“There is no leap too long, too far, or too dangerous, Pali, that would drive me away. I will wait here for you until I have cause to come in and rescue you myself.”
I nodded and threw myself against his chest. The end of his blond ponytail tickled my shoulders as I held him. I breathed in the almond-oil scent of him, and closed my eyes. “Do you suppose the plunging-into-darkness trick can work again? I fear I’ve only one move up my sleeve.”
He shook his head and gave me a wry smile. “Go,” he said, patting the short sword at his waist. “I’ll be ready.”
I was unarmed and had nothing with me—not even the money my mother had given me. Nothing but the fire striker I’d stashed in the pocket of these breeches. But I was not going to need that now. I walked up to the door and steeled my spine. This was it. Things that had never been said between my parents and me would be said now. The truth would come out, even if that meant I would essentially be an orphan after tonight. A foundling. Perhaps Neo and Brex would add me to their brood if it came to that.
I sighed and shoved open the door. The scene in front of me immediately took my breath away.
“Father!” I ran into the main hall, where my father was being soundly beaten by two guards clad in leather armor and helmets.
The entire household was absent, except my mother, who stood by weeping miserably into a kerchief.
“Mother! What’s happening?”
My mother lifted her red, tearstained face, but it was my father who spoke.
“Palmeria, go to your mother. She’ll need you now.” His face was bleeding and swollen, one eye ringed by bruises. At his words, one of the fiends kicked him in the belly with the pointed toe of his boot.
My father gasped and lost his footing, falling to the floor.
“Father! What is happening?” My shock was sincere. Despite everything my parents had put me through, I could not tolerate seeing my father abused in this way. “Please stop! Stop!”
My father was on his hands and knees, shaking his head. He spit a thin stream of blood onto the floor and wiped his face with an unsteady hand. “Stay back, Daughter.”
I ran for one of the men in black and grabbed his arm. “Tell me what’s happening!”
The man lifted an arm as if to hurt me, but my mother screamed, “Don’t touch my daughter! She’s done nothing wrong!”
She raced to my side and pulled me away from the brute. I cared not for her display of motherly concern; now was not the time for this. My father was being placed into shackles and led away.
“Your father is under arrest,” one of the men droned. He grabbed an enormous bag from the floor of the main hall and shook it. “Crimes against the shire of Kyruna. Fraud and counterfeiting coins in violation of the rules of the realm. He’ll stand trial and be sentenced. Say your goodbyes.”
“You make it sound as though you’ve already judged him!” I seethed. As confused and angry as I was, I could not allow my father to be unjustly imprisoned…or worse. I broke away from my mother and tried to reach my father, but the guards would not allow me to touch him.
“I’ll be all right, Palmeria,” he promised, sniffling against the swelling of his nose. “Take care of your mother. She’ll need your strength now more than ever. I’m sorry, sweet girl.”
The guards physically dragged my father down the stairs of the manor and threw him roughly into the cart marked with the Otleich crest. I began to cry in earnest then. Hearing my father call mesweet girl, for the first time ever, as he was dragged from our family home seemed like the cruelest expression of familial love and yet somehow also the most fitting. Despite what my father had done, I prayed that he survived the trip.
I stood on the stone steps outside the manor, weeping into the chill night air. I could see the flash of blond hair as Syndrian concealed himself nearby. Watching. Waiting. Once the guards had ridden away with my father, I spun on my heel and ran inside. My mother was drying her tears and looked…happy?
“Pali.” She held her arms out to me, but I was frozen in place.
“What by the gods is happening here? You let Father be arrested, and yet you escape responsibility? You knew what he was doing, and yet—”
“Shhh, darling.” My mother held a finger to her lips. “We still have a guest in the house.”
I looked wildly around the main hall but saw no sign of anyone. “What are you talking about? Have you gone mad? Mother!”
Before I could lose my patience completely, a finely dressed man with a bloodstained sleeve descended the stairs. His gaze was intense as he studied my clothes and hair. “So this is Pali,” he purred.
The maniac from Knuckles & Bones.
I flicked a look behind me toward the door, calculating whether I could run for the door and scream for Syndrian before this lunatic could lay his hands on me. Or on my mother. Before I could act, my mother calmed me with a wave.
“My dear, let me introduce you,” she said, her voice unnervingly calm. “This is Drustan.”
“I know what he is! I need not know his name!” I snapped. “What by the gods is he doing in our home?”