Read Online The Tainted City by Courtney Schafer - Free Book Online Page B

matching. He thought he recognized silver, copper, and gold, but several strands had a dull greenish striation that was completely unfamiliar.
    Marten held out the amulet. “Go ahead, take a look.”
    Kiran touched a metal strand. A rippling veil of fire washed over his inner sight, so blindingly bright he gasped and yanked his finger back.
    Dev tensed. “What’s wrong?”
    “Nothing. Just…” Kiran touched the amulet again, gingerly. “There’s a lot of power stored here.” It reminded him of the vast, sleeping magic lurking in Simon’s border charm, but Simon’s charm used gemstones as reservoirs, not mere metal, and the energies flowed in a traditional—albeit horribly complicated—set of contained pathways, unlike the chaotic rush of the amulet’s magic.
    “Without a pattern, how can you direct the magic?” Kiran asked.
    Marten grinned. “I’ll demonstrate. I know your binding interferes with your senses, but you can feel my soul’s energy, correct?”
    ‘Yes.” Even through his inner barriers, beyond the binding’s dissonance Marten’s ikilhia burned bright as a watchfire. Even Dev’s ikilhia , the barest of flickers in comparison, was detectable if he concentrated.
    Marten put on the amulet and chanted something quick and soft.
    His ikilhia vanished. He remained standing before Kiran, calm and smiling, but no hint of his life tinged the aether, as if he were merely a scry-image. Kiran reached out before he thought, half expecting his hand to pass through Marten.
    Marten offered his wrist. His flesh was warm and solid under Kiran’s hand, and beyond…Surprise filled Kiran anew, as he came up against an ever-shifting wall that changed so rapidly and hypnotically he couldn’t identify even a single glimpse of a pattern.
    “That’s amazing,” Kiran said, and meant it. The utter absence of Marten’s ikilhia from his senses meant the warding was powerful enough to block even the mark-bond, and the constant mutability of the pattern would make it extremely difficult to target a spell to break the warding. Yet, the distant look to Marten’s eyes…
    “You’re casting, aren’t you? Constantly, to keep the pattern changing.”
    “Yes,” Marten said. “The one downside. For you, one of the Watch would need to remain at your side to cast in your stead. We’d take the duty in shifts. That way, even while you sleep you’ll be fully protected.”
    So not only was the amulet far from the long-term answer he’d hoped for, it would keep him wholly dependent on the Alathians. Disappointment flooded Kiran.
    “I know it’s not a permanent solution.” Marten removed the amulet and slipped it back into his uniform. “Even so, for a short stay in Ninavel, I believe it would suffice. Especially since I don’t intend to depend solely on the amulet for your protection. If you agree to come, I’ll be happy to explain my plans in more detail.”
    “Why are you so hot to bring Kiran with you?” The stiffness of Dev’s posture still spoke of anger, but his lean brown face had turned impassive, his eyes hard with calculation.
    “Same reason as the one that convinced the Council to commute his death sentence.” Marten hadn’t taken his gaze from Kiran. “Kiran, if we find the cause of the disruption to our wards is a working done with blood magic, or another type of magic outlawed in Alathia, you could decipher the spell pattern and figure out how to counter or disrupt it much faster than one of our mages. A few weeks, that’s all I ask. When you return, not only would Dev be free, but your efforts would go far toward convincing the Council you can be trusted.”
    Kiran stared down at his hands. The amulet would block the mark-bond, yes, but Ruslan would never allow that to stop him. And it wouldn’t just be Ruslan. Lizaveta and Mikail would be in Ninavel too, helping Ruslan cast.
    Marten said, “Consider this: without your help in Ninavel, we may not be able to stop the deterioration of our