The High Lord (31 page)

At the question, Sonea felt her blood turn to ice.

Akkarin hesitated. “I have given her certain books to read, so that she might better understand our enemy.”

“The books from the chest? Where did you get them?”

“I found them in the passages under the University. They were placed there by the Guild after black magic was banned, in case such knowledge was needed again. I’m sure you have read enough of them to know this is true.”

Lorlen glanced back at Lord Sarrin.

The old Alchemist nodded. “It is true, according to the records I found in the chest. I have studied them carefully and they do appear to be genuine. They relate how, before the Guild banned black magic five centuries ago, its use was common. Magicians kept apprentices, who gave them power in exchange for knowledge. One of these apprentices killed his master and massacred thousands in an attempt to rule the land for himself. After he died, the Guild banned black magic.”

The hall filled with murmuring voices that quickly rose into a clamor. Listening carefully, Sonea heard snatches of conversation.

“How are we to know if any of his story is true?”

“Why haven’t we heard of these Ichani?”

Lorlen lifted both arms and called for quiet. The noise subsided.

“Do the Higher Magicians have any questions for Akkarin?”

“Yes,” Balkan rumbled. “How many of these outcast magicians are there?”

“Somewhere between ten and twenty,” Akkarin replied. A scattering of laughter followed. “Every day they take power from their slaves, who have strong magical potential equal to any of us. Imagine a black magician with ten slaves. If he took power from half of them every few days, he would be hundreds of times stronger than a Guild magician within weeks.”

Silence followed his words.

“Yet, that power diminishes as it is used,” Balkan said. “After battle, a black magician is weaker.”

“Yes,” Akkarin answered.

Balkan looked thoughtful. “A smart attacker would kill the slaves first.”

“Why haven’t we heard of these Ichani before?” Administrator Kito’s voice echoed through the hall. “Merchants travel into Sachaka every year. They have occasionally reported meeting magicians in Arvice, but not black magicians.”

“The Ichani are outcasts. They live in the wastes and are not spoken of publicly in Arvice,” Akkarin replied. “The court of Arvice is a dangerous political battlefield. Sachakan magicians do not allow others to know the limits of their skills and power. They are not going to allow Kyralian merchants and ambassadors to discover what they keep from their own countrymen.”

“Why do these Ichani want to invade Kyralia?” Balkan asked.

Akkarin shrugged. “Many reasons. The main one, I suspect, is to escape the wastes and regain status and power in Arvice, but I know some desire to take revenge for the Sachakan War.”

Balkan frowned. “An expedition to Arvice would confirm the truth of this.”

“Anyone recognizable as a Guild magician will be killed if they approached the Ichani,” Akkarin warned. “And I suspect few in Arvice would be aware of Kariko’s ambitions.”

“How else will we confirm the truth?” Vinara said. “Will you submit to a truth-read?”

“No.”

“That hardly inspires us to—trust you.”

“The reader may learn the secret of black magic from my mind,” Akkarin added. “I will not risk that.”

Vinara’s eyes narrowed. She looked at Sonea. “Perhaps Sonea then?”

“No.”

“She has learned black magic, too?”

“No,” he replied, “but I have trusted her with information that should not be shared, unless in the greatest need.”

Sonea’s heart was pounding. She looked at the floor. He had lied about her.

“Is Rothen’s story true?” Vinara asked.

“It is.”

“You admit to claiming her guardianship merely to force Rothen and Sonea to remain silent?”

“No, I also claimed Sonea’s guardianship because she has great potential. A potential that was being shamefully neglected. I’ve found her to be nothing less than honest, hardworking and exceptionally gifted.”

Sonea looked up at him in surprise. She felt a sudden mad urge to grin, but managed to control it.

Then she went cold as she suddenly understood what he was doing.

He was convincing them to keep her within the Guild by telling them she had skills and information that they might need. Even if they didn’t believe him, they might take pity on her. She had been his hostage. She had been deceived into helping him. The Guild might even pardon her. She had, after all, only read a few books, and then only at the instigation of Akkarin.

She frowned. This made Akkarin look worse, however. And he was encouraging them to see things that way. Since she had first learned of the Ichani, she had nursed the hope that the Guild, if it learned the truth, would pardon him. But now she wondered if Akkarin had ever considered that a possibility.

