“I never tell lies, Mother,” he said, loud enough to drown out the sound of Kinlear struggling to breathe. He couldn’t take it. He needed to get out of this room, needed to march to his penance like a soldier heading to the gallows. He was ready for it. Hewantedit now, for his lying. “I drew it. So, I will take the penance for it.”
The queen lifted her chin.
She knew.
Shehadto know.
But she laid down the law anyways, as a mother always did.
“Then you will pay the penance required of you to make it right with the gods,” she said. “You will pay ittenfold,Arawn, for a prince, a future king of Lordach, shouldneverbe so foolish to dance with the devil like this.” Her gaze slid back to Kinlear. “Well? To the cliffside, then, to stand in his place. And not awordof this to your father.”
She turned without another glance at either one of them.
“Arawn,” Kinlear whispered.
He heard the desperation in that whisper as he followed their mother from the room.
“Arawn.”
He didn’t stop walking, didn’t turn back to look at him, because if he did, he would break.
He followed their mother, head held high...
...to pay the penance in Kinlear’s place.
It was the first time in his life he truly understood what sacrifice meant.
4
He was ten when he Settled.
He’d been in meetings forhours,seated beside his father and the Masters as they went over the evening’s war plan. The table was enormous, a glass monstrosity that had been shaped with magic to look like a true miniature version of the Expanse. It even snowed, little flakes dancing down on the battlefield as the Watermage Master kept them alive.
“And what do you say, Arawn?” his father had asked, as he sat beside him. “How should our ground forces hold the line against the dark?”
Arawn was half asleep, watching the Masters move tokens about: black for raphons and darksoul riders and shadow wolves. White for the Sacred forces, and red for thenomagesthat marched on the snow.
“I...”
He swallowed, considering.
He’dneverbeen asked his opinion before. His father had pretended, for ten years now, that Arawn didn’t even exist in these meetings. He was to watch and listen and learn, nothing more.
And now that his father’s eyes were upon him? Now that the Masters all watched him expectantly...
His heart gave an uneventhump.
He swallowed, but it felt like the sides of his throat were sticking to each other. Everything had gone utterly dry.
“Well, I suppose...”
You must be perfect.
You must not fail.
Gods, he needed a glass of water.
Focus, Arawn. Focus, before you seem like a fool.
