Part 24 (1/2)

”The color of the water changed. I don't know what it means,” Khenir replied, not looking at him.

And Alec knew that Khenir had just lied to him. The realization weighed like a stone in his belly.

The door was closed; the guards were outside. ”What's to stop him from making more if they're so important to him? How many times do you think I can go into that cage and come out alive at the end of it?”

”Don't talk like that, please!” Khenir begged. ”If he has what he wants, then I'll beg him to make you a house slave, like me. It's not so bad, really.”

Alec caught his wrist and pulled him closer. ”I am no one's slave! Have you been here so long you've forgotten what it is to be free?”

”Perhaps I have. But what can we do? Accept your lot and make the best of it, like the rest of us.”

Alec wanted to tell him about the horn picks hidden in his mattress. He wanted to ask for his help, and somehow find Seregil and offer Khenir his freedom in return, too, but the lie earlier made him hold his tongue and Alec said nothing as Khenir kissed his brow and took his leave.

Just for now, he told himself, unwilling to give up yet on the only ally he had. he told himself, unwilling to give up yet on the only ally he had. When the time comes, if I can help him, I will. When the time comes, if I can help him, I will.

He reached into the hole, needing to touch the picks, his keys to freedom.

They were gone.

And his meal tonight had come with no implements.

Stunned, he kneaded the mattress over, then turned up the edge to peer inside.

Every piece of horn was gone, the picks and all the broken bits.

Alec felt cold and sick all over. Anyone might have been in here-the guards, Ahmol, Yhakobin himself. But he knew for a fact that Khenir had had been. been.

What was the old saying? Smiles conceal knives, tali. Smiles conceal knives, tali.

He curled up in a tight, miserable ball under the covers, wondering what the punishment would be this time.

For the first time since his capture, he felt like a slave.

The following morning he was summoned to the workshop before breakfast. He expected to find the alchemist ready with the whip, but instead there was a tray of warm apple pastries and another pot of the excellent Aurenen tea. Alec eyed both distrustfully, wondering what new drug they concealed.

Yhakobin laughed. ”Come now, don't look like that! This is a day of celebration, and these excellent pastries are your reward.”

”For what?” Alec asked, still wary. Was it possible the man didn't know about the picks, or was he just playing with him?

Yhakobin took one and bit into it. ”See? They're very good.”

Alec sat down slowly on the stool and picked one up, but couldn't make himself take a bite.

Yhakobin sighed, then cut his own in half and gave the bitten part to Alec. It oozed juice and spices. He could smell the b.u.t.ter in the crust. Seeing that Yhakobin ate his own portion without hesitation, Alec took a small bite from one corner. It was the best thing he'd tasted in weeks, and it showed no signs of killing the alchemist.

”I don't know what's wrong with you today,” Yhakobin said, cutting another pastry in half and letting Alec choose which part he wanted.

As Alec wolfed down his second piece, the alchemist rose and went to the strange little painted tent at the far end of the room. He pulled open the front of it, and inside Alec saw an iron cage. The rhekaro was huddled inside, skinny arms wrapped around its thin, s.e.xless body.

Its hair was paler silver than the last one's, and had already grown down to its waist. When it looked up and saw Alec, it let out a weird, high-pitched whimper.

”It's hungry, too. You must come and feed it.”

Alec froze, and the pastry went dry in his mouth.

Yhakobin raised an eyebrow at him. ”That's the second time you've shown me disrespect today, Alec.”

Alec swallowed the mouthful he'd been chewing. ”Forgive me, Ilban. I'm just-I don't know what to make of any of this.”

”That's better. It subsists upon your blood. That alone sustains it.” He pulled out his bodkin. ”Come here, Alec. It's only a few drops. Surely you don't wish the poor thing to suffer?”

The words struck home. Resigned, he rose and let Yhakobin p.r.i.c.k him, then squatted down and held his hand in through the bars, wondering what to expect.

The rhekaro sniffed sharply, then sprang forward on its knees and clutched Alec's hand, sucking greedily at his finger. It was startling in its ferocity, and the strength in those pale little hands. He could feel the sharp edges of new teeth breaking through its pale gums. Shock quickly gave way to fascination. Though nearly as big as Illia, and better formed than its predecessor, it seemed more like an infant in its actions.

”Does it speak, Ilban?”

”Speak? Of course not! Why would it speak?”

Rebuffed, Alec kept his questions to himself and concentrated on the rhekaro. Its hand was cold against Alec's, but he could feel muscle and bone in all the proper places. Apart from the lack of genitals or a navel, and its distinctive complexion, it seemed human enough. It looked up at him just then, and he could have sworn it smiled. The colorless lips, still sucking, flexed a little and its weird silvery eyes crinkled slightly at the corners. Only then did Alec realize that he had been smiling at it.

He was relieved to see that this one appeared to be unharmed so far, except for some reddened spots on its fingertips.

”You use its blood, too, Ilban?”

”What runs in the veins of this rhekaro is your blood, but in a more highly purified form.”

Hazadrielfaie blood, Alec thought. Alec thought.

”This creature's body is at once the vessel and the athanor which refines it,” Yhakobin went on.

”What do you want it for, Ilban?” he asked before he could stop himself.

But the man's patience was at an end. ”That's enough, Alec. It does not concern you.”

Alec went back to his cell in a daze, the taste of the pastries still filling his mouth. The rhekaro, whatever it was, needed him to live, which ensured a very narrow scope for Alec's life if he didn't find some way to get out.

And if I do escape, it will starve and die. It surprised him, how much the thought of that bothered him. It surprised him, how much the thought of that bothered him.

And then there was the matter of the missing picks. Was it possible that it hadn't been Khenir who'd taken them? And if not, then who had them, and why?

CHAPTER 28 28.

Seregil Follows His Own Advice