The sight sickened and saddened him, both for the victims and for Triste. Whatever fury had consumed her, whatever power had torn the lives from five or six score Annurians, it was clear that she understood it no better than anyone else. In the wake of the slaughter, he wanted nothing more than to sit with her, comfort her, try to understand just what had happened and how—but there was no time. Instead, he had seen her drugged with adamanth root, locked in a barred chamber inside the Crane, and placed under triple guard while he went about wrenching aside the final foundations of empire.

Now, before he slept, he owed her a visit. Gabril seemed to have other thoughts on the matter, and his jaw tightened as Kaden changed course for the Crane.

“Whatever your past with that woman, she is an abomination. She should be killed, not coddled.”

“She’s hardly being coddled,” Kaden replied, his own voice harder than he’d intended. “She’s locked away.”

“Allowing a known leach to live is hardly a way to build support for the republic,” Gabril said. “Especially a leach who only just now cut down hundreds of your subjects.”

“They’re not my subjects anymore,” Kaden said. “And it will be the council, not me, who determines Triste’s fate. It doesn’t change the fact that she has been with me since this all started, has saved me more than once, and I intend to see her now, to offer her what comfort I can.”

Gabril shook his head. “Then you go alone. I will be outside your quarters when you have finished with this folly.”

“Not alone,” Kiel said. “I will join you, if you allow.”

Kaden nodded wearily, watching the First Speaker turn on his heel and stalk across the courtyard.

At first Kaden thought the room was empty. Someone had drawn the heavy shutters without bothering to light the lamps, blocking out the faint blush of light seeping into the eastern sky. He could make out a small pallet at the far side of the room, two lacquered chairs, and a basin with water on a low table; the chamber was hardly a cell, but it was certainly a far cry from the other guest suites in the palace. The air was hot and stuffy, as though the window hadn’t been open for months.

Kaden took a few tentative steps into the room as Kiel pulled the door shut behind them.

“Triste?” he called.

Silence.