“Did they?” asked Celine. “Scale the wall, I mean.”
Frederic drew a deep breath. “There were more than you saw in that one warehouse, Evie, but fewer than I had feared. Their surprise at the gates remaining firmly barred against them counted much in our favor. Our arrows disabled fewer than half before the rest surrendered. But a small handful were still fighting on when I decided to check on you.” His eyes lingered on me. “And it’s a good thing I did not wait to do so.”
I shivered at the memory of how close I had come to death, and he placed a warm arm around me. “You’re safe now, Evie,” he murmured quietly. I smiled up at him.
“We should check on Cassian,” said Celine.
All sounds of fighting had ceased as we passed out into the courtyard surrounding the mansion. My eyes scanned the space, seeing few wounded and only a handful of motionless bodies. Our strong defensive position had worked, then.
And as we crossed to Cassian—who stood in the middle of the space calling orders, a naked sword still gripped in his hand—I noticed that most of the small number of bodies were missing guard uniforms. And the one at Cassian’s feet looked familiar, despite my only having seen him once and at night. He wasn’t the sort of person you forgot.
Frederic looked between the dead Shadow Man and his brother.
Cassian looked apologetic. “I would have preferred to take him alive. But he refused to surrender. He and a small band managed to scale the wall and take us by surprise after the bulk of the fighting was over and many of us had let down our guard.”
“I’m afraid the sight of me may have enraged him,” said the Earl of Serida from where he sat on a large crate. A doctor bandaged a nasty looking gash on his arm. “Perhaps I should have cowered inside after all.”
The earl had insisted on joining the fight, despite his age, since he claimed the whole mess had been started by his own family.
“It’s a good thing Prince Cassian here is so handy with his blade,” said the earl. “Or the doctor would be having a much harder time of stitching me back together right now.”
Frederic clapped his brother on his back. “He’s one of the best.”
Celine leaned toward me and whispered. “Our brother Rafe is actually the best.”
“Thank you for that, Celine,” said Cassian. “But what’s wrong with your voice?”
So then we had to relate our own story and the fate of Marcus. Guards were dispatched to remove his body, locate the missing guards and release the non-fighters from their inner room. With some relief we learned that Marcus had killed only one of the guards—the others were expected to survive their injuries, although one would likely lose his leg.
That we had taken losses was hard to bear after all of those we had already lost in the desert and in Medellan so many weeks ago, but at least this time the rebellion had been gutted and destroyed, with no hope of rising from the ashes.
Chapter 31
The doctor insisted on examining my tiny wound and Celine’s neck after all the other wounded had been seen to. By the time he had finished, it felt as if one of the longest days of my life had passed, and yet, it was only just past the time when I usually ate the morning meal.
Frederic and Cassian were both kept busy seeing to the aftermath of the battle, the incarceration of the new prisoners, and in drafting proclamations for the city to inform the citizens of the cause and outcome of the chaos which had erupted in their midst.
But as soon as the most urgent things were taken care of, Frederic called the five of us together once again in his sitting room.
“It’s about time,” said Celine, her voice still rough. “We’ve all been superhumanly patient, but I want to know where you disappeared off to before all this chaos broke loose.”
Frederic barely responded to her, his focus on me, and my heart sank a little at the uncertainty I saw reflected in his eyes. Surely I could not have misunderstood our interaction after he saved me outside the warehouse?
I dropped onto a seat and tried to wait patiently. Once we were all assembled, Frederic strode up the room and back again.
“You seemed greatly distressed by Evie’s story about her birth and years in Largo,” Celine prompted him.
He stopped and faced us, his eyes on mine. “I was distressed, greatly distressed.”
All the blood drained from my face, but he shook his head at my expression, rushing forward with his words.
“I was distressed to hear that Evie did not know even the names of her parents.” His eyes flicked to Cassian’s, the look on his brother’s face knowing. I frowned.
“I determined that I would track them down, and so I did. It took me two full days, but I managed to discover the truth of your birth, Evie.” He came and sat beside me, the concern in his eyes deepening. “I hope this doesn’t cause you pain.”
He paused. “If you do not wish to know of them, I will not force the information on you.”
My heart—which had leaped at the realization that his uncertainty and concern were for me, not about me—stuttered and slowed. Was I ready to hear the truth of my past? I drew a deep breath. I had finally taken ownership of my history, surely it was time I knew the entire story.
“I would like to know,” I said.
Frederic looked relieved. “That’s my Evie,” he said softly, pressing my hand, his smile making me feel like the bravest person in the world.
“It wasn’t easy, but I felt sure someone in Largo must know the truth. I had to search most of the city, talking to many who only come out at night, but I won’t bore you with all the details. The end of my search was this: your parents were married a mere ten months before your birth in a secret ceremony. Their betrothal had been forbidden by your mother’s parents who were wealthy traders in Largo. Those grandparents passed away some years ago, but an old butler of theirs confided in me. Your grandmother was a Rangmeran who had fled their hard northern life for the ease of Largo. She married your grandfather, a local, but the two of them always felt that they had no place in either the local community or the northerner community that dwelt here. When their only daughter fell in love with a desert trader who had been cast from his caravan after challenging the caravan master, they ordered their daughter to turn him away. They could not bear for their daughter to live as they had done, torn between worlds.”
He squeezed my hand again. “But they defied her parents and married in secret, disappearing completely. They lived on the fringes of the jungle, only returning to the city for your birth. But the birth went wrong, and your mother did not survive. And when your father realized what had happened, he ran from the birthing room in a frenzy and was hit and killed by a passing wagon.”
I had not moved throughout his tale, barely able to take in the incredible story.
“The midwife who had assisted at the birth feared being blamed for the death of your mother if she admitted your existence to your grandparents, and she had a friend who had always longed for a baby. So she took you and left you in the public gardens when she knew your adopted mother would be passing by. Thankfully for us, guilt plagued her after her friend died, and you disappeared, and she wasn’t quite as tight-lipped after that as she had been previously. She let slip some comments to a few people, and I managed to get wind of them.”