The Traitor A. Lombardo (best thriller novels to read TXT) 📖

The world needed to know the truth about what Nola and everything that happened. But first, he needed to band his friends together.

“Now you answer my question,” Kai insisted. “How did you find me?”

“We are about to go to war, and you are worried about how I found you?” Dresnor curled his lip, looking disgusted at Kai. “We received word you had escaped Diu prison. The Queen insists the Katori brainwashed you. Roark was about to board a ship to sail for Katori when one of our vessels rescued a tiny skiff with a merchant and his daughter spouting talk of Katori witchery and a planned attack on Diu City.

“Now, come dawn, Admiral Roark plans to sail toward Port Anahita, rally the troops, and defend Diu. Although, I am sure he also hopes to join in the hunt for you, too. I came out here to pray to Alenga. I asked her to guide me because I am lost and do not know what I should do. That is how I found you.”

Kai nodded and realized the only way his men would follow him again was through trust. Trust he needed to earn. “Dresnor, you are my closest friend. I am sorry that I have kept secrets from you. I swore to these keep secrets because I was protecting others, but now I understand we are on the verge of war. A war I started—and one I hope to end before blood is shed on either side.”

Dresnor cocked his head. “Why should I follow you?”

There was no point in hiding his truth any longer. The only way forward was together. Kai stood and took hold of the crystal around his neck. He let the moonlight and the power from the crashing waves poured into him, which fed his magic—causing his crystal to glow. The golden thread of creation spun in his mind begging him to meld and embraced his inner dragon.

Dresnor hopped to his feet and drew his sword. “By Alenga’s name,” he shouted. “What manner of sorcerer are you?”

Visions of his mother’s sacrifice and her years of suffering weighed on his heart. Did he have the right to expose Katori's secrets? Caught between the choice, he feared that revealing his dragon-form would only reinforce the tale of sorcery delivered by the merchant and his daughter—he would tell anyone who listened that the Katori are killers, and Kai would be one of them. He let the magic seep back to whence it came. The light in his crystal faded, and he sank into sadness. “I am no sorcerer. I thought . . .” He let his words fall on the sand. “It was only a parlor trick.”

Dresnor lowered his sword, but only slightly. “But how did you make the stone glow?” he asked, pointing his sword once more at Kai’s chest, now only inches from the dangling crystal.

What an interesting question, but it was the wrong question. He tucked the stone beneath his shirt and pushed the tip of Dresnor sword away. “I am me, the boy you helped shape into a man. The man you fought beside at Port Anahita. What you do not know is that I am Katori-born. Iver was not my father, but he loved my mother, and he helped her hide me from the man we all know as Keegan—my birth father. The very same man who attacked the Diu palace with Landon; the leader of the Caroco army who sent men to kidnap or possibly kill Aunt Helena in Port Anahita if Tolan had not stopped them.”

Disbelief and shock overtook Dresnor’s face, and Kai could only imagine the questions that were forming on the man’s tongue. “I do not believe you. But why would you lie? Is this part of the brainwashing from Katori? How did they convince you of this nonsense?” He shook his head, refusing to accept Kai’s story.

“Trust me, Dresnor, this is not a lie. I still consider Iver to be my father, and Iver told Cazier the same night he told me. The Master General can attest to the truth of this, but we there is no time for all these questions.”

Dresnor relaxed but kept his sword unsheathed. “But, I have so many questions, yet they seem small in comparison to the chaos surrounding you. So, if you did not kill Iver, who did?”

“Nola,” Kai answered flatly. “She is the sister of Landon Panier, the illegitimate daughter of King Bannon Panier. Her desire is to avenge her father by manipulating, well, everyone. She plans to put Aaron on the Diu throne, but she needed Iver dead and me out of the way—either dead or in prison.”

“What proof do you have?” Dresnor demanded. “If I understand what I have heard, you were found in Iver’s room, your hands covered in blood, and Nola witnessed you stabbing him.”

He knew his word was not enough after all the secrets and the lies; proving his innocence would be impossible against a queen’s word. “Nola manipulated me with some potion and a spell, but I have no tangible proof, only my word. I did not do this. Nola wielded the knife, put it in my hand, but I did not thrust the blade. She alone shoved the dagger into my father. She brainwashed me. Cazier and Riome know this to be true.”

“So, if you did not kill him, and you were all alone, except for Nola, who took Iver’s body?.”

The look on his friend’s face did not make sense. Those words, that phrase rang in the back of his head. He vaguely remembered the council asking the same question. Kai’s jaw dropped, bewildered. “What do you mean, who took Iver’s body?” The last he remembered his father’s body lay in a pool of blood, dying. “I ran. My father was still in his bed when I pushed Nola into the hall and took