Paxon and Avelene exchanged a quick glance. “What do you mean?” the Druid asked.

Lariana sighed wearily. “Creating images is all he’s had Reyn do since he found him. That seems to be all that matters to him. But I don’t understand how it’s helping Reyn with his problem. What he needs to learn is control, and I don’t see how he’s learning that.”

“So you think maybe he wants to use Reyn for something bad, something that might harm him?”

The girl didn’t respond. Avelene scuffed her boot against the rocky terrain and signaled ahead to the Trolls aboard the airship to prepare to get under way. The Trolls immediately began attaching the radian draws to the light sheaths and winching them into place. The diapson crystals were engaged by an unhooding of the parse tubes, and a rope ladder was dropped over the side to allow for boarding.

“That’s what I think,” Lariana answered finally. She pulled her travel cloak more tightly about her, hunching her shoulders. “He’s not telling me everything, I know that much. Whatever he intends, I think he needs Reyn to make it happen. That’s why he took him to Sterne.”

Paxon thought about it. The wishsong was a powerful magic, capable of almost anything. It could easily be turned into a killing weapon if a magic wielder wanted to hurt others, if he was willing to go far enough.

Or, he amended, if the user lost control—as Reyn Frosch had been known to do. As Chrysallin had done.

But would he do so in this instance, facing the hardened soldiers of the Red Slash, men and women every bit as dangerous as he was, even without magic? Men and women against whom he, personally, held no grudge?

He glanced over at Avelene as they came up to the airship and began to climb aboard. She must be thinking about it, too, trying to decide what Arcannen intended to do with the boy. Whatever it was, they had to get to Sterne as quickly as possible and try to put a stop to it.

“Will you promise me something?” Lariana asked suddenly, turning to face them as they stood at the rope ladder. “I know I don’t have any right, but I’ll ask it anyway. Will you try not to hurt Reyn? Will try to help him? Will you at least let me help? He doesn’t have anybody but me. He seems strong because he has the wishsong, but he’s afraid of the magic and what it can do. He’s afraid to use it. I don’t think he understands the game that’s being played.”

“We’ll do what we can,” Avelene replied, giving Paxon a sideways glance. “But if we’re put in danger, we’ll have to defend ourselves.”

The girl nodded slowly. “I know this. I understand. But Reyn is very young. He’s been on his own for a long time, but he doesn’t understand the world that well. He can be misled. He can be made to do things he doesn’t intend to do. If you can help him …”

“You talk as if you’re older than he is, and I doubt you are. What are you? Sixteen? You barely know this boy, yet you worry for him as if he were …” She trailed off abruptly. “You love him, don’t you?”

Lariana hesitated. “Yes.” She said it in a way that dared them to contradict her. “More to the point, he loves me. He trusts me. He depends on me. I can’t abandon him. I won’t. That’s why I’m asking for your help. We both need it.”

Paxon went up the rope ladder, thinking about what she had just said. Something was wrong. Her admission sounded reasonable, but the fact that she had been recruited by Arcannen to help teach the boy control of the magic was troubling. Where exactly did her loyalties lie? If her chances in this world rested with the sorcerer, then why would she risk so much for the boy? Was she really in love with Reyn Frosch? She came from a place where young girls were bought and sold for very specific reasons, but never to act independently of their master’s wishes. Yet she seemed to be saying that this was what was happening here.

He could not help thinking that in his experience everyone who came in contact with Arcannen ended up damaged in some way. It made him wonder about Lariana.

And about Reyn Frosch.

The boy remained quiet for a time, thinking through what Arcannen had said. They were on their way to Sterne to find Usurient and the Red Slash. To finish what we started. But what exactly was that? They hadn’t actually started anything, had they? Usurient had sent those men to kill him—and likely all those with him—but had failed. It had cost them their lives. So now he intended to carry the fight to Usurient in Sterne. How would he do that? What did he intend?

He wanted to ask but at the same time he didn’t. He was afraid of the answer. He was frightened of what Arcannen wanted him to do. He had been promised he would be taught different uses for his magic while learning how to master its unstable power. He had been taught virtually nothing beyond how to create images of fighting men. He had been promised he would not be asked to hurt anyone when they were back in the ruins of Arbrox, but that hadn’t worked out at all. Why was there any reason to think things would be different this time?

He wished Lariana were there. He wished he could talk with her. She would find them, Arcannen had said.

“How is Lariana supposed to find us?” he asked the other, finally breaking the silence.

Arcannen glanced back. “I told her earlier what to do. She knows where we are going and what I intend. Once she gets free of the Druids, she will come looking. We won’t be hard to find. Her part in this is too important for her to fail.”

“What part? What do you mean?”

“Lariana is my student. She works for me. She does what I tell her to do, and she is very good at it. She knows what’s needed. Stop worrying.”

Reyn felt his heart sink. It was the truth, wasn’t it? Lariana wasn’t his. She was Arcannen’s, and the sorcerer was using her to persuade him. All along she had known so much about what was going to happen, about how to train him, about what he was supposed to do. She had guided him every step of the way. She had kissed him. Kissed him! She had made him feel good about himself for the first time in a long time. She was very clever and she had taken advantage of him.

He looked down at the planking of the decking at his feet and felt his heart break. He was a fool.

“What is it exactly that you intend?” he asked, no longer able to help himself from doing so. What was the point in pretending he wasn’t going to try? Fool or not, he could not abandon his hopes for Lariana and himself, for the possibility that he was mistaken.

“Well, in my experience, when someone tries to kill you and fails, they will probably try again. I’m not keen on that happening. Best I kill them first, don’t you think?”

“Usurient, you mean?”

“Yes, Dallen Usurient. Especially. He thinks me dead. He fled thinking he had killed me, and there is no one to tell him otherwise. We have plenty of time to reach him before he discovers the truth. We have time to set a trap and spring it.”

Reyn looked up. “We?”

“Yes. You’re to help me. It’s part of your debt to me for my aid in training you to control your magic. You can control it better than before, can’t you? You have been doing your exercises as Lariana instructed? Everything has gone just as it should?”

He did not want to give anything away. “Yes.”

“Then we have no problem, do we?”

“I don’t know. Why do I have to help at all? Can’t you do whatever you intend to Usurient without me? If you think you can catch him by surprise anyway—”

“No, no, no,” the other interrupted quickly. “Killing Usurient is only part of it. You still don’t understand, do you?”

He glanced back at Reyn and held his gaze. “Well, do you?”

The boy shook his head. “I guess not.”

“Then pay attention. We’re not going to stop with Usurient, boy. He’s only one of many responsible for what happened at Arbrox. We’re going to destroy the entire Red Slash command.”