The Cadet of Tildor

CHAPTER 21





The salle’s sand saw more bouts. Renee watched them through a blur of shock and ache. She was done. Finished. Disqualified. One cadet had to be cut and it would be her. The Academy, Alec, Sasha—they were her home, and in a day’s time she’d be alone. She had been granted a chance, a second family in place of the one that had been taken. Now it was over.

The last fight ended. The cadets dropped to their knees once more. Renee was grateful Healer Grovener permitted her to do as much, although her stomach fell as she knelt beside Alec for the last time. He reached out to grip her hand, offering a silent comfort.

Verin picked up a folded sheet of paper and showed it to his table mates. The knot of Savoy’s brow suggested the news was neither pleasant nor expected.

“An anonymous member of this gathering brings allegations of misconduct to the judges’ attention,” Verin announced, pitching his voice over the salle. “This party contends that one or more of today’s examinees appeared here under the influence of the leaf of veesi.” His eyes swept the cadets. “The cowardliness of an anonymous report speaks of the author. It does not, however, discount the message. Before sunset today, all senior cadets will report to Healer Grovener. The judges will withhold the results of today’s examination until appraising the Healer’s report. Dismissed.”

Disbelief paralyzed her. Renee didn’t even feel Alec’s hand slip out of hers. When her senses returned, he was gone. A herd of students made their way to the exit, and she was the only one left kneeling on the now scuffed and bloodied sand of the salle. At last Renee stood and walked to the door in a daze, but a hand seized her collar before she made it out.

“We can start with you. Come along,” Grovener said, leaving her no choice but to follow.

* * *

Renee managed to find Alec two hours later, sitting atop a boulder on Rock Lake’s shore. She pulled her coat tighter and climbed next to him. The breath misting from his nose curled to the heavy gray sky.

“Just because veesi affects me differently, doesn’t mean it isn’t there,” Alec said without turning. “I took some this morning—I can’t submit to Grovener’s exam.”

“I’ll kill Tanil.” Renee’s fists tightened. “This reeks of him.”

Alec nodded, then offered a wan smile, a mix of deep sadness and deeper determination. “At least you will continue. One student gone. It will be me.”

A shiver ran through her. Alec was right. If he was dismissed, she would remain.

No. She refused to accept it. The Academy was Alec’s family as much as it was hers. “They’ve caught you before. You got through it.”

He shook his head. “I was twelve, Renee, and Verin thought he got me before I actually tried any. If Grovener tests me now . . . I have a history and enough of that sewage in my body and in my room that the guard will hold me. Then, well, without the leaf it won’t be long until I slip and the bigger truth comes out and I wind up at the gallows.” He sighed and allowed silence to finish the story.

A lump formed in Renee’s throat. It wasn’t fair. Alec, who never asked for, never wanted Control, deserved the same rights as everyone else to determine the course of his life. She found no words to say, and no time to search for them either, as desperate barking sounded from below. Peering down, she spotted Khavi clawing at the rock.

“That’s not like him,” Renee mumbled, wrinkling her brows. “Alec?” He had his hands clapped to his forehead. “What’s wrong?”

Alec gasped, still clutching his head. “He’s . . . he’s forcing through my Keraldi Barrier. Gods, that hurts.” He wheezed and shut his eyes. A few seconds passed until he reclaimed his breath. He stared at her. “I think . . . I think Diam’s gone.”

A search of Academy grounds proved fruitless for Diam and Savoy both. When Renee returned to Alec’s room to report her lack of results, she found him stuffing shirts into his travel pack. Khavi whined at his feet. She touched Alec’s shoulder. “Any more luck?”

His eyes flashed. “I can’t read the dog’s mind, Renee! That I got a few images is a small miracle in itself. I didn’t know even that was possible unless one was bonded, and until this year, I thought bonding itself little more than my grandma’s tale.”

Renee winced. “Sorry, I didn’t mean . . . ” She climbed onto his bed and, propping her elbows on her knees, studied the stitching on his blanket. The sense that something very bad had happened settled around her shoulders. “Do you think Savoy and Diam left together?”

“No. The images Khavi gave me felt . . . wrapped in cotton, all blurry like.” He rubbed his head. “I think Diam followed me to Atham when I went to buy . . . what I need. People, kids especially, have been disappearing off Southwest streets for months. They say night gangs abduct them in the darkness and sell them to Vipers. If Diam went exploring because of me—”

“It wasn’t because of you.” Renee pressed her finger into Alec’s chest. “It was not. This is Diam Savoy we speak of. There’s nothing in the Seven Hells that could scare that boy into staying put.” She bit a loose fingernail and felt her thoughts snap together. “Khavi can follow Diam’s trail, right?” Renee waited for Alec’s nod and stepped toward the door. “Good. Let me know when you finish packing,” she said, leaving his quarters before he could stop her.

By gods’ grace, she found Sasha in their room. It was rather impossible to overlook the boy’s relation to Savoy, and something Sasha once said now bothered Renee.

“I need a favor.” Renee pulled out her travel pack and started to fill it. “Do you recall the beginning of the year, when you said Savoy was here because somebody wanted it so? I need to know who and why, and whether it had anything to do with Diam.”

Sasha sat down and crossed her legs. “What happened at the exams?”

Renee didn’t answer for several seconds. Her world, which had been turning in chaotic, nauseating circles for several months, now screeched to a clarifying halt. “I followed the rules,” she answered. “I did. I followed the code exactly, and . . .” Renee’s voice trailed off as she stared into her travel pack.

Sasha’s brow furrowed. “Are you being dismissed?”

“No.” A chuckle escaped her. No, she wasn’t going to be dismissed. This time. To enjoy her good fortune, all she had to do was abandon Alec and leave Diam’s fate to others. To buy herself another half year in the Crown’s Service—a service that was ready to choose the cheating Tanil over her—all she had to do was shut her eyes and disavow those who mattered most at their moment of greatest need. And if she did that to protect the possibility of a career, either the career was not worth having or she was not worth a Servant’s title.

“No, Sasha, I haven’t been dismissed. I’m dismissing myself.”