The Emperor's Wolves (Wolves of Elantra #1) - Michelle Sagara Page 0,35

you too old to be sacrificed, but it is clear to me that you have a connection with the intended, ultimate victim—and that connection is vital. Let me ask another question. When did these marks appear on your friend?”

“Maybe three years ago. Maybe less.”

“You should have come to me sooner.”

Severn said nothing. They both knew that this was theoretical. It would never have happened. It would not happen now, not beyond this one meeting.

“Time,” the fieflord continued. “These deaths might have started the moment the marks appeared, but it was too early. The risk of being caught was too high. The risk is not small now. I wish to know how they found your friend, but that is not a question you can answer.”

Severn wanted to know as well. If he left—if they left—would Elianne be safe? Or would it start again, somewhere else?

“I do not know how much time is left for your friend. Tell me, boy, have the marks on their skin, the marks with which you are familiar, changed at all since the killings began?”

Severn did not answer for one long beat; it was not an act of defiance. He struggled, for that moment, to breathe. The fieflord’s eyes were the color of night, wide and unblinking. He approached Severn, and Severn stood, frozen, until the fieflord’s eyes were the only thing he could see.

“The marks on the corpses we have managed to retrieve—and we have not retrieved all of them—are identical. There is no shift or change in the marks made upon those bodies.” He paused. “Were you twins—and I assume you are not—I do not believe any of the other deaths would be necessary. Were your friend your child, they would not be, either.

“But you are too old. Neither of these can apply.”

“What—what are they trying to do?”

“Do you not already know? Or do you ask simply to confirm your growing suspicion?”

Severn closed his eyes.

“I will not tell you what the marks signify. To you or your friend, they might be simple disfigurements. This magic is not a magic I can easily use, not a magic I would have ever considered. But I will say this: with those marks comes power. It is a power, in its prime, that is almost sorcerous in strength—but perhaps that means little to you.

“The words are the words. Someone attempts to rewrite them. It is not a sympathetic magic, but it is fueled by death. Someone believes that they can rewrite what is written, revising its meaning, reshaping the power inherent in what has been given to your friend. And it is almost time now.

“They have started at the beginning, at what they must feel is the beginning.”

“What will happen to—to my friend?”

“If I am correct? Your friend will have power, but that power will be linked to, and possibly controlled by, those who now complete the sacrifices. If that is the case, boy, I take a risk I should not take—it is arrogance on my part. Or perhaps curiosity. If what your enemies now attempt is successful, your friend will have the power to destroy this fief, and perhaps the city itself. I think it is the fief—or all of the fiefs—at which that power will be aimed.”

“All of the fiefs.”

“Tell me, do you live alone? Is it only you and your friend? You do not answer. Let me assume that the answer is no. Are the others your age, or the age of your friend?”

Silence.

“They are mortal, and children,” Nightshade continued. “And they are the victims your adversary is seeking, even as we speak.”

“There are two.” The words were strangled, almost inaudible, even to Severn, who uttered them.

“Lord,” one of the Barrani guards said.

The fieflord shook his head. “You are too poor to leave this fief, but even were you not, I would not recommend it. The borders will be watched. Unless you attempt to pass between fiefs, or into the heart of Ravellon, the shadows that exist at the very heart of the fiefdoms, they will find you. They will find your friend.

“And they will find any others that depend on you. How much have those marks changed?”

He had not answered the previous question, and did not answer this one. “What will happen if they find the others?”

“They will do as they have done. They will sacrifice them. But this time—this time I believe they will have the power necessary to subvert those marks, and the person who bears them, entirely. Your friend will die in