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“Where are they, then?” Gallain asked.

“Coming soon enough. I sent someone to bring them to me.”

The soldiers leaned back, looking unhappy, but Viviane saw Gallain and Caro share a look, as if there was a chance things weren’t going to go quite the way their abductor thought they would.

“What are you after?” Jacinta asked. “Why did you take the children?”

“They shone like a lighthouse beacon, and drew me in.” He began sliding food through the grate as he spoke. “You and you,” he pointed to Gallain and Caro, “you have a glimmer of it, but not enough to be of any real use. And you two have nothing.” He flicked a hand at Ivan and Jacinta.”

“Shone like a beacon?” Jacinta raised her eyebrows in question.

“With magic,” he exclaimed. “Bright and clear. I’ll need to separate them out, see who’s generating most of it, but all of them have some. It created a kind of synergy out in the fields. Quite astonishing.”

“And why do you steal children with magic?” Ivan asked.

“Not just children, although they are the most lucrative of my acquisitions.” He closed the grate, then set the food and water for the soldiers on a tray on the floor and pushed it, sliding it toward them while still remaining a safe distance away. “I wouldn’t have taken you four, even with the two who have a little magic, because I don’t deal in the non-magical any more, but I overheard you say you were looking for the children, and I couldn’t have you wandering around Warven, asking questions, no matter how idiotic they are in the town.”

He seemed to expect a response, and when no one said anything, he gave another smile, and left.

Everyone must have thought he was still lurking outside the door, because no one said a word, and after a long wait, finally Viviane heard the cart rattling away.

“He doesn’t deal in the non-magicalanymore.” Jacinta’s words were hushed. “Did he say that?”

“He called us acquisitions.” Jon tipped his weight forward, so he was balanced in a crouch on his toes. “He plans to . . . sell us?”

“After he works out which of us has the most magic.” Genevieve looked up to the window. “I don’t have any. I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

“My mother thinks the Cervantes do have magic.” Viviane spoke carefully. “And let me guess, Gallain and Caro are Cervantes?”

The two soldiers looked at each other in surprise, and then over to her.

Her friends were staring at her, too.

“What are you talking about?” Ric asked.

“It’s the way we move. There’s a reason we were once put into camps by the old Kassian queen. My mother and General Ru of the Venyatu have both said it, lots of times.” She didn’t know if she should have told them, didn’t even know if her mother and the general’s guesses were right, but it felt like something she shouldn’t keep to herself.

“I have thought there is something magical in the way your father moves,” Ivan said, suddenly. “I’ve never seen someone so intuitive in a fight. But then I thought . . .” He cleared his throat and looked uncomfortable.

“You thought it might be his magical sword?” Viviane asked.

Caro snorted and turned to look at her friend. “You think the Commander’s sword is magical?”

Ivan shrugged sheepishly. “It’s a rumor.”

“It’s been a rumor since he came back with it from north Kassia to rejoin the Rising Wave,” Gallain said. “But I once heard someone ask him, and he laughed and said it really is just a sword.”

“My mother thinks there’s a Cervantes magic. Something the Cervantes are born with. A magical connection between body and mind.” Viviane had seen her father smile when her mother said things like that, then kiss the top of her head and whisper about getting a little help from his wife.

Her mother had stitched magic into her father’s skin when he was wounded, to heal him. But that had been before Viviane was even born. Neither of her parents knew if it was still active, although most likely not. But her mother still protected her father with every piece of clothing she made him, every stitch of embroidery she put into everything he wore.

Her mother didn’t go anywhere without needle and thread.

Vivi had neither right now, as she had been taken in her sleeping clothes and her abductor had taken their things. But stitch work was not her only weapon. Any kind of weaving, including braiding hair, could work. But as she’d decided when she’d first awoken, that was too dangerous to do when there was no plan. He said he could see their magic. Best to make none, then, until it really counted.

“Who was the man talking about? Saying he’s having another two brought to him?” Jon asked.

Jacinta glanced toward the door, then spoke in a soft voice. “Lieutenant Theo Hallan, and Melodie.”