“A blade. And treachery.”
“A fitting end for him.”
Sara tucked the blade inside her sleeve, wiped her eyes, and looked down at the drawing again.
“So, as he died, he asked you only to bring me this? Is he posing me a riddle? It’s been so long that I don’t know the answer anymore. You’ve come all this way for nothing.”
“No. I believe he simply wanted you to know he had died.”
“Why? Was he short of people to bring flowers to his grave? Hmph. After a life like his, he ought to be thankful if no one comes to dig him up.”
“Madam.”
Perhaps Sara was right. What Gene had learned of the Shadowhawk’s deeds since arriving in Delphinad described, quite frankly, a ruthless scoundrel. No, a murderer. It was not surprising that people had feared and hated him.
But Gene alone knew clearly what had become of the Shadowhawk in his later years. The Shadowhawk Gene remembered, or rather Beka, the gladiator of Epherium, had sometimes been fierce, but he had cared for Gene and done everything he could to pass on what he possessed.
“You know him better than I do. I’m only a young man who knows nothing of your relationship or what happened between you. To be honest, I had no idea what I would hear when I came here. Before facing his final fight, he asked me to seek you out, the only request he ever made of me. I merely thought you must be someone very precious to him. That was why I hoped meeting you would teach me something more about him.”
“And hasn’t it? Wouldn’t you have been better off not knowing?”
“No. I still don’t understand.”
“What don’t you understand? Must I tell you every last thing he did?”
“No. Whatever else I hear here, or don’t hear, the things he did in Delphinad will not disappear. But there was more to him than that, wasn’t there? Something different that I only dimly suspect, but that you know well…”
Sara laughed, then shouted.
“No! If that was what you expected, get out at once! Whether such a thing exists or not, you’ve come to the wrong person. The Shadowhawk had countless enemies, but none received worse treatment from him than I did. If he’d possessed even a scrap of mercy, would I be hearing today from the likes of you that he’s dead? If he’d truly kept the oath he made over Irko!”
Sara had called the bird in the picture Gene brought an Irko. The Irko tattoo on Beka’s back on the day he fell was something Gene had never seen before. He must therefore have had it put there deliberately before that match. Beka had lived in Epherium without revealing that he was the Shadowhawk, yet before a fight that might be his last, he had entered the arena bearing a tattoo that was as good as his own name. He had returned to his original self. And he had wanted just one person to know. Why?
Gene spoke.
“Forgive my presumption, but I want to know what that oath was.”
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