Page 49 of Tempest

“Oh, yes,” Tanis said. “Officially it’s been a hundred and sixty years, but we’ve been together longer than that.”

“I’m apparently long-lived, too,” Sophie said. She shrugged when Iason gave her a warning look. “What? She knows who you are, I guess, so she probably knows that, too.”

“We don’t know everything,” Summer said. “Thankfully.”

“Unfortunately,” Tanis said, and winked at Sophie.

“Which is why we need to speak with you,” Summer told Iason. “Lazaros vouches for you. I would think you charmed him, but you were the former Archmage’s assassin, were you not? I doubt his training involved lessons in charm and grace.”

“No, it didn’t,” Iason said.

“Did you know about it?” Sophie asked. She leaned forward, holding Argo’s bowl steady. “Did you know what the Archmage was doing to him, when he was a kid? Did you just let it happen?”

“I had to let a great deal happen, in my time,” Summer said, still looking at Iason. “But no, I don’t know what you’re talking about. As far as I was aware, Iason Ellas took sick with the same kind of tumor that killed his sister. When I learned he’d been sent overseas to hunt light mages, it was too late to do anything about it.” She crossed her hands over each other rather than touch the lemonade. “But I was told that he was devoted to the former Archmage. He would fly into a rage if anyone so much as spoke of Drakos without the proper tone of respect. His dog, Drakos called you, when he wanted to use you as a threat to his political enemies. How strange, then, that I am not sitting down with that dog at this moment. Where did he go, do you think?”

Iason sighed. “I won’t pretend I wasn’t loyal to the Archmage. If you’d like to have me taken before a tribunal of some sort—”

“Does he often refuse to answer simple questions?” Summer snapped, looking at Sophie and Levi.

“If it means he can talk about how bad of a person he is, yes,” Sophie said. Iason twisted round, and she held up her hands. “You do! All the time.”

“I’m no longer loyal to Archmage Drakos or his sympathizers,” Iason said. The last thing he wanted was for Summer to interrogate Sophie.

“But you won’t say why. Of course.” Summer closed her eyes for a few seconds. “I hope you know that when I say I am tired, it does not mean that my power is waning. I could andmightstrip your mind to splinters if I have the inclination, and it’s no less than an assassin deserves. Do you understand me, boy?”

Iason hadn’t been called a boy in decades, but Summer had outlived three Archmages, so perhaps she’d earned the right. “I understand.”

“I don’t,” Sophie said. “I don’t know how many people I have to tell this to, but he’s not the same person he used to be, and I’m pretty sure splintering someone’s mind doesn’t makeyouvery humane, either.”

Summer raised her brows and looked to Iason.

“I didn’t tell her to say that,” he said. “She comes up with it on her own.”

“Yeah, because I was the only one who cared when he wascrying,” Sophie said. “Whichyoushould have, instead of just believing everything people said about him. Lazaros says the Archmage used to talk about him and the others like they were animals, too, and I bet you don’t believe that aboutthem.”

Summer’s mouth twitched. Tanis grinned. “Sothisis why,” Tanis said. “That would make this the second time the Archmage’s plans were undone by a child.”

“Teenager,” Sophie said. “Actually.”

“A very important distinction,” Tanis said. “And we didn’t take the Archmage’s word. Wedidsneak behind his back for information.”

“Oh. Well. That’s better,” Sophie said.

“I’m glad we could meet your expectations.” Summer’s voice was drier than Iason could ever hope to make his own. “Would you like to know what we found, Iason Ellas, when we searched for information on the Archmage’s plans for you?”

“You’ll tell me anyway.”

Summer’s smile was wry. “You revealed yourself to be a wizard when you were just a boy. Wizards are liable to become cataclysms before they come of age—and you were already powerful enough to destroy a hillside. In the old days, they would throw wizard children off the cliffs as soon as their power manifested, and your mother was quite old-fashioned. But the Archmage wanted you for his own purposes.”

“I know.” Iason grimaced. “Would you have killed me? Knowing what I was?”

“Knowing that you would be used to hunt light mages? Absolutely. But now, with your future uncertain?” Summer drummed her fingers on the table. “I can no longer say. The Archmage didn’t just want you to hunt light mages, though. You were to be a declaration of war.”

Iason glanced at Levi, who was looking from Summer to Tanis with his brows furrowed. “I don’t remember anything about declaring war.”

“You wouldn’t. The Archmage would simply have ordered you to go to the palace in Staria and draw on every ounce of magic in the countryside. What do you think would have happened then?”

“No more palace,” Tanis said. “No more royal family. Not with a cataclysm of that size. Staria would be cut off at the knees in seconds.”

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