Pellini gestured toward Kadir. “Mr. Sparkly.”
“I see that,” I said, cautious and alert now. How much time has Pellini already spent with Kadir tonight? “What’s going on?”
“Chaos,” Kadir said, and lightning flickered through the colored energy clouds around us. “My world disintegrates.”
“So I’ve heard,” I said. “We’re doing what we can on the Earth end, but your friend Katashi is hell-bent on screwing things up.”
“I am friend to none,” he said. “Isumo Katashi is a necessary component, though he neglects symmetry for the sake of haste. This must be corrected.” He opened his hand and set a mass of wriggling potency strands spinning in the space between us like a glob of entangled worms. A discordant buzz rattled my teeth as if I’d had twenty cups of coffee and was poised to vibrate apart. Kadir passed his hand over the strands, transformed the raw potency into a radiant electric blue sigil. It spun in perfect balance and the buzz lifted to a clear tone. With another pass of his hand Kadir warped it, and it lurched around its axis.
“Still functional,” he said, “but asymmetry engenders instability.” Kadir blew on it, and the sigil shattered with a sound like a hundred fingernails screeching across a blackboard. His violet eyes met mine. “Asymmetry engenders instability. It must be corrected.”
Instability. Valves.
“Let me get this straight,” I said, eyes narrowing. “You don’t have a problem with what Katashi’s doing with the valves, only with how he’s doing it. He’s in too much of a hurry to do it your way.” I gave him a sour look. “In other words, you want me to help you by improving on Katashi’s method.”
“Yes,” he said. “By symmetrizing the valves.”
I laughed outright. “Why the hell would I do that?”
“Because each symmetrized valve impedes his progress and stabilizes the system.” He paused and lowered his head, eyes on me. “This is a desirable outcome for you.”
Slowing down Katashi might buy us time to find a way to stop him for good. If Kadir was telling the truth. I glanced to shimmery Pellini to check his reaction to all of this, but he offered me a helpless shrug. He probably didn’t know enough about the dynamics to contribute to either side.
Kadir continued as I mulled it over. “If you do no more than patch valves as they destabilize, Isumo Katashi will succeed—at enormous peril of catastrophic implosions on Earth.”
Fuck.
I hated to agree with anything that had the potential to advance the Mraztur’s cause. But Kadir had unparalleled skill with potency flows and the valves, and had an obsessive interest in stability. What he proposed made sense in a mutually beneficial way, though the benefit for us was short term.
Kadir’s gaze intensified. “He will risk catastrophe with no qualms. Will you?”
“You already know the answer to that,” I said with a scowl.
“I do,” he said. “In this, you are not foolish.” He stroked Paul’s head as though he were a dog at his side, a gesture that left me chilled and unsettled.
“Paul,” I said, “are you all right?”
He lifted his gaze to Kadir. “You may speak,” the lord told him.
Ugh!
Paul leaned against Kadir’s leg and brought his eyes to mine. “I’m good,” he said. “Not dying anymore.”
My concern spiked higher at the submissive move. “Not dying is good, unless the alternative is worse.” I drifted closer. “Paul, you need to give me some kind of reassurance.”
“No,” Kadir said and stroked Paul’s head again. “He does not. All that is required is that you learn to symmetrize a valve.”
Paul rested his head against Kadir’s thigh and gave me a smile, but didn’t speak again.
Impotent rage settled into my gut. Kadir had saved Paul’s life, but at what cost? I didn’t want to think of what he’d done to Paul to force such subservience. “Paul, is there anything you want me to tell Bryce?”
Kadir sparkled brighter then began to disintegrate, even as Paul grew fully transparent. “You may tell Bryce Taggart that this one thrives.”
“Wait!” I called out. “How am I supposed to learn to symmetrize a valve?” Kadir worked potency in a disturbing way, unlike any other lord or arcane practitioner I’d ever encountered. No way could I figure it out on my own.
Pellini, still shimmery, spoke up. “It’s too late. He won’t stop now.”
An instant later I slammed into my body as if I’d dropped from a height. Heart pounding, I sucked in a breath. My limbs felt heavy and awkward, but the sensation passed before I could panic. I need to go find Pellini! No sooner had the thought formed than sleep overtook me again.
I woke to an urgent knock on my door and weak sunlight filtering through my curtains.
“Kara,” Bryce called from the hallway. “We have a situation.”