this year. A good proportion of those definitely won’t make it to next year. You want another eighty or ninety color wights?”
“Of course not.”
“The parties are nice, Gavin, but understand what you are. This is the flip side of your first purpose.” She’d figured out that he’d sworn to wipe out color wights because of Sevastian. Like everything she learned, she used it to control him. “Even if you don’t believe the Prism is Orholam’s gift to mankind, they do. The minutes each drafter spends with you being Freed are the holiest moments of her life. You can take that away, but it would be the worst thing you could do. I for one can forgive you much, but I’d never forgive you that.”
That stung.
“Now, tell me how you dropped off Karris in Tyrea, killed a giist, and brought back a son, all within a few days. The trip alone should have taken you two weeks.”
Well that was quick. He’d known she would learn of the skimmer and the condor as soon as he’d shown Karris, but he hadn’t been able to stop himself. Maybe he was impulsive. So he told her about the skimmer and the condor. Her eyes lit up. “That would be something to see, Gavin. Flying! And the speed! I suppose you’ll want to go back to Garriston the same way?”
“Yes, and I’m taking Kip with me.”
Again she surprised him and didn’t protest. “Good,” she said. “It will be good for you to learn about a father’s love.”
Because I sure as the evernight didn’t learn about that from my own father. Then Gavin realized that was exactly what she meant, and he bristled. But there was no point fighting over his father again.
“So what was the second time?” he asked instead.
“Second time?”
“The second time you saw the green flash. The second time Orholam winked.” He kept the sarcasm out of his voice. Mostly.
She smiled. “I look forward to the day when I tell you that, my Lord Prism, but that day is not today.” Then her smile passed. “When you return, we need to talk about Kip’s testing.”
“You noticed the wall crystals. I thought I stopped it in time.”
“Old? Yes. Addled? Not yet.”
“You want to hear me admit it? Kip nearly broke the test,” Gavin said. “Like Dazen did.”
“Or worse, passed it,” the White said.
Chapter 52
Karris knew she was even deeper in trouble than she’d feared within five minutes of being captured. King Garadul’s Mirrormen walked her at gunpoint over to a wagon. They didn’t bind her hands, which she thought was curious and gave her a momentary hope. Then the Mirrormen handed her off to half a dozen drafters, all women. Two Mirrormen stayed, their pistols leveled at her head, barely blinking.
The women—two reds, a green, a blue, and a super—stripped her naked and searched her and her clothes, quickly finding her eye caps. The two Mirrormen barely even glanced at her body, and though men around the camp turned to see whatever they could between all the drafters surrounding her, there wasn’t a single ribald comment.
Disciplined. Damn it.
Crossing her arms over her breasts, Karris looked down, feigning embarrassment. Well, maybe not completely feigning.
“Eyes up!” one of the reds commanded.
Karris looked up. They wanted to see her eyes so they would know as soon as she tried to draft. Smart too, damn it twice.
In rapid order, they went through all her clothing, scrunching every seam to look for hidden pockets. Then they went through her bag, one carefully cataloguing all the items in a codex. After they’d found everything, Karris hoped they’d give her back her clothes.
No such luck. Instead, they opened the door of the wagon and threw a violet dress and shift inside.
“Get in,” the same red who’d spoken before said.
Karris got in and the door slammed behind her. She heard a bar being lowered and chains pulled into place. The inside of the wagon was fairly spacious. There was a pallet to sleep on, a chamber pot, a cup of water, several blankets and pillows—all violet, the deepest into the blue spectrum they could find. And from the noxious smell, all freshly painted. The windows were fitted with bars and violet glass, draped on the outside with violet cloth. Apparently they were taking her drafting seriously, and from their study of her eyes and the mag torches, they knew she could draft green and red. Rather than risk a color that was between her colors, they’d picked the one farthest to the