“Oh, as always. My daughter started training for dance last moon. We’re told she has the talent for it.”
Sume walked past them and headed straight for the common room where they slept. Both Dai and Kirosha still snored on their mats. She knelt beside her daughter, wiping the sweat from her brow before arranging the thin blanket over her.
She heard Kefier walk in and clear his throat. “You should sleep,” he said, not unkindly, but she caught a layer of tension underneath his words. She looked at the wall.
“The prince is sending me to Oren-yaro,” she said.
He didn’t reply at once. When she looked at him again, he had crossed the room to sit beside the stack of clean laundry. He picked out a shirt and began to fold it furiously.
“Kefier,” she started.
“What for? We’re doing well here. Jorri’s letting me work with the clients now and your job at the docks isn’t half-bad. And if you’re telling me you can drag Narani out of here after you worked so hard bringing her here in the first place…she’s becoming too comfortable, if you ask me…”
“You’re not listening again. Me. He’s sending me to Oren-yaro. To accompany Anong Sagar.”
He looked at her. “What for?”
She stepped towards him. “You know I can’t say why, Kefier. The prince…”
“All right. I get it.” He glanced at her daughter. “What do I tell her?”
“You’re taking this well.”
“I’m very tired, Sume. We waited for you all night.” He shrugged.
“I could ask, maybe, if the prince would let me take her…”
She saw his face grow pale. “Whatever the prince has you running off to—no. Don’t get her involved. That much, at least, you can give me.” When she didn’t reply, he reached out to touch her shoulder. “Please.”
“Kefier, what will you do if Enosh follows us?” She had only intended to think those words and realized too late that she had spoken. She saw his fingers curl away from her, and he slumped back against the wall. She turned to face him. “I remember you telling me you’ll worry about it when it happens. And it hasn’t, not these last few years. I know that he’s probably dead.”
“No,” he murmured. “He can’t be.” He looked troubled. “Will you return to him?”
She flushed. “I don’t know.” Beside her, Kirosha stirred in her sleep and rolled over, flinging her arm and leg over a pillow. The curls over her face were damp with sweat.
“And you and the prince?”
“What about me and the prince?”
“You spend a lot of time with him. Rumours around the palace district say…”
Sume laughed. He frowned at her. “Don’t tell me you believe everything you hear, Kefier,” she said. She tapped her jaw with a finger. “Really, come to think of it, I don’t even know who Rysaran would be involved in. I haven’t seen him bat an eye at anyone—woman, man, goldfish…”
She noticed that he wasn’t listening anymore. After a moment’s hesitation, she reached out to place her hand on top of his. He didn’t move. “I won’t take Kirosha with me. You’ll take care of her while I’m gone?”
A flash of irritation crept up his forehead. “I always do, don’t I?”
“I know.”
It must have been because she was very tired after a night of politics and no sleep. It was certainly not intentional, or so she would tell herself later on. When she leaned over to him, it was to kiss his cheek, to thank him for all the love he gave her daughter, her nephew, this whole family that was not his. But her mind blanked out. She saw his eyes widen as her lips closed over his.
It lasted a second, and maybe even another half. For all of that, it felt like he was kissing her back. But then he tore away, his hands pulling at her fingers that were inexplicably wrapped around the front of his shirt.
“What are you doing?” he snapped.
She found herself unable to utter a response. He ran his hands through his hair, got up, and left before she could rectify that.
Chapter Two
“Hullo there, Ferral.”
The Dageian’s grating voice broke through Enosh’s dreams. He was suddenly, painfully aware that he didn’t belong in that alley. The children playing around him looked up. One, a little girl, seemed to stare straight into him, her gaze burning holes into his eye sockets.
He opened his eyes and allowed his sight to adjust to the darkness. Long, vertical shadows marked the narrow corridor that ended right at his foot. To his far left, the bucket full of last night’s waste was starting to stink. He recoiled from it and turned to face his visitor.
“Daro,” he coughed. The dust caught at his throat. Knowing there would be no water until mealtime, he turned his head and forced himself to swallow. He felt something rustle and saw Daro reach a water skin through the bars.
“Hurry,” Daro said, casting a wary glance behind them.
He tugged at the skin and uncorked it. The water was stale and too-warm, but it cooled his throat and he drank until he was sated. He shook the last few drops on his palm and rubbed them over his face and beard.
Daro took it back from him and made a face. “You won’t last much longer like this.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” he said.
“If you die now, they will have to implicate the ambassador as the murderer. Out of principle.” He scratched the side of his face and laughed a little. “If you’re going to die anyway, won’t you save us the trouble and confess? I don’t want to go back to Dageis without the old man.”
“I’m doing no such thing.” Enosh sat back and took a deep breath before glancing up at the Dageian, the first he had ever seen with dark skin. That had explained the soldier’s precarious position. Dageians had a caste system that did not allow transfers past the soldier stage—a slave, or the son of a slave, might be allowed to proceed so far, but he will never be equal to a nobleman and will always be treated as a second-class citizen for the rest of his life. If he indeed returned to Dageis without the ambassador, he would be stripped off everything he was and would be. His family and descendants could well suffer the same fate.
