“Liliana Vess,” he said, stepping to her side and taking her hand. “Your help was inadvertent, but valuable nonetheless. The gift I have for you is freedom.”
She frowned at him. “Freedom?”
“Many of you-alternate Liliana Vesses from parallel time lines-had bound themselves to Bolas’s service by blood pact. Are you one of them?”
“Well…” She flushed and looked ashamed of herself, providing what appeared to be answer enough.
“Listen to me now, Liliana Vess,” he said, placing his hand on her head, “there are also many of you who have never bound yourselves wholly to the dragon. Close your eyes.”
“I don’t care what you think you can do, but there’s no breaking that compact. I’ve tried. You wouldn’t believe what I’ve tried.”
“Please. Indulge me.”
She sighed and closed her eyes.
“You, Liliana Vess, are one of the unbound. In your life, you have learned too well the perils of contracts.”
“Of course I am,” she said, shaking Tezzeret’s hand off her head. “What? That’s it? You tell me something I already know? Thanks for nothing. Literally.”
“And you are welcome for something. Also literally.”
“You think Bolas needs a signed contract to keep his hold on me?”
“Apparently not.”
“I’m out of this place,” she said. “Jace, it’s been real. Baltrice, kiss my ass.”
She stalked off along the beach, gathering the power to shift out.
Tezzeret turned to the pyromancer. “Baltrice.”
She waved him off. “No presents. All I want is for you to take your doohickey out of Jace’s head.”
“That’s already done.”
“It is?”
Jace said, “It is?”
“Before you woke up.”
Bolas noted that Tezzeret did not bother to specify which time.
Baltrice spread her hands. “That’s all I need.”
“It’s all you want,” Tezzeret said. “Not the same thing.”
“Seriously. Looks like things are working out okay for you, and I’m glad for that. Really. Even though you served me up to Nicol Bolas like a snack tray; I figure there’s no way you could have known.”
“And I thank you for that generous estimation.” Tezzeret stepped around her and reached for something on the plinth-a necklace. Its chain was pure etherium and its pendant a carefully shaped red gemstone that glowed with a light of its own.
Sangrite, Bolas realized. Why would the artificer give sangrite to his pet pyromancer?
“More jewelry?” she said with a lopsided smile. “Come on, Tezzeret-people are starting to talk.”
“Baltrice, do you remember the conversation we had in the Glass Dunes, when I was working on my armor? About who I’ve become, and who you’ve become, and why?”
“Not really. Something’s screwy with my memory about all that stuff. Probably something to do with Renn. Hey, did you ever settle that bastard?”
“Not personally.” Tezzeret wasn’t smiling anymore. “This necklace is, like the locator ring and the navigator, more about what it does than what it is, and again it’s a simple device. Slip it on over your head, and you become invulnerable to all forms of mental domination.”
“Yeah?”
Jace Beleren said, “What?”
She hefted it appreciatively, then shrugged her thanks. “Nice. Much appreciated.”
Jace said, an undertone of urgency in his voice, “Baltrice, don’t put it on.”
“Why not?”
Nicol Bolas had occasionally produced, in his alchemical research laboratories, temperatures extreme enough to liquefy helium. He had never seen anything remotely as cold as the look Tezzeret then turned upon Jace Beleren. “Yes, Jace. Tell her why not.”
“It’s a trick,” Beleren said. He was starting to sweat. “Baltrice, you trust me, right?”
“Sure, Jace.” She looked puzzled. “Of course.”
“Do you want to tell her why?” Tezzeret said. “Or shall I?”
“I don’t get it.” Baltrice seemed to be having difficulty processing what was happening, and her confusion was shading toward anger. “Why what? What are you two talking about?”
“Baltrice, you have to believe me-!”
Flames kindled in her hair. “Why what?” she barked.
“Why you trust him,” Tezzeret replied, flat and cold as an etherium knife. “Put on the necklace, and you’ll find out.”
“Jace…? Did you… do something to me?” She turned slowly, her eyes wide, and even though her voice was small and girlish, Beleren took a step back. “What did you do?”
Bolas didn’t know what Beleren saw in her eyes. To the dragon, it looked like death by hellfire.
“Baltrice, come on! You know me better than that-you can’t… don’t let him do this to you!” Beleren pleaded, lifting his hands as though to shield himself.
“Cast that spell,” Tezzeret said, “and die where you stand.”
Beleren froze.
Shortly he must have decided Tezzeret wasn’t bluffing, because he let his hands fall. “Baltrice, please-”
“Shut up! Shut your festering mouth!” She wheeled on Tezzeret. “What is this? Why are you doing this to us?”
“Because I like you,” he said. “And I don’t like him.”
“But… but…” She looked as if something was breaking inside her.
“When he was my prisoner, he was tortured. For months. Tortured almost exclusively by you,” Tezzeret said. “Have you forgotten that? Do you think he has?”
She looked stunned.
“Yes: find out why you trust him,” Tezzeret said. “At the same time you’ll find out why he trusts you.”
She clutched the necklace to her chest as though it were the only solid thing left in her world. “I don’t… I don’t want to know…”
“My gift to you is truth,” Tezzeret said. “I never expected you to thank me for it.”
Tears began to well in her eyes. “Jace…? What did you do to me?”
Beleren lowered his head. “I saved your life.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about-”
“Yes, it is. You just don’t remember.” Jace looked at her, and his eyes brimmed like hers. “Liliana-what she did to you-how she beat you…”
He shook his head. “She hit you with ghosts, Baltrice. Shades. She infected you with the shades of every living thing that had ever died at Tezzeret’s tower. Even after we healed your body, the memory alone was killing you. Driving you insane.”
“That’s not-” Her fists clenched, and flames sprouted across her shoulders. “You had no right-it’s not your call, Jace!”
“It wasn’t,” he said softly. “It was yours. Baltrice, I didn’t want to. You begged me. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I… just couldn’t think of any other way to save your life.”
“How can I believe you?”
Tezzeret said, “There’s one way to find out.”
“Baltrice, don’t-!” Jace said desperately. “The shades, the memories, all that stuff-it’s not gone, Baltrice. I buried it, that’s all. Putting on that necklace could kill you.”
“Of course he would say that.”
Baltrice looked wildly from one of them to the other, and then back again, baring her teeth like a cornered animal. “How can I… How am I supposed to know?”
Tezzeret stood impassive as stone. “The truth is in your hand.”
Tears spilled over and rolled down her cheeks, and with a strangled sob she turned and stumbled away in the direction opposite the necromancer’s.
Jace watched her go. His face was empty. Without even loss. “You bastard…” he said hoarsely. Quietly. Without inflection. “You evil, murdering son of a bitch. She was happy. Happy. Do you even know what happy feels like?”
“I suspect it very much resembles how I feel right now.”
Beleren turned his empty face toward the artificer. “And what’s for me? Do you kill me now?”
“I can be persuaded.”
He looked down. “Then can I go?”
“I strongly recommend that you do.”
His head came up warily. Frowning, he began slowly to back away.
“I don’t want to kill you, Jace. You’re too useful; I may need your talents someday. On the other hand, I don’t see any reason I should let a vicious little gutter monkey like you walk off without a scratch.”