The Higher Magicians exchanged glances. Lorlen looked thoughtful.
“You have used black magic to strengthen yourself, so that you could fight these spies, and this Ichani woman,” he said slowly.
“Yes.” Akkarin nodded. “But it was strength given willingly, by my servant and lately by Sonea.”
Sonea heard indrawn breaths. “You used black magic on Sonea?” Lady Vinara gasped.
“No.” Akkarin smiled. “There was no need. She is a magician, and can give her strength to another in more conventional ways.”
Lorlen frowned and glanced at Sonea. “How much did Sonea know of all this before today?”
“All,” Akkarin replied. “She had, as Lord Rothen pointed out, accidentally discovered more than she should have, and I had to take steps to ensure she and her former guardian remained silent. I recently decided to allow her to know the truth.”
“Why?”
“I realized that someone should know of the Ichani threat other than myself.”
Lorlen’s eyes narrowed. “So you chose a novice? Not a magician, or one of the Higher Magicians?”
“Yes. She is strong, and her knowledge of the slums has proved useful.”
“How did you convince her?”
“I took her to see one of the spies, then taught her to read his mind. She saw more than enough there to know that what I told her of my own experiences in Sachaka was true.”
Murmuring filled the hall as the implications of that sank in. The eyes of the Higher Magicians turned to Sonea. She felt her face warming and looked away.
“You told me that you couldn’t teach another that skill,” Lorlen said quietly. “You lied.”
“No, I didn’t lie.” Akkarin smiled. “I couldn’t teach another, at the time, or you would have realized it had been taught to me, and asked where I had learned it.”
Lorlen frowned. “What else have you taught Sonea?”
At the question, Sonea felt her blood turn to ice.
Akkarin hesitated. “I have given her certain books to read, so that she might better understand our enemy.”
“The books from the chest? Where did you get them?”
“I found them in the passages under the University. They were placed there by the Guild after black magic was banned, in case such knowledge was needed again. I’m sure you have read enough of them to know this is true.”
Lorlen glanced back at Lord Sarrin.
The old Alchemist nodded. “It is true, according to the records I found in the chest. I have studied them carefully and they do appear to be genuine. They relate how, before the Guild banned black magic five centuries ago, its use was common. Magicians kept apprentices, who gave them power in exchange for knowledge. One of these apprentices killed his master and massacred thousands in an attempt to rule the land for himself. After he died, the Guild banned black magic.”
The hall filled with murmuring voices that quickly rose into a clamor. Listening carefully, Sonea heard snatches of conversation.
“How are we to know if any of his story is true?”
“Why haven’t we heard of these Ichani?”
Lorlen lifted both arms and called for quiet. The noise subsided.
“Do the Higher Magicians have any questions for Akkarin?”
“Yes,” Balkan rumbled. “How many of these outcast magicians are there?”
“Somewhere between ten and twenty,” Akkarin replied. A scattering of laughter followed. “Every day they take power from their slaves, who have strong magical potential equal to any of us. Imagine a black magician with ten slaves. If he took power from half of them every few days, he would be hundreds of times stronger than a Guild magician within weeks.”
Silence followed his words.
“Yet, that power diminishes as it is used,” Balkan said. “After battle, a black magician is weaker.”
“Yes,” Akkarin answered.
Balkan looked thoughtful. “A smart attacker would kill the slaves first.”
“Why haven’t we heard of these Ichani before?” Administrator Kito’s voice echoed through the hall. “Merchants travel into Sachaka every year. They have occasionally reported meeting magicians in Arvice, but not black magicians.”
“The Ichani are outcasts. They live in the wastes and are not spoken of publicly in Arvice,” Akkarin replied. “The court of Arvice is a dangerous political battlefield. Sachakan magicians do not allow others to know the limits of their skills and power. They are not going to allow Kyralian merchants and ambassadors to discover what they keep from their own countrymen.”
“Why do these Ichani want to invade Kyralia?” Balkan asked.
Akkarin shrugged. “Many reasons. The main one, I suspect, is to escape the wastes and regain status and power in Arvice, but I know some desire to take revenge for the Sachakan War.”
Balkan frowned. “An expedition to Arvice would confirm the truth of this.”
“Anyone recognizable as a Guild magician will be killed if they approached the Ichani,” Akkarin warned. “And I suspect few in Arvice would be aware of Kariko’s ambitions.”
“How else will we confirm the truth?” Vinara said. “Will you submit to a truth-read?”
“No.”
“That hardly inspires us to—trust you.”
“The reader may learn the secret of black magic from my mind,” Akkarin added. “I will not risk that.”
Vinara’s eyes narrowed. She looked at Sonea. “Perhaps Sonea then?”
“No.”
“She has learned black magic, too?”
“No,” he replied, “but I have trusted her with information that should not be shared, unless in the greatest need.”
Sonea’s heart was pounding. She looked at the floor. He had lied about her.
“Is Rothen’s story true?” Vinara asked.
“It is.”
“You admit to claiming her guardianship merely to force Rothen and Sonea to remain silent?”
“No, I also claimed Sonea’s guardianship because she has great potential. A potential that was being shamefully neglected. I’ve found her to be nothing less than honest, hardworking and exceptionally gifted.”
Sonea looked up at him in surprise. She felt a sudden mad urge to grin, but managed to control it.
Then she went cold as she suddenly understood what he was doing.
He was convincing them to keep her within the Guild by telling them she had skills and information that they might need. Even if they didn’t believe him, they might take pity on her. She had been his hostage. She had been deceived into helping him. The Guild might even pardon her. She had, after all, only read a few books, and then only at the instigation of Akkarin.
She frowned. This made Akkarin look worse, however. And he was encouraging them to see things that way. Since she had first learned of the Ichani, she had nursed the hope that the Guild, if it learned the truth, would pardon him. But now she wondered if Akkarin had ever considered that a possibility.
If he wasn’t hoping to be pardoned, what was he planning? Surely he didn’t mean to let them execute him?
No, if it came to that, he would fight his way out and escape. Would he make it?
She considered, again, how much of his power the fight with the Ichani woman must have used. Her heart began to race as she realized he could easily be too weak to escape the Guild.
Unless she gave him all her strength, including that which she had taken from the Ichani woman.
All she had to do was touch him and send him the power. The warriors surrounding them would try to stop her. She would have to fight them.
When they did, however, they would realize that she was using more power than she ought to possess.
And then they would not be at all inclined to pardon her.
So the only way she could save Akkarin was to reveal her own use of black magic.
“Sonea.”
She looked up to find Lorlen regarding her intently.