Rudra's book would have been one of them, or any other book found in the Khrynsani temple library.

Even if I hadn't been at sea, I would have had to have done it myself.

I wasn't Khrynsani. Never had been, never would be. However, I had been possessed briefly by Sarad Nukpana, their leader. I had seen his thoughts, his memories, his knowledge, and had been unable to rid myself of any of it.

I wanted to forget all of it, but more than once, my knowledge of Sarad's mind-he had revealed his intentions to me while he'd held my soul and body prisoner-had saved us all.

Now was merely another one of those times.

I felt like a thief about to break into a heavily warded and defended vault. I had the key, but didn't know whether I'd be attacked for using it.

The door opened, and Phaelan stepped into the cabin. He stopped just inside the door and stood perfectly still, his eyes narrowing and meticulously scanning the entire space. "That book isn't in here, is it?"

I sighed. "It is."

It wasn't as if I could lie about it. I'd said I'd be reading the book, and I would be staying in the captain's quarters.

I patted the right side of my coat. "Wherever I am, it is."

"And you're going to be doing a lot of night watch, right?"

"That is correct."

"So when I'm sleeping, the devil's diary won't be under my pillow or anything."

"You have my word."

Phaelan exhaled. "Good." He came the rest of the way into the cabin, giving me and the book a wide berth. I couldn't really blame him.

Kesyn and Jash came in.

I felt an eye roll coming on again. "I take it the two of you are here to watch me read."

Kesyn pulled a chair out and sat opposite me. "If you're reading it, we're watching. It's bad enough that A'Zahra isn't here as well, but we'll make do."

Jash remained standing. "Gee, thank you for the vote of confidence, sir." He turned to me. "Let's see...a book from Sarad Nukpana's secret stash written by Rudra Muralin. If any book could eat your face off, it'd be that one."

Phaelan took an obvious sniff in Kesyn's direction. "You're not hauling around any of that nasty cheese Raine told me about, are you?"

I snorted. The night the Saghred had been destroyed, Kesyn had broken the concentration of the Khrynsani mages maintaining a ward around the stone, enabling Raine to destroy the Saghred and save the Seven Kingdoms. He'd been arming himself, so to speak, by eating a particular odoriferous type of cheese. The mages' concentration broke when Kesyn broke wind.

One fart had saved us all.

Kesyn was all innocence, which was an impressive achievement coming from him. "Would I do that?"

"In a stinking heartbeat," Phaelan said.

"That's not the end you should be worried about," I muttered, removing the book from my coat's shielded inner pocket.

I immediately had the attention of everyone in the room.

Phaelan headed for the door. "I'm outta here. My crew needs me."

Jash pulled out a chair, straddled it, and crossed his arms over the back. "And Tam needs us-whether he wants to admit it or not."

I put the book on the table. I would readily admit that even to touch it set off my alarms. "Need? Hopefully not. Want? I can't say I don't appreciate the company."

"What are you going to use?" Kesyn asked solemnly.

"Shield myself and set up a ward around me, the book, and the table. If anything happens, it'll be contained and won't damage the ship."

Kesyn nodded in approval. "How about you shield you, and we ward your immediate vicinity."

"That way you've got more juice left to protect yourself," Jash said.

I swallowed against a sudden lump in my throat. "Thank you, both. I would appreciate that."

"You still think it's only spell-locked?" Kesyn asked. "Think, Tam. This is Rudra Muralin's work you're dealing with."

I raised my hands a few inches above the book, focusing my will. "I won't know until I get it open."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

Chapter 26.

Unlocking Rudra Muralin's book on Nidaar wasn't the problem. That had been simple. Too simple. Now I knew why. Reading what was inside would be the difficult-and dangerous-part.

The book itself had been spell-locked.

The words inside were blood-locked.

That meant I would need to write my name in my blood on the first page to unlock the rest of the book.

I had encountered books like this before in my darkest days of practicing black magic. Some of them still haunted my nightmares.

