Page 32 of The Sundered Blade

“I don’t even know whereIam now,” he told her honestly. “But as for the rest…”

It was difficult to know for certain when their friendship had begun. He’d tried to save her life, and she’d ended up saving his. They become reluctant allies, and somewhere in the process, they’d seen one another. Stared into the darkness and never flinched.

“Our friendship was not calculated. We collided in a dockside bar, and then…” He’d discovered she was so much more than he’d first realized. She was beautiful, yes. But also deadly. Honest. Wise. Confident yet humble. He’d given her his trust, and she’d granted hers in return. She’d fought for him, and he would do the same for her, for as long as he drew breath.

“So it’s like that, is it?” Yvane offered him a wry smile. “Well, I suppose you’ve already realized that she is not the first of her order to come here and fall in love.” She glanced up at Breven and tucked her hand into his arm before returning her attention to Vaniell. “Does she return your feelings? Does she even know who you are?”

“She knows who I am,” Vaniell admitted. “But I do not know how she feels, or if she would even want what I have to offer. There is so much that stands between us…”

As Vaniell paused to consider justhowmuch, Kyrion abruptly entered the conversation. “And a great deal more that you should know, Yvane, including the reasons that I intended to stop here in the first place.”

“Just tell me.” Yvane’s expression turned steely and grim. “I’d rather hear the worst of it now, so we can be prepared.”

“It regards the current King of Garimore. You are aware that he is an imposter and a mirror mage. But we have only recently discovered that he is also Zulleri. This will mean more to you than it did to us, but apparently he was once known by the title of Second Blade.”

Yvane’s knees faltered, and she would have fallen had Breven not caught her and lowered her gently into a chair. “Two Blades, here…” Her face lost color and her hands clenched around the edges of her shawl. “And he in particular.”

“What do you know of him?”

“Modrevin Draguris,” she said heavily. “A man I never thought to see again, and never wished to.”

Without warning, Vaniell found himself utterly bereft of speech. His thoughts stumbled to a halt and his heart churned with a strange mixture of shock and exultation.

For the first time in his life, he had a name.

The person who had made his life a misery and destroyed everything he loved now had a name. Vaniell no longer need think of him as “not-Melger.” As “Imposter King.” Or worst of all, as “Father.”

He was Modrevin, and somehow that made him less of a shadowy unknown, less of a terrifying threat. He was only a man, and a man could be defeated.

But even as he marveled at the feeling offinallyhaving a name for his enemy, something else Yvane said sank in.

“Two Blades,” he mused thoughtfully. “Yvane, who is the other Blade that you know of?” She could not know of Karreya. Which meant…

Reaching up to where Breven’s hand rested on her shoulder, Yvane grasped it tightly for a moment before looking Vaniell dead in the eye.

“Her name is Senaya. She was once First Blade, but she escaped the Empress’s plans for her and came here. I was one of the Empress’s loyal subjects—a powerful mage and an assassin, trained by the Enclave to be the perfect weapon. When I was just barely out of my eighteenth year, the Enclave chose me to be the one to find Senaya and return her to Zulle.”

Kyrion and Vaniell exchanged startled glances.

“It was… what, twenty years ago now? Perhaps a bit more? I came here filled with purpose. Knowing nothing but the mission. Committed to my duty to serve the Empress with my very life. I had been molded in my profession since a very young age, and had been taught to use my power in… unspeakable ways.” Yvane looked down at her hands. “I am a mind mage, you see. Perhaps the most powerful one the Enclave had ever seen. So they trained me to see myself as little better than a dog, to be ordered to fetch or kill on command, then tasked me with returning the First Blade to Zulle by whatever means necessary.”

Kyrion’s face was suddenly unreadable, and Breven was watching Yvane as if her pain was his own.

“But they did not understand what Abreia is like. In Zulle, all magic is tightly controlled, leashed and used only to serve the Empress. Here, it is free, and one of my gifts is to sense others’ magic.” Yvane’s eyes closed, and her hands folded in her lap, clenched around one another until her knuckles turned white.

“For example, I knew when I first met Leisa that she is a mirror mage. I can sense that you, Prince Vaniell, are an enchanter. And while I cannot read Kyrion’s magic so clearly, I know that it is immense enough for him to crush me with little effort.” Her eyes opened. “I can do other things as well. Terrible things. Some that I will not speak of here. But when I came to this land, I was already near the end of my control, and after a year of chasing Senaya, the strain broke me.”

She turned to look up at Breven then, and his hands gripped her shoulders as if they could somehow take her pain away.

“When a mind mage of my powers breaks, the consequences can be devastating. My mind lashed out, and everyone around me felt it—other mages worst of all. So many could have died, but for Breven. He found me. Stopped me. Picked up all my broken pieces and put me back together. And then… he brought me here. Far from anyone else, where I could heal in peace and learn to shield my mind.”

Yvane shifted her gaze to Kyrion. “It was only later, after we left this valley for the first time, that we learned of the persecution being practiced against mages. I thought perhaps this could be my penance—providing a home and protection for those who need it. But I think… I think I have always known that one day I would have to leave this place again. Re-enter the world and repay the debt that I owe.”

Breven dropped to a crouch in front of her, hands flying, desperation in every line of his body.

“No, love, not like that.” Yvane reached out to rest a hand on the side of his face, her eyes sad but filled with tenderness. “I have promised, and it is a promise I will not break. Never again will I break the mind of another. But that does not mean there is nothing I can do.”

Breven placed his hand over hers where it rested against his cheek, and for a moment, they shared some form of communication too deep for words. Yvane’s eyes filled with tears and she nodded. Breven lifted her free hand, kissed her palm, and then rose to stand beside her once more, grim and resolute.

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