everything under the sun.
It was from those discussions that she’d gleaned enough knowledge to figure out what had happened to poor Wintervale. And it was another one of those snippets of knowledge that now led her to reevaluate what Master Haywood had understood from Kashkari’s words.
“When I was seven, there was a dinner to celebrate your promotion.” The last promotion he would ever receive from the Conservatory—or anywhere else. “During the meal, someone asked Professor Eventide about the primary sources she used for her research. She declined to discuss it in detail, saying it was forbidden. But after the guests left, the two of you sat and talked for some time. And at one point you asked her about those primary sources, whether it was true that records of actual practitioners of the Dark Arts had been allowed to survive.”
Master Haywood became very still, almost as if he had stopped breathing.
“She said yes,” Iolanthe went on. “She warned you to keep everything confidential, and then she went on to describe some of what she had read in those primary sources. I kept listening and kept regretting what I’d heard. Afterward I did my best to forget, because what she said gave me nightmares.
“But some things you never really forget. I remember now what she told you about sacrificial magic, how mages mistakenly equated blood magic with sacrificial magic because a rite of sacrificial magic began with the drawing of a small quantity of blood from the victim, to ascertain how powerful the sacrifice would be. I also remember she went to say how grotesque sacrificial magic was. And how messy, since all the best parts of the body—eyes, brain, organs, and marrow—had to be extracted while the victim’s heart still beat.”
Her breaths grew agitated from the horrifying memories—and from the accusation she was about to make. “My friends are knowledgeable, but few mages alive know anything concrete about sacrificial magic. By the time we learned that sacrificial magic was the reason for the Bane’s quest for a great elemental mage, none of us had time to do any reading on it—we were too busy preparing to leave Eton at the drop of a hat.
“Today, in their ignorance, my friends assumed that what Kashkari’s prophetic dream revealed was that I would die from sacrificial magic, giving the Bane another century of unparalleled power. That was the reason they left me behind, even though they had come to count on my abilities.
“But you, all along you knew that they were wrong. That I would not be used for sacrificial magic, at least not successfully. And you kept it to yourself. You let them go. You let—” Her voice caught. “You let the one I love walk into certain doom without me.”
He said nothing.
“Am I right?” she demanded. “Is that what you did?”
Still he said nothing.
“Answer me!”
His throat moved. “Yes, you are right. I let them think your death would be caused by sacrificial magic, even though your friend’s description of the dream suggested otherwise.”
She slumped into a chair, her legs no longer able to support her.
“But don’t you see, Iola, that even if it will not be by sacrificial magic, by going to Atlantis you will still die?”
Wearily she raised her head. “I know that. I have known it since the day the prince first asked me to help him in this endeavor. That was why I ran from him. That was why he had to trick me into a blood oath so that I’d stay. But somewhere along the way I changed my mind. I understood what is at stake. And I realized that sometimes the loss of a life, even if that life is my own, isn’t too great a price to pay.”
He shook his head, his eyes stricken. “I can’t let that happen. You are still a child. You are too young to make such irrevocable decisions.”
“I may be still underage, but I haven’t been a child for a very long time. You know that. And I have some idea how devastating it might be for you, to let me choose my own path. But it’s the same for me, don’t you see? There is a prophecy of the prince’s death. He would meet his end on Atlantis. Do you think it never occurred to me that perhaps he ought to stop pursuing this course of action that would lead him to Atlantis? But I don’t say anything to dissuade him, and I don’t stand in his way. He