Free Mind of the Magic (Arhel Book 3) by Holly Lisle

invisible bonds that held her, her use of magic served only to make the bonds stronger. Finally, despairing, staring at her trapped and frozen daughter, she begged Witte to do something. “Help me!” she pleaded. “Witte, help me. I can’t move! I have to go after her!”
    “Well, of course you do,” he said. “But not just yet.” He walked over to Faia’s side, to where she could see him clearly, and he looked up at her—and when he did, he smiled, and his eyes glittered. “Right now you’re exactly where I need you, thanks to your lovely little daughter. Children are so useful sometimes.”
    Faia felt her stomach lurch—she felt as if the floor were falling away beneath her. “What!?”
    “Useful.” He winked at her. “I assumed that when Kirtha saw her daddy, she would charge right into the barrier. And so she has—and now you are committed to helping me. Even though I thought probably you would do what needed to be done when you saw your friends trapped in the emeshest—the god-aura—I couldn’t be sure. I
knew
, though, that you wouldn’t leave your daughter a captive without making your best attempt to go in and free her. With her trapped in the Dreaming God’s aura, you have no choice but to do what I want.”
    Faia’s blood felt like it had frozen in her veins. Her heartbeat thudded in her ears. “You—you planned this?”
    “From the moment I appeared on your doorstep, dear lady.” He hooked his thumbs into his belt. “Even a bit before that.”
    The room pressed in on Faia from all sides, so that she felt she was running out of air. Bile burned in the back of her throat. She tried to keep calm, though she wanted to scream. “You conniving, dung-eating, sheep-futtering slime’s son!” she growled. She had to force the words out through her suddenly constricted throat; her rage made breathing an effort. “You’re no friend of Nokar’s, are you?”
    His eyes widened in feigned surprise. “Such language. Naughty, naughty. Nokar… no, he never met me—though I, of course, knew him. And… no, I wouldn’t say we were friends—exactly. Let me introduce myself,” he said, “by the best known of my many names. Folks do call me Witte A’Winde, of course, and sometimes Witte the Mocker. I’m the Mocking God, too, and Ranchek the Trickster. I’m best known, however, as Hrogner, chief saje God of Mischief.” He bowed so deeply his braid flipped upside down and dragged along the floor. “I am one of the great gods,
not
one of the minor deities.”
    A god, she thought, while her heart raced wildly. He was a god—the god Hrogner. She’d brought him into her house, and made him welcome. All the folktales said gods could not enter a home uninvited—but she’d
brought
him in. Welcomed him, cared for him… . His mocking words echoed in her mind.
    “…you need equal measures of kindness and paranoia, dear girl. Otherwise, there’s no telling what you might invite into your house someday.”
    She’d invited him in. And he’d tricked her.
    “I want my daughter back,” she said She could hear her voice shaking—fear for her daughter mixing with murderous rage.
    “We all want a lot of things,” Witte said agreeably, while his smile stretched wider.
    Faia nodded slowly. He’d betrayed her. From the very first—from the moment she’d rescued him from the street, he’d planned to betray her. Worse, he’d planned to use Kirtha, who had adored him. That betrayal burned in her mind more than any other.
    Fury devoured Faia; the very universe seemed to narrow into a tunnel that connected her to Witte. She stared at him, and felt the rage that sang through her body—felt the power of earth and sky draw into her staff, until her body seemed full to the bursting point with magic. “Yes, we do,” she said in a quiet voice. “We all want a
lot
of things.” Her magic fought her when she tried to use it to help herself—but perhaps it would still work if she turned it on him. She