Sorin opened his mouth, and she drew the power back. Then the mirror was just a mirror, and she was staring at her own stricken face.
The emptiness in her chest was even worse than the ache of lost magic. The emptiness had teeth, and would never let her go. But Ileni reached through it and clung to the memory of how she had stood here earlier, looking at Tellis and feeling nothing.
If she had felt that way about Tellis, one day she would feel that way about Sorin, too.
It helped, but only in a vague, distant way. She wanted to close the connection between them—to slam it shut, so he would be leagues and leagues away and have no way to talk to her ever again.
But she didn’t. She held the portal open, delicately—not wide enough to let someone through, just enough to keep it from closing entirely. It required every ounce of her Renegai training. It almost slipped from her, twice, but each time she managed to hold it back.
She dropped to the floor, snatched up one of the broken pieces of chalk, and drew a swift pattern over the one that was already there. She took the time to check the overlay of the two patterns, then placed Girad’s wooden dog in its center and placed both hands on it. It had been worn smooth, and felt almost like warm glass. This was a toy that had been much-handled, deeply loved by a child.
But there was nothing else at hand she could use. I’m sorry, Girad.
She ran the words of the spell through her mind once, then began tapping her fingers along the toy in patterns she had memorized long ago. Halfway through, she got her finger pattern mixed up, and the building power shuddered and vanished. She gritted her teeth in frustration and began again.
The second time, she faltered over a word.
Focus. If she had been in the Renegai village, two tries would have been all she got; her teachers would have insisted she stop and replenish her strength. But here, she had an endless supply of power. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, pressed her fingertips into the wood, and began again.
The third time, she got it right. As soon as the magic spiraled into the end of the spell, she let out her breath and opened her eyes. She let go of the wooden dog, and it rose into the air, undulating faintly.
Behind it, the mirror was dull and lifeless, the magic torn from it and instilled in the toy dog. The toy, now, held one end of the portal.
The other was still in the caves.
She couldn’t bring herself to touch the wooden dog. She let it hover in the air in front of her when she was done, let it float before her all the way down the narrow hallway and the narrower ledge and across the swaying bridge.
Karyn and Evin were on the plateau, colored lightning zigzagging over their heads, frantic bursts of savagely beautiful lights. When Ileni stepped off the bridge, the brilliant zigzags disappeared before she could get a close look at them. But she knew what Evin was doing. Turning art into combat magic.
This place ruins everything it touches.
It was her last chance to hesitate, but she didn’t. She walked straight over to the center of the plateau, past Evin to Karyn, the wooden dog hovering in front of her.
“I think,” she said, her voice shaking only the tiniest bit, “that this is what you want from me.”
CHAPTER
26
The plateau was completely silent but for the rush of wind around them and the cry of an eagle somewhere overhead. The sky stretched vastly blue over the harsh gray plateau and the soaring twin pillars of the Judgment Spires.
Karyn reached for the wooden dog, and so did Ileni. Ileni’s hand closed around the small toy first, and she pulled it back.
The wind whistled around them, then went still. The residue of Evin’s spell hovered overhead, faint glittering sparkles of color.
“Ileni?” Evin said.
“It’s a way through the assassins’ wards.” Ileni kept her focus on Karyn, whose hand was still out, fingers curved. “A way into the caves. This was your plan for defeating them, wasn’t it? For me to turn traitor and let you in.”
Karyn curled her fingers slowly into a fist and drew her hand back. Evin murmured under his breath, and the remnants of color above them vanished, leaving the air clear and featureless.
“That’s why you have a map of the caves in your room.” Ileni tightened her grip on the dog. “You don’t need a map unless you’re thinking about getting inside. That’s what this is about. It’s what it’s always been about. You let me stay, you let Evin rescue me, because you thought I had a way into the Assassins’ Caves.”
“That’s all we need,” Karyn said. “A way in. And we can put an end to their murders forever.”
“Well,” Ileni said. Her fingers shook only slightly. “Here’s your way in. I just spoke to Sorin. That portal is still open, and it goes right through the caves’ wards. I’m sure you can find a way to send people through it.”