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Silas fell backwards onto his arse in the wet grass. “No.”
“What did he say?” Mara asked.
“Why?” Silas shouted, exploding forward and grabbing Favian by the neck. He shook Favian’s limp body. “Why, you cunt, why?” Silas had to pull Favian’s lips to his ear to hear him talk.
“Shadows,” Favian whispered.
Silas dropped Favian and took a few steps away, then dropped to his knees, head in his hands. I saved his life, and this is how he repays me. How the Shadows repay me for years of service.
Mara appeared next to Silas. “What did he do to you?”
Silas felt dizzy, sick. “He killed the only woman I have ever loved.”
“Should I kill him?”
Mara still looked like a child, but the innocence was long gone, standing there covered in blood like it was nothing. There was something different about his eyes, not the colour, but something behind them. They’ve changed him. He’s a killer. And all so quickly.
“Should I kill him?” Mara repeated.
Silas looked at Favian. “No. We leave him here to die… slowly and alone.”
“Okay,” Mara said. “Where are we going to go?”
“The Shadows will be looking for you when they hear about him.” Silas nodded toward Favian.
“I know. But they don’t want me at the castle, that’s why they put me with him. Maybe I can stay with you now.”
Maybe the Gallinule can take the two of us. “Maybe.”
Silas stood. “You ride his horse for now. We’ll give it to a farm on the outskirts of the city.”
“We’re going back to Sevens Helm?”
“Yes, but not for long.”
Silas returned to Favian, knelt, and sliced open the blood-soaked shirt, revealing the scar of the wound that should have ended the bastard all those years ago. He ran the blade delicately along Favian’s belly, the skin peeling away to expose the intestines. “Just in case.”
The birds that circled above would do the rest.
12
Silas watched Mara – clean from a long-overdue bath – devour a bowl of stew. Still eating like he’s at the Shadow Castle, maybe I’ll have to bang the blocks together to get him to stop.
Silas pushed his own half-eaten bowl across the table, his appetite still nowhere near what it used to be, and took a sip of ale.
“You don’t want it?” Mara asked.
“Go ahead, you look hungry.”
Mara didn’t wait to be told twice.
“You look good. You’ve put on weight.”
Mara didn’t look up from the bowl, only shrugged.
“And the training, how was it?”
Mara drank from the bowl then pushed it away. “Why did you take me there?”
