of individuals, by talent, training, and nature, who could accomplish the things you have. Given what you've done, how you've operated, I knew you had to be a Cursor. I made a list. But there aren't many of us old Cursori Callidus left alive, after Kalarus's Bloodcrows were through with us. It was a very short list."
Fidelias nodded. It had only been a matter of time before he was discovered. He'd known that for quite a while.
"You are a traitor," Magnus said quietly.
Fidelias nodded.
"You killed Cursor Serai. One of our own."
"Yes."
"How many?" Magnus asked, his voice shaking with rage. "How many have you murdered? How many deaths can be laid at your feet?"
Fidelias took a deep breath, and said quietly, "I stopped counting back when I still worked for Sextus."
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 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...?"
Tavi grimaced, and said, "Max, he betrayed my grandfather after swearing to serve him. He gave his own student, back at the Academy, to the Aquitaines to be tortured. He is the only surviving member of the senior Cursori who could possibly have provided details about the organization to Kalarus's Bloodcrows. I personally witnessed him kill half a dozen legionares defending the battlements at Second Calderon, and the plan he helped execute killed hundreds more. Any one of those crimes merits execution. In time of war, they merit summary execution."
Max frowned and did not look at Tavi. "Do we know if he's done anything since he assumed the identity of Valiar Marcus?"
"It doesn't matter what he's done since, Max," Tavi replied, keeping his voice level, completely neutral. "He is guilty of treason. There are a host of crimes a First Lord can choose to be lenient about. There is one he absolutely cannot."
"But..."
Crassus cut in, overriding his brother's protest. "He's right, Max. You know he's right."
Demos folded his arms and nodded at Max. "Be glad the fellow did some good before he got caught. It doesn't give the dead back to