XX: Elias
The morning after the Trial, I wake before dawn, groggy from the sleeping draught I realize I’ve been doused with. My face is shaven, I’m clean, and someone’s changed me into fresh fatigues.
“Elias.” Cain emerges from the shadows of my room. His face is drawn, as if he’s been up all night. He holds up his hand at my instant barrage of questions.
“Aspirant Aquilla is in the very capable hands of Blackcliff’s physician,” he says. “If she’s meant to live, she will. The Augurs will not interfere, for we found nothing to indicate that the Farrars cheated. We have declared Marcus the winner of the First Trial. He has been given a prize of a dagger and—”
“What?”
“He returned first—”
“Because he cheated—”
The door opens, and Zak limps in. I reach for the blade Grandfather left at my bedside. Before I can fling it at the Toad, Cain is between us. I get up and quickly stuff my feet into my boots—I won’t be caught lounging on a bed while this filth is within ten feet of me.
Cain steeples his bloodless fingers and examines Zak. “You have something to say.”
“You should heal her.” Veins stand out in Zak’s neck, and he shakes his head like a wet dog ridding itself of water. “Stop it!” he says to the Augur.
“Stop trying to get in my head. Just heal her, all right?”
“Feeling guilty, you ass?” I try to shove past Cain, but the Augur blocks me with surprising swiftness.
“I’m not saying we cheated.” Zak looks quickly at Cain. “I’m saying you should heal her. Here.”
Cain’s whole body goes still as he fixates on Zak. The air shifts and grows heavy. The Augur is reading him. I can feel it.
“You and Marcus found each other.” Cain furrows his brow. “You were...led to each other...but not by one of the Augurs. Nor by the Commandant.”
The Augur closes his eyes, as if listening harder, before opening them.
“Well?” I ask. “What did you see?”
“Enough to convince me that the Augurs must heal Aspirant Aquilla. But not enough to convince me that the Farrars commited sabotage.”
“Why can’t you just look into Zak’s mind like you do everyone else’s and—”
“Our power is not without its limits. We cannot penetrate the minds of those who have learned to shield themselves.”
I give Zak an appraising look. How in the ten hells did he figure out how to keep the Augurs out of his head?
“You both have an hour to leave school grounds,” Cain says. “I’ll inform the Commandant that I’ve dismissed you from your duties for the day. Go for a walk, go to the market, go to a whorehouse. I don’t care. Don’t return to the school until evening, and don’t come back to the infirmary. Do you understand?”
Zak frowns. “Why do we have to leave?”
“Because your thoughts, Zacharias, are a pit of agony. And yours, Veturius, echo with such deafening vengeance that I can hear nothing else. Neither will allow me to do what I must to heal Aspirant Aquilla. So you will leave. Now.”
Cain moves aside, and, reluctantly, Zak and I walk out the door. Zak tries to hurry away from me, but I’ve got questions that need answering and I’m not about to let him worm his way out of them. I catch up to him.
“How did you figure out where we were? How did the Commandant know?”
“She has ways.”
“What ways? What did you show Cain? How did you manage to keep him out of your head at will? Zak!” I pull his shoulder around so he faces me. He throws my hand off but doesn’t walk away.
“All that Tribal rubbish about jinn and efrits, ghuls and wraiths—it’s not rubbish, Veturius. It’s not myth. The old creatures are real. They’re coming for us. Protect her. It’s the only thing you’re good for.”
“What do you care about her? Your brother’s tormented her for years, and you’ve never said a word to stop him.”
Zak regards the sand training fields, empty at this early hour.
“You know the worst thing about all this?” he says quietly. “I was so close to leaving him behind forever. So close to being free of him.”
It’s not what I expect to hear. Ever since we came to Blackcliff, there has been no Marcus without Zak. The younger Farrar is closer to his brother than Marcus’s own shadow.
“If you want to be free of him, then why go along with his every whim? Why not stand up to him?”
“We’ve been together for so long.” Zak shakes his head. His face is unreadable where the mask hasn’t yet melded. “I don’t know who I am without him.”
When he walks to the front gates, I don’t follow. I need to clear my head.
I make for the eastern watchtower, where I strap myself into a harness and rappel down to the dunes.