AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I could not bear the thought, so that night, after the catapults fell silent, I went to find her.”
“You? On your own? A seven-year-old maid? It’s a miracle you survived.”
“I almost didn’t. Someone fired at me from the walls. There I was, a child alone, with no one to save me from that oncoming arrow.”
He listened in silence now. She watched the first hint of realization dawn in his eyes.
“Do you know who saved me from that arrow?” she asked.
“I can think of few who would be on an abandoned battlefield in the depths of night, except…”
“A Hesperine. She snatched me out of the way before the arrow touched me. And when I told her my father was near, do you know what she did? She and her two fellow Hesperines errant took me back to him and laid me in my own bedroll to sleep.”
Benedict shook his head, opened his mouth to speak. But he said nothing.
“You may wonder,” Cassia said, “if they returned me for political ends, because there would have been consequences for their people if they took the king’s daughter. But they didn’t know that’s who I was. They didn’t know if the castle or the camp was in the right. They didn’t know your father was a lord and mine a king, or that they were both monsters. All they knew was that I was a lost child with a parent nearby, and that my sister lay dead on the field.”
“They took her body,” he breathed.
“No. They commended her remains to the gods with rites they hold sacred. How can I condemn their practices, when the Champion of Anthros was so cruel to my sister, she who was worthiest among us all?”
“I can scarcely believe it.”
“If nothing else, believe what you beheld in the Healing Sanctuary tonight—a brave and honorable person who does not deserve to suffer. Alkaios was one of the three Hesperines I met that night. The one who recovered Solia’s belongings from her body for me.”
Cassia sat with Benedict, waiting with him while what she had said sank in. It seemed he did not know what to say. It might take him a long time to find the words to speak of that horrific night, if he ever did. It had taken her a long time, and she had needed Lio to help her.
Even as she held Lio in her thoughts, she felt the touch of his familiar hand on her shoulder. How long had he been here in the courtyard, keeping watch over her? She relaxed under his touch, willing him to feel how grateful she was for his presence.
“Ben, if you’re thinking you must now question everything you have ever been taught, you are right. If you are thinking it is our deeds, not our origins that mark us as godly or not, I believe you are also right.” She closed her hands over his pendant. “Wear this with honor. You are worthier than the king.”
He had no reply, but when she eased the pendant out of his hands, he did not stop her. He let her put it over his head once more.
THE FATE OF GRACES
The moment Benedict leftthe courtyard, Lio took his place on the bench and pulled Cassia into his arms. “Are you all right?”
“Is Alkaios doing any better?”
“Annassa Soteira continues to treat him.”
“Tell me what Rudhira will do to the mages.”
“I doubt they were still breathing by the time Alkaios arrived.”
“I hope there’s nothing left of them for Chrysanthos to put on a funerary pyre. I must go to Alkaios, as soon as we may see him.”
“Annassa Soteira has already asked us to come to his room after the half hour. We don’t have long to wait.”
“Veil hours already. I missed bedtime stories.” Disappointment crushed Cassia’s aura. “I must apologize to Zoe tomorrow.”
Lio silently cursed politics for denying her the comfort of seeing his sister. “What you spoke of with Benedict was especially difficult for you tonight.”
“I’m glad you were here.”
He ran his hand down her stiff, straight spine. “You have given me as much of an education as you gave Benedict. I had no idea he was Lord Bellator’s son. Now I understand your regard for him.”
She frowned. “Were you troubled by my ‘regard’ for him?”
