The Drone Who Claimed the Marshal novel · Chapter 30 of 32

Chapter 30: Zane

Linus did not tell him that night.

He lay awake until the light in the window turned grey.

Ambrose slept on his side with one hand resting over the mark on Linus's wrist.

At dawn Linus gave up and went out to the cliff path in his bare feet.

He was halfway to the end of it when he heard steps behind him.

"You went before the gulls," Ambrose said. "I thought that was my habit."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Ambrose stopped beside him in his shirt and trousers, with the wind in his hair. "Tell me."

Linus looked at the sea for a while.

"There was a ship," he said. "Before I woke in the Hall. It was full of people, and I burned my powers out to get it clear of a fight it couldn't win."

"You've told me."

"I never saw it land."

Ambrose said nothing and let him go on.

"I don't know if they lived. I don't know their names. I don't even know if anyone back there knows what I did."

His throat hurt.

"Last night I saw a light on the water, and I thought, they'll never say my name. Nobody in that world will ever say it again."

"Linus," Ambrose began.

"It's not that I want to go back. I don't. I wouldn't change a minute of this."

He pressed the heel of his hand to his eye.

"I only miss being him. Zane. He had a name that people said. Nobody says it here."

The wind blew.

Below them a wave broke, long and slow.

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