Mage's Blood

EPILOGUE

Endings are Beginnings

Destiny

The greatest lesson of the art of divination is that there is no such thing as destiny. Some futures can seem crushingly inevitable, but they are not certain until the moment they occur. I find this a source of great hope.

ANTONIN MEIROS, 904 (YEAR OF THE FIRST CRUSADE)

Hebusalim, on the continent of Antiopia

Junesse 928

1 month until the Moontide

‘I hate you,’ Ramita hissed at Kazim. ‘I will hate you for ever.’

There was some horrible power inside him now, something she could almost see. He had killed her husband and then he’d done something horrible that made him flare up with some ugly energy she could almost touch. She had almost lost control then, almost betrayed herself and her fledgling powers, until Rashid had snuffed her consciousness out like a candle. Oblivion was a blessing: only when she was completely unconscious could she escape the dreadful image of her husband as he fell. It replayed over and over whenever she shut her eyes. Antonin, husband …

His hand touched her cheek and she woke—

But it was Rashid Mubarak, sitting beside her on a bed. She stiffened in dread.

‘So, you are awake at last,’ the emir said softly. He reached out to caress her face again and she flinched from him. ‘You should rejoice. You have been freed from your unwanted marriage. Your dishonour has been made good, delivered by the hand of the young man who crossed the continent to rescue you. It is quite the epic tale.’ He sighed regretfully. ‘But I fear just now that you don’t appreciate it. The trauma is too much for you. And no doubt you have been bewitched by some Shaitanic evil, the sort of foul magic Meiros employs when he couples with young girls like you.’

‘Go to Hel,’ she whispered, despite her terror. ‘Murderer.’

He leaned over her. ‘He has poisoned your mind, Ramita. You have become his creature. But there is hope for you. We can save you.’ He stroked her hair. ‘What happens to you next depends upon whose children you carry. If you bear Kazim’s child, then he shall have you to wife. But if those are Meiros’ children you bear, then I shall have you to wife myself, as you will gain the gnosis through bearing his babies.’ He bent closer. ‘Does this please you?’

She spat in his face.

He wiped her spittle away and stood. ‘You will not do that again.’ With a sudden crack he backhanded her across the face and her vision swam. ‘You will obey me, or every one of your family in Baranasi will be put to death.’

She cowered, her resistance shaken by his sudden brutality. He bent over her, his expression baffled and angry. ‘Why you, girl? Why a Lakh, and why you? How could he think children who will not play a part for decades could affect this shihad?’

Rashid spat on the floor and shook his head. ‘He told you nothing?’ he demanded, and when she shook her head he spat again. ‘Fertility – was that all it was?’ He squeezed her cheeks between fingers and thumb, hurting her. ‘Well, you’re certainly fertile – just to the wrong man. Or perhaps not. Time will tell.’ He whirled and stalked out in a swirl of rich clothing and glittering gems.