I left Tyne’s room with those words echoing in my head: ‘They can see you now, Kellen.’ Why had he said it that way? As if … As if whatever demons were worming their way inside him through the shadowblack were somehow particularly interested in me.
Well, I keep wondering if my life could possibly get any worse. I guess it can.
I made my way through the hospital’s maze of halls, suddenly feeling as if there were eyes following me everywhere, picking up the pace every time my lousy sense of direction made me take a wrong turn. By the time I found the exit I practically knocked over a doctor as I ran outside into the cool evening air.
Breathe, I told myself. Just breathe and stop imagining demons on your trail.
I started walking down the street, crossing over the circular avenues that ran around the Academy, unable to shake the eerie feeling of being watched. Of course, I suppose the fact that I was being followed didn’t help.
Seneira’s house was in the opposite direction from the centre of town, which meant I was walking down mostly empty streets. Even if I could find other people along the route, they might well be working with whoever was stalking me. I turned down first one alley then another until I found a darkened doorway I could duck into. Within seconds a hooded figure, male, about my height and build, rounded the corner, carrying what looked like an eighteen-inch iron rod.
‘Two things you should know about me,’ I said as I stepped out of the shadows.
He spun around to face me, raising the weapon to make it clear he could bash me with it if I made a move.
One thing I’ve learned from Ferius these past months: being afraid is often unavoidable, but looking afraid can be suicidal. I put on my best smile. ‘First, I’ve had a pretty bad few months.’
‘It could get a lot worse,’ my pursuer warned, which helped because I could tell he was trying to make his voice deeper than it really was, which meant he almost certainly wasn’t a bounty mage come to get me and probably not any kind of trained assassin either.
‘The second thing you should know is that I’m not someone you want to get into a fight with.’
That last part was technically true: I tend to bleed on people a lot. Just ask Freckles.
I couldn’t make out my pursuer’s face, obscured as it was by shadows cast by the hood he wore, but the way he stood uncertainly, shifting his balance on his feet as if he expected me to rush him, told me I had, for once, successfully bluffed someone into thinking I was dangerous.
‘You’re a liar,’ he said finally.
Well, that was true. ‘What am I lying about?’
‘You’re not Seneira’s second cousin.’
Okay, so he was either one of the students I’d talked to in the classroom or someone who’d been listening in. ‘Third,’ I said.
‘You’re not that either.’ He raised the iron rod higher. ‘Tell me who you really are or I’ll—’
I’d already flipped open the tops of the pouches at my sides and now I let my fingers dip inside to pinch the powders. I was pretty sure I could take this guy out if it came to it, but I had a hunch that would turn out to be a bad idea. ‘How about I tell you who you are instead?’
He did a bit of a double take. ‘What are you talking about? You don’t know me. You’ve never met me.’
‘That’s true,’ I admitted. ‘But I just spent the last few hours wandering around the Academy, talking to teachers and students who know Seneira. Want to know what I found out?’
He hesitated, probably figuring this could be some kind of trick but not sure what it might be. ‘What?’
‘Nobody particularly likes her. Oh, they respect her intelligence, but mostly they think she’s privileged, stuck up and pompous.’
His grip on the iron bar tightened. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about! Seneira’s nothing like that. She’s—’
‘Relax, Revian.’
He froze, suddenly glancing around in case anyone was nearby. I guess wealthy Academy students aren’t supposed to accost people with iron bars. ‘How did you know?’ he asked, sounding defeated. His voice now had a somewhat higher and distinctly more natural pitch.
‘I exaggerated about Seneira’s classmates. They like her fine, just not enough to make more than a cursory enquiry as to how my “third cousin” was doing when she’s been absent from school for weeks. Nobody even asked what illness she has, and no one asked if they could come visit her. You, on the other hand, apparently spent an hour spying on me and then came after me with an iron bar on the off-chance I might mean her harm.’
‘Do you? Because if—’
‘I’m a friend,’ I said. ‘Well, not much of one, I guess. But I am trying to help her. That part’s true.’
Revian stared at me a long time before lowering his weapon. ‘You’ve seen her?’ he asked. ‘I mean, is she okay?’
He sounded anxious and sad … no, not sad, despairing. He knew about Seneira’s shadowblack. ‘She’s unharmed, other than the … illness of course.’
He nodded. ‘We talked before she left town. I begged her to stay, but she said she had to protect her family. When I heard you pretending to be her cousin, I thought … Not everyone here likes her or her father.’
‘But you do?’
He took a step forward, trying, I think, to intimidate me. He didn’t do a very good job of it because I could see he was shaking. It felt good for someone to actually be afraid of me for a change. ‘She’s my betrothed,’ he said suddenly.
The air went out of me faster than if he’d punched me in the gut. ‘You’re marrying Seneira?’
He nodded. ‘It’s been arranged since we were children. Our families believe that uniting our houses through marriage could be beneficial to both.’ He must have seen something in my expression, because he added, ‘I do love her, and even if we weren’t meant to be wed, I’d still do terrible things to the person who hurt her.’
His sincerity and loyalty shouldn’t have bothered me, except I’d heard it in Seneira’s voice when she’d described Revian too. So what? I asked myself. Who was Seneira to me? Some girl I’d met on the road who’d brought me nothing but annoyance and more than my share of trouble. Besides, I still had feelings for Nephenia, even if she’d had to move on without me.
I guess I’d better get used to being alone.
I shouldn’t have cared about any of this; the Academy, the Seven Sands, Seneira … none of it had anything to do with me. Whatever happened, once it was all done, Ferius, Reichis and I would ride out of town back onto the long roads, camping out at night, setting up traps and hoping that the next hextracker who hunted me down wouldn’t be the one who finished the job. The way of the Argosi is the way of wind, I thought ruefully.
‘Do the … markings around her eyes still trouble her?’ Revian asked, suddenly desperate now that he figured I might know something. ‘Please, it’s been weeks since I saw her.’
‘If you want to know so bad, why didn’t you just –’
I stopped. I’d been about to ask why he hadn’t gone to see her instead of stalking me in the halls of the Academy. Then a few things fell into place: the fact that he hadn’t been in class; the fact that he hadn’t gone straight to her house; and, most of all, the hood he had pulled down low enough that I couldn’t see much of his face.
‘Take off the hood, Revian.’
He shook his head.
‘You might as well do it,’ I said. ‘I already know what I’m going to see.’
Slowly he reached up with shaking hands and removed the hood.
Revian was every bit as handsome as Seneira had described, with hair like spun gold and smooth, perfect skin over finely chiselled features. He really did look like something out of a painting. Well, except for the twisting black markings that circled around his right eye.
‘Please,’ Revian said, still sincere but somehow not quite so noble in my estimation now his question had taken on a second meaning. ‘Tell me she’s all right.’