Twenty-Three
Zai
“So you see, Sithe, there are almost as many ways to remove me from the Arsenal as there are ways to remove you.” I turn to gauge my new protégé’s reaction. “Sithe?”
The conference bench is empty.
He’s gone.
How long?
The pounding of my headache, barely contained for the last few clegs, presses on my skull. My vision blurs. I rest my weight on my palms.
It’s devastating that my enemies have gotten to Sithe.
He’s the one blade who never worried me.
If they can get to him, they can get to anyone.
They can get to me.
And I want to be wrong about him so badly. I’ve taken risks, stupid risks, hoping against hope he’ll prove his loyalty.
I, who once heard the whisper of a blade ejecting from a sheath at fifty paces in a busy spaceport, did not hear him leave. In my w
