For the remainder of that day, Cassian did not return to Manor Marubio. Yet when he did, he looked more like a beggar and less like a king.
The knights whispered that he had vanished into the trees shortly after Hadrian's troop departed. They said he had looked like a man possessed by a need to kill when he stormed through the tall iron gates.
It was only in the early hours of the morning, when no light had yet touched the sky and the mist still hung thick in the air, that he finally reappeared. As the men busied themselves to prepare for the long journey back to the Black Fortress, they saw their sovereign emerging at the far end of the pitch-dark forest path.
"Mistress," one of the men called out, "the Master has returned."
Hermi's attention snapped toward the gates, and her eyes widened in shock.
The fine black doublet Cassian had worn when he left the study was shredded into ribbons. His trousers were torn and caked in forest mud.
