Flux

realize by now. But that is to my benefit, for in this case I shall take advantage of your weakness.”
    She glanced over her shoulder at Miner. “I believe I do not need to demonstrate once again the power I hold over this slave? All I have to do is wish it and he is dead, and whatever enchantments you attempt to work will do him no good. Yes?”
    Ennek closed his eyes as if he were in pain and then nodded.
    “Very well. I shall permit him to remain alive so long as you follow my directives. You clearly do possess some power but you are undisciplined and imprudent. I shall bind your powers to mine and—”
    “No!” Miner managed to shout. “Don’t let her, En. Don’t!”
    Akilina turned to face him. “Quiet!” she yelled furiously.
    Ennek looked pleadingly at Miner. “Shh,” he said in a near whisper. “Please, Mine.”
    Miner took a few deep breaths. He couldn’t allow Akilina to do to Ennek what Thelius had. It would destroy Ennek. But if he continued to protest, she’d do it anyway.
    Akilina looked pleased with his silence. She walked over to a small basket and brought it over, setting it beside Ennek. She removed a knife from the basket and Miner almost shrieked in fright as she brought the blade tip to Ennek’s chest, but she only used it to cut his shirt, which she then ripped from his body. She tossed the shreds of his clothing away; a gust of wind caught the bits of fabric and blew them to the edge of the roof, where they gathered against the wall. Miner heaved a sigh of relief when she tucked the knife into a sheath at her waist.
    She hissed through her teeth, though, when she noticed the tattoo on Ennek’s bicep. “What is this ?”
    “A wizard’s mark,” he said.
    “You are already bound to him.”
    “Yes.”
    She cocked her head at him. “Is he your mentor?”
    “Yes.”
    “And he allowed you to travel so far away, and to come under another’s wizard’s control. Why?”
    “He is…incapacitated.”
    Her eyes glittered like a bird’s. “You killed him?”
    “No. He’s still alive.”
    “I should very much like to hear this tale. Another time, however. Now we have other matters to attend to.”
    Ennek didn’t watch her as she pulled some more items from her basket. Instead, he looked over at Miner, his face a mask of sorrow. Miner wanted to tell him to just kill the bitch, never mind what she would do to Miner, but he knew Ennek wouldn’t listen. So instead he knelt there, filthy and weak, the rough surface of the rooftop digging into his knees through the thin fabric of his trousers. There was a soft croak from the wall around the edge of the roof: the Bhujanga bird had alit there and was preening its wings and watching.
    Akilina set a squat pottery jar in front of Ennek, as well as a small pile of what looked like seashells. “I’ll need something of yours,” she said, more to herself than Ennek. She looked towards the pieces of shirt against the wall, considered a moment, and shook her head. But then she looked to the other side, where Miner now saw the bags he and Ennek had been given by Luli’s family. Akilina fetched the bags and set them down in front of Ennek as well. “Which is yours?”
    Ennek inclined his head slightly toward the one on his right. For some reason, Miner felt a strange sense of violation when she rummaged through Ennek’s bag, tossing aside the cooking pot, a packet of dried meat, and his spare outfit. She pulled out a sweater—Miner’s sweater, in fact, which had somehow ended up in Ennek’s bag after they’d used it as a pillow the previous night. “Nice,” she said, stroking the wool. “It’s well made. And not from here.”
    “It’s from home,” Ennek said in a small, choked voice.
    “Hmm.” She turned it over and noticed the fairly awkward repairs that had been made to one sleeve, where the pirate's blade had slashed through. She glanced at Miner, then back at Ennek. “This is his, is it not? It better suits his coloring.”
    Ennek replied through gritted teeth. “Yes.”
    “But you bought it for him. And it is meaningful to you both, for you to have brought it so far and not discarded it after it was damaged.”
    Ennek didn’t bother to answer her that time.
    “Well, I believe it will suit my purposes very well,” she said. She pulled her knife out again and used it to cut the bottom inch or so off one sleeve, leaving a ragged, unraveling mess. She tossed the sweater aside as well, and Miner and Ennek made twin