Page 70 of The Sundered Blade

“Yes,” the newcomer said with a wry nod. “I have been able to use Inci’s tracking magic since very shortly after I arrived at the Enclave. Once I knew she might be here, it was simple enough to intercept her path.”

“It is how you always found me,” Senaya whispered. “I was never able to run far enough.”

“That is correct.” The other woman’s head bowed. “But that was also another life. My magic eventually broke me, and I was only put back together by love and time and patience. And I am here today only because I owe a great debt that must be repaid.”

“Then”—Senaya’s expression grew hopeful—“you are free, Yvane? You no longer serve the Enclave?”

“I have not for many years.”

As the two women shared a glance strangely fraught with understanding, Inci began to laugh.

“Don’t you understand? You are never free! Both of you are here, now, because you will never escape. Not so long as the Empress lives.”

She reached up and pulled down the neck of her tunic to reveal a narrow band of metal wrapped around her throat. “I have served her for decades, but still, she binds me. And if I fail here, there is an entire company of combat mages beyond these gates. They will take you, she will bind you both, and there will be no escape.”

Karreya gazed at the collar in shock. She had always believed that Inci served of her own will, so total was her devotion to the ways and strictures of the Enclave. But Inci, too, wore the collar.

Perhaps it was not too late after all…

“Senaya,” Karreya said sharply. “Can you…”

Senaya nodded, and Karreya leaped. Inci’s attention was on Yvane and the dragon, on the mirror in Senaya’s hand, and her dagger was behind her back, so she was a mere fraction of a second too slow.

Karreya knocked the dagger away, twisting Inci’s elbow back and up before forcing her preceptress to the ground, face down, arm behind her back. She knew she could only hold her for the space of a few breaths, but Senaya was prepared, and it was enough. With a quick twist of Senaya’s fingers, the catch of Inci’s collar was opened, and the Mistress of the Enclave screamed as it fell from her neck in pieces.

For a handful of heartbeats, she grew still and stiff, almost as if the shock had stolen the very life from her bones, but then she went limp beneath Karreya’s knee.

“Let me go,” she said at last, her voice strangely hoarse and subdued. “I will not attack you. You know that I speak the truth, so please allow me to rise.”

So Inci had indeed known of Karreya’s magic.

Moving cautiously, Karreya stood and took two steps back as Inci came to her knees and rested for a moment before rising to her feet. Her shoulders were slumped as if in defeat, and she drew in several deep breaths before turning and lifting her gaze to Karreya’s face.

Karreya took another step backward in shock, as she saw the tears filling those formerly harsh brown eyes. Tears of pain, of regret, and of anger. And strangely, also of longing.

“I suppose you believe you have saved me,” she said. “But you have killed me, as surely as if you had stabbed me in the heart.”

Her gaze turned to Senaya. “But before I die, I will make this one request, for the sake of everything we once were to one another.”

How had these two once known each other?

“Go back,” Inci said bluntly. “Remember what we swore when we were young and not yet broken by cruelty. When rebellion still raced through our veins. When we still believed that change was possible. Go back, and challenge her for the crown. Break the stranglehold of brutality and corruption and save our people from destruction. Because that is all that will come without a strong enough hand at the helm.”

But Senaya shook her head. “We are not the same people we once were, Avincia. You ask too much of me. My mother has spent seventy years subjugating her people with ruthless inhumanity, and I cannot break those chains. Not without becoming the very thing she is.”

“Have you forgotten who you are?” Inci snarled, striding forward to stand toe to toe with Senaya, her expression raw with rage and anguish. “You are a Blade! First of all Blades, forged in the fires of unimaginable pain. She twisted you, but you did not break, and you alone can change the Empire’s future!”

“You think I did not break?” Senaya replied harshly. “I did. And I have lived in pieces ever since the day my love was taken from me. Perhaps I was once a Blade, but there is not enough left of me to stand against her, not as I am.”

“Please.” To Karreya’s shock, the indomitable Inci fell to her knees at Senaya’s feet. “We were closer than sisters once, Sen, and I know you. I know how strong you are. There is no one else who can change the Empire. No one else who can rend those chains and free us from Phaedrin’s cruelty.”

“I am not the only Blade,” Senaya said quietly. “I cut myself off from that future, and I will not go back.”

“Do you suppose the throne will fall to your brother?” Inci demanded. “Your mother has removed him from her line, and she will not take him back, no matter what she has made him believe. She will take this child instead, and she will break her, just as she has broken all of us. And then what?”

Senaya was silent.

“Save us,” Inci pleaded. “Save the people of the Empire from what Phaedrin has made of it. Save the future generations from this merciless fate that puts collars around our necks and turns us into killers against our will.”

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