Free Rebellion: Tainted Realm: Book 2 by Ian Irvine Page A

chancellor.
    “Ugh!” she said.
    She tried to form words but they would not come, and that frightened her. She had been robbed of far more than two pints of blood. Part of her life and health had been taken from her. She was enslaved again, but this was far worse than the enslavement she had endured in Cython. There she’d had a degree of freedom, and vigorous health. There, those who worked hard and never caused trouble were relatively safe.
    But the chancellor was using her like a prized cow – she was fed and looked after to ensure she could be milked of the maximum amount of blood. And once her body gave out, would she be discarded like a milkless cow?
    There was also Rannilt to consider. If the blood-taking could weaken Tali so drastically, what must it be doing to the skinny little child who had been near death only days ago?
    “You can stop all this,” said the chancellor. For such a small, ugly, hunchbacked man, his voice was surprisingly deep and authoritative.
    “How?” she managed to whisper.
    Her eyes fluttered open. She was in his tent, the largest of all, and she saw the shadow of a guard outside the flap. The man was not needed; Tali lacked the strength to raise her head.
    The side of her neck throbbed. She felt bruised from shoulder bone to ear.
    “I know you’re holding out on me,” said the chancellor. “Tell me what I need to know and I’ll order Madam Dibly to stop.”
    Had Tali not been so weak, she would have started and given her secret away. If he guessed that she hosted the fifth pearl inside her, the master pearl that could magnify his chief magian’s wizardry tenfold, how could the chancellor resist cutting it out?
    Hightspall was losing the war because its magery had dwindled drastically over the centuries. With the master pearl the chancellor could have it back. With the master pearl, his adepts might even command the four pearls that Lyf held. He might win the war, and even undo some of the harm Lyf’s corrupt sorcery had done to Hightspall. Such as the shifters that Lyf had created for one purpose only – to spread terror and ruin throughout the land, and turn good people into ravening monsters like themselves.
    Like Tobry, her first and only love turned into the kind of beast he had dreaded becoming all his life. But Tobry’s suffering was over.
    Should she give up the master pearl? It wasn’t that simple. According to Deroe, ebony pearls could not be used properly within – or by – the women who hosted them, though he might have been lying. She could not tell. To gain their full strength, the pearls had to be cut out and healed in the host’s blood, which was invariably fatal. Tali could only give up the pearl by sacrificing her own life.
    Someone nobler than her might have made that sacrifice for her country, but Tali could not. Before escaping from Cython she had sworn a binding blood oath, and until she had fulfilled it she did not have the freedom to consider any other course.
    “Don’t know… what you’re talking about,” she said at last.
    “You’re lying,” said the chancellor. “But I can wait.”
    “You’re a failure, Chancellor. You’ve lost the centre of Hightspall and you’re losing the war.”
    He winced. “I admit it, though only to you. According to my spies, Lyf is already tearing down Caulderon, the greatest city in the known world, and rounding up a long list of enemies.”
    She hadn’t thought of that. “What’s he going to do to them?”
    “Put them to death, of course.”
    “But that’s… evil!”
    The chancellor sighed. “No, just practical. It’s what you do when you capture a city – you hunt down the troublemakers and make sure they can’t cause any trouble.”
    “Does that include Rix?” said Tali.
    “I’m told he’s number one on Lyf’s list.” The chancellor smiled wryly. “I feel a little hurt – why aren’t
I
on top?”
    “I wish you were!” she snapped, then added, “I couldn’t bear it if Rix was killed