Warriors of Wind and Ash - Page 86

I follow her to the bookshelf she indicated, and I supervise while she examines the spines of several tomes, looking for the right title.

“Ah, here it is.” She pulls out a large, heavy-looking volume.

Then she swings around and slams the book into the side of my face.

I’m stunned, thrown off balance, reeling and blinking while blood coats my tongue.

Cathrain lunges for the door. I leap after her in a mad, unseeing rage, throwing myself at her, both of us crashing against the door and then sliding to the floor in a tangle of blades and flesh and fabric. Her fingernails rake my face, perilously close to my eye.

I stab without thinking, a self-preserving impulse. The blade sinks into her body with a satisfying thump, and something inside me—snaps.

The next second I’m sobbing, screeching, stabbing, tears scorching my cheeks, breaths lurching raggedly through my lungs as the knife flies up and down, over and over.

She’s everything I hate. I detest people who play with living things like disposable toys. People who ruin lives from a distance. People who believe themselves immune, who consider their aims loftier than others. People like my mother, like Rahzien. Cruel, cruel, wretched people.

I punctuate every thought with a blow.

And when it’s too late, I realize what I’ve done.

I scramble backward from the lumpy, blood-stained mound that was Lady Cathrain. The knife drops from my shaking hand. I don’t know where the letter opener is.

Fuck… I killed her.

She said she couldn’t cure us anyway, but what if she was lying? What if she could have? And I ruined everything, I wrecked our chances, I messed this up…

Kyreagan will die now. Because of me. Because I couldn’t control my own rage and pain.

I tuck my knees up to my chin and hold my head in my hands, rocking slightly as I wheeze out terrified breaths.

I am worthless. I am foolish. I am alone.

I have no value, and no one wants me.

Something inhales… heavy, low, rasping. I suck in my sobs and listen, every nerve galvanized with terror.

There it is again—a rattling, labored intake of breath. From the lumpy form of the royal poisoner.

She rises slowly, jerkily, one limb after another, and then her spine yanks up the rest of her body, and she’s standing upright.

I snatch the knife, scramble to my feet, and retreat farther, holding the blade toward her.

She cracks her neck, spits blood, then dabs at her wet lips with the corner of her shawl. “Another little trick of mine—one not every healer possesses. I can heal myself.”

“I guess I’ll have to kill you more thoroughly next time,” I gasp. “At least now you know that when I threaten you, I mean it. Make a cure for Kyreagan, and I’ll let you go. Otherwise, you won’t leave this room alive.”

She looks absolutely furious, but there’s fear in her eyes, too, and it strengthens me. She glances sidelong at the bell cord near the door, but I snap, “Don’t do it! Step away from the door. Now.” And she obeys.

I suck in a shaky breath, trying to ignore the pain in my jaw and cheekbone where she struck me with the book. Then I step to the door, pleased to find two large bolts that I slide into place. Thank god the Supreme Sorcerer liked his privacy.

With the door bolted, I turn back to my captive. “Now, Cathrain, unless you want to be stabbed again, I suggest you get to work.”

With my knife as encouragement, the poisoner works all night. No one disturbs us. Rahzien probably assumes that she’s busy working with the samples she took from Kyreagan. Which she is… but not in the way he’d expect.

She told me Ky’s cure would be the simplest. She simply has to counteract the blocking agent she included in the poison, which she claims is the powdered essence of a sun-blessed opal, the antithesis of the eclipse gem Thelise used in her transformative spell.

“Eclipse gem shavings or black diamond dust would be the easiest way to counteract sun-blessed opal,” she says conversationally as she chips bits off a twisted-looking brown root with her fingernail. “But since I don’t have any of that, I’ll have to try a work-around. As I told you, I haven’t done this before. I know the theory of it, but I’m not generally a by-the-book sort of poisoner. There’s an intuitive element to the process, much like with healing. I connect with the essence of the person I intend to poison, and based on my sense of their being and physicality, I decide which elements and ingredients would be most effective.”

“What other ingredients did you choose for Kyreagan?”