Not that he cared about such things anymore. After so many years in the darkness, his thoughts came easily now, and he still recalled arbitrary bits of information he had gleaned from his studies. But the thoughts remained unfiltered…he could not, for all he tried, muster up the energy to decide what he could do beyond that. It was safe to say that after a lifetime of carefully calculated actions, Enosh was stymied.
He blamed the dreams, of course. Were it not for the dreams, it would have been easier to allow himself to focus on problem-solving. But the dreams sapped all the strength out of him. He saw life through the eyes of that child, that girl-child, and waking up from the smell of sweet rain and flowers to the sweltering heat and dust around his ankles was sometimes more than he could bear.
“I met a man, about two nights past, who seems as convinced as you are that you’re innocent.” Daro chuckled. “I thought about killing him. But he was a decent fellow. Thinks he can prove who’s responsible, given enough time. Didn’t really tell me what he was thinking, but I figure if he can point out who dropped that poison in Zilfikar’s goblet, then the ambassador gets off the hook.”
“What makes you think it’s not your ambassador who actually did it?”
To his credit, Daro looked thoughtful. “You know, I’ve had enough time to ponder that. I have. There’s not a lot else a man can do with guards watching his every move.”
“Count yourself lucky they haven’t dragged you to the dungeons either.”
“Oh, I have. Have thanked my gods a thousand times over for it. They killed most of my men.” He snorted. “Of course, they did that precisely so they can have my every step followed, don’t think I don’t know that. It’s been most inconvenient. But yes, I’m definitely better off than you. Comes with not being important enough, you see. I’ve always liked that.”
“Good
for you.”
Daro laughed. “You’re becoming so crabby, Lord Ferral.”
“Why do you go here, Daro? Is your time so tedious now that bothering me serves for entertainment?”
“It’s just a compassionate visit, Ferral. We’re in the same boat.”
“I can’t tell you anything, Daro. I couldn’t three years ago.”
Daro smiled, glanced around him, and wedged another water skin through the bars before walking away. Enosh waited several moments before tucking it out of sight under his seat.
“Might as well poison me now, Daro,” he murmured to himself. “You’ve had a long enough chance.”
He placed his hands on the ball of his knees and closed his eyes. Time receded back into that place where it didn’t exist for him. He breathed in the darkness and today, tonight, tried to keep his wits alive by reciting lines of poetry. He knew a lot, once, but the years had made it clear that he didn’t know enough of them. In the room behind him, he heard another prisoner—grown mad moons ago—cry for his mother. He tightened his grip on his knees and slid back into the dream-world. The children were still playing, chasing a wooden ball down a muddy street. Somewhere above him, a sparrow chirped.
“Donkey’s balls, what is that man doing? Snap him out of it, Vilum!”
His senses swirled. He felt something grab him by the neck. A burning sensation enveloped him. He jumped back, his shoulders slamming against the wall. His eyes unhinged, revealing two cloaked figures in front of him. He blinked and recognized Sapphire’s face.
That was as far as he got. He dropped to the floor and Sapphire went up to him in two steps and reached through the bars to try to grab him herself. “You idiot!” she hissed. “I’ve told you—a hundred times, I’ve told you…!”
“Keep it down,” her companion murmured.
“It’s nice to see you too, Sapphire,” Enosh replied. “You could have visited more often.”
“Like a little child, you and the agan! Unbelievable! Why you haven’t turned yourself into a pile of dust yet, I don’t know!” Even in the darkness, he could see how red her face had become.
He sighed. “What do you want, Sapphire? And you—you’re that mage, the goatsucker, was it?”
The man frowned. “It’s Vilum. Sapphire, are you sure you want to do this? He’s not exactly a likable fellow.”
“Would that we could do without him.” She placed her hands on the bars. Steam rose from where she laid her fingers, and the iron turned red-hot and began to bend. She jumped back, cursing. Vilum stepped in and loosened the bent bars with pickaxe.
Their actions dawned on him. Enosh glanced through the bars and at the end of the hallway. “Where are the guards?”
Vilum coughed. “Busy,” Sapphire answered. The bars fell apart. “Come on, then. Unless you like it here.”
Enosh stepped through the hole, unprepared for how much his legs would shake. Sapphire grabbed his arm before he could fall and hoisted most of his weight against her body. “How are you going to hide that?” he asked, glancing at the wreckage.
“In plain sight,” Sapphire said. She nodded at Vilum. He reached back along the hall and pulled out a sack that bulged along the sides. He dumped it back into the cell before throwing his lamp into it. The sack exploded into flames, filling the air with the distinct scent of burning meat.
Enosh felt bile rise to his throat. “Please tell me that’s a dog or goat or something.”
“If you want it to be,” Sapphire said, dragging him along the hall. “Try to walk a little faster.”
“And stop it with the goat,” Vilum added. “By Agartes’ balls, you make one mistake in your life…”
They doubled back into the city, slipping through several dizzying alleyways until they ended up in a small flat in the slums. To Enosh, it felt like a palace. He accepted a floor cushion and a cold bowl of chicken stew graciously and watched as Vilum stepped through the window to look around from the rooftops. Sapphire returned with clean clothes.
