Page 99 of Tell No Tales
"They don't leave the room," Vadim said. "We came here to bargain, not to give back what you stole."
"They belong to the empire, same as you and I do." Coryn scoffed. "I suppose they can stay and learn your fate." The guards dragged the boys off to the left of the throne, still within Coryn's line of sight.
Coryn lashed out with a hard kick to Martiz's soft belly, and he grunted. "I heard you were bringing me a gift, Vadim. What am I supposed to do with this useless husk? You were to bring me the most powerful healer in the land."
She turned toward him, then, and her eyes narrowed as she assessed him. "I can feel your power. It's changed."
"It's me you want," Yvette said. "I'm still stronger than Vadim."
"How did you gain this power, Vadim?" Coryn asked, ignoring Yvette for the moment.
"They stole it from me," Martiz said, his voice rough.
"Stole it." Coryn grinned. "So, the rumors are true, and what we seek on Stony Eel Island will do exactly what I need it to do, when it's unearthed. Speaking of earth …" Coryn motioned for another set of guards to come forward. Trin squirmed between them.
"There's our missing earth weaver. Tripp, the third son of a third son." She frowned at the dress. "What are you wearing?"
"It's Trin," she said, her chin high as she continued to struggle with her guards.
"Oh," Coryn said softly. "Trin. My advisers were mistaken. I'm sorry I misspoke. It's lovely to meet you."
Trin's cheeks flushed, but she said nothing.
"We very much need you on Stony Eel Island. Your teachers said you were ready now, but they didn't want to make a special trip for one earth weaver while we wait on the others. I am sorry if your classmates were … cruel."
Cruel didn't come close, if Trin had tried to kill herself, but Coryn didn't seem to know about that. She held out her arm. "Come. We'll get you on the next ship."
Vadim's chest ached at the thought of Trin burning herself out trying to lift the giant stone from the ground. "You can't! She'll die of exhaustion like the others."
"It's loosening in the ground," Coryn said. "We'll have it out by next summer. And she won't be alone. We have ten earth weavers working already. It would have been eleven, butWildfireeluded us."
Nola smirked at that, but their tiny victory meant nothing if they couldn't save Trin and the twins from Coryn's war machine.
"She'll be perfectly safe with Gultan," Coryn mused.
Vadim vaguely recognized the earth weaver who stepped out of the shadows behind the throne. He matched Klaus's description of his captor on Coryn's ship. The young man had his hair pulled back so tightly it pulled at the skin on his face, making him look skeletal.
He also looked like he didn't want anything to do with Trin, but her guards handed her over to him, anyway. He grabbed her around the wrists, and Vadim heard the click of her gold cuffs as he tightened them. She could no longer escape or hope to use her earth power against him.
Still, she fought him like a cornered street cat. He overpowered her with a gag of clay over her nose and mouth. Her eyes bulged as she tried to take a breath.
Gods, Vadim hated asphyxiation. Whenever someone drowning or strangling reached out to him, he honored their request to die as quickly as he could to ease their suffering.
Thankfully, there was no request this time. Gultan may not have liked the look of Trin, or maybe he was grumpy all the time, but he wasn't going to kill her, either. Not in front of Coryn, anyway.
Vadim counted backward from ten so he wouldn't try to heal her. That would give them away.
Trin slumped to the side, and Gultan lowered her to the floor. He released his weave, and the clay dried to harmless dust and vanished.
Trin's chest rose and fell with shallow breaths, unconscious but alive. Vadim had to be content with that, for the moment.
"Come to think of it, all but you three pirates are mine, including your seeker …" in two strides, Coryn perched beside Klaus with her glove off, running a clawed finger down his cheek. "Healed. I suppose that makes you less compliant, but I have my own ways to control you."
She turned on her heel and wiggled her little finger. "Come."
Vadim's link with Klaus snapped in two and recoiled back on him like a broken cable. He watched in horror as Klaus followed her like an automaton.
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