He led her deeper into the passageway and through a doorway to the left. Keeping her newfound calm wrapped tightly around herself, Ileni followed.
When she entered the testing arena, recognition ran through her with a chill sense of inevitability. It was smaller than the training room in the Assassins’ Caves, and the weapons lined up near one wall were fewer in number and far less exotic in type. But otherwise it was the same: round, cavernous, and sparse, lit by glowstones that covered the walls and the high arched ceiling. There were no stalactites here, though. The ceiling was a smooth, polished curve stretching from wall to wall.
“All right,” Evin said, and she forced her feet to move. In the center of the chamber was a simple raised rock, the perfect height for sitting. Evin stopped next to it and faced her.
Whatever expression was on her face, it made his brow furrow. But all he said was, “Do you want to get in some practice before Karyn gets here? We can start with something simple, like . . . can you call up fire?”
Ileni had called fire dozens of times a day, once. Nothing would explain a sudden fit of crying, so she pushed down the stab of loss and said, “That’s all right. I’ll wait for Karyn.”
“Are you sure? It’s not as if I have anything important to do right now.”
“Then go do something unimportant,” she snapped.
“Well. I do have a lot of that to do,” he said. “All right, then. Good luck.”
“I won’t need it.” Which was untrue as well as obnoxious. Calm down, Ileni.
Evin looked over his shoulder. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
Ileni whirled. Karyn was leaning against the far wall of the cavern, watching them, the light of the glowstones turning the edges of her hair silver.
Ileni turned again, just in time to see Evin saunter out the door.
“This should be interesting,” Karyn said. “Are you ready to begin?”
Are you ready to begin? the Elder had said. His voice was kind, and that was the worst part. In Ileni’s other testings—the ones where she had been expected to excel, where failure merely meant she had to push herself harder—the Elders had never been kind. They had been harsh and pitiless.
They had not been kind until they started expecting her to fail.
Karyn stood with her feet braced far apart, fingers lightly curled. There was nothing kind in her face. Clearly, the sorceress was looking forward to this.
I could refuse. But then what? Ileni was here on Karyn’s sufferance. And she had to stay here, to discover the truth about the Empire. She needed that truth before she could make her choice.
She had grown up believing that destroying the Empire was her life’s goal, the hope of every Renegai. But too many of her childhood beliefs had been shattered in the Assassins’ Caves. She needed to see for herself. And if she wanted the chance to do that, she had to go along with Karyn’s cruel little game.
Ileni bit her lip. She walked to the raised rock and sat on it.
The rock, it was immediately obvious, was not intended for sitting. It was curved upward and extraordinarily uncomfortable. But Karyn was watching, so Ileni remained seated, trying to appear at ease.
Karyn’s lips twitched, but all she said was, “Should we start with basic sparring?”
Ileni wondered again why Karyn hadn’t killed her already. Maybe the sorceress just wanted to play with her first.
“No? Something simpler, then.” Karyn raised her hand, fist closed, then slowly opened it. A glowing orb hovered in front of her palm, intensely white. Karyn flicked her fingers, and the orb shot through the air.
Ileni had just enough time to block her face. The orb splattered against her bare forearm and vanished. Burning pain tore into Ileni’s skin, and she bit down on a scream.
Karyn blinked at her. “What was that?”
Before Ileni could think up an answer, Karyn sent another orb flying at her.
This one was aimed at her shoulder. Ileni managed to avoid it by twisting to the side, but at the cost of her balance. She slid off the rock, flailed, and landed hard on the ground.
Grunting, she got to her feet just in time for the next orb to hit her cheek. This time she did scream, tears stinging her eyes.
None of them had been large or hot enough to seriously injure her. The point of this was not to test Ileni. It was to humiliate her.
Adding an entry to the Reasons to kill them all list in her head, Ileni dodged the next orb. It flew clear across the cavern and hit the wall, where it exploded harmlessly, a shower of white sparks against the gray rock.
“Oh, come on,” Karyn snapped. “You bedded an assassin, and you’re still stuck on these stupid scruples?”
Ileni had a swift recollection of Karyn’s face bulging, her feet kicking helplessly against white stone, while Sorin’s hands tightened inexorably around her neck. Sorin had almost killed Karyn, back in the caves, when he had discovered that she was from the Empire.