“You barely got her back as she is now.” Gabe pushed Kestra through the door, the binding cord around one of her hands. “I found her outside, saddling a horse.”
I caught Kestra’s eye, but she quickly looked away. Gabe was obviously angry with Kestra, but I smiled a little. Trying to run away was something the old Kestra might have done.
I motioned to a nearby chair and asked her, “Will you stay?”
Gabe snorted. “Are you serious?”
“I won’t do anything more to him,” Kestra said.
“What more can you do?” Gabe turned to me. “If she stays, I’ll stay too.”
“Then I’ll leave,” Tillie said, already walking away. “No sense in me crowding up the room.” After a moment, Kestra sat in the corner, though she still refused to look at me.
“Remove the binding cord,” I said to Gabe.
He sighed but did as I asked, then retreated to the opposite corner of the room. I noticed he withdrew his knife and held it in his hands. I was sure he wanted Kestra to notice too.
“Where were you going?” I asked. “When Gabe found you just now.”
“I don’t know.”
“Kes—”
“I need to find the truth.”
“Simon’s told you the truth,” Gabe said to her. “I’ve told you the truth, but you refuse to believe it.”
She pointed out the nearby window. “What if I were to tell you that it’s daylight out there?”
Gabe shrugged. “It’s obviously night.”
“What if I insist that you’re wrong, that you must be seeing things, because the sun is shining as bright as it ever has?”
“I see your point,” Gabe said. “That’s what we’re all saying to you. But we’re all saying it. If I were the only person to see nighttime in a crowd of people who see the sun, I would ask myself if maybe I’m wrong.”
“And if I am wrong, then isn’t it better that I discover the truth safely, away from you?”
“You want the truth?” Gabe leaned forward, his voice rising in pitch. “Kestra, the truth is that terrible things happen to people who are around you. Just over two weeks ago, you were in a room with Captain Tenger, bargaining for the life of one of our captives, a man named Darrow.”
She shrugged. “I’ve never heard the name.”
“Oh, you’ve heard it. He cared for you for most of the past three years, at a time when you were exiled from your family’s home.”
She shook her head. “That’s a lie! I have memories of being at home, with my father.”
“Endrick put that in your head. You were with your real father those three years. You were with Darrow.”
From my perspective on the bed, I saw her fingers begin to tremble. “Don’t say anything more,” she whispered.
Gabe nodded at me. “Tell her, Simon.”
I drew in a breath, and when she turned my way, I said, “Darrow spent those three years in your service, training you with weapons and horses and to fight. He was preparing you for the life he knew was coming. At the time, you thought he was a loyal servant. Less than two weeks ago, you learned he was your father.”
Her voice wavered. “Was?”
The next part was harder to say. “He was killed during a Dominion attack.”
She looked from me over to Gabe, who nodded his agreement. But she closed her eyes, then said, “I remember being in a lava field and cutting my leg on some rock. My father—Sir Henry—found me and helped me back into a house.”