The Drone Who Claimed the Marshal novel · Chapter 20 of 32

Chapter 20: Keep Him

"You took long enough," the boy said again.

His voice was cracked and small.

Linus crossed the grey room and sat down on the floor in front of him.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't know you were here."

"Nobody did."

"How long?"

"Since the ridge." The boy picked at the burnt sleeve. "I was asleep for most of it. I woke when you came. It was loud."

Up close he was so young.

His grey eyes were Linus's grey eyes, and they were frightened, and they were trying very hard not to be.

"I'm Zane," Linus said. "Or I was. I don't know whose body this was before I came into it."

"It was mine."

"Yes."

"You can have it," the boy said quickly. "I thought about it a lot. You're good at it. You talk. You made the Duke stop smiling."

"I didn't come to take it."

"I know." The boy almost smiled. "That's why I'm telling you."

"I'll give it back," Linus said. "The fire. The body. I'll go, if you want to live. I mean it."

The boy was silent for a long time.

"I heard him," he said at last. "Ambrose. In the dark of the keep, when you think I'm asleep. He talks to you. He tells you the things he didn't tell me."

"He didn't know you."

"He tried to." The boy's chin trembled. "On the ridge. He had his hand on my face. He kept saying, who are you, who are you, stay."

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