more.
Do you not know who I am? the wizard telepathically asked. The desperation in his thoughts made Cadderly believe the words to be another pointless boast, a fervent denial that anyone could hope to defeat him in mental combat. The young priest was not distracted, maintained his focus and the pressure - until Aballister played his trump.
"I am your father!" the wizard screamed.
Hie words slammed into Cadderly more profoundly than any lightning bolt. The glowing ball was no more, the mental contact shattered by the overwhelming surprise. It all made sense to the young priest Awful, undeniable sense, and after viewing the wizard's thought processes, so similar, even identical, to his own, Cadderly could not find the strength to doubt the claim.
I am your father! The words rang out in Cadderly's mind, a damning cry, a pang of loneliness and regret for those things that might have been.
"Do you not remember?" the wizard asked, and his voice sounded so very sweet to the stunned young priest.
Cadderly blinked his eyes open, regarded the man and his unthreatening, resigned pose.
Aballister crooked his arms as though he were cradling a baby. "I remember holding you close," he cooed. "I would sing to you - how much more precious you were to me since your mother had died in childbirth!"
Cadderly felt the strength draining from his legs.
"Do you remember that?" the wizard asked gently. "Of course you do. There are some things ingrained deeply within our thoughts, within our hearts. You cannot forget those moments we had together, you and I, father and son."
Aballister's words wove a myriad of images in Cadderly's mind, images of his earliest days, the serenity and security he had felt in his father's arms. How wonderful things had been for him then! How filled with love and perfect harmony!
"I remember the day I was forced to give you up," Aballister purred on. His voice cracked; a tear streamed down his weary old face. "So vividly, I remember. Time has not dulled the edge of that pain."
"Why?" Cadderly managed to stammer.
Aballister shook his head. "I was afraid," he replied. "Afraid that I alone could not give you the life you deserved."
Cadderly felt only compassion for the man, had forgiven Aballister before the wizard had even asked for forgiveness.
"All of them were against me," Aballister went on, his voice taking on an unmistakable edge - and to Cadderly, the sharpness of the wizard's rising anger only seemed to validate all that Aballister had claimed. "The priests, the officials of Carradoon. 'It will be better for the boy/ they all said, and now I understand their reasoning."
Cadderly looked up and shrugged, not following the logic.
"I would have become the mayor of Carradoon," Aballister explained. "It was inevitable. And you, my legacy, my heart and soul, would have followed suit My political rivals could not bear to see that come to pass, could not bear to see the family of Bonaduce attain such dominance. Jealousy drove them, drove them all!"
It all made perfect sense to the stunned young priest He found himself hating the Edificant Library, hating Dean Thobicus, the old liar, and hating even Headmaster Avery Schell, the man who had served as his surrogate father for so many years. Pertelope, too! What a phony she had been! What a hypocrite!
"And so I have risen against them," Aballister proclaimed. "And I have searched you out. We are together again, my son."
Cadderly closed his eyes, put his head down, and absorbed those precious words, words he had wanted to hear from his earliest recollections. Aballister continued talking, but Cadderly's mind remained locked on those six sweet words. We are together again, my son.
His mother had not died in childbirth.
Cadderly did not really remember her, just in images, flashes of her smiling face. But those images certainly did not come from Cadderly's moment of childbirth.
And I have searched you out.
Chapter Twenty-Four
But what of the Night Masks? Cadderly's reasoning screamed at him. Aballister had indeed searched him out, had sent killers to search him out, to murder him and to murder Danica.
It was only then that Cadderly suspected that the wizard had placed an enchantment over him, had sweetened his words with subtle magical energies. The young priest's heart fought back against the reasoning, against the logical protests, for he did not want to believe that he was being deceived, wanted desperately to believe in his father's sincerity.
But his mother had not died in childbirth!
Aballister's charming tapestry began to unwind. Cadderly focused on the wizard's