Free The Magic Council (The Herezoth Trilogy) by Victoria Grefer

condition was in exchange for your amnesty, and Kora took the
deal. She told him about the necklace and its power.”
    “And
she knew full well, full well, he’d torture the sanity out of her for invading
his mind. Shit! Shit, she told me the deal was for Vane.”
    “Zacry….”
began Bennie.
    “Shit,”
Zacry said again. “I had no idea they discussed me that day, that she….”
Zacry’s head began to spin. He dropped on the bed. “I wanted revenge after
Zalski kidnapped me. I told Kora so, and I meant to have it. I’d have done
something stupid and gotten myself killed. After leaving that tower, I meant
every word I spoke against Zalski. My God…. My God , I didn’t mean to drive Kora to….”
    Bennie
took a seat next to the sorcerer. “She didn’t tell you because she didn’t want
you feeling guilty. You shouldn’t feel guilty. You were just a kid. You
couldn’t have known how those rants of yours would scare her, and you had a
right to rant, if you need me to remind you. Every right in the world.”
    The
knots in Zacry’s stomach tightened, nearly making him double over. He had eaten
nothing but an apple and a few bites of egg, and worried he might throw that
up. “By the Giver’s broken lyre,” was all he could say. He shut his eyes. “Holy
Giver, I cannot believe she did that. For me. I’d known she’d done it, but for
me…. God only knows what that man would have done before he did away with her.
She must have been terrified. It was only by a miracle she escaped him, that
any of you did.”
    “She
wasn’t terrified,” said Rexson. “Not during the final attack. She knew she’d
done her duty by you, as the elder sibling. As an adult. You’re aware your
sister confided in me in those days. Believe me, then, that you did just as
much for her by going to a safehouse as she ever did for you.”
    “Buck
up,” said Bennie. She nudged Zacry in the side. “Listen, kiddo, Kora was always
proud of you, as she should have been. Besides, that’s long over and done with,
thank the Giver.”
    So it was, Zacry told himself. Zalski was
old news. They had other enemies now, but Zacry dwelt on the king’s revelations
in a bubble of self-absorption while Bendelof brought the king that glass of
milk she had promised.

 
    CHAPTER
FIVE
    Of
Knights and Negotiations

 
    Ursa’s
basement was a less dreary place by day. The high slivers of windows in the
eastern wall allowed some sun to flood the room and heat the floor, so that the
three boys sat on their blankets or overturned crates. While the basement was just
as bare as it had been the night before, only a small part lay in shadow now,
and what did not twinkled and winked as the light caught nooks and ridges in
the stone. Also cheery was the smell of roasted chicken, on which the boys were
lunching. It mingled with the scent of their stewed greens and the rose water
August had used to wash.
    August
was seventeen, younger than her sister by nearly eight years, and wore her
blond curls short because at that length they extended nicely when she pulled
at them. Grabbing her hair was her nervous habit, and she took comfort to feel
the lightly hued springs give beneath her hand, stretching as she forced them
down, then jumping back up. Her yellow sundress, lined with lace, seemed a work
of art in the monotone gray that surrounded her, but it was nothing special
really, not compared to the gowns the boys were accustomed to seeing at the
Palace. Still, lace was a luxury in August’s fishing district. Ursa was the
richest inhabitant for tens of miles if one forgot the Count of Carphead, and
she made a point of taking care of her little sister. Her idea of showing what
affection she felt for the girl was to make sure August’s dresses had nice
trim.
    Holding
an old, battered book, August sat on a crate in the center of the room. Hune
had squeezed beside her and looked down at the page as she read. His plate,
half-filled yet, lay in his lap. His brothers had