27. Benjin

twenty-seven

Benjin

Benjin awoke in fits and starts. Darkness enveloped him. His arms ached and felt strangely heavy. It was only when he shifted against cold stone and heard the rattle of chains that he realized he must have been returned to his dungeon cell after the ritual.

His head ached as he tried to sort through the jumble of memories and emotions, his time in the palace fresh in the forefront of his mind.

So…his love for Haldric hadn't been a lie. What they'd felt for each other in that cottage had been real despite the domestic fantasy playing out around them.

Yet, in the end, Haldric hadn't chosen him. He'd have rather erased all they had to flee from this life…and would have, if not for Benjin's interference.

It was the Grand Magus who put him up to it.

Benjin clenched his jaw as he recalled Dexil's schemes, how he'd locked Benjin in that storage cabinet. He'd known all along that Benjin was innocent, and yet he'd perpetuated this farce to save his own hide. If Benjin was still here in this cell, everyone must still believe he'd kidnapped the prince. And that meant neither Dexil nor Haldric had seen fit to save him.

With a loud grinding noise, the door to his cell creaked open. Benjin's heart leaped to his throat. Haldric—it must be! Now that his memories were restored, the prince had come to set things right.

His chest constricted when he caught a familiar flurry of silk and jewels instead. "Grand Magus," he hissed, rattling his chains. "What are you doing here?"

"I see the ritual worked." Dexil stepped to the center of the cell, halting there and examining Benjin's face. "Your memories have returned."

"They have. Which is how I know this is all your doing!"

"My doing?" Dexil's violet eyes flashed. "You were the one who interfered with the ritual despite my warnings. And it was Prince Haldric himself who requested my help to forget."

Benjin's stomach roiled with the truth of Dexil's words. "Only after you planted the idea in his head!"

"Perhaps. But that doesn't mean it wasn't for the best."

Benjin snorted, shifting in his bonds. "Why are you really here? Come to silence me before I can reveal your part in all this?"

Sighing, Dexil strode forward. Benjin tensed, expecting the worst, but all the Grand Magus did was pull out a rag and a glass jar. Benjin recognized it as the same healing poultice Dexil had used on him before the ritual. With practiced ease, Dexil began applying it to the chafed skin around his shackles. Benjin resented how quickly the salve soothed his aches. While he loathed receiving any help from the man who'd so thoroughly betrayed his trust, he was too weak to turn it away.

"You still think so little of me," Dexil said as he worked. "Do you have any idea how difficult it was to smuggle the two of you out of Revesole after your little stunt? Half the palace heard the explosion from the botched ritual. With alarms raised and so much scrutiny on me, I had no choice but to invent that story about you kidnapping the prince to cover my tracks. Even still, I didn't dare risk transporting you far. I set you up at that quaint cottage outside Gerald's Spring, and the memory charm did the rest, easing you into your new life as though you'd always been there."

Benjin's brows shot up. "And you left us alone there, just like that?"

The Grand Magus nodded. "I kept an eye on you as best I could while steering the search away, delaying the royal guards with false reports and ‘failed' Divinations. But Marshal Fendrel and Duchess Janelle are Void-cursed stubborn. It was only a matter of time before they found you."

Finishing with the poultice, Dexil returned to the center of the cell. A faint tremor racked his arms, and Benjin wondered if the Grand Magus hated the shivering sensation of the antimagic wards here as much as he did.

No matter how Benjin considered Dexil's story, he couldn't make it make sense. "Why in the name of the Goddess would you go through all that trouble? You could've slit our throats when we were unconscious, or arranged an accident at any point since we were found. No one would have questioned it if something went wrong with the ritual. Why let us return here and regain our memories?"

Surprise fluttered through Benjin when Dexil offered him a sad smile. "You know, you remind me a lot of myself at your age, Benjin. Stubborn. Inquisitive. Always questioning authority. Call me overly sentimental if you like, but to answer your previous question, I came here to check on you." He ignored Benjin's incredulous snort. "I still hold out hope that you'll come to see things my way in time. And as I told you before, I've known Haldric since he was a boy, practically helped raise him. I tried my best to keep him out of this. To find another way. No matter what else you may think of me, please believe that I never wanted to hurt you—either of you."

Something in the Grand Magus' tone caught Benjin's attention, sending a ripple of unease ghosting over his skin. He riveted his gaze on the mage, staring into him. "What do you mean? What aren't you telling me?"

Dexil glanced away, something almost like guilt flashing in his violet eyes. "Had you not interfered, I could have completed the ritual as I intended and sent Haldric somewhere he'd never be found. Even now, he'd be living peacefully across the mountains in Korvanthos. If it was what you both wanted, I might even have let you accompany him. Instead, I had to improvise, scrambling these past few months to prepare. I'd hoped to be ready before the guards found you, but I'm afraid the prince's untimely return requires certain…compromises."

Benjin's unease deepened to terror. He strained against his chains, but that did little except hurt his stretched shoulders. "What sort of compromises? What have you done to Haldric?"

The Grand Magus' jeweled fingers glinted in the flickering torchlight as he twisted them in the folds of his robes. "Everything I've done has been for the good of Ilthabard. You must see that, Benjin. I…I never wanted things to turn out like this. But the people must come first."

Uncertainty flickered across Dexil's face. Benjin couldn't tell if the Grand Magus was trying to convince him…or himself. Then, Dexil's expression firmed. "You'll be safe here. I promise. I'll return to check on you when it's all over." The Grand Magus turned and strode toward the door to the cell.

"No!" Benjin bucked and heaved at his chains like a flailing fish, desperate for release. But the shackles held, his runeflame suppressed even had he been able to manage the appropriate gestures with his bound limbs. "Don't you dare hurt Haldric!"

The Grand Magus paused just before the door, his back trembling. Without turning, he whispered, "The Goddess will forgive me for what I do. I pray that, one day, you will do the same."

Then, he was gone, leaving Benjin struggling alone in the dark.