Page 103 of Destroyer

“No, let me speak,” Ru cut in, her thoughts now flowing from her head to her tongue; if she stopped, she was afraid she might never speak this truth again. “More than that, I can feel it. I’ve been able to sense, as well as be affected directly by… itsthoughts, per se, as much as we can assign conscious thought to an inanimate object. And the thing is, Gwyn, I’ve come to the undeniable conclusion, based on nothing but intuition and personal experience, that it is in fact magic. A magical object, beyond the categorization or analytical capabilities of our current technologies, which you must admit are severely limited.

"And what if I went further and said that only ourimaginationscould begin to decipher what this thing is doing to me? What it’s done every day since I found it, what the ramifications of its effect on me have been. Even before I touched it, even before I saw it, I felt it, the pain in my head. It called to me, Gwyn. There were feelings I’ve never… I had to, there was no stopping it. Lady Maryn, I…”

Something hot and thick began to seep from Ru’s nose. She lifted a hand to her face and it came away red and wet.

Loose strands of golden hair lifted around Gwyneth’s face in a soft afternoon breeze. Her face was ashen, her eyes wide. “Your nose is bleeding,” she whispered, pulling out a handkerchief and handing it to Ru, who took it thoughtlessly.

“Sorry, I got… there was a…” Ru held the cloth to her nose, trying to form a coherent sentence.

She knew what shewantedto say, but her mouth wouldn’t do the job correctly. If she could sit here a while longer, she would be able to figure it out. She would understand everything about the artifact. She just had to open her mind more, let itin. It was being stubborn. She would force it to listen.

A searing pain burst across her face and Ru gasped, dropping the handkerchief. She turned to Gwyneth, whose eyes were wide as saucers, her hand frozen in the air, palm pink from the slap she’d just delivered to Ru’s cheek.

“Gwyn, are you mad?” she demanded, pressing her cool hand to the burning flesh of her face. It had been a strong, vicious smack. “Is this how you greet people now?”

“Oh, thank god,” Gwyneth breathed, sagging. “Ru, you were acting… Well,youwere the one behaving like a madwoman. Rambling about how the artifact talks to you? What in the worldhappened?”

Ru slumped. Snippets of thought came to her from far away, coalescing into coherence. She remembered Gwyneth sitting next to her… telling her everything, all in a rush, like a clockwork toy that’s been wound up too tight and suddenly set loose. It occurred to her that the artifact, withdrawn as it was, had been influencing her. But why?

Had it wanted her to open up to Gwyneth, to seek support from a trusted friend? Ru chewed her lip, ashamed that she had waited so long to do it.

“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” she said in a hushed voice.

It was far less than what she meant to say. But how could she explain everything she had experienced with the artifact in a meaningful way, even to her best friend? The way the stone played with her head, whether too much or too little, made her feel as if shewasmad. She hardly understood it herself. How could Gwyneth?

“You don’t have to say anything,” said Gwyneth, a kind of slow realization dawning in her expression. “I believe you. I only thought… I was scared. Just tell me how to help.”

Feeling suddenly exhausted, Ru leaned into her friend, resting her head on the other woman’s shoulder.

“Fen and I got the artifact to do something,” she said quietly. “The night of the party. Something different. Something good, I think.” She sighed, closing her eyes. “I tried to show it to Lord D’Luc, but it won’t work. Nothing works. The artifact is so far away. It won’t listen. It’s here, but… ignoring me. And when I try to reach out to it, it saps my energy.” She glanced at the blood-stained cloth in her lap.

“You may not like this,” said Gwyneth, hesitant, “but what if you just… I mean, what if we stopped our research? You said you believe the artifact is magic.” She stumbled over the word but continued. “If that’s true, you’ve proven your hypothesis. To yourself, anyway. Tell Lord D’Luc and Inda that we’re finished. Whatever you’re doing with the artifact that we can’t see, it’s hurting you.”

“I’m hurting myself,” mumbled Ru.

“Exactly,” said Gwyneth. “For the sake of aresearchproject. What’s the point of it, really? To discover the artifact’s purpose? To get to the bottom of why… of what happened at that dig site? We don’t need the Children or the regent or any of them for that. You and me, Archie, we’ll create new hypotheses. We’ll study all the magic books together.”

These words comforted Ru, despite the fact that they were meaningless. Gwyneth was only trying to console her. What she needed were answers, solutions, that only the artifact could provide. But more than that, more than anything, she needed… Well, he was gone.

“Thank you Gwyn, but…”

She trailed off as a figure became visible, approaching with an eerily steady gait, her robe trailing behind her and picking up bits of leaf and petal as she went. It was Nell, her expression solemnly empty as always.

“Miss Delara,” Nell said, “Lord D’Luc requests your presence in his office.”

“Give her a minute,” said Gwyneth, wrapping a protective arm around her friend. “Her nose was just bleeding. She’s unwell.”

“Immediately,” intoned Nell.

“It’s fine, I’ll go,” Ru said, rising slowly and tucking the bloody cloth into a pocket. Her limbs were stiff and cold from the stone bench, her movements stilted.

She followed Nell silently through the garden and into the Tower, avoiding eye contact with everyone they passed. She wasn’t ready to be human again. Not yet.

CHAPTER36

Lord D’Luc’s office was too warm. Afternoon sunlight streamed in through a tall window, and a fire burned in the grate despite the fact that it was the middle of summer. Resisting the urge to pull at her collar to ease her breathing, Ru stood just inside the door, glowering. Waiting for him to acknowledge her.

He leaned over a pile of paperwork, his hair falling around his face like spun gold, his pale, silver-ringed hands flipping pages with a graceful lack of urgency. He seemed deeply engrossed, despite the fact that he’d summoned Ru urgently from the gardens. What paperwork he could possibly be working on now, at the Tower, Ru could only guess.

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