Page 59 of To No End

“That must mean that Saryn and Idris are from Houses long disappeared since the war, if they were conscripted just like we were and yet none of us know them,” I hypothesized.

“Well, aren’t you the ever astute one,” Gia complimented dryly.

“I don’t care about any of that, I’m still curious about Saryn. You think he fucks as a female?” Cairis inquired crassly.

I could not believe the audacity of his foul-mouthed question. Gia rolled her eyes and I sat there, mouth agape.

“Wouldn’t you like to know!” Gia teased back playfully.

Cairis cocked his head, raising a curious eyebrow at us, indicating he was considering it.

I guess it was good to see that at least the three of us got along. Even if we were talking about our teacher like he was some piece of meat.

“I don’t think fucking the teacher is going to earn you any points, Cairis.”

My eyes widened at Gia’s equally inappropriate remark. What happened to propriety and etiquette? Was I the only one who hadn’t completely abandoned our upbringings in a matter of a day?

“You two have quite the mouths on you for being a Royal and a half-blood,” I pointed out jokingly.

“As far as I’m concerned, my lot has improved greatly since coming here. Guess I’m lucky that Lord Tiernan’s rugrats were too young for this spy stuff. Better than being stuck working long hours in the mines and being treated like a lowborn. I suppose it was finally convenient to acknowledge I was his son and seize the opportunity to be rid of me.”

The scars and bruises on Cairis finally made sense. He had certainly not grown up with a silver spoon in his mouth like the other sons and daughters of the court. I found his honesty refreshing. That, and I liked listening to him talk; his accent was like music to my ears.

“Where’s Nori?” I pried, seeing if anyone else had taken notice of her whereabouts.

“Quiet, that one is,” Cairis answered.

“She’s in her room,” Gia noted. “I get the feeling she’s in denial of being here.”

You can never be certain, with the graceful way Fae aged, but I had a hunch that Nori was the youngest of all of us. For a brief second, I felt almost protective of her, like an older sister. I considered seeking her out but settled on giving her some time and space to wrap her mind around this place. Who was I kidding? I still was, too; it wasn’t like I was going to have any sage advice to offer.

I continued to take awkward side glances in the direction of Varro, who seemed to take pleasure in acting like none of us were here. I felt guilty for holding his father against him, especially when I had no idea what role he had played, but onecould imagine the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I also disliked how he sought to incite Trace.

Then I heard his voice echo across the room in our direction. “Cress? That’s your name, right?” he asked, somehow sounding bored while still flipping the pages of his book with indifference.

“It’s very unbecoming to hold the crimes of my father against me when you don’t even know me.” I almost gasped at the intrusion. “And yes, it’s very easy to read your mind, even from a distance. You should work on that, or be brave enough to say those thoughts to my face.”

My cheeks flushed pink with embarrassment and Cairis let out a boisterous laugh. Before I could even pause to consider if my reaction would give away my loyalties, I marched angrily toward him.

“I’ll go ahead and give you a piece of my mind since you seem intent on prying. For someone who doesn’t want to be judged by their father’s actions, you’re quite the hypocrite given your remarks towards Trace.”

I had no idea what I was even really defending since I lacked the full context of their exchange from earlier, but Varro had had me fired up since I first laid eyes on him, and he’d done nothing but irk me with his arrogance since.

I’d made my way to his seat and hovered over him. He set the book down nonchalantly, giving me a modicum of his attention. Both Cairis and Gia had perked up in their seats, staring at the impending altercation.

“Do you even know who the Orni are?” he questioned me, and when I held my silence for too long, he proceeded, “Ahh, thought not. Well, let me educate you, Cress.” I hated the way he over-enunciated my name. I swallowed the lump in my throat.

“The Orni, or, as many call them, the black cloaks, are the things of nightmares. Those who encounter them don’t live to tell or see the light of day. They follow no laws, they have nodecorum, and they will torture or kill whoever, as long as the price is right. Probably why the entire Wick family has always been Orni. They are all sick and twisted.”

The room fell into silent tension. No one spoke a word. Neither Cairis nor Gia’s expressions hinted at any sort of surprise, given the graveness of Varro’s words. I thanked the Gods that Trace hadn’t been in the room to hear these accusations, or Varro may have been without one of his well-defined limbs.

My mind wrestled with his words, trying to make sense of what he was implying. Trace was military…or at least, that’s what I had thought. I’d seen his vicious side firsthand with that gambler, but torture and senseless killing? I refused to accept that as being true. I’d never heard of the Orni or the black cloaks, and I was going to give Trace the benefit of the doubt until I could speak with him privately.

“And how would you happen to know so much about them if most don’t live to tell,” I spat back.

“Because they’re the ones who came for my father.”

I thought back to my own father’s words when he’d said they’d finally captured the barbarian and that he’d be tortured and imprisoned forever. Rightfully so, but still I shuddered at the thought of Trace, his father, brothers, or really anyone for that matter being the one to execute those orders.

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