Page 67 of Sonnets and Serpents
None of the entries had details of a trial or sentencing. And the latest, Remzi Pelin, interred just yesterday, carried a gravedigger’s note of trouble laying the body to rest.
Used linen and boards to wrap the remains, it said.Body, such as it was, had no bones.
No bones in a Stone Caster. Just like Iyal Havva.
Eliza looked up in horror. “What does it mean ‘no bones’? People have bones, I’m certain. Even magic users.”
“Why is she different?” Silas murmured. The other listed names had the same arrest reason but no notes about difficulty burying the bodies.
Eliza ran her finger across the lines. “Causing magical disturbance—is that a tactful way of sayingkilling people? TheAffiliate I saw outside the inn killed people before the kuveti took him.”
Silas spun to focus on her. “What did you say?”
Quickly, she recounted the story of a dark night and an Eagle Affiliate. Silas wished he had a name to put to the story. Even linking Remzi Pelin to the Stone Caster in the market was an assumption—one he felt he was making on solid ground, but an assumption nonetheless. He needed more than that.
If someone was using the kuveti to target certain magic users, Silas wanted to know why. And he wanted to know what it had to do with a dead professor at the university who’d supposedly succumbed to his own experiment.
Careful, he warned himself.No conclusions, just observations.
Iyal Kerem had taught him that, early in his university days. A good researcher kept his eyes open to everything and recorded loose ends without trying to tie them, because if he jumped to conclusions too soon, he’d inevitably miss the thread that actually tied it all together.
What thread was Silas missing?
Eliza had resolved to speak only of Henry, but after the graveyard, her mind was buzzing. For the next two days, Silas immersed himself in researching Stone Casting and bones, and she immediately made a nuisance of herself, asking questions about magic instead of offering helpful insights. There was so much she didn’t know.
She was definitely distracting him from his purpose. But when she yet again tried and failed to keep her mouth closed, Silas only chuckled.
“In case you haven’t noticed,” he said, “I don’t mind educating people. In fact, I’m trying to do it for a living.”
That made her feel a little better.
She couldn’t understand everything he told her, since he lovedto get technical or discuss specific experiments that went far beyond basics, but she gathered snippets. Details about Artifact creation and Casting limitations. Truths about Affiliate powers that dispelled shapeshifter myths.
Magic was more interesting than she’d realized. And much,muchmore complicated.
So she expected a complex answer when she asked, “Why does Kerem need your venom? What does yours do that his can’t?”
She’d watched Silas be milked again, a process that was still unsettling. But although he clearly despised it, he endured it anyway.
“He doesn’t have any,” Silas said shortly, packing his bag on Kerem’s desk. The professor had already left, and, honestly, Eliza preferred it that way. Despite his relaxed demeanor, Kerem had an unsettling gaze—like a predator’s. She could never quite escape the feeling that he was evaluating her for weakness, and she pitied the students who performed poorly on any of his exams.
“No venom? So he’s not a ... viper, then? Like you?”
Seeing the gleam in Silas’s eye, she knew she’d stepped into lecture territory, and she inwardly groaned. She spread both arms in a sweeping gesture. “Go on. Tell me all the ways I’m wrong.”
“You’re not wrong; my link is a viper.” But he was smirking as he held the door for her.
Then, on their way down the stairs, he proceeded to tell her all the characteristics that made a snake a viper versus other groups like elapid and colubrid. She heard more about snake fangs than anyone should know.
“Rearfangs?” she muttered. “I’m going to have nightmares.”
Silas was unrepentant. “We have a vine snake native to Loegria that fullychewsits prey. You should look for it; it’s fascinating.”
“I absolutely will not look for that snake ever, thank you.”
He snorted. Then, after a pause, he said, “Kerem’s linkisa viper. Horned viper, which looks a lot more impressive than my transformed state. I’m just a common adder.”
Eliza frowned. “You said vipers are always venomous.”
