The Blood King by Gail Z. Martin

and a glass from the table nearby, then dissolved the powder in a glassful of water. Taru held Landis upright while Carina carefully dripped the liquid into Landis’s mouth so that she would not gag. Carina bandaged the wound to stop the bleeding as Taru carefully set Landis back down on the floor.
    “It’s all I can do. The knife didn’t hit anything vital—thank the Lady. There’s no real cure but time for either the wormroot or the blood loss.” Carina wiped Landis’s blood off her hands and onto her robes. “We can’t leave her alone.”
    “I’ll get help,” Taru replied, disappearing for a few minutes and returning with one of the other sis-ters, a plain-faced woman Carina knew was one of the citadel healers. They moved Landis to a couch near the fire, and Carina gave terse instructions to the healer. Once Landis was safely settled, Carina looked back at Taru.
    “If Landis isn’t running the trial—who is?”

    They headed out at a dead run for the encounter room, but at the doors, Taru stopped abruptly. She raised her hands, palms out, and slid them above the doors, a hands’ breadth away from the wood, and then swore.
    “What’s wrong?” Carina asked.
    “The wardings are wrong,” Taru replied. “Landis promised me she wasn’t going to set death ward-ings. Not yet. But that’s what’s in place—and they weren’t set by Landis.” She paused. “This warding is tainted with blood magic.”
    “Arontala,” Carina breathed. “Could he be here—within the citadel?”
    Taru shook her head. “Unlikely. The citadel is warded against magical intrusion—we can’t just ‘pop’ in and out, even if such a thing were easily possible.” She closed her eyes, stretching out one hand toward the encounter room doors. “There is no avatar. And only two mages are alive inside.”
    “Theron’s the traitor?” Carina asked. Taru began to stride down the corridor.
    “Unlikely. Although she had the skill to set the spell that killed Elam, she didn’t have an opportu-nity. She was with me, and went directly to train with Tris—remember? And she was with Tris again just now, when Landis was attacked. Landis couldn’t have been stabbed long before we arrived, or she would have been dead.” Taru slammed open the doors to a small library, lighting the torches around the room with a word. She strode over to a large crystal basin filled with water that sat on a bronze pedestal.
    Carina caught up to Taru, breathless, as the Sister raised her hands over the scrying basin and held them, palms toward the water. Gradually, a mist appeared within the basin. As the mist cleared, an
    image emerged, as if from a distance, shrouded in fog. Carina gasped. “It’s Alaine.”
    “It is Alaine’s body—but not Alaine’s power,” Taru said. “We’ve made a grave mistake.”
    “What do you mean?” Carina asked, unable to take her eyes off the image unfolding within the scrying basin.
    “Alaine was hand-picked by Landis, and her loy-alty was absolute,” Taru said quietly. “But a few months ago, Landis sent Alaine to one of the other citadels within Margolan, before we understood the extent of Jared’s treachery. While Alaine was at that citadel, Jared’s troops attacked. She was the only survivor.”
    Taru sighed. “We were relieved that she came back to us—now I see it was a trap. Arontala must have broken her and embedded his own trig-gers, hoping that she might encounter Tris. Maybe he has spies in each of our citadels, on the chance that you’d seek sanctuary.”
    “What’s that around Alaine’s throat?” Carina asked as the image wavered in the scrying bowl.
    “That must be the portal for Arontala’s power,” Taru said. “It’s not something easily made.”
    Carina cried out as fire streamed from the red gem, blasting against Tris’s shielding. “We’ve got to help him!”
    Taru shook her head. “No one can enter or leave until one of the mages within the room is dead. The warding