them graze. The rolling expanse of grass was probably more green food than either of them had ever seen before. He dragged me inside, into one of the bedrooms with a large bed. The blankets had been removed, but the straw mattress remained. The Summoner forced me to lie down on the bed. He tied my arms above my head, to the hand-carved wooden headboard, then moved down my body to tie my feet to the bottom of the bed. I was forced to lie there on my back, staring at the ceiling for hours after he disappeared, listening to the rain plink against the rooftop above me, trying to distract myself from the pain in my hands and arms as the blood drained out of them by wondering what family had lived here. I imagined an entire scenario, a husband and wife, and their three children. They had a family horse, and the father would carve wooden toys for the children to play with. I forced myself to keep my mind walled into the pretend scenes, rather than letting myself think about Eljin or Rylan or Tanoori, or anyone else from Antion — especially not Damian.
Sometime later, when the light outside the one window in the room had grown even darker than the dreary grayness that had lasted all day as the storm continued, The Summoner returned. He smelled of fire and blood as he came to stand over me, staring down at me tied to the bed like an offering.
I turned my face away from him, trying to keep my pulse from speeding up in fear. I wouldn’t let him scare me. I was stronger than that.
“Here,” he said at last, and when he touched my head, I jerked away from his touch. “Here,” he repeated angrily, grabbing my jaw and forcing my head toward him. When I saw the flagon he held, I stopped struggling and reluctantly allowed him to help me drink.
The water sloshed in my empty stomach, making it cramp. “I need more than water to live, you know,” I said quietly.
He ignored me, standing up and walking out of the room again.
A short time later, the door creaked open again and I stiffened, but when Akio crept in, I relaxed slightly — though I glanced past him in alarm. Where had The Summoner gone, and how soon would he return?
Akio hurried to my side and lifted my head so I could eat the roll he’d brought me.
“There are soldiers still up celebrating in the streets. Wait until it’s been dark for many hours and the noises outside have ceased. Then tell The Summoner you need to go outside to relieve yourself.” Akio spoke in a rush as I chewed. “I’ll wait outside, behind the home. When you come out, I will attack him, and you must take one of the horses and flee. It will be your only chance to escape.”
I nearly choked on the last bite of my roll; my eyes widened in shock. “Why are you doing this — why are you helping me?”
Akio glanced over his shoulder, his entire body tense, prepared to flee. When the house remained quiet, he glanced back at me, his dark eyes sad. “I was born in Blevon. I trained to be a sorcerer there. But my father … he was greedy. He’d heard rumors of greater power in Dansii. He convinced himself that the Blevonese leaders were lying to us — to keep us from becoming stronger. He hated the Rén Zhsas, mostly because he was jealous of their enormous power. He forced us to sneak through Antion and go to Dansii. He offered our family to the king in return for his help in making him more powerful. Armando agreed, taking my mother and sister and forcing them to become servants in his palace. Since I was a sorcerer, I was allowed to come with my father when he made his first sacrifice, to transform himself into a black sorcerer. Instead, he became Dish.” Akio spoke quickly, his voice low with grief and pain. “He was dead, but not dead. Alive, but not alive. I had to stab him in the heart, to release his body from what he’d done. But his spirit will be cursed forever because of his greed.”
I could do nothing but stare at him as he told me his story, unable to move my hands or reach out to him. I couldn’t imagine what he’d been through because of his