Canavan Trudi - The Traitor Queen

Lorkin met the man’s eyes and shrugged. “Hardly.”

The interrogator chuckled. “We’ll see.” He looked at the slave girl. “Walk or be dragged.”

She gave up on pretending to be wounded. Bracing her feet, she stood properly, then looked down at herself in amazement before her wonder at being whole evaporated as the Ashaki pulled her toward the gate.

“Come with me, Kyralian,” the Ashaki said. “We have more to discuss.”

Lorkin considered refusing to leave the cell, but he couldn’t see how it would gain him anything. It would force the Ashaki to use magic to drag him out, but very little magic and nothing that couldn’t be replaced by taking strength from a slave. He doubted the Ashaki would hesitate to torture the girl here instead. Saying nothing, he followed the interrogator out of the cell. The man’s assistant, as always, fell into step behind him.

The slave girl walked with slumped shoulders. Lorkin could not stop images and sounds from the day before running through his memory. The Ashaki’s torturing had been slow and brutal, calculated to cause as much pain and damage as possible without killing her.

It had taken all Lorkin’s determination to stay silent. He could not help trying to think of other ways to stop what was happening, even if temporarily, but none would work for long. These ideas kept taunting him, though. Lying to the Ashaki. Telling him things about the Traitors that were true but irrelevant. Even offering his own life in exchange for the woman’s.

Eventually he managed an unpleasant detachment from it all. He gave up on any notion that he could do anything to help the woman or himself. Later he shuddered at what he had done, and worried that accepting that he couldn’t help the slave might eventually shift into giving up on protecting the Traitors.

He tried to keep Tyvara in his thoughts to bolster his determination, but that only led to him thinking about what she must have suffered at the hands of Ashaki while pretending to be a slave. Beatings. Being used as a pleasure slave. Lorkin’s dislike of slavery had deepened into hatred.

The previous day he had been sure the Ashaki would eventually kill the slave woman. He certainly hadn’t expected the man to toss her into the cell with him. As time passed his detachment had faded. He’d found it harder and harder to bear listening to the woman whimpering and gasping in pain.

Did they simply hope to wear me down with guilt? Or were they only hoping I’d weaken myself by Healing her? Or see if I’d kill her myself to end her pain.

Using the extra power Tyvara had given him to Heal the slave would not cost him a lot, he’d decided. It would never be enough to protect him for long, if the interrogator decided to torture or kill him. Only afterwards did it occur to him that Healing her meant the Ashaki would be able to torture her all over again.

She had thanked him, which only made him feel worse. He lay awake for a long time, trying to convince himself that the interrogator had achieved his aim. The purpose in using her had been to force him to use up his power. Lorkin had shown that he would not be persuaded by her torture to speak. She was no longer needed.

Now it seemed like a foolish delusion.

The Ashaki led them to the same room. It had been cleaned. The slave girl was shoved into a corner where she threw herself into a submissive, defensive crouch.

As before, Lorkin was directed to a stool. The interrogator leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. The assistant perched on another stool.

“So, have you anything to tell me?” the Ashaki asked. “Anything relating to the Traitors, that is.”

“Nothing you don’t already know.”

“Are you sure about that? Why don’t you tell me what you think I know about the Traitors?”

“And see if our knowledge matches?” Lorkin sighed. “As if I’d fall for that trick. When are you going to accept that I’m not going to tell you anything?”

The interrogator shrugged. “It’s not up to me. It’s up to the king. I’m merely his…” he pursed his lips in thought, “his researcher. Only I extract information from people, not dusty old books and scrolls, or by exploring distant places, or spying on foreign lands.”

“Torture must be the least reliable kind of research.”

“It takes a certain skill.” The Ashaki uncrossed his arms and pushed away from the wall. “One that I don’t get to practise often, so I’m happy to have the opportunity now. Unless, of course, you distract me with something more interesting.”

Lorkin made himself meet and hold the man’s gaze and keep his voice level, though his stomach churned as he spoke.

“Has it occurred to you that the means you’re using to convince me to talk might make me even more determined to stay silent?”

The Ashaki’s smile was unconcerned. “Does it really? Well, then. Let’s put that theory to the test.”

As he turned to look at the slave she whimpered. Lorkin felt his resolve weaken. But if I tell them about the Traitors, thousands could end up like this woman. And if she is a Traitor, she knows this and would not want me to betray them.

He clung to that thought, and tried to put out of his mind that she might not even be a Traitor, as the interrogator set about undoing everything Lorkin had mended the night before.

Like most novices, Lilia had learned early on that a complex of inner passages and rooms lay within the University building, reached through short passages made to look like small storage rooms. They weren’t forbidden to novices, however. Hundreds of years ago the Guild had grown so large that the need for teaching space outweighed whatever purpose the inner rooms had been designed for. Now, specialised or private classes were held in them.

The passages under the Guild were no great secret either. Everybody knew they’d been used during the Ichani Invasion. Though they were forbidden to both novices and magicians because they were deemed unsafe, the threat of cave-ins was never going to deter the more adventurous of them, so all of the passage entrances in the University had been sealed not long after the war.

Lilia wasn’t the only novice who suspected the Guild might have kept a few open, just in case. Anyi’s explorations had revealed that the Guild had been telling the truth, however. All of the passage entrances had been bricked up. Lilia had been hoping that her friend would find at least one access point into the University. It would be a lot easier than climbing down the narrow gap inside the Magicians’ Quarters wall.

Not to be deterred, Anyi had been working on making a new entrance. The night before, she had announced that she had broken through the brickwork at one entrance. Lilia had gone to inspect it. The hidden door in the panelling beyond had needed a little oiling before it would open smoothly. Beyond it was one of the inner passages of the University. When it was time to leave her friends, she’d used the door and then made her way back to Sonea’s rooms.

Now she was heading back to the hidden door, hoping it was too early for other novices to be in the inner passages. Jonna had brought a large bottle of lamp oil with the morning meal. Lilia was all too conscious that her friends were fast running out of sources of light — especially since Anyi had used lamp oil to loosen the secret door’s hinges. The new route into the passages would be much faster, since she didn’t have an awkward climb up to Sonea’s rooms, and when she returned she would be closer to her first class of the day.

Entering the University, she turned into one of the narrow corridors between the classrooms, and headed for the small room at its end that led to the inner passages. Somewhere behind her Lilia heard the sound of echoing footsteps following her. Probably a novice heading for a private class. The inner passages were usually quieter than the main part of the University, but she’d have to be careful nobody saw her slip through the secret door.