Chapter 17 — Three Shadows, One Burning Truth

I would've been impressed if I wasn't the one being hunted.

Seris tore the first notice off a roadside post and held it up.

“They made your nose bigger.”

I stared at her.

“That’s your concern?”

“It’s inaccurate.”

Cassian leaned over from his horse.

“They got the angry expression right.”

“I’m not angry.”

Both of them looked at me.

I sighed.

“Fine.”

We’d been riding since midnight.

No roads when we could avoid them. No fires. Cassian kept us moving through old military paths that weren’t marked on public maps.

Paths only a commander would know.

At the time, that made me feel safer.

That sentence sounds different now.

Behind us, Caeloria’s towers were barely visible through the morning haze. Somewhere inside them, Council bells were still spreading the same story.

I’d attacked a peace gathering.

Tried to seize the First Crown.

Killed councillors.

Declared myself above the law.

They hadn’t gotten around to calling me a demon yet.

Give them time.

Seris folded the notice.

“Keep it.”

“Why?”

“So when this is over, I can show the artist what you actually look like.”

Cassian snorted.

“What if we’re all executed?”

She looked at him.

“Then I’ll haunt the artist.”

“That seems fair.”

I laughed.

It came out tired.

But it was a laugh.

For a few seconds, we were still us.

Then Cassian raised one hand.

We stopped.

Voices ahead.

He dismounted without a word and disappeared into the trees.

Seris watched him go.

“You trust him?”

The question caught me off guard.

“Of course.”

She didn’t say anything.

I looked at her.

“Do you?”

“Yes.”

Too quick.

Apparently we’d all become terrible liars.

Cassian returned moments later.

“Council patrol. Eight riders. They’re checking the bridge.”

“Can we go around?”

“Not without losing half a day.”

I reached for Epitaph.

Cassian grabbed my wrist.

“No.”

“I wasn’t going to kill them.”

“Your definition of restraint destroyed a palace yesterday.”

Seris winced.

“That was unnecessary.”

“It was accurate.”

I pulled my hand away.

“So what’s the plan?”

Cassian looked toward the river.

Then smiled.

I immediately hated it.

Twenty minutes later, I was lying face-down in a cart beneath a pile of wet blankets.

“I hate you.”

Cassian drove.

“I know.”

Seris lay beside me, shaking with silent laughter.

“This isn’t funny.”

“It’s extremely funny.”

“I saved both your lives.”

“And now you smell like river moss.”

“You’re welcome.”

The cart rolled onto the bridge.

Boots approached.

“Stop.”

Cassian pulled the reins.

A soldier walked beside us.

“Where are you headed?”

“North.”

“What are you carrying?”

“Blankets.”

I stared at Cassian through a gap in the cloth.

Brilliant.

Truly legendary strategist.

“Move one.”

Seris stopped laughing.

Cassian didn’t.

“They’re wet.”

“I can see that.”

“Then you understand why I’d rather not.”

The soldier’s hand reached toward us.

I tensed.

Seris put two fingers against my wrist.

Don’t.

The soldier lifted the blanket.

A flash of white feathers would've ended everything.

Instead, Cassian sneezed.

Loudly.

The soldier jumped.

Cassian wiped his nose.

“Sorry. Marsh fever.”

The man stepped back so fast he nearly fell off the bridge.

“Go.”

Cassian didn’t need telling twice.

We kept moving until the bridge disappeared behind us.

Then Seris started laughing so hard she couldn’t breathe.

I crawled out from under the blankets.

“Marsh fever?”

Cassian shrugged.

“Worked.”

“You’re disgusting.”

“Alive, though.”

More than I wanted to admit.

By afternoon, we reached an abandoned watch lodge deep in the northern woods.

Cassian checked every room twice.

Seris covered the windows.

I stood near the door, listening to nothing.

No chanting.

No bells.

No one asking me for anything.

I should've relaxed.

I couldn’t.

Every creak sounded like boots.

Every shadow looked like a barrier about to close.

Seris touched my arm.

“You’re shaking.”

“I’m cold.”

“It’s warm.”

“I’m creatively cold.”

Her expression softened.

“Sit down.”

“I’m fine.”

“Zyrion.”

I sat.

Cassian returned carrying firewood.

He took one look at me and frowned.

“When did you last sleep?”

“I slept yesterday.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“I closed my eyes.”

“That isn’t the same thing.”

Seris sat beside me.

“You should sleep.”

I looked toward the door.

“We need someone awake.”

“I’ll take first watch,” Cassian said.

“No.”

He stared at me.

“What?”

