Dimitri was good at many, many things. Even I could admit that. But he wasn’t capable of getting the surprise off his face before I caught it. “He told you?”
“He did.”
“That… was unexpected.”
“Why?”
“Randall forsook his name. Which meant he forsook the one who’d taught him.”
“Randall of Dragons.”
“Yes.”
“Can you blame him?”
Dimitri flew under a low-hanging branch, the leaves on the trees stretching toward him as he passed. “It’s not my job to blame him.”
“He gave up his name because he felt as if he didn’t deserve it anymore.”
“He told you this?”
“No,” I admitted. “But it’s pretty obvious, if you think about it. He felt… guilt. Over Myrin. That he didn’t see what was happening before it was too late. Or if he did see it, he ignored it. I don’t know which it was. I don’t know that it matters. It was too late, regardless. And when all was said and done, after everything he’d sacrificed, what was a name?”
“A name is an identity,” Dimitri said. “It defines you. Mine is the name of my father, and his father before him. I carry the line of my people. You are Sam of Wilds. Without it, you would not be as you are.”
“I haven’t always been Sam of Wilds.”
“And you were not as you are now.”
He was starting to talk in circles, and if I let it continue on much longer, I’d get lost. I didn’t have time for that. Not if we were getting close. “Randall wasn’t insulting his mentor. If anything, he was honoring him by giving back what he felt he hadn’t earned. Even if they weren’t on speaking terms, he must have thought he’d failed him.”
Dimitri snorted. “You speak of honor as if you know what it means. Your cornerstone acts as one who knows the taste of betrayal.”
I refused to rise to the bait. “We’re not talking about him.”
“We’re not?” Dimitri asked. “I thought we were discussing many things.”
“The Great White.”
“That too.”
“When was the last time you saw him?”
“Why?”
“Because I asked.”
“I don’t know what concern that is of yours.”
“How do you know where we’re going?”
“We’re in the Dark Woods. This is my domain. I know all that happens here.”
“Like the bird.”
“Like the bird,” Dimitri agreed. “I almost took you then. It was a close thing. You would have been mine, and I would never have let you go.”
“Why didn’t you?”