“You told me you’d never heard of Rolan’s father.”
Rolan slowly shut his eyes as his heart slid to the ground. The world seemed to tilt beneath him.
Stupid,stupidduke. Why, oh why, had he not just kept his mouth shut? Rolan had had itsettled. He’d made sure Luc would not find out the truth! Everything would have been fine!
But Benhald justhadto get a jab in. Just had to remind everyone how unworthy and wretched Rolan was.
It was over now. Rolan had made his oaths for nothing. Luc knew the truth, and he would destroy himself to destroy his brother.
Peeling his eyes open, Rolan gazed miserably at his master as he advanced on the duke.
“I… well, I found out,” stammered Benhald. “It wasn’t difficult—”
“Itwasyou,” Luc said, his hand a white knot around the hilt of his sword.
The duke stumbled back. “What are you talking about, man?”
“Rabb Strider,” said Luc. “You’re the one who hired him.”
Benhald blanched, taking a step back. “What?”
“I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner.” Luc gave a bitter, twisted laugh that sounded half mad. More Cryptic than human. It made chills run down Rolan’s spine. “I let myself believe that the conspiracy against my family began and ended with a common crook. Perhaps I didn’t want to believe it could go higher, and that my ownbrothercould stoop to such cowardice.”
“Luc,” Benhald said, his voice hardening back into the duke’s voice. “You are not well. And no wonder, we all saw the size of that—”
“Then you got scared,” Luc said. “You saw me take Strider’s son as my apprentice, and panicked. You thought I was getting close to the truth. Why else take such an interest in a boy the rest of the world had overlooked?”
“Lucas—”
“You panicked, all right,” Luc chuckled, a horrifying sound, “and set your rats to scurrying again. Hoff killing Cryptics. Cabbot and Strider posting secrets around the city, turning people against the Arcanist. Giving them Arcana.Arcana, you fool! In the hands of criminals and murderers! You would do anything, betrayeverything, hoping someone would do what you failed to do years ago:finish me off.Because you thought I was coming for you at last. Oh, the reckoning you must have been fearing all these years, breathing down your traitorous neck.”
Luc spit on the ground between them.
The duke’s lips trembled as he backed away. For a moment Rolan thought the man was about to confess to everything.
But then he began bleating like a wounded goat. “Guards!Guards! The Arcanist lured that Cyrptic here to attack the palace! He means to kill me! Arrest him!Kill him!”
“No!” Rolan cried, not to the duke, but to the Arcanist, who had taken a large step toward his brother. Rolan threw himself between them, facing Luc with pleading eyes. “Don’t do this!Please!”
Luc didn’t seem to see him. His eyes were locked on the duke’s, filled with rage and pain and violence. “Give me your sword, Rolan.”
Rolan’s sword, with the immense Arcana of the giant Cryptic locked inside its steel. Power enough to cut through a hundred guards.
He swallowed. “No.”
“Rolan!”
“I won’t!”
Rolan tossed his sword away and put both hands on Luc’s chest, ready to push him back if he had to. “You won’t do this!” he cried. “I lost one father! I cannot lose another!”
That made Luc blink. He looked down at Rolan then.
“He’s not worth it,” Rolan said. “I know you’re angry and he deserves the worst, butyoudon’t. If you hurt him, they’ll kill you. Please!”
“Get out of my way,” Luc said.
Rolan pounded his fists on the man’s chest. “Who will teach me, if you’re not here? Who will make sure I take baths and eat vegetables and learn that stupid,stupidthing calledlong division?” Tears burned in Rolan’s eyes. He gripped Luc’s shirt and shook him as hard as he could. It was like trying to knock over a mountain. “If you hurt him, you hurtme. Let him go!”
