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lantern closer. Look.”
    He approached slowly before leaning in to look at the map, the lantern held aloft. It took him a moment, but then his face changed as comprehension dawned.
    “I see,” he said. “I wondered when somebody would come.”

CHAPTER FOUR
    Rina stared at the dagger tip an inch from her eye. She tried again and failed to tap into the spirit. Cold fear welled up in her. She was paralyzed but completely awake and aware of her situation. A prisoner of the Perranese, they’d apparently dumped her unconscious into the back of a cart, where she now sat unable to move, a foreign wizard threatening her with a dagger and worse.
    What had he called himself again? Jariko. That was it.
    “Be calm, Duchess,” Jariko said. “We are simply going to have a chat, you and I.”
    Rina strained, reached with her willpower, desperately trying to touch the spirit. It was as if the spirit were covered with some greasy film, a slick barrier that prevented her from latching on. She flailed at it, dug at it, scratched it, but her grip on the spirit kept sliding away.
    “Ink magic is ancient and powerful,” Jariko said. “The secrets of it were thought by many to have faded into legend, but I crossed the Eastern Sea with an ink mage named Ankar, a brute of a man covered head to foot in tattoos. Rumor is you defeated him, although I find that hard to believe.”
    Rina barely heard the man. Outwardly, she appeared limp and lifeless, a rag doll slumped in the back of a shabby cart. Inwardly, she raged, flinging herself against the walls of her own consciousness, trying to do anything to move or blink or reach the spirit. If she could tap into the well of her own spirit, it would turn the tables. Come on, move a finger, wiggle a toe, blink. Anything!
    “For obvious reasons, a wizard cannot ink the Prime upon his own back,” Jariko said. “Not even the acrobats of the Imperial Circus are that flexible.” He chuckled, mildly pleased with his own humor. “Which means you know a wizard, and he knows the secrets of the Prime.”
    He shifted his dagger to menace the other eyeball. “There are a number of dire spells I can bring to bear, which will convince you to see things my way, but sometimes the old-fashioned ways are best. The simple idea of something pointy being inserted into one’s eye is quite appalling to most people. You probably think your eyeball will pop like an overripe piece of fruit, squirting juice everywhere. Not so. It’s actually a quite different experience altogether. Would you like to find out firsthand?”
    Jariko brought the tip of the dagger to within a hair’s width of her eyes. In her mind, Rina shrieked terror.
    “Now, I’m going to ask you questions,” Jariko said. “You will answer. It’s just that simple. If you don’t answer, well, that’s when things become complicated. I think we’d all prefer to keep things simple, don’t you? Yes, of course you do. Now, I want to know the name of the wizard who inked your Prime. I want to know where he’s located. If different wizards inked your other tattoos, I want to know the names and whereabouts of these spell casters too. I want to know the circumstances that brought you into contact with them and why it is they found you worthy of such power. I intend to be very thorough in my interrogation, so there’s no point in holding anything back.”
    Her vacant eyes stared back at him.
    Jariko turned away abruptly, anger twisting his features as he spit a string of obscenities in his own tongue.
    When he faced her again, his smile seemed strained. “The joke’s on me, I’m afraid. The potion coursing through your veins renders you temporarily paralyzed. Naturally, that would also render your tongue and mouth paralyzed. Of course you can’t answer me. Even clever fellows like me trip themselves up by overlooking something simple.”
    What was he saying? Pay attention. Calm down. Panicking isn’t getting you anywhere, girl . Rina saw two fully