Page 48 of The King of Koraha
She considered. If there’d been mercs in Zirdai, would the situation have gotten so dire? Maybe Rendor was right to call the Invisible Sword a mercenary unit. “Are other cities suffering like Zirdai was?” she asked.
“A few.”
Not good. The Sun Goddess’s command repeated in her head.I do not like to see my people suffer. Make it stop.
“Who else is involved?” she asked.
He fought. The magic around his heart flared. But she reached deep inside him with The Eyes and read the answer. “Commander Xerxes.”
“How do you know? How are you making me talk? Do you have magic?”
“Just him?” she asked, ignoring his questions.
“Of course not! I expect he has his entire squad of soldiers, but I only work with him.” Lonato started to pace.
“How do you know him?”
“We were acolytes together.”
That was a surprise. “He wanted to be a monk?”
Lonato’s brittle laugh was bitter. “No. He wanted to learn the Ways of the Yarin.”
And the only way to learn it was to join a monastery. Except some acolytes decided not to take the oath mostly because they realized that lifestyle was not for them. Many of the Invisible Swords were ex-acolytes. However, to purposely join with no intention of staying…that was almost as bad as becoming a monk to spy on the monks. At least she now had an idea of just how skilled Xerxes and his soldiers-turned-mercs were.
“Aside from swapping out the real coins for the fakes, what is your role in all this?” she asked.
“The monks work for the King, but we should be concentrating on our duties for the Sun Goddess and not spying on the cities for him.”
“What duties are those?”
“Helping the people.” Lonato stopped and glared. “You can’t say that’s a bad thing.”
She couldn’t. “What about the other Callow monks? Are they in on this scheme?”
“Some are, some have no clue, and others…”
“Others?” She turned up the heat. Her hands shook with the effort.
His face contorted as if he were in pain. “Resisted.”
Scorching sand rats. “What did you do to them?”
“They weren’t hurt. Only a few, like Barika, needed to be reminded of the Sun Goddess’s love to change their minds and happily join our cause. The majority of the monks agree that we’re wasting our talents and energy spying for the King. We believe the Rooms of Knowledge should be available to all Korahans.”
Shyla agreed as well, but this wasn’t the way to enact change. Or was it? Many people had died in the defeat of Zirdai’s Water Prince and Heliacal Priestess. She was in no position to judge Lonato’s actions. Look at what she’d just done to get this information—forcing him to confess versus reading his soul. That was something Tamburah would have done in order to flaunt the power of The Eyes. Was this a step down the path of madness?
Shoving her own recriminations aside—for now—she considered Lonato’s crimes. The current state of affairs with the monasteries wasn’t nearly as horrible as the killing and torture of people in Zirdai.
“Which monasteries are involved?” she asked.
“Callow, Ketran, Bejin, and Dunnar.”
They were near Nintri, Ginda, Riffa, and Sinkat—all the cities that were closest to the King’s castle. Except Qulsary. “Who is next?”
He curled his hands into fists, refusing to answer. She increased her power. A strange raw and scraping buzz went through her, setting her teeth on edge. Not a good sign.
“Apanji is next.”
