Lars sighed. “Roberto.” His voice was tender, as if he was speaking to a son, but grim lines furrowed his brow. “You saw the damage your father did. You vowed never to be like him. Your talents are valued here. Why would you do this?”
What had Roberto’s father done?
Roberto stared at Lars, eyes cold, refusing to speak.
Lars tried again. “And your relationship with the Queen’s Rider?”
Roberto’s upper lip curled. “Relationship? What relationship?” He regarded her the way a buyer at a market would gaze upon rotten fish entrails.
Her cheeks burned with shame. She met his eyes. There was nothing warm there now. “Roberto, this can’t be true. Tell me it isn’t. Please.” It was a desperate plea sent into a cold hard void.
“She’s not the real Queen’s Rider, is she?” Tonio’s words struck Ezaara like a whip. “You only pretended to test her.”
“Yes, I am,” Ezaara cried.
Zaarusha roared.
“She is the Queen’s Rider,” Roberto said. “Their bond is strong. But banish me, and you won’t have anyone to test your imprinting bonds again.”
“Or feed that information to Zens,” Tonio snapped.
Lars looked sick, his face tinged gray, sweat on his forehead. “Master of Mental Faculties and Imprinting, Roberto, son of Amato, is now stripped of his title and is no longer a part of this council,” he announced. “He’ll be banished to the Wastelands within the hour. Take him to the dungeons. His sister may farewell him before he goes. Ezaara, our Honored Queen’s Rider, has been cleared of all charges. This trial is adjourned.” The crack of Lars’ gavel nearly split Ezaara’s heart in two.
At the rear of the chamber, Erob bellowed, lashing out with his talons. Blue Guards restrained him with javelins and ropes as more guards marched Roberto out of the chamber through a side tunnel.
“Adelina,” Ezaara called out, but Adelina ignored her, striding after Roberto, chin high and eyes shiny with unshed tears.
“Clear the room,” Lars commanded. “The masters and dragons have urgent matters to attend to.”
“Zaarusha!”
“It’s all right, Ezaara. It was a mistake to trust him. It was lucky he confessed before you were cast out.”
Gods, it was lucky. Because of his confession, her name had been cleared. “What if he’s lying?”
“Erob said the same. But I doubt it. Roberto has obviously inherited his father’s disposition, like Tonio always feared.”
Ezaara was swept out the main doors amid the crowd. Although she was surrounded by people, everyone avoided eye contact and no one came near. Fleur’s and Tonio’s accusations had created a granite wall between Ezaara and her people.
§
Adelina stumbled along the tunnel. Roberto. No, not Roberto. Ma, dead. Roberto, banished.
She had no one left. No one.
Not that her father had been a loss. They’d all been glad to see the back of him. Life had been peaceful after his death. After he’d paralyzed Ma. She choked back tears, cursing his watery grave. She hadn’t swum in Crystal Lake again since he’d died there.
It hadn’t been easy, growing up with an older brother who was fighting inner demons, but Roberto had always been gentle with her. More gentle than with anyone else. As if he’d understood her need to be protected, after what they’d been through. He’d become her mother and father. And fought tooth and talon to keep her, refused to foster her out, although that’s what most thirteen-year-olds would’ve done if their parents were dead.
And now he was imprisoned, headed for the Wastelands.
He had no chance. Although Roberto had survived other forms of hell—everyone had said he’d never come back from Death Valley—he wouldn’t be coming back this time. If cats had nine lives, Roberto had used all of his twice over.
There was something about the whole trial that was off. Roberto loved being a dragon master, loved the realm. There was no way he would’ve hurt anyone or risked being half naked in—
That must have been the day Ezaara had healed him and Simeon had walked in.
Why hadn’t Roberto told Lars about piaua? Why hadn’t he asked Ezaara to testify? Questions swirling in her mind, Adelina traipsed down the dingy tunnel to the dungeons, following her brother, the only other surviving member of her family.
§
“Adelina.” Roberto’s face was haggard. They clasped hands through the cold bars of the dungeon. “They’ll banish me, they have to.” He slipped something between them, into her pocket. His eyes were fiery with some insistent message that she couldn’t grasp.
“Over my dead body!” Adelina snapped. By the Egg, they’d been through so much. It couldn’t end like this.
“No,” he insisted. “They have to, can’t you see?”
He wanted to be banished. “After all you’ve worked for.” Her throat tightened.
“And undone.” His eyes flicked to the guards behind her. Those eyes were pleading with her to understand something important—but what?
“Time’s up,” a guard called.
“Yes,” said Adelina. “Of course.”
Eyes burning, she made her way back up the tunnels, determined not to cry. She’d had years of practice at hiding her emotions.
Slipping her hand into her pocket, Adelina drew out the Queen’s Rider’s green ribbon, warm where Roberto had held it. Oh, shards! He’d taken the blame to protect Ezaara. She blinked back tears, but it was useless. Warm rivulets coursed down her cheeks.
This was harder than Pa’s treachery. His abuse. His death.
Harder than Ma’s death. Because Roberto had been there.
And now, she had no one.
§
Ezaara raced to her cavern. She lifted her mattress, and snatched up her healer’s pouch.
Roberto had been lying. He’d melded and shown her his true self, only it wasn’t his true self. The man she’d glimpsed and loved had been a traitor. The admiration in his eyes, the way he’d lit every corner of her being with light, shone
