Azure bonds - Kate Novak [163]
"So how did you escape?" Akahar asked.
"Some vestige of the tale survived. A scrap of a letter I'd written to an apprentice fell into Cassana's hands- something about how my human shell could be made indistinguishable from the real thing. Cassana went to great lengths to track me down. She put a bounty out on an old Harper and tortured him for the information on my whereabouts. I hear he did not submit until she began torturing other creatures as well.
"I knew none of this when her allies completed a bridge to my place of exile. If I had not been half mad with loneliness and grief for the death of my songs, I might have seen through Cassana's unholy alliance immediately. But Cassana used her sweetest manner, and Phalse played on my desire for retribution. Zrie cloaked himself in the illusion of a living mage. I was not told of the F'ire Knives or Moander or Phalse's master.
"I gave up all my secrets, and they helped me build Alias. Later, I learned that the money for the project came from the Fire Knives, and that Moander provided the life energy needed to start Alias breathing. Cassana provided the body, Zrie the power to keep death from her, and Phalse's master the power to bind a soul in her."
"Dragonbait's soul," Akabar breathed.
"The saurial, yes."
"And you taught her to sing," Olive said.
"Oh, more than that. I spun her entire history, her thoughts, her feelings, her beliefs. A full personality that could interact with others. She was to be my redemption, my justification, of all I had done. I wanted to be sure that no one could see the beauty of my achievement without forgiving the evil means I used to accomplish it.
"But my allies had their own purposes, something I should have realized when each gave her a different name. I named her Alias because I could not give her my own. All I wanted was for her to live in peace and sing my songs.
"Then they branded her and the saurial, which Phalse's master had provided as sacrifice to give her a soul, and I understood they intended her to be a slave.
"I argued with Cassana, and for the first time she showed me her true nature. She'd left the empty space in the brand to represent me-another of her cruel jokes. I walked out on her and came down here, for this is where Alias and Dragonbait were being kept. I tried to convince myself to destroy Alias rather than bring her into this world bonded to so much evil."
The former Harper looked in the cell where Akabar had hung as though he still saw someone there. Tears welled in his eyes. "I am too reasonable a man to believe in miracles, but I suppose they must occur in spite of what I believe. When we'd left her in the cell that evening she was breathing but unconscious. Our calculations said she would not awaken until the saurial was slain. He was very near death already. He had killed many Fire Knives in one attempt to escape, and they beat him every chance they got. They'd left him hanging by the same hook you occupied, mage.
"When I returned here that night, the lizard was lying on the straw, wrapped in Alias's cloak. She had taken him down and was tending his wounds, singing him a lullaby, like a child with a doll.
"I sneaked upstairs to fetch the sword I had bought for Alias and some healing potions for the saurial. I also sought his sword, which Cassana had given to me because I was the only one who could pick it up without pain. I wasn't certain I could trust Alias with the swords. She was like a very little child. So I gave her the potions and told her what to do with them. When the saurial regained consciousness, I told him I would free him if he would help Alias escape-that he must take her as far from Westgate as possible. He readily agreed.
"I had to remain behind to cover their escape. An hour before dawn, when we were all preparing to leave for the sacrifice of the saurial, Cassana realized what I had