Page 221 of Mother of Death and Dawn

“Yes. Luia can have him taken away, or—”

“No,” Caduan said, firmly. “I want to speak with him.”

* * *

The man was not keptas a prisoner. This was not a dungeon, just one of the many sitting rooms in the castle. He sat at a small table in the center of the room.

“Ezra,” Caduan said, and the man looked up.

Recognition speared through me.

I’d met this man once… long ago. The memories were fuzzy and half-formed. I had reclaimed so much of my former self, and yet so many individual experiences still lingered just out of reach.

Caduan turned to the servant who had followed us in, took a glass of water and a plate of bread from them, and then dismissed them. He joined Ezra at the table, sliding the food across to him.

Ezra pushed the plate away. “I suppose you will execute me.”

“I will do no such thing.” Caduan gave him a steady stare—the kind that methodically pulled its subject apart, as if he wanted to examine all the pieces that made someone whir to life. “You have been busy.”

Ezra was silent.

“It’s not poisoned, I promise you.”

“We hear that you have been working on raising an army,” Meajqa said. “Poorly.”

Ezra’s gaze flicked up to Meajqa. “You strongly resemble your father.”

Meajqa’s face hardened at the mere mention.

“You must have something to say,” Caduan said.

“I have nothing to say to those who helped my kingdom fall.”

Luia let out a short laugh, but Caduan remained utterly serious.

“I almost died the night Niraja fell,” he said. “I never supported what happened to your kingdom.”

“But you support an even greater slaughter.”

“I support a world that is safe for our people.”

“Foryourpeople. Would my wife have been safe in the world you are trying to build?” Ezra’s face crumbled as he shook his head. “No. No, he was right. No, she would not. She would not.”

He was right.

Meajqa and Caduan exchanged a pointed glance.

“He?” Caduan questioned.

But Ezra seemed as if he hadn’t even heard him. He sagged over the table as if all his energy had left him at once. “I cannot do this. I can’t. I cannot be a king. What was I thinking?”

Luia scoffed in disgust, but I felt a knot of pity in my chest.

“This wasn’t your idea,” Caduan said. A statement, not a question.

Ezra just kept mumbling, “I can’t do this, I can’t, I… I…”

Caduan remained there, but every question after that was met with only Ezra’s mumbled, nonsensical responses. Eventually, Caduan sighed and rose.

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