Chapter 8: Seventeen Names

Florian said them lying on his back on the rug, with his head on Evander's arm.

Seventeen names.

Aldric Rask came first, Evander's father, because he was found in the gatehouse.

Hesper Rask, his mother.

Then the steward, the cook, the stable boys, and the girls from the laundry.

Maren Rask was the twelfth.

Florian didn't stumble once.

Evander lay there and heard his whole family come out of the prince's mouth in a quiet voice.

He could not move.

"Stop," he said at last.

Florian stopped.

"How do you know them?"

"The coroner's roll.

"I found it when I was seventeen."

"Why were you reading the coroner's roll?"

"Because I wanted to read what I'd signed," said Florian.

He sat up and found his shirt, and his hands shook.

"The order was one of forty papers.

"I was fifteen and I had been awake two nights.

"I put my seal under each one as I was told.

"I did not read them.

"It's a very short sentence, Evander.

"I did not read them."

"You knew for six years."

"Yes."

"You knew who I was."

"From the first day you walked into the guard yard.

"You had the Rask stag on your belt buckle.

"You'd sanded it down, but I knew it."

Evander got to his feet.

The fire hissed.

The rug was suddenly an absurd place for either of them to be.

"You let me sleep across your door," he said.

"For three years.

"You let me stand behind your chair.

"You smiled at me in the council."

"Yes."

"You let me wait."

"Yes," said Florian.

He stood too, in his open shirt, so much smaller than Evander, with his chin up.

"I didn't send you away because you had the right.

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