She hadn’t spoken since the trammelling and everyone had wisely left her alone, even as they had tested the magic. ‘Protect me, Perl!’ Leo had commanded. She made no sound, didn’t even glance his way, but he nodded and beckoned to Reuth. ‘Now, Reuth. Come.’ Tentatively, then with more and more force, Reuth tried to stab the king. Leo had laughed the loudest of all when the blade slid away, time after time. ‘Now do you see, Marth?’ he raged, pacing the small hut, puffed like a mating raker bird, swelled with his importance and invincibility. ‘Now we have our king, we have our weapon, we have our means to simply break free of the shackles of the barbarians.’ ‘Perl,’ Reuth tried. ‘You did it. And now we can be free.’ ‘You maybe, Reuth, but not I. I am more of a prisoner than I have ever been previously,’ she said, her formerly distant gaze suddenly viciously focused. Leo threw her an offhand look of disdain. ‘Stop bleating, Perl. This is war. And I need you.’ ‘So much for the famed Valisar magic,’ she sneered.
