Page 70 of The Faceless Mage

“Then, you’re…” She couldn’t say the word. If she was wrong, it would feel like she’d hit him, and if she was right? It seemed too much to hope.

“Not entirely free,” he said, and her hopes plummeted. “But as for the part that will matter the most to you, yes. The compulsion is gone. Melger is no longer in my head.”

Leisa hadn’t even realized how clenched her muscles were until they released, and she went boneless against the hard ground. He was free, which meant she was free as well.

She hoped.

“Then you’ll let me go?”

The oddest of all possible sounds issued from beneath the concealing hood—a laugh.

“Go? It has been three days, and you cannot even sit up. Where would you go?”

“Threedays?” Panic suffused her. “I have to go home. I have to warn them! If Melger’s message arrives before I do, King Soren may sign a treaty, and all of this will have been for nothing!”

The dark figure across the fire rose and walked towards her on silent feet. “You panic for nothing, little human. Garimore will send no message until the princess of Farhall is back in their hands. There are some days yet before Melger realizes that neither of us will be returning.”

“Then you didn’t tell him? That I’m… not her?”

He crouched beside her. “I did not.”

It was odd—now that he was free, now that he could no longer be compelled to kill her, Leisa felt far more anxiety at his nearness than she had before.

She had to sit up. She felt too vulnerable lying there with him looming over her.

Gritting her teeth, she gathered her strength and managed to struggle to a sitting position. Her head spun, but she was stubborn and closed her eyes until the world stopped turning in circles.

Then she looked at the Raven again. Sitting up helped, but not by much.

“So why are you still here?” She cursed the breathlessness of her voice. It wouldn’t help at all if he figured out how intimidating she found him now.

He didn’t say anything for a few moments, and when he did, he sounded disappointed.

“You’re afraid.”

“I’m…” She didn’t know whether their link had been broken, but even if it had, she couldn’t bring herself to lie to him. “I’m nervous, yes. I don’t know what you want from me. Why you stayed. Almost every time we spoke, you warned me not to trust you, and that you would be avenged on everyone who wronged you. And I don’t yet know whether that number includes me.”

He rose and turned towards the fire, leaving his back towards her. “Perhaps it should. Out of all the humans I have met in the last ten years, you are the most perplexing. The most worrying. And the most confoundedly irritating.”

Leisa’s breath caught, and her stomach lurched. Had he stayed simply so he could kill her on his own terms?

“But you are also the only one who ever saw me or treated me as a person,” he continued flatly. “And in the end, you did the impossible and freed me from a prison I had begun to believe I would never escape. I thought of myself as one dead in every way that mattered, so whatever bits of my soul still remain are thanks to you.” He turned around to face her. “In truth, I owe you everything that now is or ever will be mine. And while I feel some resentment for the depth of that debt, I find that I require still more of you, and it rankles.”

She had no idea what to make of that speech. Did he hate her for saving him? What did he still want? And why did he keep referring to her as a “human”?

“What do you need?” she asked, keeping her voice as steady as she could.

“My magic.” His tone was bitter. “It is still sealed. Behind these bracers, which was the only part of that accursed armor I could not remove. I long to return home, but I dare not without my magic, so I must hope that there is a chance you can do the same to them. Change them, as you did the mask that chained my voice and my will.”

Leisa sucked in a quick, startled breath. She’d felt his magic, and it was immense. If she could free him? He would be the most dangerous person she had ever encountered. Most likely, he already was, even without his magic. His speed, strength, and skill with a blade were staggering.

Did she dare release that magic without knowing what he might do with it? And if she could, did she have the right to refuse?

“I don’t know whether I can,” she said honestly. “And it will be some time before I have the strength to try.” Perhaps time enough to determine whether sheshould. “But in the meantime, I would prefer you forget this idea of debt between us. I will never accept either payment or thanks for the use of my magic. It is too painful for that.”

She sensed his curiosity. Some remnant of the link between them?

“Painful, how? I have never heard of magic that causes physical pain.”

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