Page 136 of Eternal Ruin
“What did you find?”
“I think June has readYe Abyssi Tarik.”
Susenyos froze mid-throw and shook his head. “Read it? No, not possible.”
A serious look possessed Taj, rare enough to make Susenyos pay attention.
“I thought so too, Yos. It’s written in so many languages evenIhaven’t been able to read huge chapters of it. But I swear, Yos, the girl is smart. Can name any plant under the sun and mix rare remedies.” Quietly, he added, “I think she knows about compulsion marks.”
Susenyos dropped the leaves. When Taj didn’t smile, everything around them darkened slightly. The clouds swelled, and the few birds chirping fell silent.
“I showed her my scars, Yos, and she looked at me with… fear. Like she knew what’s been done to me. To us.”
Susenyos’s molars ground together as the three scars on his lower back seared with new heat.
Compelled to follow a single order and cursed to die the moment they spoke of it.
That was the decades-old secret that bound the three. A knowledge no other soul should have. Let alone June, a human girl.
“Then there’s Warde,” Taj continued. “Always following her close by.”
Susenyos had noticed that too. Warde Wesfin hadn’t spoken a word since Lusidio’s torture. But even before that, as a Mot Zebeya, he was a docile soul always prejudged for his giant size. Besides bowing in Susenyos’s direction every time he passed by, Warde’s loyalty was unknown.
“Keep watching her,” Susenyos said, a prickling starting at his neck. “Find out for sure.”
Taj nodded, throwing a branch on the patch.
Once they were nearly done, Susenyos went to find Kidan.
She’d crouched by the creek, washing her face and wetting the back of her neck.
The afternoon sun armored her, drenching her brown skin and blurring the edges of her determined eyes. She was no longer crying.
Iniko appeared behind him, soundless save for the swishing of leaves. “I’ll go help Taj.”
It took him a moment to smell the air, free of Kidan’s intoxicating blood, before walking. When he stepped on a twig, her head snapped up in attention.
They stared in the quiet stillness.
“I know,” she said softly, a new resolve shinning in her slightly red eyes. “I know why you want the mask artifact. I get it now.”
“What do you know?”
The brook next to them trickled slowly, the only sound in the dense forest.
Kidan hesitated for a moment then stood. “The artifacts will break the Three Binds but that’s not all, is it? The person who breaks the artifacts will acquire the powers of a Sage.”
A hum began in Susenyos’s ears. He’d heard those words centuries ago andbecame a slave to them. Yes, this was why Susenyos risked everything and everyone in pursuit of the artifacts.
This was a truth he never shared because it was not only dangerous, but also a curse.
Once Kidan knew this nothing would ever be the same.
His voice came out hard. “Who told you?”
Her brows rose a little. “So she was right? You really want to be a Sage?”
“Whowas right?”
