“Your jailor apparently.”
Cato nodded. Downturned lips, misty eyes.Sadness.“I’ve heard a great deal.”
Ah. This had been a long time coming. “I apologize for how long it took for me to say it,” Kadra said gravely.
“What stopped you?”
Kadra leaned against the tower’s exterior, crossing one leg at his ankles. “I considered it until the Fall. Nothing mattered after that.”
“Can I hear it now?”
A reasonable expectation.
The outraged roars beyond the Aoran Tower’s gates spoke to Noceo having found the guard’s body. Behind Cato’s wards, Kadra told the man who had been the closest thing to a father of who he had been and how he had come into Othus’s life.
Cold and sorrow lined Cato’s weathered features by the end. “Othus could never explain why he brought you with him. What did you tell him when Noceo failed to show?”
“That he had died while gathering the information Othus wanted.”
Cato winced. “You used guilt.”
“I did.”
The older man watched him sadly. “But things didn’t get better, Drenevan.”
“Hmm.” It hadn’t taken long for Othus to put together the sort of monster he was. His attempts to force the evil from him hadn’t been successful. Beatings and public disdain simply hadn’t been effective on Kadra when he had known worse.
Cato blew out the sconce against a wall and heaved a long breath. “From one abusive home into another. Othus was wrong for it. I’m sorry, Drenevan. I didn’t try hard enough to stop him.”
“It was nothing compared to the Clan,” Kadra reflected. He had his regrets but consequence had brought him here. “I held no ill will. Think nothing of it.”
Cato cleared his throat and gripped Kadra’s shoulder for a few quiet seconds. Side by side, they watched Noceo return, howl some more, and cart off the body.
“Don’t leave the tower for the time being,” Kadra added after a moment.
“I won’t.” The old man smiled. “Thank you for coming, son.”
Kadra stared, nodded, and left with the same smile on his face.
The moons were thin crescents on his way back to Sidran Tower, an indicator that a moondark night approached. The stars had their time on thosenights when both moons were new moons. The Order preached of them being an ill omen. Kadra wondered if they had it right.
He slowed his steps when two familiar shapes entered the corner of his vision.
Noceo and Dalvia appeared lost in conversation, unaware of his presence. Kadra slipped into the tree line ten paces away. His boots slid quietly into the powder-soft snow, masking his footsteps as he tracked them.
“You wanted power.” Noceo’s voice was low and tight, pale eyes boring into Dalvia.
She held them for a moment then looked away. “Tochangethings. Not bring wanton death.”
“The two go hand-in-hand. Don’t tell me that after everything we’ve done,thisis where you balk,” he said mockingly.
“I’m trying not to be a hypocrite.”
“No chance of that.”
Dalvia’s throat worked for a moment before she smiled. Something squeezed too tight in Kadra’s chest at that look. Sarai had given him the same only yesterday. Glassy eyes, a pinched brow, and upturned lips. Hurt, resignation. He suddenly had the urge to return to his Petitor and apologize a hundred times over.
“You’re deviating from what we planned for Sarai,” she finally murmured. “Weren’t you going to turn her against him? Why did you torture her that day in Komis?”
