They were in a square, windowless chamber, its white rock walls lined with an assortment of bookcases, boxes, and large statuelike objects whose purpose Ileni couldn’t begin to guess at. Boxes and papers and food-stained bowls were piled around the walls and filled much of the floor space.
“I’m sorry,” Evin said. “Transportation is exhausting, even for me. I should have made it smoother.”
Ileni swallowed hard before attempting to speak. Her mouth tasted foul. “Since your transportation spell also saved my life, I’ll forgive you.”
He grinned, which sent a surge of unexpected gladness through her. “I assume that comes with an offer to help clean up? We have some time, but not much—Karyn is in the city fixing the sandstorm shields.”
Arxis was already collecting and stacking papers, with the same efficiency assassins used to spar—or kill. Evin joined him, slow and lumberish by comparison. A zigzag pattern of glowstones near the ceiling lit the chamber brightly. High on one of the walls, across from Karyn’s desk, hung a large parchment map.
Aware that it was rude not to help clean up, Ileni walked to the map. There were no words on it, and she couldn’t tell what the symbols meant, but she could see that it covered a vast territory. The Empire?
She lifted a hand toward the map, then snatched it away when the parchment’s surface shimmered and changed. Another map, filled with curving lines and angles that seemed oddly familiar, covered the parchment.
The sudden stillness made her aware that the cleaning had stopped. She wasn’t surprised when Arxis stepped up beside her. But there was something so predatory about his movement—as if he had dropped his mask—that only her fascination with the map kept her from stepping away from him.
“What is this?” Arxis asked. His voice was light and nonchalant, at odds with his grim expression.
“I don’t know.” Evin, still behind them, couldn’t see the fierceness in Arxis’s eyes. He sounded as casual as the assassin was pretending to be. “The first map is the Empire, of course. This one shows whatever specific area Karyn’s been looking at most recently.”
Of course. Those curves, those lines—they were familiar to Ileni because she had memorized them, once.
It was a map of the Assassins’ Caves.
Karyn had mapped them when she was there. And now she was using what she knew to plan an assault.
This map was of the inside of the caves, not the mountains around them. Karyn must have gotten farther into the caves than anyone had realized, back when she had been posing as a trader.
But Sorin knew about the river entrance now, which meant he would be guarding it— or, more likely, had blocked it off entirely. Whatever attack Karyn had planned was no longer feasible. I’m right back where I started, she had told Ileni.
Karyn hadn’t given up, clearly. She was still searching for a way in. Still readying an attack.
How soon would it come? Ileni’s heart pounded. Her choice lay in front of her, stark and clear. She could prevent this attack. With the Academy in ruins and the lodestones buried—with Karyn dead—this plan would die stillborn.
“I don’t think you have much choice,” Evin said.
Ileni half-turned, tearing her eyes from the map. “What?”
“Karyn will realize you’ve escaped. The only way to stay out of her reach is to go back to your own people. I know you don’t like the idea. . . .” He hesitated. “I don’t like it, either. But in the mountains, you’ll be safe.”
Would she?
For a moment the prospect was unbearably tempting. She could go back to being a Renegai, wrapped in empty dreams of someday—someday—making a difference.
But those dreams were gone, and she could never get them back. When she had believed she could learn the truth and make her own choice, she hadn’t realized that truths could not be unlearned, that knowledge would rob her of choices as well.
She turned her back on the map, just in time to see Evin hold up the silver key and mutter a quick spell. The key sparkled briefly, and Evin placed it on top of one of the towering piles of paper on Karyn’s desk.
Ileni blinked. “That’s where you found it?”
Evin shrugged. “Karyn’s messy.”
“And busy planning a war,” Arxis added. A hint of steel pierced his voice, then vanished, and he slouched against the white stone wall. “Which is probably distracting.”
Ileni opened her mouth, then shut it. She was part of Karyn’s plan for that war. She didn’t believe for one second that Karyn would have been careless with the key to Ileni’s prison. Not if Karyn really wanted her to die.
Karyn had intended for Evin to find the key.
A long shudder ran through Ileni. There was nothing heartwarming about this revelation. If Karyn didn’t want Ileni dead, it was only because she still had some use for her. She still thought Ileni might be turned against the assassins, might choose the Empire, even after what she had seen.
Was she banking on Ileni’s need for power? Did she really think Ileni would turn her back on everything she believed so she could keep using magic?