Page 74 of The Warrior Priest
“Why?” Rufus asked.
Rhys paled. “The high priest wants to kill you,” he murmured. “Because ofme?”
“He thinks I’m a distraction for you. He thinks I make you want to leave the order.”
He bent forward as if he was going to throw up, but rested his hands on his knees instead. He groaned, a low sound that came from deep within.
I crouched in front of him and cupped his face as he’d done mine moments before. I stroked his beard with my thumbs. “Rhys, you have to tell him he’s wrong. Tell him you have no intention of leaving the order. Reassure him.”
He straightened. “I have told him, numerous times.”
“Then he doesn’t believe you.”
Rufus grunted and crossed his arms. “Clearly.”
“Rhys,” I went on. “Tell him again. Otherwise I have to leave Tilting forever. I can’t stay here.”
“No,” Rhys said heavily. “You cannot.” He strode past me, and gathered his horse’s reins.
“You can’t confront him,” Rufus pointed out. “It’s her word against his.”
“I believe Jac.”
“So do I, but he’ll claim she’s lying. Who will believe a young woman over the high priest, aside from us?”
“I can’t let him get away with it,” Rhys growled.
“There’s more,” I said. “The high priest hired Giselle to kill me, but not to frame you for it, Rhys. He’s unaware of that part of Giselle’s plan. My uncle hired her for that after she told him she was going to assassinate me.”
He frowned. “But he wants you alive.”
“Not anymore. Not since she told him my pendant isn’t a talisman containing the sorcerer’s magic.”
“I could have told him that,” Andreas muttered.
“He wouldn’t believe you,” I said. “But he believed her because she had the proof. In fact, he had the proof in his bookshelves, too, but neither knew it. There’s a text on Zemayan culture that says the sorcerer placed magic into apersona long time ago, not an object. The person—a woman from a generation of the same family—is the talisman.”
“What magic?” Vizah asked.
“There’s no such thing as magic,” Rufus snapped at him.
Andreas stepped toward me. “Jac?”
I kept my gaze on Rhys. “The magic takes the form of heightened senses and the ability to recall things perfectly.”
Rhys blinked slowly at me, as if he was disoriented after waking from a vivid dream.
“Senses?” Vizah asked.
“Sight, sound, smell, hearing and touch,” Rufus rattled off. “Jac, there’s no such thing as magic. If someone has heightened senses, it’s just the way they were born.”
I continued to watch Rhys. He stared back at me, but I didn’t think he quite saw me. I suspected he was recalling moments when I’d seen something in the poor light that he couldn’t see or heard something before he did.
He suddenly blinked again, snapping to attention. “It’s you,” he murmured. “You’rethe talisman.”
I nodded. “Giselle realized soon after meeting me. I think it was when I recognized her at a distance from her scent alone.”
Vizah sniffed his armpit. “Not everyone has a scent.”
