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He gave me a shadowed look. “I suppose many lives were lost?”
“I’m afraid they were.” I wished I could give him better news. “It hit a coastal city that had many ships out at sea.”
He winced.
“But I’m not sure I’m following,” I said. “You’re saying that Grey came here first in a smaller boat—on a stealth mission—and burned your crops? And then he sent a storm after one of your ships? So everything your family did against Tartora was direct retaliation for what you thought were attacks from us?”
“That’s right. Ignatius claims King Marius must know about us and be keeping the information quiet from the common citizens.”
“He doesn’t,” I said. “I’m completely sure about that.”
“As soon as Grey arrived, the answer seemed obvious,” Costas agreed. “It all came from Grey. He was trying to destabilize the situation before his official arrival, and he succeeded more than he could have dreamed. He has several times referred to having been on the island before, but the others believe he means as a baby.”
“How could they not suspect him?”
“Oh, they suspect him of wanting to take their place, but they’re blinded in other ways. There are certain things they believe a Constantine would never do. After a century of absolute rule and control, they’ve bought into their own myth.”
“Like teach someone outside the family how to mesmerize,” I murmured.
He nodded, and I could read in his eyes why he hadn’t fallen into the same trap. He wasn’t a Constantine like the others, and he could imagine doing things they would never dream of.
“Even so, it seems impossible they wouldn’t at least suspect him.”
Costas shrugged. “Perhaps they do, privately. But Uncle Ambrose and Barnabas are set on pretending everything is normal and we can continue our regular lives, and Ignatius is just as set on insisting King Marius is to blame for everything. Nobody wants to admit that we were attacked, but not by the Tartorans.”
“How come Ignatius and Barnabas didn’t run into Grey at his camp when they came to the mainland?” I asked. “They seemed genuinely surprised he was still alive.”
“They were. But that’s because they took a different route.”
“There’s more than one?”
“Of course. There are at least three. The one you would have taken is the simplest and leads to the most attractive harbor on the desert side. But the people who live in the crevasse parted from our ancestors with ill will a century ago, refusing to take ship to the island with the majority. We would never use that route, although we should have realized Aunt Chloe would flee straight to them. She shared many of their ideals, so I suspect they welcomed her with open arms.”
“Did you know her?” I asked, finally able to indulge my curiosity about the topic.
“Only as a very young child. But I have snatches of memory of her still, and occasionally I’ve gotten Aunt Kendry to talk about her when no one else is around. She fell in love with a non-healer instead of the man assigned to be her husband. She defied the family and married her plants mage, and they wouldn’t forgive her for it. She was merry and colorful and full of the sort of life that is missing from this island, and she wanted to change the way the family operated.”
The story reminded me of Grey’s original claims, although it was different in key respects. “So what happened?” I asked.
“Her husband died in an accident that was obviously not an accident.”
“They had him killed!”
“My aunt snatched up her infant son and ran for her life. The only time she was truly happy on this island was during her brief marriage, so I don’t think she was sorry to go.”
“It’s hard to sort out the truth from the fiction with Grey,” I murmured. “But I think it’s true that she arrived in the crevasse to find only a single elderly couple left. She would have been able to choose a house from the ones abandoned as their numbers dwindled, and the couple helped her get established and raise her son. She must have wanted a different life for him, but Grey doesn’t seem to have taken after her. He heard her stories about life here and took a different message from the one she intended.”
“Of course I did.”
The cold voice sent shivers down my spine.
ChapterThirty-One
Iturned slowly, not wanting to confirm what I already knew. Grey had found us.
“She stole me away from the life I should have lived,” Grey continued. “A life of luxury where I ruled like a prince. And for what? So we could scratch out a living in the desert, with only two doddering old fools for company, surviving on the occasional trading trip to Eldrida? We could have moved to Eldrida, at least. No one would have known our true origins, and with her ability, we could have made a comfortable life there. But she could never let go of the island. These people murdered my father, but it was like she both loved and hated them at the same time.”
Costas and I were both frozen and silent in the face of Grey’s simmering resentment. I wished there was some way to show him the burning look in his eyes, and to make him realize that his mother wasn’t the only one to carry an unnatural, unhelpful obsession with her past.