Merely writing my name wouldn't give me access to the entire book. At any given point, the words could vanish, requiring more blood from the reader, this time a fingerprint. If you wanted to read, you had to pay, with your own blood. And once you unlocked the book and began to read, you had to keep your hands in contact with it. Break the contact, lock the book.

A mage's name was powerful. Our blood was even more powerful. Using both was asking for every kind of trouble. The vilest of curses could be worked with the blood signature of a rival mage. I'd heard of a mage using a blood-locked book to kill his rivals-all of whom had read it by signing their names in their blood.

It was risky as hell.

I had to take that risk.

"Wait," Kesyn told me. He went to his duffle and dug around until he found a small leather-bound book, two pens, and ink. "I brought blank books with me. You read, I'll write, Jash will listen and stand by to step in if necessary." His face darkened with a rage I'd never seen from him. "You're only doing this once."

I took out a small knife. Without a word, Kesyn passed me one of his pens. I knew he would either clean it thoroughly afterward to rid it of any trace of my blood, or destroy it outright.

I carefully pricked the tip of my middle finger over my open and cupped palm, squeezing it with the finger on either side until the blood began to flow. When I had enough in my palm to sign my name, I dipped the pen's nib into the blood, took a deep breath, and wrote my name in the first page of Rudra Muralin's book.

The blood didn't sink into the fibers of the paper and dry. It remained bright and fresh. Then the page suddenly rose from beneath, as if the book was taking a deep and satisfied breath. As the book exhaled, my name and blood was absorbed into it, vanishing completely.

When the page again lay flat, I could see words appearing on the next page.

I pressed a cloth into my palm to absorb the blood there, and steeling myself, turned the page.

On the inside cover, Rudra Muralin had written a brief summary of what was inside.

Rudra had called it an "interrogation record." I called it a written account of psychic rape. Rudra Muralin had performed a ritual called a memory drain on Kansbar Nathrach. Rudra had forced his way into Kansbar's mind, pushed his soul aside while he ransacked his memories. And when he found the ones he wanted, he took them, only then releasing his victim.

Rudra could have been careful, but I know he hadn't been.

The official story had been that Kansbar had committed suicide shortly after being released from Khrynsani custody. After Rudra Muralin had finished with him, Kansbar's mind would have been in shambles, all but destroyed. Kansbar hadn't been a mage; he'd had no way to protect himself. He'd been completely helpless against Rudra's assault.

I now believed my ancestor had taken his own life.

Kesyn and Jash couldn't see the pages. Only I could.

I didn't want to, but I had to.

Sarad Nukpana was still alive. And somewhere inside of Sarad was Rudra Muralin. As long as Sarad lived, so would Rudra. Sarad had taken Rudra in much the same way as Rudra had taken my ancestor.

It had been divine, ironic justice.

But it hadn't been nearly enough justice.

One day Sarad would show himself, and on that day both Sarad Nukpana and Rudra Muralin would pay.

How do you read a detailed account of your ancestor's mind being raped?

It didn't matter that Rudra Muralin had done this to Kansbar Nathrach nearly nine hundred years ago.

It felt as if it were happening to me as I read.

What Sarad Nukpana had done to me in that bunker under the Isle of Mid had been appallingly similar.

I had met Rudra Muralin only a few months ago. He had somehow discovered that Talon was my son. He then proceeded to use Talon's safety against me. If I failed to turn Raine over to him, he would have had Talon kidnapped and sold in the Nebian slave markets. Rudra didn't need to tell me what kind of slavery awaited a half elf/half goblin as beautiful as Talon. He didn't need to tell me, but he had. The Khrynsani had a long reach, so I knew I couldn't send Talon away to keep him safe. The closer he stayed to me, the better. If I had tried to warn Raine, Rudra would have had Talon killed outright.

So as I had many times in my life, I walked a tightrope, feigning cooperation while plotting retribution.

I denied Rudra his chance at controlling the Saghred by having Raine as his captive, and I-along with some of the dark mages on the list I'd given A'Zahra and the four I'd brought with me on this voyage-had kept Talon from being sacrificed to the Saghred, and Raine from having Talon's murdered soul pulled into the Saghred through her.

