Page 31 of These Divided Shores
“How long will that take?” Lu snapped. “How many whippings? How many more—”
Her words died as she caved forward with a sob, her arm limp in her lap.
Ben could try to persuade Jakes to help—or if not, then use him or trick him. Ben, Gunnar, and Lu could break out of these cells, run into the shifting halls. But how many escape attempts would Elazar tolerate before he declared them beyond salvation? He already had Lu’s father at work on permanent magic too, and who knew how many other resources? Lu and Ben were the two who were closest to a solution, but others could make them obsolete.
Once a heretic, the only way out was through flames.
Lu wanted to make the magic Elazar sought, and put it in her body before he could use it. That had been their plan, back on theAstuto—to make magic first and show the world that such power came from Grace Loray, not the Pious God. Was it too late for that? Ben had seen how quickly the villagers of Grace Loray had surrendered to Elazar. Would they believe anyone who countered him and said,“No, these mighty acts are not the Pious God, but your own magic?”
Did these types of grand thoughts matter right now? They needed to escape.
Ben felt ill.
Gunnar waved at himself. He winced, his own wounds unhealed. “Eye of the Sun. Elazar—he is not wrong about that. Can you remove it from me?”
Ben finished the sheet, now a pile of makeshift bandages. Lu pushed up her sleeve and set about wrapping them around her wounds.
“I don’t know,” Lu said, grimacing. “Maybe. I can’t—ah.”
“Here.” Ben took her wrist and tightened a strip for her.
She let him, which surprised him almost as much as the brazen way she asked Gunnar, “How was it made permanent?”
Gunnar blinked. Lu’s face flashed with empathy.
“I can’t undo it if I don’t know how your people gave it to you,” she said.
Gunnar dropped to the floor in a huff. Silence held, no distant footsteps or grating walls.
“They slaughter the bear,” Gunnar whispered.
Lu hardened under Ben’s touch and met his eyes. Gunnar was still in a drug-warped fog. Did he know he was speaking? If he was clearheaded, he wouldn’t tell them this—
Ben almost spoke, but Lu snatched his hand.
“They are rare, the bears. The embodiment of the Visjorn spirit. One of the few things Mecht clans agree on is that Visjorn bears are only to be killed for—this.” Gunnar launched a flame into his palm. “Eye of the Sun commanders hunt one into the mountains. They slit its throat, gather the blood. They take it, and Eye of the Sun flower, and they—” He made a motion like stirring. “Warriors drink it. They cannot stand, cannot speak, even, for days after. Others—” Gunnar threw his head back so his golden hair fell away from his face. The knot in his throat bobbed on a swallow. “Some women volunteer to drink the mixture, their swollen bellies... It is an honor, to birth an Eye of the Sun warrior. They are stronger. They are near gods.
“My mother volunteered.” Gunnar’s voice had been soft before, but now it was snowflakes on a blanket of snow. “She is revered for having me. But she is not... right. The women, they survive, but barely. It is not a life. Not anhonor.”
His cheek glinted. He was weeping.
Ben choked down the urge to unravel.
“Pregnant women.” Lu pierced Ben with a look. “Your father can never know that.”
Could he already?Ben had no idea what other experiments Elazar had employed over the years. Or which ones he was still doing.
“Even if I can remove it from you,” Lu started, “we need your abilities to get out.Ineed strength too. The secret is Visjorn blood?”
“Or the way they cook it,” Ben said. “Or the way they prepare the flower. Or all of it, a perfect dance. There are too many variables—we should focus on another escape option.”
“I tried to escape while you were gone.” Lu motioned to her now-bandaged arm. “We need a weapon that will make us stronger than Elazar. To get out—and to win this war. Grace Loray put everything we had into the last revolution, and we still ended up back here, under Argrid. To stop them, to truly win, we need an undefeatable weapon.”
“I won’t make permanent magic while we’re under Elazar’s control,” Ben said, “and I will never make it as a weapon. I will not become my father to stop him.”I still feel, came the unwarranted thought.I am not him—I willneverbe him—
Lu looked ready to scream, but Gunnar spoke first.
“She’s right,” he said. “This is how wars are fought—with weapons, not with secrets.”