If he wasn’t hoping to be pardoned, what was he planning? Surely he didn’t mean to let them execute him?

No, if it came to that, he would fight his way out and escape. Would he make it?

She considered, again, how much of his power the fight with the Ichani woman must have used. Her heart began to race as she realized he could easily be too weak to escape the Guild.

Unless she gave him all her strength, including that which she had taken from the Ichani woman.

All she had to do was touch him and send him the power. The warriors surrounding them would try to stop her. She would have to fight them.

When they did, however, they would realize that she was using more power than she ought to possess.

And then they would not be at all inclined to pardon her.

So the only way she could save Akkarin was to reveal her own use of black magic.

“Sonea.”

She looked up to find Lorlen regarding her intently.

“Yes, Administrator.”

His eyes narrowed.

“Did Akkarin teach you how to read an unwilling mind?”

“Yes.”

“And you are sure what you saw in the spy’s mind was true?”

“I am sure.”

“Where were you on the night Lord Jolen died?”

“I was with the High Lord.”

Lorlen frowned. “What were you doing?”

Sonea hesitated. Now was the time to reveal herself. But Akkarin might have a reason for wanting her not to.

He wants someone who knows the truth to remain in the Guild.

What use will I be, though, with him dead? Better that we escape together. If the Guild needs our help, they can contact us through Lorlen’s blood ring.

“Sonea?”

One thing I am sure of. I can’t let them kill Akkarin.

Taking a deep breath, she lifted her eyes to meet Lorlen’s.

“He was teaching me black magic.”

Gasps and exclamations filled the hall. In the edge of her vision she saw Akkarin turn to stare at her, but she kept her eyes on Lorlen. Her heart was pounding, and she felt sick, but she forced herself to continue. “I asked him to teach me. He refused at first. It was only after he had been injured by the Ichani spy that I—”

“You learned black magic
willingly?”
Vinara exclaimed.

Sonea nodded. “Yes, my lady. When the High Lord was injured, I realized there would be nobody with the ability to continue fighting if he died.”

Lorlen glanced at Akkarin. “Now there won’t be.”

His words sent a chill down her spine. Clearly Lorlen had understood what Akkarin had been trying to do. Knowing that she had been right in her suspicions gave her only a bitter satisfaction.

Looking at Akkarin, she was shocked to see the anger in his face. She quickly looked away. I
said I would do as he instructed.
She felt doubts beginning to gather.
Was I wrong? Did I just ruin some plan I wasn’t clever enough to see?

But surely Akkarin had realized she would understand that he was sacrificing himself so that she could remain in the Guild. He must have considered that she might refuse to abandon him.

“Sonea.”

Heart still pounding, she forced herself to look at Lorlen.

“Did Akkarin kill Lord Jolen?”

“No.”

“Did he kill the witness?”

Her stomach fluttered at the question. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen this witness, so I couldn’t tell you. I can say that I have never seen him kill a woman.”

Lorlen nodded and looked up at the Higher Magicians. “Any further questions?”

“Yes,” Balkan said. “When we arrived at Akkarin’s residence, neither you nor Akkarin were there. You arrived together later. Where did you go?”

“We went into the city.”

“Why?”

‘To deal with another spy.”

“Did Akkarin kill this spy?”

“No.”

Balkan frowned at her but remained silent. Lorlen looked at the Higher Magicians, then turned to regard the rest of the hall.

“Does anyone have any more questions?”

Silence answered him. Sonea breathed a sigh of relief. Lorlen nodded.

“We will now discuss what we have—”

“Wait!”

Lorlen turned to the front. “Yes, Lord Balkan.”

“One more question. For Sonea.”

She forced herself to meet Balkan’s gaze.

“Did
you
kill this Ichani woman?”

Cold swept over her. She looked at Akkarin. He was staring at the floor, his expression hard and resigned.

What difference would it make to tell them?
she thought.
Only to show that I believe what he says is the truth.
She lifted her chin and stared back at Balkan.

“Yes.”

The hall filled with exclamations. Balkan sighed and rubbed his temples.

“I told you not to let them stand together,” he muttered.