It had been a good and satisfying night's work.

However, Rudra had escaped, and I had no doubt that I was at the top of his "kill slowly in revenge" list.

Sarad Nukpana had gotten to him first, consuming his soul and his life force, and leaving nothing but a dried husk. Imala had decapitated him and had his body burnt and scattered to the winds.

But if Sarad still lived, so did Rudra-in a way.

Rudra had written this book. Sarad had read it.

Both would love to watch me read it.

I was surprised that Rudra hadn't told me what he had done to Kansbar. Perhaps he'd been waiting for a time when it would have inflicted more pain.

I glanced up. Kesyn and Jash were patiently waiting, not judging. Understanding.

"Sorry," I told them both.

"Whenever you're ready," Kesyn said almost gently.

I began to read.

Rudra had absorbed Kansbar Nathrach's memories, incorporating them into his own. He recorded what he had learned for the benefit of a Khrynsani reader, spending more time on sections that would have been of interest to them. What was of interest to Kansbar did not matter. Rudra had ripped out every memory Kansbar had of the voyage and expedition, so he could shift through the knowledge later at his leisure.

Inexplicably, Rudra had written down Kansbar's background. I couldn't imagine what interest that could have had for the Khrynsani, but he had included it.

Kansbar was a young nobleman and a member of the Nathrach family. He was the youngest of five brothers, and as such, under the inheritance traditions of that time, would not have inherited a sufficient portion of the family estate to support himself to the level in which he had grown up. Once his schooling was complete, Kansbar had taken to the sea for adventure and to seek his fortune, as did the younger sons of many goblin families, noble or common.

The king at that time, Omari Mal'Salin, had ordered an expedition to Aquas to find the legendary city of Nidaar, the city of the golden-skinned goblins who were said to have been our distant cousins, separated from us thousands of years before when the continents had split. Omari sent an ambassador to speak in his name and establish diplomatic relations with any civilization, if found.

Kansbar was a goblin historian and scholar of ancient goblin languages. If our distant cousins did exist, the language they spoke would likely not be our own. Kansbar was asked to become the expedition's official translator. He immediately accepted the position, eager to possibly be the first to discover proof of the existence of this legendary race.

What Kansbar had not known, but Rudra had recorded, was that the ambassador and his staff were all Khrynsani, and that their assignment was to secure the Heart of Nidaar. At this point, Rudra Muralin and his Khrynsani still had the Saghred. Not satisfied to possess and wield one stone of unimaginable power, Rudra wanted any he could get his hands on. Others on the expedition had equally dark intentions. There were treasure hunters and slavers. If these golden-skinned goblins existed, they would bring a high price, as would the gold their city was said to contain.

Two ships left Regor for Aquas. The voyage to the continent was uneventful as far as Rudra had been concerned. He had written only a few sentences. As for Kansbar's thoughts of his first trip across the Sea of Kenyon, apparently Rudra didn't think them worthy of recording.

Halfway through the journey, the ships stopped in the Lastani Islands for fresh water, and to make some minor repairs to one of the ships.

The bay on the east coast of Aquas where the two ships had moored two weeks later was approximately fifty miles south of where we would be making landfall. The bay was large and protected, the same location that every expedition coming to the continent had used. Kansbar's expedition hadn't been expecting an ambush. We, on the other hand, had to be on guard for anything.

Once they reached the coast, a smooth beach awaited them. Beyond the beach was a lush landscape of forests, valleys, and fields, filled with plants and animals that had never been seen before. There was ample fresh water in lakes, rivers, and streams. To the goblins weary of over a month at sea, it was nothing short of a paradise.

This was the first account I'd seen of the interior of Aquas being anything other than barren rock and desert. Subsequent expeditions to the exact same location told of a nearly unclimbable escarpment that extended as far north and south as the eye could see. Beyond that lay dried-up lakes and riverbeds and a parched and rocky landscape. The map we had had told us as much. I had hoped whoever had drawn that map had been exaggerating.

Aquas had apparently been named for what it had been, not what it was now.