Page 73 of These Divided Shores
But no one outside their group had heard him.
Ben’s heart lodged in his throat, but he managed a smile at Teo. “Yes.”
Teo didn’t smile back. His eyes hardened. “He’s your father.”
It was an accusation. Vex gave Ben an apologetic look, but Ben stayed focused on Teo.
“I know,” Ben whispered. “Who is your father?”
Teo’s eyes narrowed. “Mama said he died.”
Ben shrugged. “Sometimes we are like our fathers. Sometimes not. I promise you, I am nothing like mine.”
Teo looked unconvinced. But a deliberate stomping cutoff further conversation, whipping every head toward the platform.
A man stood in the center of the elevated wooden planks. Ben squinted.
His breath twisted in his lungs, a squeeze of memories and hatred.
Vex growled. Gunnar angled closer to Ben.
“Citizens of Port Mesi-Teab.” General Ibarra raised his hands for attention. “Thank you for heeding the Pious God’s call to gather here tonight. I know you came at the risk of great harm by those who fight to drown this island in sin and magic, but I assure you, we took every precaution to keep this gathering hidden from impure, evil souls.”
Behind Ben, Mani snorted. Edda rolled her eyes.
Ben swallowed any reaction, his body washing with a calming sense of separation. He didn’t have the right to be repulsed by Ibarra’s twisted words. It wasn’t his luxury.
“Now,” Ibarra continued, “let us welcome the Pious God’s representative on this earth—the Eminence King of Argrid.”
Ibarra stepped aside as soft applause rippled across the room. Edda was the first in their group to clap, and she glared at the rest of them until they complied.
“Blend in,” she growled.
Ben managed one clap. Two. His hands hardened, his heart unresponsive and icy, as at the far end of the room, his father took the stage.
“People of Port Mesi-Teab,” Elazar started. Otherscame up the side steps behind him, defensors dragging a manacled prisoner with a bag over their head. The prisoner bucked wildly.
Ben’s stomach sank. He met Vex’s eye, dropped a look to Teo. Would his father kill someone here, before this crowd of families and children?
Edda was already twisting to hide Teo’s face against her when Elazar continued.
“You have heard, by now, of the light that the Pious God will bring to Grace Loray,” he said. “A light that will bestow blessings on those who are obedient, and will eradicate the evil from your island. I bring to you, good people of Port Mesi-Teab, the first look at what this light will do to those who insist on sullying your country.”
Elazar waved at the defensors. One yanked the bag off the prisoner’s head.
The prisoner wavered, blinking in the torchlight. Even from the back of the room, Ben could see she had been ill-treated: bruises purpled her skin, dried blood matted her short hair to the side of her head.
She pierced Elazar with a look of passionate hatred. “You manic son of a bitch!” she shouted, loud enough to carry across the room.
Gasps rippled out. Mani and Zey were loudest.
Vex whipped back to look at them, desperation paling his face.
“Cansu,” he said. To Edda, again, aching, “Cansu.”
The press of the crowd heading for the single open door in the fort’s entryway had been the perfect cover to let Lu, Nayeli, Rosalia, and Nate slip through one of the closed side doors.
“Vex and Edda are in that crowd,” Nayeli said as Lu shot down a dark stone hallway after Rosalia.
