Fangs sank into Jace’s neck. The air caught in his throat in mid-breath, his muscles locked from panic. He had no trick up his sleeve, no illusionary shell game to play to avoid Vosk’s bite. Blood ebbed out of him, and he could feel the stabbing of Vosk’s teeth in his mind as well, tearing gashes in his memories and letting them begin to drain out. He could feel Vosk sensing inside him, perhaps even tasting his knowledge of the maze or his connection to Emmara.
Jace forced himself to breathe. He let his body go limp, and looked deep inside himself. He visualized a spiraling vortex inside his chest that drew his body inward. He could feel Emmara trying frantically to reach him, but her voice in his mind became faint, fading like sounds from a distant tunnel. He felt suction overwhelming him, pulling his muscles and skin inward to the center of his chest. He gave a final push with his will, and he collapsed in on himself, releasing himself from the plane of Ravnica.
As he planeswalked, everything faded: the fangs in his skin, the stone cell under his feet, the vast city around him, the sound of Emmara’s thoughts. The darkness of the cell was replaced by the nonsensical, roaring dark of the Blind Eternities. There was no sensation of motion, and yet he could feel Ravnica receding behind him, diminishing in importance like a toy he had outgrown. He pulled his consciousness in the direction of another plane and willed himself there. The mad energies of the Blind Eternities tore at him, tried to unmake him as he traveled, but he kept his mind focused, his consciousness whole, and he sizzled through its timeless friction.
From Mirko Vosk’s perspective, Jace Beleren had done the impossible. When the blue-cloaked mage vanished, Vosk assumed it was one of his tricks or illusions, and the new agent Kavin suggested as much. Together they searched the stone cell for all signs and scents of Beleren. But the mage hadn’t concealed himself. He hadn’t used mind magic to alter Vosk’s senses, so that his presence couldn’t be detected. The mage was actually gone. He had escaped the inescapable prison.
Vosk knew that this would somehow be blamed on him.
So hours later, when Lazav slipped down through the ceiling like a shadow, emerging into the cell, Vosk was already madly thinking of reasons he shouldn’t be killed.
“Where is he?” demanded Lazav.
“He’s gone,” was all Vosk could think to say.
Lazav’s face boiled under his hood. He snapped his glance to every corner of the tiny chamber, as if Vosk had hidden him somehow. “What did you do?”
“Nothing, Master. I bit him, and I was taking his memories, as you instructed. He had what you wanted this time. But he …” Vosk glanced at Kavin. “He performed some sort of magic, and he was gone.”
“It’s true, Master,” said Kavin, but Lazav’s snarl cut his corroboration short.
“Enough. What did you learn before the mind mage managed to humiliate you?”
“He knew the route, Master.” Vosk tilted his head, like a snake that had taken interest in a potential kill. “He knew what you wanted to know. I couldn’t drain it from him, but I saw it. I saw enough.”
Vosk felt Lazav’s presence pressing against him, but he saw a spark of interest in his eyes.
“You saw enough,” said the guildmaster to himself. “You have the route.” Lazav let his hood drop forward as he considered this, covering his eyes in shadow.
Kavin looked enthralled to be in the presence of Lazav. The vedalken made a move to step forward and speak up, but Vosk put a hand out to stop him. The idiot didn’t know enough not to provoke his own guildmaster.
Lazav looked up. “Vosk, you will run the maze.”
Vosk ran his tongue along his fangs. He nodded with exaggerated gratitude.
“You’ll use the route you learned from Beleren, and you will participate along with the other guilds. You will not kill any of the others—in fact, you will help them.”
“Master?”
“The maze-runners must live. Any of the others you may kill at will.”
Vosk nodded again.
Lazav hissed a breath out his nostrils and frowned at the floor. “It is not perfect,” he said, “but it will do. Every being not loyal to me shall die, and this city shall be shaken to its knees.”
Kavin pressed past Vosk and bowed. “And what shall I do, Master?”
Lazav cast a withering look at Vosk. “Kill your pet,” said Lazav. “He did not get us what we needed.”
Kavin’s eyes went wide.
“He may yet be useful to you, Master,” said Vosk hastily. “I drained much from him as I fed. It’s true that he knew little of the maze, thanks to Beleren. But he has contacts that might be valuable.”
“So?”
“He was Azorius once. He has the ear of the sphinx.”
Lazav regarded Kavin with new eyes. “Well, then,” he said. “Is that so?”
Kavin bowed, blinking, not knowing where to look.
“She trusts you?” Lazav asked.
