Manderseen stepped forward, but Kaden twisted away, unsure whether he wanted to put himself between Triste and the Ishien or use the chair to which she was shackled as a shield. She was watching him with huge, frightened eyes. Kiel, too, was watching him, silent and impassive from across the room.

“Tan,” Kaden said, trying to find the words.

“Get over here,” Manderseen spat.

Slowly, slowly, Rampuri Tan shook his head. “This was your choice. Not mine.”

Kaden seized a knife from the table at Triste’s side, brandishing it before him. He had no idea how to fight, but he had watched Valyn and the others back in the mountains, had carved the images on his brain for future use, and as the Ishien guard came on he tried to approximate the pose.

Manderseen paused, then unlimbered the sword at his side, the grin coming back to his face. “Kill him?”

Matol didn’t answer. Kaden risked a glance behind him just as a fist took him across the face, knocking him clean into the wall. The attack jarred the knife from his hand, and Manderseen was on him in a moment, all steel and strength, shoving Kaden’s body against the stone.

“Kill him?” he asked again.

Kaden struggled to turn, to see Matol, but Manderseen had his head shoved over at a brutal angle. The only person he could see was Kiel. The Csestriim had made no move to struggle or intervene, but as Kaden watched, his lips moved silently, mouthing the shape of words. Everyone else was staring at Kaden. Only Kaden was watching Kiel, even as he strained to breathe.

He’s talking to me, he realized. That the man expected him to follow, to be able to unfold the shape of the words, seemed unbelievable. Kaden himself was bleeding from the head, blood slick on his face, and the Ishien sword was at his throat. Kiel ignored all of it. If he really had known Kaden’s father, then he knew something of the monks, and if he knew the monks, knew about the training and discipline, then he knew about the Carved Mind. He knew Kaden would remember the scene later. Remember it perfectly.

“I would not kill him.” Tan’s voice this time. Distant. Indifferent. “He is the Emperor, and may prove useful still.”

“I could take out an eye,” Manderseen suggested with a chuckle, shifting a hand to press against Kaden’s eyeball. “Maybe crush one of his nuts. What were you saying about cocks?” He groped between Kaden’s legs. “We could see how loyal he is to this bitch after we rip his cock off. . . .”

Silence loud as a scream.

“Take him below,” Matol snarled finally. “Lock him up with the Csestriim. He may know more than he’s told us. We’ll take a look at his blood after we get through with hers.”

16