Kate followed the motion, at last seeing what the splendor in the room had kept hidden—a second chair, this one occupied by Signe. She was strapped into it by ropes tied around her arms, waist, and chest. Her legs remained free, except for the spiked wooden screw around her right foot—the two pieces of board compressed together by an iron vise. One that had pressed so hard it had crushed the foot beneath.
“Signe!” Kate dashed toward her, only to be thrown backward by a blast of magic. It had come from Rendborne, right out of his outstretched hand. “You’re a magist?”
“Oh, no, dear child. I am so much more. As are you, wilder.” He stood from the crystal chair with a terrifying aspect.
Kate pulled her eyes off him, surprised by how hard it was. A part of her wanted to watch him, mesmerized by his presence, as if he were a flame and she the moth. She got to her feet, gaze fixed on Signe unconscious on the chair with her chin resting on her chest. “Why do this to her?”
Rendborne walked over to Signe. “Are you familiar with the Eshian notion of Seerah?”
“The holy silence,” Kate said on an exhale.
Smiling, Rendborne motioned to Signe. “This one holds fast to that vow. She is a credit to her people.” Cupping Signe’s chin with one hand, he raised her head off her chest and turned her face toward Kate, revealing the thick gash from her brow line to her chin. Blood still oozed out from it, running down her neck like a red river.
Kate choked on a gasp.
“It’s a difficult thing, breaking a person,” Rendborne said in a detached, clinical tone. “You have to find out what matters most to them, where their heart lies. This one I thought might’ve been vanity, but I was wrong. She didn’t fear the scar this will leave behind at all. Impressive.”
Vomit climbed Kate’s throat, and she sucked in a breath. She needed to stay calm, keep her wits about her. “Why are you doing this? She’s done nothing to you.”
Rendborne continued on as if she hadn’t spoken. “Then I thought perhaps the threat of crippling her would work. She’s so fierce and independent. Surely the idea of never walking again would have broken her. But you know what happened?” Rendborne dropped Signe’s face and turned to Kate. “She still refused to divulge her secrets. Isn’t that fascinating?”
Kate shook her head. It wasn’t if you knew Signe.
“Yes, fascinating.” Rendborne raised his hand to touch the necklace of talons strung around his neck. “But frustrating. I need to know how to make the black powder. Since she refuses to tell me, you are going to fetch it for me instead.”
Several seconds passed before Kate fully understood what he was saying. Her stomach recoiled at the idea. “You want me to steal the secret out of her mind?”
“We both know you have the ability.” Rendborne motioned to the glass jars on the workbench. “These are the elements she uses. I recognize them all, save this one.” He picked up a jar. “It seems to be a substance found only in the islands. But the proportions elude me, and the trial and error it would require to work out the recipe would take an age. Time I don’t have. I need you to use that gift of yours and find out from this one.”
“I won’t do it.”
Rendborne smirked. “Believe me, child, you are not my first choice. But I’ve only two wilders left with your ability, after you killed poor William in Thornewall, and neither is available at the moment. I need it done now and quickly. You will do it for me, Kate Brighton, willingly or not.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but then an idea occurred to her. For her to use her sway, he would have to remove the collar.
Worried he would suspect something if she agreed too quickly, Kate said, “What happens if I refuse?”
“Suffering and death, of course.” Rendborne rolled his eyes as if the subject bored him. “I’m afraid I know your character too well to bother trying to bribe you instead. Proud and honorable like your father. Now, before I remove your collar, you should know that any attempt to use your gift on me will fail.” He touched his chest, where a crystal full of a dark-red liquid lay beneath the necklace of talons. “This magestone shields me. The magic was woven from your father’s blood.”
Kate inhaled sharply. “You’re lying.”
“It’s gruesome, I know, but of all the gifts I possess—control over fire, water, earth, air, and even most of spirit—the gift of sway still alludes me.” Envy rang clear in his voice, his eyes a golden smolder as he stared at her.
“No one man has that much magic,” Kate said, her gaze fixed on the crystal, still disbelieving his claim that it was her father’s.
“I told you. He is no man, but a god.” Vikas spoke from behind Kate. She’d almost forgotten the maestra was there. Vikas stared at Rendborne with raw desire on her face.
Rendborne beckoned Vikas forward, and when she reached him, he bent his head toward her and kissed her full on the mouth. Breaking the kiss, he stared down at her with genuine affection. “And you will soon be the goddess who rules Rime next to me.” He turned his gaze to Kate. “I have Isla here to thank for discovering the spell to create this.” He picked up the crystal and shook it, stirring the tenebrous contents.
Beside him, Vikas reached into her robe to reveal an identical crystal. She held it up, examining it with a fond gaze. “Magic resides in the blood. Even after death, the power remains—that is, if the blood is extracted from a still living host. In the end, your father gave me every last drop before the executioner took his head.”
Kate gritted her teeth so hard, pain shot through her jaw as she fought to hold in a scream. She remembered the way he’d looked that day, when they led him to the executioner’s block. Pale and emaciated, a man drained of all the life and hope left in him.
“He never spoke a word,” Vikas said, “not even to cry out.”
Kate closed her eyes, hatred expanding inside her like air drawn into a bellows. She understood at last why it was her father had refused to see her. Why he’d left his message in code. The meaning had been double—find Kiran and leave Rime, get away from this evil.
“Let’s begin then,” Rendborne said. “Once I remove the collar, you will enter your friend’s mind to find out how she mixes the black powder. If you do it successfully, she will live and not suffer any more abuse. If you refuse or attempt to escape in any way, there will be death to pay.”
Kate stared at the man, trying to know his thoughts without her sway. The death he spoke of wouldn’t be Signe’s, she decided. The secret she possessed was worth too much for him to kill her outright. But I’m expendable. That was all right. Kate would rather die than let this man control her. If she failed, her death would buy Signe time. But first Signe needed to be freed.
“I understand,” Kate said at last.
Satisfied, Rendborne waved his hand, and she felt the collar loosen around her neck. It fell to the ground, and when she glanced at it, she saw the lock on it was still intact but the metal to either side had been pulled apart. With magic. It seemed Rendborne had been telling the truth about his powers; he had the magic of both air and earth, that she’d seen so far.
Kate breathed in, stretching out with her sway. Gently, she probed both Vikas and Rendborne. As they claimed, she couldn’t reach either of them. But behind her, just through the door, she sensed the two golds, neither of them protected from her magic.
Kate made a show of turning toward Signe. Her friend was awake now, her eyes squeezed shut against the pain. I’m sorry, Signe, Kate thought as she approached the chair.
“Hurry,” Rendborne said. “If you’re successful, I will heal her pain myself.”