Page 21 of These Divided Shores
“Stop, Ben.”
“Elazarkilled them.” Had he not realized? But Jakes had been in the Grace Neus’s holding cells when Elazar had revealed his true intentions to Ben. Jakes had heard the same admission: that Elazar had left a trail of Shaking Sickness victims in the wake of his search for permanent magic. “Shaking Sickness comes from overdosing on Grace Loray’s magic.”
Jakes bared his teeth. “I saidstop—”
“No one in Argrid has access to enough magic to overdose on their own.” Ben leaned closer, drawing strength from his hand on Gunnar. “Elazar used your sister and her children in his experiments to make permanent magic. He killed your family!”
“You’re wrong!” The shout tore from Jakes’s mouth, ripping him to his feet. He towered over Ben, hands in fists, the brim of his feathered hat catching his face in shadow.
Gunnar seized Ben’s arm, the two of them frozen as Ben glared up at Jakes, watching the nerve he’d hit twitch and writhe.
“Defensor Rayen?” the defensor in the pilothouse called. “Are you all right?”
“Yes,” Jakes snapped. “Our prince’s rebelliousness knows no bounds.”
He crouched in front of Ben, eye to eye. “You are wrong, my prince,” Jakes said, loud enough for the other defensor to hear. “The Eminence King could never commit the atrocities you mentioned. He knows best. Do you know what Argrid is doing while the king is here? He sent a missive during your first week of imprisonment, for the cathedrals across Argrid to lead the people in a constant state of prayer until his return. They will willingly obey him, because the Eminence King controlseverything.” Jakes’s voice dropped but his intensity didn’t subside. “If you question him directly, you will die.”
Ben gaped. In Church services where he had listened to Jakes pray, or the moments when he’d heard Jakes speak of the Pious God, Jakes had never sounded so desperate—soimploring.
Up on the plateau, Andreu descended the steps with the two defensors.
Jakes stomped into the pilothouse. “Prepare to depart!” he bellowed.
Ben went slack against the bars, realizing in that motion that Gunnar’s hand had moved to his shoulder.
“He lies,” Gunnar whispered. “Soldiers, even pious ones, do not speak that—that—”
“Pleadingly,” Ben finished. “He was begging me, wasn’t he? I didn’t imagine it.”
Gunnar tipped his head to the cage’s bars, sweat glistening on his pale face. “Something is odd in him.”
Ben restrained himself from throwing Jakes a questioning look. Jakes had spied on Ben for months; he had stood by while Ben was imprisoned; he had let defensors whip Gunnar.
But Lu was right. They needed to escape—they needed a plan.
Maybe Ben could reach something in Jakes.
Milo grinned at Lu through the pulsing light of the lantern in his hand.
She shook her head, fingers on her temples. No—this was wrong. This prison waswrong, warping her mind. The magic that made the captives go mad was getting to her.
“Vex,” she said again. Tears sliced down Lu’s cheeks. She had heard him say her name.She had heard him.
“Vex?” Milo echoed, walking toward her. “My king’s banished nephew? You leave a trail of disgraced Argridians inyour wake. Paxben. Benat. Almost, your father. Almost,me.”
Sweat ran in a cold droplet down Lu’s spine. Milo’s tone shifted from taunting to furious.
“Do you have any idea,” he said, “what you have cost me? I lost my title. I lost my command. Everything that I have done for this island, for Argrid, for my God and king—you wiped it all out when I did not recognize you as the girl who escaped me.” His lips peeled back in a manic grin. “But as your dear father has a chance to redeem himself, the Eminence King has also given me the opportunity to prove my worth.”
His insinuation pounced on Lu’s mind, but she stayed numb in the middle of the hall, watching Milo and his lantern come closer, closer.
She was trapped. She was Lazonade incarnate.
Milo surveyed the stone walls. “Emerdians call this type of prisonRibège. The Snare. Prisoners try to escape, but there are dozens of pathways, countless routes that these walls can make. Where will you go, Adeluna? The hall behind you slopes upward. Perhaps that is the way out. There is a corner ahead—perhaps that way will lead to an exit. To yourVex.”
“No,” Lu sobbed. “No—you don’t—stop—”
“No—you are right.No, he won’t be there, he won’t come to save you, for the same reason I did not recognize you and your father never turned you over to the Eminence King. You are worthless, Adeluna. But the Eminence King believesthere is use for you, and it is my task to drag it out where your father failed.” His face was darkness, sin, and hunger. “Repent, Adeluna. Beg my forgiveness. Beg me to stop.”