As soon as Lorlen called for another break for discussion, Dannyl hurried to Rothen’s side. He had seen his friend react to Sonea’s admission as if he had been struck a physical blow. Now Rothen stood staring at the floor.

Dannyl reached his friend and put a hand on his shoulder.

“You two never stop surprising me,” Dannyl said gently. “Why didn’t you tell me the real reason you lost Sonea’s guardianship?”

Rothen shook his head. “I couldn’t. He might have… well, I guess he has now.” He looked at Sonea, then sighed. “This is my fault. I convinced her to join the Guild in the first place.”

“No, it isn’t. You couldn’t possibly know this would happen.”

“No, but I made her question her beliefs when she first came here. I taught her to look beyond them, so she would accept her place among us. She probably did the same for… for…”

“What if all this is true? Then she had good reasons for what she did.”

Rothen looked up, his expression bleak. “Does it matter? She just ensured her own execution.”

Surveying the room, Dannyl noted the expressions of the Higher Magicians, then the King. They looked wary and anxious. Then he looked at Sonea and Akkarin. Sonea stood straight and determined, though how much of that was forced he couldn’t guess. The High Lord’s expression was… controlled. Looking closer, Dannyl read anger in the set of Akkarin’s jaw.

He hadn’t intended for Sonea to reveal so much,
Dannyl mused.

But, despite this, he and Sonea now stood closer together. A few steps, and they would be side by side. Dannyl nodded to himself.

“I don’t know if she has, Rothen.”

Once the Higher Magicians had returned to their seats, they began to relate what the members of their disciplines had expressed. Lorlen listened closely.

“Many find his story hard to believe,” Vinara said, “but some have pointed out that, if he was seeking to justify his actions with a fabricated story, surely he would come up with something more convincing than this.”

“My Warriors also find it disturbing,” Balkan added. “They say we cannot ignore the possibility that he speaks the truth, and we face a threat of attack from Sachaka. We must investigate further.”

Sarrin nodded. “Yes, my people agree. Many have asked if there is information in the books we might use to defend ourselves, should an attack come. I fear there is not. If Akkarin is telling the truth, we may need him.”

“I, too, would like to question Akkarin further,” Balkan said. “I would normally ask that he be detained until his claim is proven.”

“We cannot imprison him effectively,” Vinara reminded him.

“No.” Balkan pursed his lips, then looked up at Lorlen. “Do you think he would cooperate?”

Lorlen shrugged. “He has up till now.”

“That doesn’t mean he will continue to,” Vinara said. “For all we know, we could be doing everything he intended us to do. He might become very unhelpful if we took a different path.”

Sarrin frowned. “If he wanted to take control of us by force, he would have attempted it already.”

“That clearly isn’t what he wants,” Balkan agreed. “Though this whole story of Sachakan magicians might be meant to confuse and delay us.”

“Delay us for what?” Sarrin asked. Balkan’s shoulders lifted. “I have no idea.”

“But we cannot let him go,” Vinara, said firmly. “Akkarin has freely admitted to practicing black magic. Whether he committed the murders or not, we cannot show any tolerance for someone of his standing breaking one of our most serious laws. Akkarin must be seen to be punished.”

“The appropriate punishment is execution,” Sarrin reminded her. “Would you continue cooperating if you knew that was to be your punishment?”

“No doubt he would object to us trying to bind his powers, too.” Vinara sighed. “How strong is he, Balkan?”

The Warrior considered. “That depends. Is he telling the truth? He said a black magician with ten slaves could grow to the strength of hundreds of Guild magicians in a matter of weeks. He has been back eight years, though he claims he did not begin using it again until five years ago. Five years is a long time to be strengthening oneself, even if it was only from one servant—until recently.”

“He has fought nine slaves during that time,” Sarrin added. “That would weaken him, too.”

Balkan nodded. “He might not be as strong as we fear. If he isn’t telling the truth, however, the situation may be far worse. He may have been strengthening himself for longer. He may have been killing people in the city. And then there’s Lord Jolen and his household.” Balkan sighed. “Even if I could be sure of his honesty and strength, there is another factor that makes it impossible to predict what will happen if we tried to use force.”