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“You’d like me like that?”

“Yes. I’d like you like that.”

The following morning, the ship comes. The ship is flying the colours of Azuria. Green and gold. At first, Damon thinks it might be his father with supplies. They sit together and watch it until Damon realises what ship it is.

Before he can say anything, Lyr murmurs, “That's the Azuria Ascendant.”

Damon nods. “Go inside. Hide anything that would be a sign that you are here and then hide yourself. Go to the hidden cellar and stay there.” He can see Atticul standing on deck.

“I don’t want to leave you with him,” says Lyr. “You’re still weaker than you were.”

“I’m strong enough to handle Atticul,” Damon says.

“Very well,” Lyr says and presses a kiss to Damon’s temple.

The ship weighs anchor and Damon watches as a small boat rows to shore, containing Atticul and four of his bodymen. Damon does not move. He sits where he is on the steps of the keep as the boat is pulled up on the shore.

Atticul walks across the beach and up the small grassy hill, followed by the four bodymen. He comes over to Damon and stands over him. He is dressed in his usual fine clothing. Black velvet embroidered with gold thread. Fine shoes. Damon’s clothes are rags. He wears nothing on his feet and has a blanket around his shoulders. He looks like a beggar from the back streets of Attar.

Damon looks up. “What do you want?”

“Come to see if you were dead.”

“You’ve seen it. You can go.”

“Your whore vanished from the dungeons. Did you know?”

“How would I know?”

Atticul smiles oilily. “For the obvious reason that he might have come here. I am here to search the island for him.”

“Go ahead and look,” says Damon. The enforcers didn’t find the hidden cellar. Damon can only hope Atticul’s bodymen will overlook it too.

“You could not have survived here alone,” Atticul says. “You were half dead when they took you off that scaffold. Your wounds were easily enough to kill you if you were left alone. Selim ordered your whore be kept in the dungeons, and rightly, someone should pay for Sweetpea’s death.”

“I agree,” says Damon. “Someone should.”

“We will find him.”

“I told you. Go ahead and look.”

The four bodymen start with the keep. When they are gone Atticul says, “There’s something else. As you are alive I have something I need from you.”

Damon takes a long breath. “What?”

“I am to marry. His Great and Holy Majesty Emperor Selim has pronounced your marriage to Inez invalid. As you were committing such great sins throughout it.”

“I am aware.”

“Lady Inez is free to marry.”

“Indeed,” Damon says with a slow dread dawning on him.

“I am to take her as bride.”

The dread becomes a lurch of queasiness. Inez. He swore he’d protect her. But he can’t. He can’t even protect himself. “And Inez wishes to marry you?”

“Of course, Bastard. She is delighted. We are in love.”