Valentin said nothing.
“Sir,” said Martin. “We will all suffer if you let her go.”
I looked up once more and found Valentin’s eyes on mine. He nodded once. I breathed a deep sigh of relief. He was going to let me go.
“I will tell the Graf you disagreed with my decision, Martin,” said Valentin. “In fact I have no doubt you will tell him yourself. Perhaps he will give you my place when I have gone.”
“Gone?” asked Martin. “What about Ada?”
Valentin’s carefully contained rage slipped free. He seized Martin by the neck of his jacket and shoved him against the wall.
“If you wish to remain aboard this ship until we reach land, you will keep her name out of your vicious mouth.”
Before Martin could do more than gasp with shock, Valentin threw him out the door and followed, shutting it behind him.
I turned back to Dominic and my father. Despite the dramatic scene that had just unfolded before them, they were both staring at me as though they had seen nothing more interesting than my face. After a moment, I looked down. They were too shocked, it seemed, to remember it was rude to stare.
Dominic cleared his throat, a painful sound.
“You need water,” I said. “Food, too, I don’t doubt. I’ll see if I can find anything.”
I stood, but my head spun, and I staggered. My father took my arm and helped me sit again.
“I’ll get it, Thea,” said my father. “You rest, please.”
He left, and Dominic cleared his throat again, then winced.
“We’re not in London anymore, I take it.” His voice was a rough whisper, but despite the circumstances, there was humor in it.
“No,” I said with a small smile. “We’re going to France.”
“I gathered that much,” said Dominic. “And … how long has it been?”
I swallowed. I didn’t want to tell him how long it had taken me, how long I had failed him and left him in torment. “A few weeks. I am sorry it took me so long.”
“So long,” he echoed. “Yes, it felt so long. Years. Ages.”
I knew what the look on his face meant. I knew that terror.
“It’s over,” I said. “You’re free.”
“We both are,” said Dominic.
I couldn’t argue. I had been a prisoner first in my mind and then in my body. I wasn’t any longer, and yet I did not feel free. All I felt was the ache of loss, and the gray bleakness of the future. But perhaps it was common for freed prisoners to feel this way.
“Thank you, Thea,” said Dominic. “You’ve been a good friend to me.”
“Not as good as you were to me,” I replied, and meant it.
He shook his head and smiled. It was a comfort to sit next to a good and selfless man who was entirely convinced that I was just like him, so I let him go on smiling and believing in me.
Someday I might have to tell him everything I did wrong. But not now. Less than an hour ago I had been dead and Dominic even worse. We deserved this moment, when loyalties were pure and rewarded, and debts were paid. We had saved each other, and we were friends.
23
We disembarked in Caen. I said goodbye to Valentin. I thanked him.
Perhaps it was strange to thank him. He’d been my captor. He had forced me to risk my mind, intending to steal the product of my labor. He had tortured Will.
All that must have been on his mind when he stared at me in surprise.
“You are welcome,” he said, then frowned as though he had said the wrong thing.
“Why—” I was almost afraid to ask, lest he change his mind. “Why are you letting me go?”
I didn’t ask about the price he would pay for it, but we both knew what it was. The pain of loss was already etched in the lines of his face. Valentin shifted his weight and looked over his shoulder, back toward the sea.
“Even if you are wrong that the Stone is truly dead,” he said after a moment. “Even if you could make it again … I could not make you do it. Once was too many times. And I am…”
He broke off again, still staring at the sea. He sighed. “I am sorry,” he said. “For ever having done it at all.”
“Oh,” I said. “And … and I’m sorry, too. About Ada.”
He nodded his acceptance, as I nodded mine.
“I wasn’t fair to her, in my mind,” I said. “She’ll never know it. But I still feel I should apologize to someone for it. To you, I suppose.”
The ghost of a smile flitted across Valentin’s face. “She would like you,” he said. “The two of you aren’t as different as you think.”
I smiled back at him and didn’t argue. I found, to my surprise, that I believed him.
We left each other that way. Both quieted from the shock of finding friendly feelings under the skin of enemies.
My father hired a carriage to Honfleur, and I described the Comte’s estate to Dominic. The apple orchards, the pond, the neat little cottages where the farmers lived. I talked too fast. He noticed my fingers drumming against the carriage bench before I did.
“She’ll be fine, Thea,” said Dominic.
He had so mistaken the cause of my anxiety that I didn’t understand him at first.
I glanced at my father, whose long fingers were beating a similar staccato. He stared out the window. His face was tight, but his eyes gleamed with eagerness. I did not like to see that. She was sure to disappoint him.
“Father,” I began carefully, “you understand that the Comte isn’t merely my mother’s patron?”
“Yes, yes,” he murmured. He gave a little jerk of his head, as though shaking off the thought. “But she burns through them quickly, does she not? She could be done with this Comte
