Fidelias wasn’t sure when Octavian and the others arrived, but when he looked up, the Princeps was standing beside Magnus, his retinue behind him. His eyes were hard, green stones.

“I watched you murder men not five feet from me on the wall at Garrison,” Octavian said quietly. “I watched you try to hang Araris. I watched you stab my uncle and throw him off the wall. You killed people I’d known my whole life in the Calderon Valley. Neighbors. Friends.”

Fidelias heard the strangled tone in his voice as something distant and unconnected to his thoughts. “I did those things,” he said. “I did them all.”

The Princeps’ right hand closed into a fist. The pop of his knuckles was like the crackling of ice.

Fidelias nodded slowly. “You knew I could lie to a truthfinder. You needed to elicit the reaction under pressure. This was a trap all along.”

“I told you I wanted to test a theory,” the Princeps said, his words clipped. “And when Magnus reported his suspicions to me, including word of your covert activities with Sha, it forced me to take action.”

The Princeps looked away, squinting out into the distance.

Fidelias said nothing. The silence was profound.

When the Princeps spoke, it was in a near whisper, thick with anger and grief. “I thought I would be proving your innocence.”

The words sent a pain through Fidelias’s guts as sharp and real as any sword’s thrust.

“Do you have anything to say for yourself ?” the Princeps asked.

Fidelias closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and drew in a slow breath. “I made my choices. I knew the consequences.”

Octavian stared at him in cold silence, and Fidelias suddenly realized that the posts he’d seen on the deck of the Slive were not replacements for broken spars.

Gaius Octavian turned his back and began to walk away, rigid with anger and pain. Each strike of his boots on the deck was distinct, final. He did not look back when he said, “Crucify him.”

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 24

Tavi watched as Magnus and the execution detail left the ship. It included each of the Knights Ferrous on board and a pair of Demos’s most combat-capable sailors. They took Fidelias ex Cursori and the spars for the crucifixion with them.

“Tough to believe,” Max said quietly. “I mean... Valiar Marcus.”

“People lie, kid,” Demos said. “Especially about who they are.”

“I know, I know,” Max said quietly. “I’m just... just surprised, that’s all. He was always so solid.”

“All in your head,” Demos said calmly. “He was what he was. You’re the one who made him solid.”

Max glanced at Tavi. “Sir, are you sure you... ?”