Flux

silk blouse with pearl buttons, a white feather hanging from each ear. She didn’t say anything, but simply shot out one arm, indicating that they should enter.
    They did, and she bolted the doors behind them.
    “You were expected to return at once,” she said to Ennek, ignoring Miner as usual.
    “And you were expected to behave like a…a human being,” Ennek countered. “But I kept my word and we completed our service to you.”
    “You did not destroy the port.”
    “No, but I did destroy the palace, and the king is dead, and everyone knows it was done at your command. I should think that would be plenty to demonstrate your might to the people there. They won’t doubt your powers for a long time.”
    She shrugged slightly. “Yes, I suppose your methods will also achieve my goals.”
    “Wonderful. But there’s something else I want to discuss—”
    “Wait. Where is my sign?”
    Ennek blinked. “What?”
    “My sign! The necklace I lent to you.”
    “Oh. They took it away from me. Maybe they thought I might work magic with it.”
    “You do not have my sign?” Her voice had become shrill and her face was flushed with anger.
    “I’m sure it’s somewhere under the sea now. They kept me prisoner for days, and Miner—”
    “Do you have any conception of how valuable that necklace was?”
    “I thought you didn’t have much use for wealth.”
    “Not in a monetary sense, you fool! It was tied to me and it held certain properties—”
    “Well, it’s gone now. Nothing to be done about it. And a pretty small price for you to pay for what I did in Donghe.”
    “No.” She shook her head fiercely. “It is you who shall pay.”
    Ennek set his jaw. “I’ve paid enough already. Miner and I both have.”
    She planted her fists on her hips and lifted her chin. “You will remain here in my service until I determine that you have compensated me for what you have lost.”
    Ennek barked out a humorless laugh. “You just want an excuse to keep me here in your thrall, to control me just like you control everyone else here. It won’t happen. I won’t be your pet.”
    Her lips lifted in something more like a snarl than a smile. “Very well. You may leave. But you shall leave your valuable property with me instead.”
    “ What valuable property? You want the clothes off my back? Because they’re all I own.”
    “Not quite.” She turned her head to cast a significant look Miner’s way.
    Miner had known this was inevitable. He hadn’t thought about the necklace, but he’d been perfectly aware that she would never let Ennek simply leave, that she would find some way to keep him in her clutches. It didn’t surprise him at all that she was using Miner to achieve that—after all, she’d threatened him before in order to get her way.
    Ennek had been aware of all this as well, but that didn’t dim his rage the slightest bit. “He is not my bloody property! He’s my lover and my soul and a better person than you could ever dream of being!”
    She smirked at him. And then she muttered a few words and all the air was sucked out of Miner’s lungs at once. He grabbed at his chest and fell to his knees, struggling uselessly to draw another breath, and that was horrible enough. But Ennek was doing the same thing, his face already turning blue. They reached for each other but collapsed before they could touch.
    The last thing Miner saw was Akilina standing over them triumphantly.

Chapter Eighteen
    h

    M iner woke up sore and confused. He should have been used to that, he supposed. His head pounded and his limbs were cramped and he was in complete darkness. He tried to reach out to feel at his surroundings, and that was when he realized he was bound. His wrists were held behind his back in heavy manacles and his ankles were chained. All of which was bad enough, but he seemed to have been crammed into a box of some kind so that his knees were squashed up against his chest and splintery wood pressed in all around him. What was more, he must have been unconscious for some time, because his trousers were damp and his nose was full of the reek of his own urine.
    His mouth was dry but he wasn’t gagged, so he attempted a ragged shout. When that brought no response he shouted again, louder that time, and thumped his head hard against the wood. All the thumping did was increase the agony in his skull and demonstrate that his prison was quite solid.
    He had a moment or two of sheer panic, in which he was reminded