Page 29 of Silver & Gold

She asked, “Why did that catch your attention?”

Seth felt confused. What did that have to do with anything? But he answered, “It was out of place. Valuable. Rare. Only a wealthy man or an arcanist would have owned it. Only an arcanist desperate for money would have sold it. So I followed the story of that scope from Demir to Shalaa, at the edge of the Kesh.”

The empress looked thoughtful. “A clue many might have missed.”

What was her point?

Her head tilted, making the light flash against her golden headdress, making the tiny chains tinkle. She asked, “Is that why you were chosen for this mission?”

“Perhaps. I was told—by Kahzir—don’t you understand that he’s—”

“That is not what concerns me at this moment. You were told what?”

“Why does it matter? This isn’t about me—”

The warrior woman stepped forward, beside the empress. She was a head taller and wore a breastplate of articulated leather that made no effort to deemphasize her female form. Her bare shoulders were broad and strong. Muscle played in her arm as she reached out and gripped Seth’s throat.

“You will answer the empress’s questions. She asked you what you were told. For what reason were you chosen?”

Seth stared into her light gray eyes. They were stern but not angry. He suspected that the same could not be said of his own. The warrior loosened her grip so Seth could speak, but she did not remove her hand from his throat.

“I was told,” Seth gritted out, “that I was the only Curator sufficiently tenacious and brutal for the job.”

The warrior woman lifted her hand away and stepped back.

The empress said, “Perhaps you are both those things, but you are neither unthinking nor unfeeling.”

She didn’t ask a question, so Seth didn’t reply. Then she did ask one: “Are you afraid to die?”

“No.”

“Are you afraid to watch him die?”

Seth’s chest started heaving. “You have the book. You know what Kahzir did to him. You can’t—”

“Well,” the empress said calmly. “We shall see.”

With that, she turned to leave, and so did the others.

Hands clenched and yanking against the leather bonds, Seth strained and shouted as the cell door clanged shut. Thrashing against the restraints, Seth felt something in his pocket. His … multi tool?

It was usually on his utility belt, which had been taken from him. He didn’t remember putting the multi tool in his pocket. Maybe Raider had done it? Raider stole the thing from him constantly to tease him, but Seth could have sworn the multi tool was on his belt at the temple.

It didn’t fucking matter. He fished it out and sequenced the blade.

CHAPTER 10

HELP ME, RAIDER SAID, or tried to.

But there was no one to hear him. There was never was. There was only ever Kahzir.

Sometimes, Raider sensed someone else at the edge of sight, at the edge of his memory, half shadowed. But Kahzir was the axis of Raider’s world.

But he hadn’t been Raider, not then. He hadn’t even been Shashem, not anymore.

He had been S. Or the subject. Or simply him.

Take him to his cell.