When Reichis didn’t respond, Nephenia looked up to me. ‘Does he understand? He’s not—’
‘Tell the bitch I’m going to sneak into her house one night very soon. I’m going to climb up onto her face and rip off her ears and then I’m going to eat her eyeballs right in front of her.’
There was so much rage radiating from him it practically made the rain dripping through the roof steam off his fur. I guess I couldn’t really blame him. ‘She thought you were a monster, Reichis. She didn’t understand.’
‘If I could take it back, I swear I would,’ Nephenia said, practically begging him now. It made for an odd sight.
He bristled. ‘Fine,’ he growled. ‘Tell her to pick her favourite eye. She can keep one.’ He looked up at me and snarled. ‘The other one, I’m eating.’
‘What did he say?’ Nephenia asked.
‘He said …’ I locked eyes with Reichis and did my best not to flinch. ‘He said he understands. He says we all do stupid things sometimes. He says he forgives you.’
Reichis was not impressed. ‘Oh, that’s it. Now I’m going for your eyeballs too, you lousy—’
He was cut off by the other squirrel cat, who nipped his ear. Reichis growled back at her. ‘Being around you is like having thorns in all four paws, you know that?’
Nephenia rose to her feet. ‘We have to get you out of here, Kellen. Tennat and his brothers are looking for you. They’re using tracking spells.’
‘Like you did,’ I said.
She nodded. ‘I found you first. The spell is stronger when there’s an emotional … I just found you first, that’s all.’ She shook her head. ‘Everyone’s gone mad, Kellen. Tennat’s been strutting around like his father’s already the clan prince. The council says they’re going to hold the election tonight, even though it wasn’t supposed to happen for weeks yet.’
‘I don’t understand. I thought they wanted to use the initiates’ trials as a way to see which house has the best bloodlines?’
‘That’s just it – they’re putting the initiates through the trials tonight, one after another. Everybody is scrambling, trying to make sure they have a secret to sell for the fourth test. Panahsi won’t even talk to me. He just keeps practising spells inside his family’s sanctum.’
The other squirrel cat sniffed the air and chittered something. Reichis translated. ‘More headed this way.’ He looked up at me. ‘Four of them, all mages from the stink.’
Nephenia closed her eyes for a moment. ‘It’s Tennat. He’s using the same spell I am … there’s a kind of tension between the two.’ She opened her eyes. ‘Kellen, you’ve got to get out of here. Now.’
‘How? They’ll just keep tracking me.’
‘I sparked the band for silk magic yesterday. There’s something I can try that will confuse them, make them follow me instead of you. I’ll use distortion spells to keep them off my trail, and if they do find me, they’ll just think Tennat messed up his spell.’
‘And what if he doesn’t? What if he figures out—’
‘He won’t. Tennat thinks I’m just a silly girl who plays at being a mage.’
‘Time’s running out,’ Reichis chittered. ‘I can hear them fumbling around inside one of the houses on the other side of the street.’
Nephenia took my hands. ‘Kellen, I’ve heard people talking, saying that the Mahdek are the ones who took your sister. They say that Daroman woman, Ferius Parfax, was looking for her and then she got taken, too.’
Reichis shuffled up to the door. ‘Make up your mind, kid. Either way, I’m out of here.’
I caught Nephenia’s eyes. ‘Are you sure you can do this?’
She nodded. ‘Find your sister, Kellen. If she goes to the mage trials tonight, there’s still a chance that your father will be elected instead of Ra’meth.’ When I hesitated she said, ‘Let me do this, Kellen. Let me do the brave thing for once in my life.’
How the hells am I suppose to make these kinds of choices? ‘What do we have to do?’ I asked.
She closed her eyes and formed somatic shapes with both hands, two simple cantrips, one for attracting, one for shunning, each the reverse of the other bound into a single spell, then interlacing the syllables of the evocations back. It was clever actually. Then she put her arms around me and hugged me. ‘I need to strengthen the connection between us. It’ll make it easier to fool Tennat’s tracking spell.’
We stood like that for a while before she let go, but she didn’t step away. ‘I think … I think it’s working,’ she said. I wasn’t sure how to reply, all I could think about was the fact that my lips had never been this close to hers.
Reichis snorted. ‘You do remember you were puking up green foam a few minutes ago, right?’
Hells. ‘I’d better go,’ I said.
‘No,’ Nephenia said. ‘You stay here. I’ll go first and draw Tennat and the others away. Wait until after I’m gone, and then go find Shalla.’
Before I could stop her, she started out the door. ‘Wait,’ I said. ‘Why are you doing this?’
Nephenia paused at the door. ‘Back at the oasis you told me that one day I’d figure out I was special.’ She turned and looked back at me, a silhouette framed by the doorway, rain pouring down all around her, ready to risk her life for mine. ‘I’m done waiting.’
30
The Prisoner
Those next few minutes nearly drove me insane. Every sound I heard – every drop of rain dripping onto the floor through the leaky roof, the steps outside of Sha’Tep returning to their homes after their day’s labours, running, stumbling to get out of the wet – I jumped at all of them. I kept wondering when the next noise would be Tennat and his brothers shouting for me, or Nephenia screaming.
‘You know,’ Reichis said, ‘I kind of like that human. Maybe I’ll let her keep both eyes.’
‘That’s decent of you.’
‘I’m still going to eat one of her ears.’
After another minute, he went to the door and sniffed the air outside. I couldn’t help but wonder, given how arrogant the little bastard was, whether his sense of smell could really be as good as he claimed it. ‘They’re gone,’ he said, then added, ‘Guess this is where we part ways.’ He started out the door.
‘Wait! Stop!’
The squirrel cat peeked a head back in. ‘What?’
‘I thought you were going to help me!’ I replied, immediately wishing the words hadn’t come out sounding so desperate.
Reichis gave a passable imitation of a shrug. ‘I did help you. I freed you from your parents before they finished … whatever it was they were doing to you. I gave you lightning weed and got you out of the house, and now you’re here, in this lovely hideout where you can lay low for a while.’
‘My sister’s in danger! So is Ferius. I need you to help me—’