Page 183 of A Vow of Embers

That was close enough to the truth, and my sister accepted this with a nod. “Tell Ahyana to keep dancing and I’ll get Suri and Io to keep her brother engaged.”

I wanted to tell her that wasn’t necessary. Xander wouldn’t miss me, what with his perfect woman gazing at him like he had personally hung the moon in the sky just for her. I clasped my hand around my necklace and marched over to Ahyana, tugging her out of the line of dancers.

“Zalira and I are going to briefly abduct a life mage. We need you to keep dancing so that no one realizes we are gone. Don’t tell Rokh.”

She pursed her lips at the last part but nodded.

When she returned to the line, I glanced around the room to select the best life mage to abduct. I studied them the way I assumed a terawolf would a group of goats. Which one was the weakest, the easiest to pick off?

There. A life mage apprentice. He looked young—still more boy than man. I guessed he was approximately fifteen years old. And he visibly gulped every time a woman passed by him. If he spent most of his time locked up with his fellow life mages, his reaction made sense.

Zalira returned. “Io and Suri are in position.”

They were talking to Xander and Chryseis. Forcing myself to focus on the task at hand, I nodded toward the apprentice. “I think we can make that one talk. What do we do to get him out of this room?”

“My father used to say that men like sharing their knowledge with women. And helping them.”

I ran through different scenarios and immediately discarded each one. Then the apprentice walked over to a decorative garland that had been wrapped around a column and selected one of the blossoms. He pulled it out and examined it before taking in a deep sniff. I knew how to get him to leave.

“Go to the room southeast of the courtyard. The one that has the ocean mosaics on the floor,” I said. It was small and had a lockable door. “I’ll meet you there.”

Zalira quickly exited while I slapped on a smile and hoped that the perfume Io had put on me would work as well as she had claimed. I walked over to the apprentice. “What type of flower is that?”

“Hyacinth. They symbolize remembrance, so perfect for a birthday.” Then he looked at me and I saw him swallow. I tried to reassure him with my smile.

“You seem to know a lot about flowers.”

He pushed his shoulders back, as if to make himself seem taller. “Yes. I do. I have studied them extensively.”

“There is one unusual flower in the courtyard that I have often wondered about. Would you mind coming with me and telling me what it is?”

The apprentice glanced over at where some of the other life mages were gathered. “It would be my honor, Princess Thalia.”

Oh. I had been hoping he wouldn’t know who I was. Although it would only take him saying that he had been threatened by a woman wearing a black dress with red hair and my identity would immediately be revealed. I would have to find a way to keep him quiet.

We walked together and he kept his distance from me. When we got closer to the room I’d told Zalira to wait in, my heart pounded louder and louder. When we reached the doorway, I pulled out my xiphos and put it to his throat, gripping the front of his tunic tightly.

His eyes went comically wide.

“Inside,” I said.

When he hesitated I pushed the blade in farther. He began to walk back and I kept pace so that he wouldn’t slip away from me.

Zalira waited with her own sword drawn. I pushed the apprentice into a chair and kept my sword against his throat. Once he was seated she put her sword away and closed and locked the door. Then she leaned against the wall, watching us.

“What is the meaning of this?” The last word was more of a squeak as his voice cracked.

“What words do you say to make a plant grow?” It was the only magical ability I’d ever seen a life mage perform.

His eyes got even larger. “That’s not something we share—”

I cut him off by pushing the blade in a bit farther. He whimpered slightly. I hadn’t even drawn blood.

He sent a pleading glance at Zalira, as if she would help him. She had an air of bored indifference, her arms crossed over her chest. She shrugged and said, “I would tell her what she wants to know. This is the Locrian maiden who survived the race. She has killed men for less.”

I had only killed men for trying to kill me, but I supposed the apprentice didn’t need to know that. The gangly teenager began to shake slightly.

It seemed like I might need to take more extreme measures. I grabbed his hand and slammed it onto the table. He struggled against me but I saw the panicked look on his face when he realized that I was stronger than him. I held up my xiphos. “You don’t need all your fingers to do magic. I will take them, one by one, until you tell me what I need to know.”