I had a brief, fleeting thought of leaping forward and throwing my arms over his head and choking him to death, but the sorcerers on either side of me stepped closer, grabbing my arms, as if they could hear my thoughts. “I want you to understand what I’m doing — what I’m accomplishing — so that you will willingly give yourself to me. To the world.”
I began to protest, but Akio happened to meet my eyes just then, and he shook his head infinitesimally. Confused, I snapped my mouth shut, choosing to stay silent instead of responding.
King Armando took my silence as interest, because he continued, “Those subjects are an integral piece in my experiments — even though not all of them came willingly. Those who did offer themselves up, giving themselves to me for my experiments or allowing their bodies to be conduits, so that they might give birth to an entirely new breed of sorcerers, will be rewarded richly. The others …” He trailed off and shrugged. “But soon, none of this will be needed any longer. Because of you.”
“Excuse me?” My shock forced the words out.
“Your blood is the key. Your blood will assure my victory.”
“My blood,” I repeated in disbelief. Manu’s words were beginning to make more sense — his wild outburst that it was better to take his king a vial of my blood rather than nothing at all. But why? What could they possibly want with it?
A tall man who wore the same black robes with the white overvest that Manu had worn walked toward us. When his gaze met mine, the strange chill I’d felt in Manu’s cell enveloped me, and terror seized my body. He had the same silver eyes with abnormally large pupils that Manu had possessed, reminding me of the horrors Manu had brought to Antion. I battled to force my fear down. I couldn’t think clearly if I let it take hold completely.
“This is the girl,” he said in Antionese, a sickening look of hunger crossing his narrow face.
“Yes,” King Armando agreed. “I will not fail, now that she is in our possession.”
“I have made many advances for you, Sire. But with her, I will be able to conquer all.” The man in the robes smiled, a terrible, chilling upturn of his lips.
Despite my best intentions, terror ran through my blood, making my hands tremble. What could they possibly be talking about?
“Tell me. Where is my brother?” the man in the robes directed his question to me, but I stayed silent. This had to be El Evocon that Akio had told me I was being taken to — The Summoner.
“Answer him!” King Armando roared, jerking on my chains, and I flinched.
“He’s dead.” Though I hadn’t realized they were brothers, I knew he had to be asking about the man who had called himself Manu de Reich os Deos. “I killed him.”
“It cannot be,” the man in front of me breathed, his already-pale skin losing all color completely. The temperature dropped even more, making me shiver. “He was gifted with power nearly comparable to mine. He could not possibly have been bested by you.”
“It is the fulfillment of my father’s prediction,” the king said, his voice tight. “She is the one no sorcerer will be able to stop. But now she is ours. She will never kill again.”
Cold anger flared in the man’s unnatural silver eyes. “If you will chain her over there, I will get to work immediately.” He gestured to the tables where the strange instruments lay. Bottles were attached to long, thin metal tubes of some sort with sharp points. Like miniature daggers that had hollow centers. The sorcerer who had been standing next to one of the cots was now sitting on it, with one of the tubes in his arm. His blood ran into the bottle next to him through the instrument. Had he pushed it into his own vein?
And then it hit me. My blood. They wanted it for some reason. They were going to take it from my body while I was still living.
“No.” King Armando’s response took me by surprise. I tore my glance away from the sorcerer, who had reached up to pull the instrument — the strange, hollow dagger — out of his arm, to stare at the king. “She will sacrifice herself willingly. It would lessen the power of her blood if we take it forcibly.”
The man in the robes glared at me greedily, his jaw clenched. But to