“We’ll have to move again in the morning. I don’t know if they’re onto us, but it would be best to be as far from the city as soon as possible.”
He felt his way around the lumps of chicken fat. “Have you been trying to get me out of there this whole time?”
Sapphire snorted. “Don’t flatter yourself. I’ve been working at a local scribe’s shop. I took Vilum in a few weeks after you were captured—he is my cousin, after all—and here we are.”
“Then why go through all the trouble?”
She shrugged. He watched her glide past a bookshelf, her fingers tracing book spines as she went. Eventually, she stopped, and lingered over one in deep thought. She turned to him and pushed her spectacles up with a finger. “I’m tired of dancing around with you, Enosh. This master of yours, Yn Garr…how much do you know of him?”
He started out wanting to laugh. But his sides hurt, and he set the empty bowl in front of him instead. “He’s a rich merchant from Hafod. He took me in when I was still a boy, taught me everything I know. He owns several businesses, in and out around the Kag, and he’s been wanting to expand into Gaspar.”
Sapphire clenched her jaw. “I told you. Enough dancing around. Bannal and Yn Garr have been chasing each other around the continent for the better part of this century. Or didn’t you know that…? That beast—Yn Garr’s pet…”
“I’ve told you this before. He needs it to turn the tides to his favour. Something about what it does to the rock around it—you know how it is here in Gaspar. The lords only think about themselves. On his own, a Kag merchant stands no chance at all.”
“When I hear you speak, I am almost inclined to think you believe the dung you spew. But I know better.” She touched the book again before pushing it back into the shelf. “I’ve spent the last few years retracing your steps, trying to find out what Yn Garr’s been up to.”
He adjusted his seat and took his time before glancing up to meet her gaze. “Who are you really, Sapphire?”
She smiled, then. “A question for a question. Spending time in Nebel’s dungeons has done little to dampen your spirits.”
“Bannal was gone, and your home, and your sister…when you went into my service, I didn’t question why. Should I have?”
She pulled a cushion from under a table and sat near the window. “The problem with you, Enosh, is that you think the world revolves around you.”
He grimaced. “I’ve been told that. They say it’s a fault. I think it’s endearing.”
“Let me start from the beginning. My old master, Bannal, and yours, Yn Garr…”
“They have a rivalry. I know. For years they’ve been racing to recover information about Naijwa’s beast.”
She shook her head. “What I don’t think you understand is that Bannal—we—have been trying to stop the beast from returning to the world whole. The complete opposite of what Yn Garr wants to happen.”
“Bannal’s worries have always been unfounded. I’ve seen it grow from a small thing, the size of a puppy…”
“A puppy?” she coughed. “You are delusional! Do you have any idea how the creature continued to grow?”
“We were feeding it carrion—a steady supply of dead livestock we purchased from farmers in Kago. I signed the papers myself.”
She closed her eyes for a moment. “By all the gods,” she eventually murmured, turning to him. “I can hear the echoes of time roaring in the space between your ears. How can you not know? You were feeding it children! Yn Garr had hired your men to round up stray children throughout the mainland and feed it to the creature…”
“That’s impossible.”
“You think? There’s evidence as clear as the string of prostitutes you leave in every town—all you have to do is ask.”
He tried to think through her words.
“Why would…” he started. Why would Yn Garr lie to him? He knew what the man was capable of and searching his feelings only revealed that he was not at all surprised if Sapphire’s
words were true.
He tried again. “Why children?”
“The thing requires human souls. Without which it would not grow in size. Or so the texts assume. That dragon was a surprise. You rarely find them in the mainland now, do you?”
She bent over him. “You’re not taking this well. You really had no idea? That’s not my intention when I brought it up. Explain the tunnel, Enosh.”
“He wants…” He closed his eyes. A betrayal, then—now? Was he doing that? And for what? He looked at Sapphire and chewed at the side of his mouth. “I don’t know,” he murmured, after a moment.
“I’ll find out soon enough, anyway. You know that.”
“Yet you’ve also just learned that Yn Garr doesn’t tell me everything.” He saw, to his satisfaction, that she believed him, and allowed her to digest that information. “He hasn’t shown his face in the last three years.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“How can I put this without sounding like a bitter child? He has abandoned me. As far as I’m aware.” He smiled. “I don’t even know why you helped me. Whatever you think I can do for you…believe me, at this state, I am about as useful as that bag of ashes you left in that dungeon.”
“You heard the man,” Vilum said, stepping back over the windowsill. “Are you sure you want to go through with this, Sapphire? He looks like he’s barely holding it together.”
“I believe he’s still of value to Yn Garr. Bannal will know what to do with him.”
Enosh glanced at her. “So you are working for him.”
“No. We haven’t even found him yet.”
“Then if you do…”
She rubbed her palms together. “I told you, Enosh. Get your head out of your ass. Things are more complicated than that. This little game you’ve been playing has spun beyond your control.”
“And yet your words continue around my head like a thousand bees. Give me some air, woman. Not even two hours ago I was convinced I would die in that cell.”
An Elegy of Heroes Page 53
