Free World-Ripper War (Mad Tinker Chronicles Book 3) by J.S. Morin

stoic look of Denrik’s son Jadon could have been mistaken for idiocy or shyness. On Anzik, it seemed royal. He stared at them with impassive eyes, no hint of curiosity or surprise in evidence. His features were pale, smooth, untroubled.
    With a whiff of smoke, Madlin was suddenly aware that her hands were freed from the rope that bound them. She pulled them in front of her and rubbed the raw skin where the rope had bitten in to grasp her; her fingers came away sooty.
    “I came because of your note,” Madlin said.
    Anzik watched her, but did not reply.
    Madlin glanced to Jamile, who shot her a worried look in reply. Jamile’s hands were free as well, Madlin saw. Whatever Anzik was up to, he saw no threat from them.
    “I ... I was hoping to discuss terms of a deal,” Madlin said when the silence showed no sign of breaking on its own. “Magic in return for dealing with Dan ... maybe I can throw in some weapons.”
    “Have you worked out a plan?” Anzik asked.
    “No, not yet,” Madlin admitted. She swallowed and looked around the room. She could not bring herself to keep looking into that face. He’s not blinking. Same as Jadon . The silence grew again. “Well, the thing is, he’s saved our lives—all our lives—but he’s just ... dangerous. I worry that one day he’ll take something I say wrongly, and I’ll be dead before I know it.”
    “He’s like his uncle,” said Anzik. “But there is no force within Kadrin to oppose him. Rashan Solaran had Brannis to keep him in check, and eventually kill him. You can count on no such internecine strife to do in Danilaesis Solaran. There is even less chance of finding a suitable foe for the twin. You’ll simply have to do.”
    “Do?” Jamile asked.
    “What do you mean?”
    “I’ll teach you what you need to kill him,” Anzik said. “The twin. There is no hope that you could deal with Danilaesis.”
    Madlin frowned and cast a skeptical eye at Aznik. “I saw him fight when the Korrish force came to destroy Tinker’s Island. Dan is an army all to himself.”
    Anzik smiled. It was a small, forced thing that barely moved the muscles of the young sorcerer’s cheeks and came nowhere near his eyes. “I can see Sources. I have seen both him and his twin. I am sure Dan seems quite strong to you, but here he would be just a curiosity—a weakling warlock, all bluster and little bite.”
    “What kind of world are we in?” Jamile asked in a whisper meant for Madlin.
    “A world ruled by dragons and demons, with humans taking the scraps left between their realms,” Anzik replied.
    “But Dan said his people ruled half the world,” said Madlin.
    “Half a continent, but they consort with demons.”
    “Danilaesis?”
    “In manner, if not in fact,” Anzik replied. “He was taught by the demon warlock Rashan, an ancestor of his.”
    “He’s descended from demons?” Jamile asked. A puzzled frown had worked itself onto her face and stuck there.
    Anzik closed his eyes, the most true emotion he had shown since they arrived. “There is no time to explain the vagaries of Kadrin’s twisted past. You will help us against them, but for now, you must be going. There will be no lesson today. When you seek me next, come to this room and no place else. Your twin is waiting with the portal entrance. You may leave.”
    Madlin blinked. “You can see it?” She knew in the back of her mind that Rynn had followed their short journey within the palace. The awareness of her twin was comfortably secondhand once more with a separation of worlds between them.
    “My aether-vision is keener than most. Have a care where you send your machine in this world. There are others who see better than even I.” To demonstrate the truth of his claim, Anzik stepped aside and swept an arm toward the waiting viewer. Rynn obliged by opening the world hole just where he indicated.
    Madlin nodded to the young sorcerer—though he was probably near her own age, she felt older of late. “Thank