Chapter Seven
I look at Elder Sera for a long time without speaking.
She lets me. She has the particular stillness of someone who has delivered enormous news before and understands that the person receiving it needs a moment to locate the ground again.
"Not dead," I say finally.
"No."
"My mother told me she died before I was born."
"Your mother was told that. By Aldric. Who had every reason to make certain you believed it."
I look at Caden. He looks back at me with an expression that says he knew this was coming and did not know how to deliver it and made the wrong call not trying.
"You knew," I say.
"I found out three months ago," he says. "When Sera came to me."
"Three months."
"Sara."
"You have known for three months that my grandmother is alive and you said nothing."
"I di
