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They herded me up the rocky mountainside to a boulder as large as I was.
“Stand against the boulder,” Apeq said.
The moon was rising slowly over the camp and the tattooed designs swirling around his arms were bright in the light. I smirked at them, knowing full well that my face was showing a crown. I could see where this was headed. This was the part where they brutally tortured me while asking me questions, I couldn’t answer like ‘Where did you get your magic from’ and ‘Tell us where!’ Louder and more insistent with every foiled attempt.
“And that doesn’t worry you?” my mimic asked? “The last time we were in this situation, I was the one who was confident, and you were squirming like a little worm.”
“Maybe this time you’ll be the one to squirm,” I said, not realizing I’d said it out loud until Apeq flinched.
“I don’t know how you think you’re going to get out of this, imposter, but I should warn you that what I’m carrying isn’t one of the fire rods I had before. This is a lightning rod and with the magic imbued in it, I can strike you with bolt after bolt of lightning until you’re sobbing on the ground.”
“Yeah, it’s hard to find entertainment in the mountains,” I quipped, trying to keep the shake out of my voice. “You have to make do with acting like a creep instead.”
“Shut up,” Apeq said. But this time, when he stalked toward me, I could feel the markings on his arms pulling me just like the lock and just like the doorway, as if they were all interconnected. I could even feel the metal rope coiling around my wrists and fastened to the rock by Ambrosia with threads of magic and the lightning rod in Apeq’s hands.
“You should look into hiring a guy to help with your army’s creativity,” I said. “I mean, this is almost exactly what Shabren did to me before I melted his mind to jelly. Do you guys have trouble coming up with original ideas?”
“Hey!” my mimic said. “I melted his brain to jelly. I told you not to mess with his shadow.”
“Only Magikas are supposed to have shadows,” Ambrosia said. Apeq looked surprised and I smirked at him again. I liked digging at him. The angrier he got, the sooner he would get this over with. And he couldn’t see the mimic, for some reason. Which was really weird. Ambrosia could see it. Shabren had been able to see it. But for Apeq he was a blind spot.
“Maybe that was his curse in the World of Legends. Maybe he was cursed with not being able to see the spiritual world,” my mimic said.
Now that was as good of a theory as any. Even Ambrosia had her head tilted to the side as if she were considering the mimic’s words.
In the ghostly light, I could make out silvery scars on Apeq’s face, barely visible.
“How did you keep your skin from melting off in the World of Legends?” I asked him, genuinely curious.
“You forget who you are speaking to,” Apeq said, anger in his voice. He raised the lightning rod and I could see the pattern rolling out all around us. I could see him torturing me and killing me and I could feel the rod he’d use to do it like it was a part of the pattern. He’d lose his temper and far from that making things better for me, it would mean he would kill me. I shivered.
I could feel the tattoos around his arms gripping them, holding them. I could feel them as if they were my own. With a flick of my thoughts, I forced them downward.
My eyes widened slightly when his arms dropped. With another flick, I willed his arms still and they stilled.
Sweat broke out on his brow, his jaw bulging with tension. He must be fighting the command. But those tattoos responded to me and I had the power to stop him.
And now I knew what it meant to be Ko’roi.
I was also starting to understand why a person might not want to be marked unless they were going to get all the markings.
“Interesting,” Ambrosia said, a finger to her chin like she was considering everything.
She spoke just in time. In a burst of realization, I left the metal rope binding me in place. I shouldn’t show her that I could mess with her magic, too. Not if I wanted to open the lock on our cage and sneak out later tonight.
“I think we’ve learned what we need to know tonight, don’t you, Apeq?” she asked with a lovely smile.
He nodded, tightly, and I forced his hand to let go of the lightning rod. Ambrosia scooped it up.
“I’ve never been fond of these things,” she said. “I prefer pure power, not something defined by its own limitations. But I suppose we must use what we have.”
The metal rope slipped from around the rock and snaked out to her open palm, settling there.
“Come along, Tor. Let’s return you to your bed, hmmm? We’ll need you full of energy and ready to go for our talk tomorrow. Won’t we, Apeq?” She raised an eyebrow and Apeq stirred, his hands still frozen at his sides.
I released them.
“Yes,” he hissed through gritted teeth.
This wasn’t over yet – clearly – but I kept my taunting to myself. I’d stirred him up enough tonight and I didn’t want to tip them off to what I had just learned – that I wasn’t really a prisoner here at all.