Page 151 of Master of Storms
“Unfortunately, those circles will expand until they can find enough magic to gnaw on,” Andromeda said.
Solveig’s dark eyes met his. “I have my arrows. Dwarven-forged. They’ll cut through any sort of magic.”
And then Elin would die.
He hated to say it. “Last resort only. We have to give Elin a chance.”
“Fine. How do we enter the circle?” Solveig asked. “You saw what happened to Haakon.”
Marduk turned to consider it.
His mother watched him, her eyes alight with green fire.
She’d have attacked them by now if that was her plan. He strolled along the edges of the Chaos circle, examining it as he reached toward Ishtar. “Can you see how this is made?”
“Of course,” she replied. “Can you not?”
Chaos twined itself in strange waves. He’d thought it a circle at first, but if he looked closely, his eyes started to separate the individual strands. Instantly, the ache between his eyebrows was back and he wanted to vomit. He blinked to clear his vision before it crippled him. “Assume I’m some male idiot who was never meant to be able to use this magic.”
“It’s not a circle,” Ishtar replied. “It’s a coil, and it all leads back to her. If adrekicrosses it, then it will suck the Chaos magic from their body and feed it back to her. If Chaos is wielded against it, it does the same.”
“So we can’t cross it and we can’t break through it with magic.”
Ishtar hesitated. “I could—”
“No.” He wasn’t bringing her into this unless necessary. “You’re what she wants. This trap is designed for you, and if she gets her claws into you, we’re done here. She will have the power to open the portal.”
“Unless I reverse the flow of magic within the coil,” she replied slowly. “I could suck the magicfromher, until the spell fades to nothing.”
Too dangerous. Far too dangerous. There were no guarantees that if Ishtar stepped within—
“Can you do that? Through me?”
“Maybe,” she whispered, their bond strengthening as she examined him.
“Pull back.” The strain in his temples was back. She did, and he could breathe again. Marduk considered the entire trap. “If I cross the circle, she’ll try and suck the magic from me. But you can stop her. You can reverse the flow through me, and try to return the favor. We can weaken her to the point where Rurik can stab her with the knife and suck Mother’s soul from Elin’s body.”
“I don’t think you realize how much this will hurt,”she replied dubiously.“I know it hurts when you try to touch Chaos, and trying to work through you feels… heavy.”
Hurt was a slight understatement.
“Let me deal with that.”There was one last thing.“If we fail, and she manages to latch on to you, then you have to cut the bond between us. You have to let me go.”
Sadness swamped him.
“I know you don’t want to be alone. But what you have to realize is that you’re not alone now. If I fall, then Rurik and Árdís will be there for you. They love you just as much as I do.”
“I don’t—”
“Promise me,”he insisted.
“If we fail, then I will pull back and break the bond.”
Her doubt ate at him.
“I love you,” he sent. “Give me a moment to explain to the others.”
And then he cut the link between them.
