like. For the good of Reyes, that’s what you said.”
What he’d said, and she’d blindly believed him. Because he was like Da, because she needed someone to be perfect for, or what was the point? She’d believed him, made sure not to question him, ignored all the little signs that now, in a flash of understanding, had grown big as elephants. The way Petri twitched every time his name came up, how Eneko had sidestepped any questions she asked, Bakar’s needling of him, hatred of him. She’d been blind to it all because she’d wanted to be. The last part of what she thought she’d known, thought she was, crashed around her ears. She’d been murdering people for Eneko’s ambition.
He moved closer, and was that real compassion in his eyes?
“Kacha, listen to me. You were the one. Always. My Kacha, helping me make this city great again. Ridding it of everything that’s weakened it since Bakar came to power. I couldn’t have done any of it without my perfect Kacha.”
“Funny,” Dom said behind her. “You used to say that to me. And you’ve missed out a whole section about your own foray into slavery. Or how when I found out, you destroyed me.”
A flash of irritation passed over Eneko’s face. “More to it than that, wasn’t there, Jokin? Don’t paint yourself as blameless.”
“Slavery?” Kacha backed away from Eneko, from his reaching hand, the sorrow in his eyes.
His wise voice, that patient one she craved and so at odds with his words. “Not really – though some would say otherwise. Bakar and Petri, maybe. No more slavery than a guild education. They had better lives than those I took them from.”
“Who did?”
He shook his head as though he was dealing with a child who couldn’t hope to understand the complexities of life outside the nursery. “Won’t you take my word on it? Trust me and come back. Come home.”
With every word he was crushing every dream she’d ever had of the world, so that now maybe she could see it as it was – ugly as sin under its patina of beauty – but at least this was truth. “Not this time.” She’d had enough of trust turning round to bite her to last ten lifetimes. “Tell me all of it.”
He seemed to crumple then, his face sagging, his eyes looking even older. He reached out a hand towards her shoulder, then seemed to think better of it. “I’ve loved you as a daughter. And like a father I wanted you to think well of me. That’s all. I sent them to Ikaras. Without them, they could never have built such a trade in sugar, in coal and iron, never got the wealth they have now, and as for the people themselves, they’d have died down on the docks most likely, starved to death in an alley somewhere. Others serve the king, his nobles, feed me information. Some pass on information from me to the king there. Ikaras owes me, and they know it, and maybe when the time comes, I’ll have an ally there. A slow, subtle move to power it was going to be, with a sudden fall of the sword at the end. For the good of Reyes. Licio has hastened things on for me, though. Using Vocho to kill the priest was inspired. Maybe I can use the coming confusion to my advantage. Our advantage, Kacha. When the guild comes to power, I’ll need a woman with a sword at the ready. Just say the word, and you can be out of here, back in the guild, back where you belong.”
Oh, it was tempting. Tempting to give in, to go back to what she knew, what was comforting. Get out of this cell with her head still on her shoulders. But this… He’d used her for his own revenge against Bakar. He’d sent people off to slavery in Ikaras, had her kill people for his own ends. He’d lied to her, betrayed her. She’d thought he was like her da, but he was just out for what she could give him, out for himself. Just like everyone else.
Everyone had betrayed her, everyone. She had nothing and no one to fight for any more, except herself. No Da, no Voch, no Petri, not even Eneko, the rock she’d built herself on, had always wanted to prove herself to, had craved praise from. She had no one to be perfect for any more, and the thought was vibrantly liberating.