“I’ll be right outside the door,” the Vai’Ensai said.
When he was gone, Archer Crane sat beside Connor’s bed. “He’s a vigilant one, isn’t he?”
“He’s my best friend,” Connor replied. He heard the challenging tone in his voice and inwardly vowed not to get into an argument with his father. Not when this will be the last time we see each other for a while.
“I wanted to talk to you about what’s been happening,” his father said. “I’m sure you must have questions and I don’t want you to worry.”
“I’m not worried,” Connor said. “I think I understand why the Two-Faced God can’t Hear me.”
His father looked as though he were mentally bracing himself. “Why is that?”
“Because this magic I have—calling storms and animals—that’s from somewhere else. A different god. Isn’t it?”
“Well, we’re not entirely sure,” Archer said.
“But you and Celestine and Taliah…You’ve been working it out. Haven’t you?”
His father smiled tightly. “The important thing is that you don’t upset yourself over it and suffer more episodes. You haven’t had two this close together in a long while.”
“I feel fine. And didn’t you just say that you’re here to answer my questions?” Despite his avowals, that old familiar irritation at his father for treating him like a sickly little child was there, always there, like an itch he couldn’t scratch.
“What does Celestine think? I know you spoke to Taliah after the birds. It’s a different god’s magic, isn’t it? From mother’s islands?”
He could see that blow strike home and now his father was trying to remain collected. “Paladin Taliah seems to think so, yes,” he said, practically through clenched teeth.
“Why do you sound so unhappy about it? I thought you loved her. My mother, I mean.”
“I did,” Archer said. “It’s not about her, it’s about you. I want you to—”
“Be safe.” Connor sighed, an uncommon sadness coming over him. The cell was dim, moonlit and nothing more. Shadows filled in the lines of his father’s face and his eyes, aging him. I don’t want to cause him more pain, but it’s my time. Mine.
“Father, I feel like I’ve been set free. For years—my whole life—I’ve been trying to become a Paladin and for years I’ve been shunned. But that struggle is over now. I have been shown a different path and I want to walk it.”
“I understand,” Archer said in a tone that told Connor he didn’t at all. “But this new magic is foreign and strange and we don’t know much about it. I think we should proceed slowly. Cautiously.”
“What is the name of the god?”
“Wor’ri,” Archer said, maneuvering his mouth over the name awkwardly.
“Wor’ri,” Connor repeated. He expected to feel some sort of instant communion or recognition. He felt nothing. “From what island? Did you remember it?”
“No,” his father said and Connor knew that was a lie.
“Oh.” He forced a smile that he hoped appeared genuine. “But maybe tomorrow, we’ll figure it out. Like you said.”
“Yes, tomorrow. Taliah will tell you what she knows and we can go from there. Until then, try to get some rest and don’t…”
“Don’t what?”
Archer smiled ruefully and tousled his son’s hair. “Goodnight, Connor.”
Connor watched him go and before his father could close the door all the way, Kyre returned to take up his post.
“Celestine and my father, they’re good people,” he told the Vai’Ensai, “but they worry too much. They treat me like I’m a child.”
“You are not a child’s age.”
“That’s right. I’m seventeen but they say I’m a young seventeen.”
Kyre frowned. “Does time pass differently for certain humans?”
“It means they think I’m yet more a boy than a man. That used to bother me but now I know what I must do.”
Kyre waited.
“Have you heard of Selena Koren?”
“I have not.”
“She’s probably the greatest Paladin the Two-Faced God has ever seen, except for Skye. But not even Skye can move the tides. Selena Koren can. She can make the oceans do her bidding.”
“And you can call wind and rain,” Kyre remarked.
Connor wanted to leap out of his skin, though he managed to keep his voice hushed.
“Yes, exactly!” He sat up and motioned for Kyre to come closer. “I never dream when I have an episode. There’s only blackness and forgetting. I didn’t tell my father. Or Celestine, but these last two episodes? With the birds and the fish? Both times, I did dream. I had a vision. The same vision. And it was Selena Koren, in the Moon Temple, and by her side was a Vai’Ensai. Ilior, his name was.”
“The stone and the fire must have sent him to her.”
“Yes! Just like they sent you to me. We have to find her. We have to join her. My father, Celestine, and the Justarchs sent her on some dangerous quest to kill a Bazira. I heard about the whole thing through Gregor. Maybe we can help her. I don’t know where she is now but I know where she started.”
Kyre cocked his head to the side.
“Isle Uago. That’s where Paladin Koren was last known to be and if anyone can help me understand my magic, it’s her. She and I, we’re the same,” he said. His heart beat faster with every word. “Her god marked her with her wound. My god marked me…with my episodes. Yes! Do you see? I’m a paladin too. Only not for this god. But I’m a paladin too. I am,” he whispered, almost to himself.
“With the dawn, then?”
Connor threw off the bed sheets. “No, tonight. We leave tonight. We’ll be too closely watched tomorrow, and you’re not exactly inconspicuous, my friend.”
“Your father and the woman will worry,” Kyre observed. “The red-skinned woman will be angry.”
“If I tell them, they won’t let me go. Father will shut down the ports if he has to and Celestine will keep me under guard. Not officially a prisoner, but close enough. No, we have to leave now. I have coin enough to buy passage.”
Connor began throwing belongings in his rucksack and strapped his sword to his waist, talking as he did.
“They’ll think we left to find my mother’s islands. To find out more about Wor’ri.” He stopped packing. “It’s funny. I don’t feel anything when I say that name. Only excited that I know who I belong to, if that makes sense. And that I’m a paladin after all.” He savored the notion for another moment and then resumed packing.
Kyre said nothing.
“Anyway, going to the islands where Wor’ri is worshipped is the logical step but I don’t want to go there. Not yet. Something big is happening and Selena Koren is part of it. And so am I.” He stuffed a fine pair of trousers into his bag. “But I spoke about Wor’ri with father just now so the seed is planted. I feel bad, though. It’s dangerous, where we’re going. At least, they’ll see it that way.” He stopped what he was doing and glanced up at Kyre. “Are you going to stop me?”