Page 82 of Sonnets and Serpents
She pressed her lips into a line, apparently determined not to speak.
Eliza whirled to her feet, pointing at the girl. “You! What have you done to him?”
Despite her grief, she managed the demand in understandable Pravish. Her language skills had improved by leaps.
Using magic, Silas reached out for any of the snakes he’d put into place before his arrest. He could sense a cobra overhead, which put them a few streets northeast of the prison. The magic stealer stood in front of a narrow, steep staircase that had been cut directly into the stone, which presumably led up into the city. He pointed the cobra in that direction, ordering it to make a threatening show in case the girl tried to run.
Kerem knelt by Henry, his fingers pressed to the pulse point at his neck. He tested his eyelids, before he declared, “Tasumak.”
A Stone Caster’s coma, a magical hibernation. Henry was alive.
“You’re a Stone Caster,” Silas said to the ocean-eyed girl.
She gave no answer. For the briefest instant, her eyes flickered toward another crate, shoved back into the deep shadows by the stairs.
“Eliza.” Silas pointed at it. “Open that.”
Though the princess cast an agonized glance at her fallen knight, she did as instructed. From the depths of the crate, she produced a familiar white box, holding it on her palm. She stood and took a step as if to bring the Artifact to him.
“Don’t trust him!” the girl cried, speaking at last. “He killed my father!”
Silas blinked. Of all the various insults shot at him through the years,murdererwas new, and it was more offensive than shapeshifter. Shapeshifter may have been vulgar, but at least it was accurate.
“What’s your name?” Kerem asked gently, addressing the girl with the same calming presence he used on frightened snakes.
She swallowed, her eyes darting frantically between the three of them. “Ceyda Polat.”
A shadow of grief crossed the professor’s face. “You must be Havva Polat’s daughter.”
Iyal Havva.The first boneless Stone Caster.
Silas frowned. “I’m sorry for your loss, but I wasn’t even in the country when your father died.”
Finally, his trip home carried some good with it.
But the girl spat in his direction, her expression and tone dripping venom. “Shedskin!” she accused.
Eliza protested, her own expression fierce on his behalf. “Just because he’s a snake—”
“Shedskinmeans liar,” Silas explained, though the fact that Eliza would defend him for being an Affiliate meant more than he could say.
“You were in the country.” Ceyda’s voice cracked, and her hands, still raised, shook with tremors. “Is this a show for your friends? Are you going to pretend we haven’t met twice already?”
“We’ve metonce, when you—”
“Of course you won’t admit the first—when you dumped my father’s body.”
Silas frowned, looking to Kerem for any kind of explanation.
“From what I heard,” the professor said quietly, “Havva was dead long before his body was discovered. Since he was on a research leave, no one was looking.”
“I didn’t even know him!” Silas protested. “I took my Stone Casting classes from Iyl Yvette. I’d never heard Iyal Havva’s name before I saw the memorial at his office door.”
Ceyda surged toward him, and despite himself, Silas jumped back a step.
“I saw the vial of venom! It was labeled with your name:SilasBennett. Father said it was part of an experiment, told me not to ask questions ... and then he didn’t come home.” She shook her head. “I searched. I waited.Dayswithout anything. Then, one night, when I saw the kuveti coming, I hid in Father’s study, crouched in a cupboard. I couldn’t see clearly, but Iknew. When they didn’t search the house, just silently unloaded a cart, Iknewwhat they were unloading. I knew why they’d come to his study, why they carried something heavy to the table. Only someone who was part of his experiment could have led them there.”
“I wasn’t there!” It was the only objection Silas could offer, his mind spinning with the implications of what Ceyda was saying.