“I’ll do it.”

“You can barely stand.”

“I can stand.”

“Congratulations.”

I rubbed my face.

“If they find us—”

“I’ll wake you.”

“You don’t know what they’ll send.”

“I know exactly what they’ll send.”

Something in his voice made me look up.

Cassian had gone still.

He knew too much.

The thought came quickly.

Ugly.

I hated it.

At the House of Still Waters, I’d seen him beside Ortheon.

Unchained.

Close enough to speak.

The black envelope flashed through my mind.

His strange answers.

The meetings.

The hidden looks.

Cassian saw it happen on my face.

He knew me too well not to.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Don’t.”

My chest tightened.

“Don’t what?”

“Lie to me.”

Seris went quiet.

Cassian put the firewood down.

“You think I knew.”

I stared at him.

He didn’t look angry.

That made it worse.

“At the meeting,” I said.

“Yes.”

“You were beside him.”

“I was trying to reach the anchor control.”

My stomach dropped.

“The what?”

Cassian closed his eyes.

For one heartbeat, I thought everything was about to come out.

Instead he said, “I’d been watching the Council.”

Seris stood.

“Watching them?”

“They approached me after you refused the Crown.”

My hand moved toward Epitaph.

Cassian noticed.

So did I.

I let it fall.

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because I thought I could use it.”

“For what?”

“To find out what they were planning.”

His answers came steadily now.

Almost too steadily.

“They thought I was angry about Aster Vale. They thought they could turn me against you.”

Seris’s expression hardened.

“And you let them think that.”

“Yes.”

Cassian looked at me.

“I gave them enough to keep listening.”

The truth wrapped around a lie.

That’s what made it work.

“What did you give them?”

He hesitated.

“Travel information. Schedules. Nothing I thought would hurt you.”

My mouth went dry.

The river route.

The people waiting where they shouldn’t have known I’d be.

“You gave them our routes?”

“I thought they were placing protection ahead of you.”

“That’s what they told you?”

“Yes.”

Seris stared at him.

“And you believed them?”

“At first.”

Cassian’s voice broke.

“I was trying to help him!”

Silence.

He looked away.

“I watched him stop sleeping. Watched him nearly die every time somebody asked for help. I thought if I knew what the Council knew, I could stay ahead of them.”

I remembered Deren Hollow.

Cassian dragging me out.

His bandaged hand.

His fear.

My anger weakened.

Not gone.

Just wounded.

“Why didn’t you trust me?”

He laughed quietly.

“I could ask you the same thing.”

That hit.

I looked down.

He was right.

I’d planned to leave both of them without asking.

I’d broken Seris’s promise within minutes.

I kept deciding I alone knew how to keep everyone safe.

“I’m sorry.”

Cassian looked at me.

I forced myself to say it properly.

“For doubting you.”

His face changed.

I wish I hadn’t seen it.

Relief.

Guilt.

Pain.

All at once.

“You had reasons.”

“You’re my brother.”

He swallowed.

“Yeah.”

I stood and clasped his arm.

“You’re my brother.”

His hand closed around mine.

For one second, it trembled.

Then stopped.

“Get some sleep, idiot.”

This time, I did.

I lay beside the fire with Seris sleeping nearby.

Cassian sat at the door with his sword across his knees.

For the first time since the palace burned, I closed my eyes without listening for footsteps.

Because Cassian was listening for me.

I slept.

Deeply.

Completely.

Trust can be terrifying like that.

You don't notice how vulnerable it makes you when the person holding it has never dropped you before.

I didn't see the black bird land outside.

Didn't see Cassian remove the message tied beneath its wing.

Didn't see Ortheon's seal.

Cassian read the note by firelight.

VALE.

THE FUGITIVE MUST BE BROUGHT UNDER CONTROL.

THE RESTRAINT COVENANT REMAINS VALID.

REPORT LOCATION.

He stared at me.

Then at Seris.

His hand shook.

He could've woken us.

Could've told me everything.

The binding ritual.

His signature.

The maps.

The lies.

For years afterward, he wrote that he almost did.

He even stood.

Took one step toward me.

“Zyrion…”

I didn't wake.

Cassian stared at my face.

Then whispered the truth to the only person who couldn't hear it.

“I’m sorry.”

He returned to the fire.

Held Ortheon's message over the flame.

And let it burn.

The paper curled.

The Council seal blackened.

The order became ash between his fingers.

That night, Cassian chose not to give them our location.

He chose me.

I believe that.

But he also chose silence.

And sometimes the lie that destroys you isn't the one someone tells.

It's the truth they almost did.