“I’m telling you right now I didn’t turn her into a slave. I could’ve, but I didn’t. I don’t know what she is. I don’t understand why she is acting this way. But we’re going to find out. Pick her up. We’ll take her to a medmage and when she’s better, we can ask her questions.”

He stared at me.

“If you won’t carry her, then I will,” I told him. “But she would be more comfortable with you because you’re stronger. Or you can walk away. That will be fine, too.”

Derek scooped the woman off the bridge. Ascanio picked up the old woman’s head.

We started down the path back to civilization.

I’d fucked up. I didn’t cross the line but I came close enough to see the abyss at the bottom. Explaining this to Curran would be really difficult. Derek was right there and he didn’t believe me.

“What’s your name?” I asked the woman.

“Adora.”

“We’re going to take you to the emergency room, where a medmage will work on you. Please don’t tell the medmage anything about my father or me. If he asks how you got this wound, tell him to ask me.”

“Yes, Sharrim.”

Derek’s eyes shone.

“Also, please don’t call me Sharrim. Call me Kate.”

“Yes, Kate.”

I needed to figure out exactly what she was before I saw Curran, because I didn’t understand it myself and I didn’t want there to be any misunderstandings. I knew what I did and what I didn’t do. If I made it into a “believe me because I am me and you know me” argument, he would give me the benefit of the doubt, but I didn’t want that. I wanted to prove to him with absolute certainty that I hadn’t enslaved this woman. I hadn’t crossed the line. I’d ridden an elephant up to it and run back and forth along its edge while a mariachi band played in the background, but I hadn’t crossed it.

“What kind of language was that?” Holland asked.

“What?”

“When you were talking to her on the bridge, asking questions, what kind of language was it?”

What was he on about? I spoke English.

“I’m going to have to write a report,” Holland said.

I looked at Derek. “Did I speak another language?”

“Yes.” He didn’t look at me.

“What did it sound like?”

“It hurt,” Ascanio said.

“But do you remember any actual words?”

“Estene kari la amt-am. That was the last thing you said,” Derek said.

You’re no longer a slave. Oh fuck. I understood it. I’ve been speaking it. All this time I thought my magic was saturating my words. Fuck.

“Put ‘language of power’ into your report,” I said.

“Okay,” Holland told me.