The Cadet of Tildor

CHAPTER 38





The door of Savoy’s cell screeched behind Renee and shut with dull finality. She shook her head, pushing the children’s faces to the back of her mind. She had little time. Jasper was in the hallway, keeping watch for stray guards while she visited his pup, Cat, slated for destruction in perhaps a week’s time.

Unlike the guest room where she saw Savoy last, this chamber was dark; a stale, tiny tomb in which the eyes could never adjust. She uncovered the lantern and was relieved at its warm pool of light.

Savoy sat on the floor, his bare back pressed against the stone. His forearms rose to shield his eyes, exposing shivering muscles. Several marks, small webs of black silk, marred his skin.

She crouched beside him. “You’re cold.”

“The least of my worries.” He risked lowering his arm and blinked. “It is too much to hope you stopped toying with fire?”

“Leading by example?”

He chuckled once, then quieted and focused on cracking his knuckles. “You promised to go to Atham.”

“I never promised to stay there.” She sat on the floor. “Atham has its own problems. The kidnappings and assaults hold everyone in fear. Sentries stand outside the Academy’s barracks. Sasha Jurran . . . ” Renee lowered her head. “She’s the second of the Crown’s family to pay the price of relation. Lysian’s youngest cousin is the other. The Crown plans to arrive in Catar in a week, but we cannot expect assistance from that front.”

Savoy snorted. “You asked Verin for the Seventh and he said no.”

She hoped the murk hid her wince. “We have means of contacting them. We need but the code word.”

He shook his head. “I will obey Verin’s orders.”

Her gut clenched. There were enough battles and walls without Savoy arguing against what shreds of solutions they had. “You don’t trust me with the code?”

“Did I miss your promotion to High Constable?” His voice was cold. “If Verin believes the Seventh’s current mission is more important than I am, then it is. Your own accounts put Atham teetering toward disaster, with the Crown and Vipers galloping at each other to see who flinches first. You want my support of a plan that undermines the entire security posture?”

She rose and leaned against the opposite wall, two paces away. The cold from the stone seeped into her skin. Without knowing it, Savoy was caught in a game between Verin and Palan and gods knew who else. For an instant, she considered telling him, then rejected the thought. He’d only side tighter with Verin’s thinking. “You don’t know the nuances,” she said instead. “The Vipers hold other prisoners in the tunnels. Children.” Her nostrils flared. “The Seventh will save lives. If you care little about yours, consider the . . . the weeds.”

“My point exactly. I do not know the nuances.” Savoy leaned forward. “Prisoner rescue is better organized by a man who sees the whole field of battle than one who sits in an underground hole. It is your duty to ensure Verin and the other constables have the information they need, not forge a side mission that answers your own priorities.”

“My duty.” Her fingers worked themselves into fists. “My duty is my own. I am not in the Crown’s Service any longer.”

His green eyes flashed. “I am.”

Renee’s lips opened without sound.

Savoy rose and braced his hand on the wall beside her shoulder, forcing her to meet his gaze. “Please,” Renee said. “Don’t do this.”

“I owe Verin everything that I am.” Savoy’s voice was gentle. “I will not undermine him. Your coming here gave me a choice. And I made it.” He held her eyes until she swallowed and bowed her head. “I’m not done fighting. But should I lose, there is a letter in my pack. Will you mail it to my parents?”

“Of course,” she whispered without looking up. “I’ll get it to them.”

* * *

“What now?” Renee asked Alec. She wished he would come sit by her, but he stayed across the room, on what used to be his bed at Hunter’s Inn. She told him of Atham’s problems and of Verin’s refusal, of Jasper and the weeds, of King Lysian’s imminent arrival that threatened to spark battle on Catar’s streets, of Savoy’s death sentence. She told him and he had listened. But he had asked no questions. She dipped her head to better see his face. “Alec?”

He braced his forearms against his knees and looked toward the window where gray buildings blocked the view of the horizon. “You play upon Jasper?” he said after a moment, as if that bothered him the most of everything she had shared. Renee wondered whether he even heard the rest. Before she could answer, he frowned. “It is not like you to indulge in such games. Do you realize who he is?”

She forced her clenched fingers to loosen. Upon hearing the evil brewing within arm’s reach, Alec should have rallied with support and enthusiasm. Instead he brooded as if taking action was a matter of debate. She tilted her face toward him. “A mage, a Viper, a fifteen-year-old boy. Which answer are you seeking?”

“He’s the Madam’s son.”

She blinked. The boy’s notorious mother led the Vipers? The implication of Jasper’s bruised cheek and the odd look Ivan had given Renee beside Jasper’s house took on new meaning. As did his weeding chores. “How long have you known?”

He shook off the question. “What I mean, Renee, is that he has no choice in what he does. You manipulate him into crossing her and he’ll suffer for it.”

“He has a choice. There is always a choice,” said Renee. “Mine is to save Savoy and the two dozen of Atham’s children the Vipers have trapped beneath the ground.”

“What of Savoy’s choice?”

“To die?”

“To stop risking others to save his skin.” Alec shrugged. “Verin, Savoy, the gods themselves are telling you to leave this be.”

She stared for a moment, then drew up her legs and studied him. He sat in the middle of the bed, not the corner of it like he used to. His voice had grown deeper, it seemed, and it spoke more of energy currents than swords. She drew a breath. “Once you knew you could Control, was joining the Academy really nothing more than a challenge you waged against Tildor?”

His face lifted in surprise and he spread his palms, paused. “I’m not certain,” he said at last. “My aunt refused the Crown’s will and died for it. My mother bent to it and lost all that she was. Yes, I wished to challenge Tildor and win. Was that my sole fuel? I don’t know.” He shrugged. “It little matters. Harnessing Control is a commitment, not a hobby to be toyed with whenever a free moment arises. I know that now. You can’t be a swordsman and a Healer at the same time any more than you can be a blacksmith and a farmer together. Staying at the Academy was a mistake. Becoming a Servant would have changed nothing.”

Perhaps he was right, but coming to Catar seemed to have changed everything. Her finger traced the stitching on the bedspread. “You will not help.”

“Diam is safe, that’s what we left the Academy to do. I have completed my part.” Alec sighed, the words rushing out. “Savoy is no friend of mine, Renee. And the people of Atham are the Crown’s responsibility. The same Crown who enslaves mages to do its bidding. I owe nothing to either.”