Page 222 of Mother of Death and Dawn

“Take him to the prisons,” he told the guards. “Don’t harm him.”

The guards obeyed, ushering Ezra from the room while Caduan joined the rest of us.

“What was he thinking?” Luia muttered. “Trying to mount an insurrection? He could barely string a sentence together.”

“It wasn’t his idea,” Meajqa said, coldly. He looked out the window to the clear blue sky. “Someone has been putting this thought in his head. Whoever could itpossiblybe?”

Luia swore. “That traitorous bastard.”

“I’m almost disappointed by what a horrible idea it was,” Meajqa said. “Though, not that much. It could have been catastrophic if Ezra had been even a touch more coherent.” He cast Caduan a dark glance. “We need to address it. Forcefully.”

A wrinkle of thought deepened between Caduan’s brows. “The Aran queen. Have we gotten anything from her?”

Luia sneered. “No. She will not talk. No matter what we do to her.”

“Try once more. If you get nothing from her by tonight, kill her. She is too dangerous to keep alive.”

Luia inclined her chin, but said nothing, an awkward silence falling over her and Meajqa. They shot each other a glance, then looked back to Caduan.

Luia seemed to choose her words very carefully as she asked, “And who should execute this order?”

I watched Meajqa, who was failing to fully control his expression. I could practically feel his bloodlust.

Caduan’s eyes slipped to Meajqa. “You wish to do it.”

“I deserve to,” Meajqa replied, quietly but too quickly, like he had been holding himself back from saying it before. “I— I need to.”

Caduan was silent. I wondered if perhaps Meajqa’s words from before were echoing in his head as they echoed in mine:

Why is it unacceptable to feed my vengeance some human bitch’s fingers, but yours can devour an entire race?

I thought of Ishqa’s face, and how I would feel if he was the one locked up in that cell. I knew what it was to have a hole in yourself that could only be filled with the blood of the one that hurt you. Perhaps Caduan did, too.

“Fine,” Caduan said, at last. “Do it.”

A vicious smile spread across Meajqa’s mouth. “As you wish, my King.”

“Be careful with her, Meajqa. Do not underestimate her. And Luia, take care of Ezra. Keep him somewhere comfortable. His life has been difficult enough, and he is harmless.”

“Where are you going?” Luia asked, as Caduan moved to the door.

“I’m going to wait for an old friend.”

* * *

Caduan did not come back.Meajqa poured himself a glass of wine, clearly overwhelmed with anticipation for the moment he would at last get his final revenge. I was happy for him. Perhaps this would bring him the peace he so clearly needed.

“If you wish to say a final goodbye to your old friend,” he said, casually, “perhaps you should do so now.”

He gave me a knowing look out of the corner of his eye. He and I, after all, always understood each other.

Nura looked even more pitiful than she had when I last saw her. Bruises bloomed like flowers over her skin, severe enough to be visible even beneath her burn scars. They marred her shoulders, her arms, the entire left side of her face. She was listless, barely able to hold her head up. Her hand with the missing fingers had been bandaged and treated, if only because Caduan had wanted to make sure she did not die before he was ready for her to do so.

I crouched down before her, and finally, she stirred from her half-conscious state. She jerked her chin up, as if scraping together the last scraps of her strength for a single glare. I saw through that act.

“It is strange to see you this way,” I said, “when for so long you were so much more than that to me. It makes me think of how so much is different now.”

“How long will your king keep me here like this?”

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