his chains jingling, Nikslaus glanced at him. He nodded to the Warden, who reached out and firmly moved Tamas’s hand from the window.
Tamas sighed. At least his vision had cleared. They’d left the farmhouse late in the afternoon the day before. Something had calmed Nikslaus and he seemed no longer worried they’d be caught. Tamas sent his senses inward, then probed out. He tried to open his third eye.
Powder mages were the only kind of sorcerer whose power could be disrupted like this. Tamas didn’t know how it had been discovered, or when, but gold in the bloodstream could render a powder mage’s power completely null. It even blocked their ability to see the Else. Removal of a Privileged’s hands at the wrist was said to keep them from manipulating the Else, but not from seeing it.
“I’m not a bad man,” Nikslaus said suddenly.
Tamas gave him a glance. The duke stared at him, a troubled look on his face.
“I don’t revel in your discomfort, or smile at the thought of your doom,” Nikslaus said.
Tamas said, “Such knowledge would not keep me from choking the life out of you, given the chance.”
Nikslaus gave him a distracted smile. “I’ll be glad not to give you such a chance.” He paused. “I was thinking, just now, what it would be like if I couldn’t use sorcery. If my hands were struck from me and my ability to touch the other side was gone. It was a harrowing thought.”
“You’ll not win any goodwill from me,” Tamas said.
“I simply want you to know,” Nikslaus responded, “that I don’t do any of this out of pleasure. I act on the whim of my king. I am but a servant.”
“Were you a servant when you delivered the head of my wife in a cedar box?” Tamas said. The sentence began calmly. By the time he finished it, he was snarling, his anger bared. It had come upon him like a rogue wave. His chains jingled and clanked. The Warden gave him a dangerous look.
Nikslaus calmed the Warden with a raised hand. “Yes,” he said. “I was a servant.”
“You enjoyed it,” Tamas said through gritted teeth. “Admit it.” Bitterness dripped from his voice. “You enjoyed ordering the headsman’s blade, you enjoyed bringing her head to me and seeing my sorrow, and you enjoy seeing me incapacitated now.”
Nikslaus seemed to think on this. “You’re right,” he finally said.
Tamas fell silent, shocked that Nikslaus would admit such a thing. It was beneath a duke.
“When you put it that way… I did enjoy it, and I still do,” Nikslaus said. “But not for the reasons you think. This isn’t personal. Powder mages are a stain. A black blot on sorcery. I don’t take relish in another person’s suffering. I take pride in seeing a powder mage struck down, as I did when Ipille ordered the death of your wife.”
“It makes you no less a beast,” Tamas said. He glanced sideways at the Warden. “No less a beast than the ones who made this.”
Nikslaus’s eyes narrowed. “Says the powder mage. Your kind are more monstrous than Wardens by far.” He looked at the ceiling. “I’ll never understand the minds of such as you, Tamas. We’ve both got our prejudices, I suppose.” He snorted. “Had you been born a Privileged, you would have made a formidable ally.”
“Or opponent,” Tamas said.
“No,” Nikslaus said. “Not an opponent. Our antagonism toward one another is based solely upon your being a powder mage.”
“I’m Adran,” Tamas said quietly. “You’re Kez.”
“And the Adran Cabal would have been enfolded into the Kez Cabal, had the Accords been signed. As they should have been.”
“Does Ipille really expect to rule Adro?”
Nikslaus blinked at Tamas. “Of course.”
Tamas could see in Nikslaus’s eyes that there was no doubt there. What arrogance.
“I’ve wondered,” Nikslaus said, “ever since news came of your coup, what finally did it? Is it simply revenge? Or do you honestly think you have the best interests of Adro at heart?”
“Do you honestly think it is in Adro’s best interest to bow to Kez?” Tamas countered. “No, don’t answer. I can see it in your face. You’re as blind a nobleman and monarchal stooge as any of those that I sent to the guillotine. Do you not read the papers? Do you not hear of uprisings in Gurla? I know you felt the sting of rebellion when Fatrasta rose up and threw your armies out.”
“Fools, all of them,” Nikslaus said.
Tamas persisted. “The world is changing. People do not exist to serve their