Lorkin looked from her to the water. He had to make a choice. And there was no right one. No matter what he decided, the consequences would be shocking. No matter what he decided, afterwards he would never be the same person again.

* * *

By the way Lilia had admitted to telling Sonea’s aunt that Cery, Gol and Anyi were living under the Guild, it was clear she thought they would be angry. Which is amusing and endearing, considering that she is a magician and we are mere commoners, Cery thought. She had paced a little as she explained how the servant had followed her and the discussion it had led to. Now she looked surprised that nobody was concerned by the news.

“Better that Jonna knows, than anybody else up there,” Anyi said. “In fact, she could be useful.”

“Jonna never liked me,” Cery told them. “But that was back when I was a youngster and she thought I was leading Sonea astray. She knew I was slipping into Sonea’s room now and then these last twenty years, but she never told anybody about it. Good odds she can be trusted.”

“If Sonea trusts her, I reckon she’s all right,” Gol agreed.

Lilia’s eyes had lit up with a peculiar light. “You’ve been seeing Sonea for the last twenty years?” she asked Cery.

He shrugged. “Of course. You didn’t think some rule about associating with criminals would stop her talking to her old friends, did you?”

“No, I can’t see that stopping either of you. I wonder what people would say if they knew. It would be a scandal, I’m sure.” Lilia smiled and sat down next to Anyi. “They’d also finally know why Sonea never got married.”

Cery frowned as he realised she had assumed his visits had been romantic. “Wait. I didn’t... that’s not what I was visiting her for.”

Gol began to laugh. “You certainly made it sound like it was. For a moment there I thought you’d managed to hide something from me all this time.”

Anyi shook her finger at Lilia. “My father was happily married for most of the last twenty years,” she said indignantly. Then she grimaced. “Well, during the second marriage, anyway – but he was married to my mother before that, even if it wasn’t exactly what you’d call ‘happily’ married.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to suggest he was unfaithful,” Lilia apologised.

Gol chuckled in a knowing way.

It was time to change the subject, Cery decided. “I’ve been thinking about what we should do next,” he said. Immediately all eyes turned to him. Anyi looked eager, Lilia relieved and Gol narrowed his eyes, no doubt ready to find the holes in whatever schemes Cery thought up. “What we should do is obvious, once I started thinking less about how we are stuck here and more about how we can turn being here to our advantage.”

Now Lilia was looking a little worried.

“We’re safe here – not because Skellin won’t have guessed we sought the Guild’s protection but because he won’t risk coming here,” he continued. “He’ll assume if we’re here we’re in one of the Guild buildings, under magical protection. If he learned that we were under the Guild, and that the magicians don’t know we’re here, he’d would slip in and kill us all – and feel smug that he did it without the Guild noticing.”

“But the Guild would notice,” Anyi pointed out. “Lilia knows we’re here and will stop him, or if she can’t then she’d get help.”

“Yes, but Skellin doesn’t know that,” Cery pointed out.

Gol gave a low growl. “No,” he said.

Cery turned to his friend, amused by the one-word disapproval. “Why not?”

“This is our last and only safe place,” Gol said. “We can’t risk losing it.”

“We do have one more safe place.” Cery pointed upwards. “The protection Skellin thinks we’re enjoying.” He gestured around them. “This, here, is our last and only chance to lure him into a trap.”

“A trap that, if it goes wrong, will see you dead,” Gol said.

“Lilia will protect him,” Anyi said, her eyes bright with the prospect of finally doing something.

Lilia nodded. “And Kallen. You are planning to tell Kallen, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Cery replied. “It’s a bit much to ask Lilia to shoulder all the burden of magical protection or to confront two rogue magicians, if Skellin brings his mother along.”