Page 49 of The Faceless Mage

But is a princess always a spy?

She did not move, but her mental walls cracked. She obviously had no idea how open that left her mind and heart. No idea how much he could read through the deepening link between them.

She was desperately afraid, yes. Battered by a storm of questions. And not just questions about Garimore, or even about the Raven’s intentions. She also had questions about herself. About her power. About what would happen if King Melger found out the truth. Not the truth that she was a spy—no, she was wondering what he would do if he found out about her magic.

As if she knew she could not hide from their link, she looked the Raven in the face and spoke what was in her heart.

“Sometimes, a princessmustbe a spy. What choice does she have when she has been given responsibility for an alliance of such importance that she cannot afford to make a mistake?” she countered simply. “In order to protect my people, I need to learn everything I can. And how am I to know the truth if I only listen to what I am meant to hear?”

How are you to know the truth if you listen only to what people say?

“Are you suggesting I know them by their actions?” she scoffed, suddenly angry. “A princess is always pretending because she is surrounded by pretense. I know perfectly well that all I see and hear is a display for my benefit. But what other avenues do I have? I am caged by expectations as surely as you are caged by that armor!”

She knewnothing. And yet she knew everything. She knew he was a slave, and he hated her for knowing. Suddenly burning with rage, the Raven moved and found himself looming over her. This time, he surrounded her with the shadows of his own torment, not to protect but to force her to see. To understand what he was.

What do you know of cages?Even his mental voice burned with bitterness.You are free. Free to stay or to go. Free to live or to die. Your own will is the only one that constrains you.

She stared up at him, angry and still unafraid.

“And what do you know of my life?” she returned, an odd twist to her lips. “I wear no chains, and therefore I should not compare my situation to yours. But I am bound by my station. By the needs of my kingdom and my people. How is it freedom that I am commanded and coerced to do what terrifies me for the good of others?”

No one can force you to bow to their demands. It is only the strength of your own will that commands your actions. Freedom is always within your grasp should you but choose to ignore the consequences.

She winced as she mentally acknowledged the truth of that, and the action exposed the strength of her resolve. Her heart told him clearly that she would never willingly ignore those consequences. She acted because she chose to—because she could not, with a clear conscience, do otherwise. The lives of others depended on her, and the consequences of her failure would be far more than she could bear.

But somehow, despite her own impossible situation, she focused on him, with a dogged determination that frustrated his every attempt to discourage her.

“Then I am a prisoner by my own choice,” she whispered. “But you—you are the prisoner of another’s will. Another’s magic. This is so wrong, and yet, what can I do?”

Stunned into even mental silence, he regarded the princess much as he might have surveyed an astonishing new species of bug.

She was supposed to fear him. Should have been thoroughly unnerved by his ability to know her thoughts and feelings. Instead, she saw him as an object of compassion. Comprehended the horror of his prison and considered only how it affectedhim, not how it endangered her.

He could not decide which angered him more—that she saw him for the monster he’d become, or that she refused to recognize the danger she was in. She needed to understand what he was capable of if she was to be safe, even if that was not how he wished her to see him.

And the fact that he cared how she thought of him enraged him more than all the rest.

But she interrupted his fury and self-loathing with another question.

“Do you report on my thoughts and actions to your master?” she asked bluntly.

So she did grasp the danger. To a point, at least. Then how could she face him so calmly? At least she’d given him the opportunity to convince her that he was the greatest threat to her safety. But how did one lie to a person who could read him as easily as he read her?

I serve as I am compelled to do. No more. No less.

She shivered, and he knew she’d grasped his meaning. Only the darkest of magics could enslave a mind to such a degree, and only the darkest of hearts would put it to a use such as this.

Perhaps now she would understand that she was never safe. That the Raven was no more than an extension of his sovereign’s will.

If commanded to betray her, he would do so without hesitation. No matter how he might feel about it. She should… shemustbe made to understand this.

But instead? He felt from her a brief flare of hope, and knew that he had no choice but to crush it, as ruthlessly as he had ever crushed the king’s enemies.

Do not fool yourself, princess,he told her harshly. I am no one’s ally, even if our enemy is the same. There may be a moment when our purposes align, but when the time comes to act, I will act for myself.I will not always be a slave, and when that day comes, those who dared to cage me will die. Those who stand in my way will die. Those who have merely waited and watched will die.

“They would never let you live, after that,” she whispered, her voice gone hollow. As if the thought made her sad.

She should not be sad. If he were dead, she would be safer.

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