smile, ignored the way she tried to squeeze his fingers, and shook her hand off his arm. “You should get back to the ropes.”
He left her there and headed for his quarters, for an Ilsa he didn’t know anymore, a happy one with a blast of freedom in her smile and a look for Van Gast that she’d never spared for Holden. He’d lost Josie to Van Gast already, and he was resigned to that. He had no intention of losing Ilsa to him as well.
Chapter Six
Rillen sat in his chambers, the sultry night air thick with the scent of the trees below wafting up in a heady, sticky cloud to choke him with sweetness. The lamp behind him wavered in a snatch of breeze, flicked bronze shadows across the bare stucco walls, and then steadied as he read the note.
Have found Van Gast’s weakness, and his secret name—Andor. Will have him outside Herjan’s temple, tomorrow at sunset. I will be there to identify him.
Outside Herjan’s temple—how apt. Where Haban had kept his stall where he’d taken possession of the stolen diamond from Van Gast. Haban’s niece was doing very well so far. Rillen had to hope that Van Gast’s famous little-magics didn’t have the chance to save him. No, not hope, plan for it.
Van Gast’s secret name too—that was worth knowing, storing away for future use. A rack guarded their true name with their lives, thinking any who knew it knew them well enough to know all.
The door opened without any preamble, no knock or call. Rillen leaped to his feet, outraged and ready to berate whoever had startled him into dropping the note, sending his twisting plans awry in his head.
He stopped the instant he saw the mage in the doorway, hunched and monstrous on a platter of cushions held by two bonded slaves. Rillen’s mind went utterly blank for a heartbeat, except for one thought, clanging in his head like a death-bell. Kyr save me, he’s come to bond me.
The slaves brought the mage in, set him on the floor next to a low lounger and table where Rillen entertained visitors, or would if he had any he wished to entertain. The musty, dead smell of Remoria filled the room, overpowering even the cloying flowers floating up from the avenue, sticking in Rillen’s throat, twisting round his heart.
With all the casualness he could muster, Rillen sat on the lounger and faced the mage, but he couldn’t hide the subtle shake of his fingers. The slaves fussed over the mage a moment and then slid into the background, just furniture, for all the thought and emotion behind their eyes. Useful furniture, who did for the mage those things he could not, for fear of cracking crystals, losing power. Rillen studied the crystals rather than think about bonds, or why the mage was here, considered the eyes that hid in sparkling depths. The center mage, the one who led them. Bissan.
“Your father,” Bissan murmured, “intends to…not betray us, but to try to enslave us. To use us.”
The mage had brains behind those crystals then. Still, Rillen had best be cautious for now. “What makes you say so?”
The mage laughed, a little breath that whistled among the crags around his lips. “Not everyone but you is stupid, Rillen. We do not wish to be used, by anyone, and most especially not someone so…so limited as your father. We might be happy to ally, a true partnership. With the right person.”
Rillen tried to still the sudden burst of heartbeats, the swirl of new thoughts and plans that crushed into his head. Kyr’s mercy, if he had just one mage at his back, he could rule Estovan and the lands for leagues around. With three…he could control everything worth having.
Bissan watched him as these thoughts flashed across his mind like cannon shot, a vague smile flickering on his lips as though he knew what Rillen was thinking.
“Your father is foolish in this, though sharp in many other ways. He trades well, runs the city adequately. We require more than that, a man with flair. Who knows we can’t be enslaved.” Again, a hint of a smile, a subtle curve of a lip half-hidden. “It’s we who enslave. But not you, Rillen. We’ve learned that much. Unbonded men can go where we cannot, see what we cannot, yet. In return, we have much to offer you.”
“I see.” Rillen saw a lot possible that wasn’t before. The western coast at the mercy of Estovan,