When they brought us back to the central chamber, the table in the middle was empty, and everyone else was pushed back into their rooms except for me.
Calix came from down a shadowed hallway. He took a breath and nodded to me.
“Bring her.”
I pulled back, but the guards grabbed me, dragging me forward as I fought and twisted and flailed. They brought chains out, and they shackled my wrists and yanked until I was on my feet, standing away from the table, unable to go far. I tugged against my bonds as my heart pounded, making every inch of me panic and hurt.
“Stop,” Calix growled, coming over to me.
I shook my head, sucking in breath too fast through my nose, the sound high and reedy.
“I won’t hurt you,” Calix told me.
I could hardly catch my breath, but I shouted, “You’re going to kill me!”
His throat worked. “Eventually. It doesn’t have to hurt. I don’t want to see you in pain. I just need you to show us your power, and I will end all this. Do you understand?”
Flexing my hands, reaching for my power, I shook my head. “It’s gone, Calix. I don’t have it anymore. I can’t feel it!”
He laughed, leaning closer to me. “I understand. I once thought that myself—there was even a girl I tested long, long ago who claimed she didn’t have powers. I believed her, and I didn’t test as hard as I should have. Since then, I know better. I’ve tested many people with your foul magic, and I can always, always make it present. It just takes a tremendous amount of persuasion.” His hand stroked my face. “I’ll help you show your power, I swear. And once we can study it properly, your death will be swift.”
I tried to kick him, and missed, and he sighed.
“I know I was angry yesterday, Shalia. You have always been able to make me lose my temper. But I truly don’t want you to suffer. It’s not necessary.”
“You killed my whole family,” I whispered.
“Yes,” he said. “They posed a problem. I needed to shift the lake, and I needed you to know you couldn’t leave me. I know you were trying to. Do you deny it?”
“My family wanted me to run,” I told him. “And I hadn’t decided anything.”
“Does it matter?” he asked with a dry laugh. “You betrayed me. You deceived me. All that time, I told you what she did to me before. And you did the very same thing.”
Three quaesitori entered the room, setting up small tables with paper on them, sitting down.
“Now, I have a theory about you,” Calix said to me. “There are only two possibilities to get the power to respond to us. One is to have your body protect you in the event of your near death or tremendous pain.”
Skies protect me. Please—ancestors of mine that have returned to the Skies, returned to the earth, please protect me.
“But for you, I believe there is another option. This is to exploit your compassion, my love. You are soft hearted, and I have known this from the first. I believe you will be more positively motivated by the pain of others than pain you might experience yourself. Do you understand?”
The pain of others. I shook my head, vicious and fast. “Calix, please, I don’t—”
“Do you understand?” he asked.
My eyes skittered around to the doors.
“Shalia!” he roared.
“Yes,” I said.
“Good,” he said, and waved to the guards.
They brought the smallest girl out from her cell. She was shivering, staring at the table as they led her over to it. She didn’t fight as they strapped her down. “I can do it,” she said. “You saw me before. You don’t need to hurt me again; I can do it.”
Calix stayed back, across the room from me, while the quaesitori came forward. The one who had inspected my body touched her face gently. “You did well yesterday,” he told her, and this seemed to calm her a little. “Today you just get comfortable; we won’t hurt you this time.”
She seemed to believe this, and I watched Calix as he glanced down the darkened hall. He looked back to the quaesitori and nodded.
They finished tying her down, and one of them stroked a knife over the crook of her arm. She flinched, and blood flowed out instantly, collecting in a bowl beneath her.
“That’s it,” the quaesitor said gently. He smiled at her, and she smiled back.
“Calix,” I called, my voice low.
He heard and walked over to me. “Care to show me something?” he asked, smiling.
“Leave her alone.”
She shifted on the table. She was looking at me, growing unsure.
“I have a purpose for her,” Calix said. “A dual purpose to motivate you. You don’t want her to die, do you?” he asked.
“Of course I don’t.”
“Then save her, Shalia. You tore down the bridge to the desert—you can save one little girl, can’t you?”
I shut my eyes. “I don’t have my power anymore, Calix. I can’t show you what isn’t there.”
“Then I will continue my work, and you will watch,” he told me. “Open your eyes.”
I didn’t respond, and he pushed me, enough that my weak knees gave out and my body jerked down on the chains, cutting my wrists. I cried out, pushing my feet underneath me. “My feet will never fail me,” I murmured.
“What was that?” he asked.
I opened my eyes, looking at him. “I am a daughter of the desert, and my feet will never fail me.”
He pushed me again, and he laughed as I fell again. “Well, they seem to fail you a little bit, my dear.”
The girl whimpered. She was pale now, and the amount of blood in the bowl was growing.
“She controls air,” Calix told me. “I have found many powers of water, and air, and a few of fire. You’re the first earth. I wonder if that is the limit of these powers, or if there are more.” He looked at me like he expected me to answer and shrugged. “No matter. I’ll discover eventually.”
“You are a monster,” I whispered, shaking my head as I looked at the girl. “She’s not even a person to you anymore. She’s an insect whose wings you tear off.”
“I am a god,” he growled at me. “And this—unlocking the secrets of this damnation—will not only please the God but it will prevent my enemies from coming for me. I will stop them all, Shalia. I will have all the power, and no one will question my reign again.”
“You are making your enemies,” I told him. “And losing your soul in the process. You don’t see what you’ve done? You killed our—you are making your own prophecy come true. Your god will never forgive the torture of innocents. Do you think Danae will, when she finds out? What about your mother? She would be ashamed—”
“Do not mention my mother with your filthy mouth!” he roared, and everyone in the room jumped. “You know nothing about her!” he screamed, hurling his finger at me but not touching me.
The sounds of harsh, fast breathing filled the room, and I turned back to the girl. Her skin was disturbingly pale, and she was breathing hard, sweat breaking out on her gray forehead.
“Calix, she’s dying,” I told him. “Stop!”
“What?” she whined. She looked to the quaesitori, and blood kept flowing out of her arm, dripping into the bowl. “No! No, please!”
Tears rushed out of me as I reached for my power, but it wasn’t there. I tried to think of my family and Galen, but every good memory was stained with heartbreak, and I couldn’t call my power to my hands.
No one moved, and within moments her confusion and anxiety melted away. Her eyes went half lidded, and her breathing was still too rapid, like a tiny, frightened animal.
“Calix, stop,” I begged.
He turned to me, wiping tears from my cheeks. “Your power, not your tears, will save her life, Shalia.”
Her body went limp, and still several minutes passed before the blood stopped dripping.
Calix lifted his shoulders. “Too late, it seems.” He pointed to the blood, and one of the quaesitori picked the bowl up and brought it down the hallway. Two guards came forward and took her body away.
Calix followed the quaesitori down the hallway, and I was left there, chained and staring at the table where they had murdered a girl without thought or care, like blowing out a candle just to see the trail of smoke it would leave.