Fox was puzzled; I felt puzzled. “I don’t feel any different. Is it working?”
“A little too well.” I dispelled the rune and felt Fox’s thoughts vanish, weariness taking its place. “This is the spell Aenah used.”
“That’s enough for one day.” Fox decided. “And don’t argue—I’m getting tired just sensing your exhaustion. Between this and the graveyard, it’s been a long day.”
I tried to protest, but it came out as a yawn.
Fox tucked me into bed, something he hadn’t done since we were kids. “Stop pushing yourself,” I heard him say affectionately before I fell asleep. “The world will turn even when you are not awake to busy yourself in it.”
? ? ?
I was fresh and rejuvenated when I opened my eyes again—exceptionally so. Marveling at my sudden energy, I sat up in bed and spotted the Faceless’s book, half-hidden underneath a dozen other volumes on my table. It would have been better if Fox had kept it with him and prevented me the mischief, but I remembered that the soldiers’ barracks had little privacy.
I promised Fox I wouldn’t experiment, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t look through the rest of the spells.
I climbed back into bed, taking the book with me.
The Puppet Rune, I read, requires great concentration. Wrap the spell around your victim to command as you may. The cadaver performs its last command unless dispelled or until its master’s death. Till then, it takes on the artifice of life, moving and acting independently of other forces. Sufficient strength can raise hundreds, even tens of thousands.
I stared at the symbol. With some imagination, it did resemble a marionette being jerked on its strings by a dark blob in the background. This must have been the spell Aenah used at the graveyard. But how? Didn’t Mykkie say I cannot control the dead if they aren’t willing? Already the book was breaking rules I’d always believed sancrosanct.
The next page showed a rune of two intertwined hearts. The Heartshare rune, it said, bolstered a fading heartsglass with a second healthier one to delay death until medical attention is administered. It could even control one’s mind to an extent, but where the Compulsion rune used force, Heartshare used trust and claimed much better results. It also seemed to be the only spell in the book that asha and Deathseekers alike could use.
It was probably not a rune the Faceless preferred, given their mutual distrust. When the azi had attacked the darashi oyun years ago, asha and Deathseekers withstood their attack by linking runes together. When I had confronted Aenah at the Valerian, Mykaela, Polaire, and Altaecia had lent me their strength in much the same way, similar to how I could take strength from the azi to add to my own. But sharing heartsglass appeared to be a much more intimate spell than even that.
I turned the page. The Illusion rune was a series of whorls and loops. Rather than cast the image into one’s mind as most other runes would, this one cast the illusion around the target, to disguise it instead, a deception of sight rather than of mind. When done right, it was capable of hiding structures, people, even thoughts.
Another rune dealt with controlling multiple living minds at the same time. The Dominion rune is a constant battle, I read, of pitting one’s will against many others. Use at your own peril. It sounded like almost every rune in the book should be used at one’s own peril.
Next was a rune patterned after a chokehold of vines or perhaps a nest of intertwined snakes. The Strangle rune targets the seeking stones of your enemy. Weave and direct the flow into its center to disperse its source.
There were no runes on the next page but a sketch of a silver heartsglass.
To you, seeking Blade that Soars’s path: take that which came from Five Great Heroes long past and distill into a heart of silver to shine anew.
I turned to the last page and found a sketch of another heartsglass, this one as dark as the first was bright.
To you, seeking Hollow Knife’s path: present yourself with a heartsglass of black, where love’s blood has been shed and seven daeva’s bezoars. Boil the stones separately, and drink a vial’s worth of their waters. Weave Compulsion in the air; its heart shall reveal itself to you. Take it into your heartsglass.
The process is not gentle.
Each daeva increases the darkrot. The sacrifice is great, but the rewards are priceless. The unity of seven into darksglass and five into lightsglass is the key. Merge both with the First Harvest to achieve shadowglass and rise as the Great Prince once did, to rule as you see fit.
I couldn’t see how Aenah and the other Faceless would be willing to give up so much for immortality if they might die in the attempt anyway. Take five into lightsglass? Boil bezoars? First Harvest? It read more like a recipe for those suspicious “cure-alls” sold in the shadier parts of Ankyo. And yet…
None of the spells talked about severing links with azi either, and with the unexpected relief came guilt.
I browsed through the rest of the book and discovered some pages were torn out. Aenah might claim to help me, but it was apparent some spells weren’t meant for my eyes.
I turned back to the Scrying spell. My promise to Fox held; I had only sworn not to use spells I had not yet tried.
Faint flickers of thought surrounded me, an unexpected smorgasbord of stray minds. I soon realized just how complex the rune was; without a specific target, its magic harnessed all nearby thoughts for sampling. Aenah had not needed to know of Garveth the guard to have access to him.
I followed the path back to Fox and found him at the training grounds, attacking one of several straw dummies in the field. His mind felt warm and familiar—a calm clear pool that suggested more depth than it presented.
He was quicker, stronger than I remembered. His body spun and whipped about in ways my clumsier form could never perfect, and his sword blurred, crackling like lightning as he scored decisive blows until he struck his straw opponent’s head off its shoulders with one final stroke of the blade.
Not bad, I heard him think, but still not enough.
Cheers rose from the onlookers at the sidelines, and I watched embarrassment march through my brother’s thoughts.
“Three dummies in a week. Ten minutes in your care and they are demolished, when they would have lasted months with others. Your blows are deadly, Sir Fox.” Commander Lode of the Odalian army came into my view, smiling.
I am still not strong enough to protect Tea, my brother thought but only said, “I do so under your excellent tutelage, milord.”
“Modesty is well and good, but acknowledging improvements to one’s skills is as necessary as acknowledging improvements to one’s character.” The man clapped him on his back. “Though I must admit, you’re faster and stronger now than when you were on patrol. We will find that damned daeva and get revenge, Fox.”
“Looking forward to it, Commander.”
“Good work. You’d be a match for even Lord Kalen, and that’s saying something.”
The men feared Fox, his ability to withstand injuries that would kill others, when we had first arrived. Many were old comrades he’d known before the savul killed him. But Prince Kance told me how the soldiers of the Odalian army were the best in the world, that skill and courage were lauded above all else, and that Fox would be welcomed despite his ties to bone witches.
Thinking about Prince Kance sent a lump to my throat. I closed my eyes, willing away my own emotions before I alerted Fox to my presence.
As the commander moved on, I caught a sudden flash of gold and a whisper of silk. A veiled girl stood half-hidden behind a pillar, staring at me. Our gazes met.
In the next instant, she was gone, darting through an open door leading back to the palace. Within Fox’s mind rose memories of lavender and perfume.