Page 40 of War Mage

“This is not enough food to keep up my strength,” he says. “I worry that I will not be much use by the time we get to Evernight.”

“Don’t worry about that right now,” I reply. “Focus on surviving. You won’t be able to do anything if you’re dead.”

Urim absorbs my words stoically. “Speaking of that, I need you to do something for me.”

“What?” I ask.

“I need you to burn me,” says Urim, his voice calm. “Please.”

Chapter 17

Urim

“Ijust unburned you!” hisses Adara, incredulously. “Why would I undo that hard work?”

“I appreciate your compassion,” I say steadily. “But if this brand looks too healed tomorrow night when the magistrate feeds again, he’ll just brand me again and he’ll have questions we don’t want to answer about how it healed so quickly in the first place.”

Adara’s lips twist, obviously angry. “Why don’t you use your glamour rune to make it look more burnt than it is? You can make small changes to your appearance can’t you?”

But I’ve already thought of that option. I shake my head. “If the issue was merely appearance, that would be one thing, but this rune has the effect of making a vampire’s bite painful and increasing pain. Since you mostly healed it, I worry that it will not work as intended and the magistrate will notice that when he next feeds. He says that he can taste the pain in my blood and he may notice a difference. We must reactivate the rune if we wish to hide your powers from him.”

She sighs. “I can see what you mean. But, you were in such pain, barely responsive. What if . . .”

“It’ll be alright,” I respond. “I know it probably looked bad, but I was fine. I was in my sanctuary.”

“Sanctuary?” questions the mage. “What in the Nether is that?”

“It is a mental defense against torture that I have been trained in,” I tell her. “While my body experiences the torture, my mind goes to a place of peace. It allows me to withstand even the worst torment without breaking. The magistrate can do what he wants to me, but he will not be able to touch my mind.”

“That must be why I didn't feel any pain or distress in the bond while you were away,” muses Adara. “But what if that’s what he wants? What if he gets bored of you not reacting and escalates? He could end up killing you by going too far.”

“He could end up killing me anyway,” I say, though I am glad that she could not feel my agony in the bond. “This way our mission is safe and I won’t be begging or babbling secrets to try to get him to stop what he’s doing.”

Adara hesitates as she considers what I’m saying, then argues. “I can’t burn you anyway. What about my shackling spell? It won’t work.”

“Intent matters with that spell,” I tell her, revealing its secret. It shows that I have grown to trust the mage somewhat if I am telling her a workaround to the shackling spell. “It keeps you from harming the queen or any of her allies, butharmis subjective. If you were trying tohurtme with your fire, it would not work, but if you are trying tohelpme, like when you were healing me, that is something different. And you reburning the brandwillhelp me and the mission.”

Adara bites her lip, still hesitant to reburn me. “I have never tortured someone before,” she reveals. “I . . . I don’t know if I have the stomach for it.”

“Do not think of it as torture,” I tell her. “Think of it as drawing on me with fire. You’ll need to trace the confines of the brand again so that the wound is fresh.”

The mage looks loath to do as I say, but finally asks, “Will you go to your sanctuary, then, while I’m burning you? I don’t like the thought of hurting you for no reason.”

“You will not hurt me any worse than I have already been injured,” I tell her. “But when you reactivate the rune’s magic it will make me more susceptible to pain, so I may have to retreat to my sanctuary to deal with the heightened sensation. So, yes, I’ll be in my sanctuary and the pain will be far from my inner self.”

Adara considers what I’m saying and then nods resolutely as if firming her resolve. “Alright. Lean back. I’ll try to be quick.”

“Just think of this as payback for your time in the anti-mage chamber,” I remind her as I brace myself against the side of the wagon, leaning back like she told me to.

Her lips quirk at my words, though it doesn’t quite make it to her eyes, which look guilty and worried. “A good reminder. You do still owe me my pound of flesh for that.”

“Then do it, Adara,” I say. “And remember that you are helping me and protecting the mission by doing this.”

The mage nods again and then she leans over me, her long hair brushing lightly along my arm as she gets close, the ghost of a touch stroking up my skin. I close my eyes, centering myself and letting myself detach from my body. Her finger touches my brand, burning me with pain bright and clear, but it is as if from far away. I retreat to the sanctuary of my mind, a place of peace I designed long ago.

In my mind’s eye, I see my rooms back at Castle Ilustan. A place where I have always been safe and comfortable. A fire crackles welcomingly in my hearth and my furs, hunted and treated with my own hands, lie on the bed. My walls are lined with shelves with tomes and scrolls, histories and epic poems in their pages that I have read many times. Normally, when I am in my sanctuary, I am alone and free to explore the space as I please, but today another is in the room.Adara.

She looks different than she is in real life, clean, and obviously well taken care of. Her long dark hair is luminous in the firelight, her tan skin supple and unblemished. She wears a welcoming smile on her face, happiness dancing in her eyes in a way I have never seen in reality.

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