“Uh-huh. Loris?”
Instinctively I glanced at Loris, but wished I hadn’t when he captured my gaze. Unable to look away, I fought against a heaviness pressing into my thoughts. I tried to jumble them, keep the answers from his reach like a mental game of keep-away. It worked until he increased his efforts. Then I counted numbers backward as Valek had taught me and recited lists of poisons. It only delayed the inevitable. Eventually, Loris’s magic shone on all the corners of my mind, exposing everything. The blocking thing failed to work. Instead, a powerless humiliation spread throughout my body.
“And?” Bruns asked.
“She’s pregnant.”
While Loris held me, I was unable to see Bruns’s reaction. However, through Loris, I sensed Bruns’s surprise turn into cold calculation.
“Is Valek the father?”
“Yes, and he knows all about the baby. In fact, the two of them have exchanged marriage vows.”
That statement triggered a wave of astonishment throughout the prison.
“Let me be the first to congratulate you, Yelena,” Bruns said. “I’m looking forward to learning more about what you’ve been up to this last year. Is she ready?” he asked Loris.
“Yes. She’s mine.”
“Good.” Bruns gestured to one of the guards. “Unlock her door. We’ll take her to my office, milk all the information from her, then scrub her mind clean.”
Right now I’d like to scrub the floor with Bruns’s face. Loris laughed. “You won’t feel that way for long. In a couple days, you’ll be his new best friend.”
“Gentlemen, say goodbye to Yelena,” Bruns said. “The next time you see her, she won’t remember you.”
The door to my cell swung open.
Loris said, “Come.”
The compulsion to obey pushed on my muscles, and I moved to his side. He broke eye contact and I almost swayed with relief. However, my body now followed his commands. Odd.
As we walked by Leif’s cell, my brother said, “Remember Mogkan.”
A strange way to say goodbye.
“Who’s Mogkan?” Bruns asked, stopping.
“Tell him,” Loris ordered me.
The strong impulse to divulge the information pressed on me. “Mogkan was a magician who wiped the minds of other magicians in order to steal their magic to increase his own power. He’d attempted to add me to his ring of power, but he failed.”
“Ah, a little pep talk from your big brother,” Bruns said. “Sweet, but this is very different. I’m sure Mogkan didn’t use Theobroma on her, and she had magic then.”
We continued to the exit, but Leif’s gaze never wavered from mine. I hadn’t told them everything about Mogkan, and with good reason. When Mogkan had attempted to turn me into a mindless slave, he could only control one part of me. Either my mind or my body. Never both. And I’d been eating Theobroma, except we called it criollo at that time. As for my magic, it had been a survival instinct that kicked in when I was trapped without options. Mogkan hadn’t ever triggered that when we were together.
Could that natural resistance to Mogkan’s magic apply to Loris’s magic, as well? Leif’s pep talk might just save my life.
*
The questioning spanned hours. It’d been late morning when we started, but now most of the afternoon was gone. I huddled in the leather armchair in Bruns’s office as he grilled me on Valek, the Sitian Council, the Master Magicians and the Commander.
There was no need for me to talk as Loris plucked the information from my mind. Each of his forays for details sapped my strength. And the effort to prevent him from my thoughts only weakened my resistance to his probes. I transferred my energy to keeping that bit of free will alive and hiding a few important secrets. However, if this session continued much longer, I’d pass out from exhaustion.
“Yelena and Valek believe the Commander is planning to attack Sitia after the Fire Festival in Ixia. Which is about five months away,” Loris said.
“Ah. Good to know,” Bruns said. “Did they tell anyone else their suspicions?”
“No. They’re waiting for more proof.”
“Does she know where Valek is?”
Ha. I knew he’d lied about capturing Valek. Bruns lied with ease. I wondered who else he’d lied to.
Loris shot me a look.
You don’t really think you and your sister are safe, Loris. Do you? You’re magicians, and Bruns has made his opinion about people with powers quite clear, I thought.
Don’t think you can manipulate me. I’m in control here, and I see right through your attempt to distract me. Loris turned to Bruns. “She doesn’t know where Valek is. If he’s not at the rendezvous location, she can only speculate at this point.”
“And?” Bruns asked.
Black-and-white spots swarmed my vision, but I imagined Valek clinging to the ceiling right over Bruns’s bed, waiting to drop down and kill him. A guess or wishful thinking? I’d let Loris decide.