After I illuminated her on the plan, she said, “Okay, but then why do you need me?”
“Because you may have to give a crucial order that I only trust you with.”
“Me? What kind of order is it?”
“I’m sorry, I can’t say. I trust you more than anyone else in the empire, but if this plan goes any further, then your ignorance could be vital for securing the truth out of the situation.”
With a mixture of bemusement and fretfulness, she said, “Oh.”
“I know I’m asking to put a lot of trust in me. It’s ju-”
“No, say no more, please. Seeing as I used a secret tunnel to first talk to you, I had to trust in you before I ever laid eyes or ears on you, so I understand the feeling you’re trying to express. It doesn’t hurt that you’ve only continued proving your honor by risking blood and limb for my family. If the time comes that you need me, I’ll do everything in my power to come through for you and your friends.”
I thought it an appropriate time to hug her, so I did. She returned the hug with her arms and a chuckle.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
On the second afternoon since the ball, Ikumi came to my room to notify me that her brother’s son was a day away from leaving the island, giving him a chance to accept Lord Ren’s offer to see him around noon. The oblivious Wregor princess stated how lucky we were that Wuhen had not gone yet. I faked my happiness. Regardless, I succeeded in convincing myself that it was better to get an answer out of him as soon as we could get it.
After breakfast the next morning we received the official summons from Lord Ren. His reasoning had something to do with creating a homespun variant of the paste and offering Ghevont an opportunity to examine how well it quashed the spores. Unfortunately, few messages came into the palace without Satiko hearing of it, and given that she already did not enjoy that we visited her brother without her approval, she wordlessly insisted that she tie her high-handed cause to our own. Not a deal breaker, but still far from welcome.
Satiko’s traditionalist presence ensured that horse-drawn carriages rather than griffins transported us to her brother’s home. It was just as well. We still had a couple of hours before we expected her son to appear, and at least she spared me from sharing an enclosed carriage with her. I expected Ikumi knew well enough to distract her sister-in-law during my meeting with the prince.
Doing his part to divert his sister’s attention was Lord Ren when we arrived at his manor, though he could not always stop the empress from asking Ghevont how he was getting along with his work. Ghevont’s mock toil took place in a small alchemy lab located in the large basement of the westernmost building the rest of us also gathered in.
As he was encouraged to do, Ghevont did more than an admirable job using his naturally verbose language to discourage Satiko from extracting anything but vague answers, including a time frame. Assisting the scholar with her sharp sense of smell and nudges of levelheadedness was Clarissa. Lady Ren stayed long enough to greet the empress, but went upstairs after her husband whispered something to her.
As I watched everyone else socialize as diplomatically as our respective cultures taught us to be, I realized that the empress tagged along with us not only to keep an eye on the foreigners, but to have an excuse to chat with her brother. Despite being the most influential woman in Efios, she behaved a little like me when I teased my older sister in front of company, and her unruffled sibling acted as though he had endured such teasing all their lives.
Still, she obviously looked up to him, if in a slightly different way than I looked up to Beatrice. I assumed the difference came from the difference in sex. It made me wonder what kind of change there would be if I had an older brother in my life, particularly if that made Father treat me any differently. Is that where the difference came from? With no sons coming from his loins, Father ended up indulging my boyish inclinations as soon as I demonstrated an interest in learning to fight.
On the other hand, Beatrice always shared a more compatible connection with Mother, but the Wregor empress likely experienced the opposite rearing history. A simple conjecture told me that the empress probably viewed her brother as an extension of a father that didn’t give her enough attention. I know I resented the extra attention Beatrice received from Mother. I understood the causes, but that did not suppress the sentiment by much.
My people-watching pastime ended over two hours after we arrived when a servant whispered a message into Tuktu’s ear. Tuktu then relayed the words openly, saying, “Forgive me for interrupting, Empress Ashina, but Lady Ren has requested your presence in the art gallery. There are pieces there that my lord wishes to put into auctions or give as gifts to make room for new examples, but the lady of the house would appreciate your expertise on the matter before she hands over anything too valuable.”
Satiko replied to the head servant by speaking the Wregor tongue to his master. She sounded annoyed, but Louhan smiled and waved her off with a respectfully dismissive tone. The empress shook her head, rose from her seat, and excused herself.
When she left the basement, Tuktu announced, “Prince Ashina has arrived. He is waiting in the manor. Shall we go to him now, Princess Astor?”
“Yes.” Standing up, I said, “Lord Ren, I thank you for your crucial cooperation in all this. Are most of your house guards out of the manor? I don’t want the slightest chance that a common soldier can eavesdrop on us.”
In one of the handful of words he was comfortable enough to say in the shared tongue, he answered, “Yes.”
“Good. Let’s go, everyone.”
Except for Ghevont and one of Louhan’s servants, we followed Tuktu out of the building. The scholar and the servant remained behind in case Satiko returned to what would have otherwise been an empty room.
“How long do you think Lady Ren can distract the empress?” I asked Tuktu.
“Empress Ashina has limited opportunities to discuss her love of art with her family. Lord Ren’s idea should enthuse her for well over an hour, even if she’s not thrilled about the allegation that my lord wishes to unburden himself of several pieces. However, the lunch hour will soon be upon us. It’s possible the empress will delay her enterprise in favor of sharing a meal with everyone.”
“I see.” I glanced at the sky, where the sun was obscured by a cloud. “That gives me about half an hour. I think I can finish up in time.”
We entered the main building and walked up to the second floor. I had asked to see Wuhen in the most private setting available, and since he expected to be talking to Louhan, he had been sent to his bedchamber. I did not want Wuhen feeling overwhelmed by seeing everyone behind me when I opened the door, so everyone except Ikumi waited inside a nearby bedchamber that used to belong to Louhan’s sons.
A few feet farther into the hall, I stopped in my tracks and said, “Ikumi, please remember your responsibility. There’s a chance Wuhen may become quite cross with me, but I promise that I have the best interests of your family and empire at heart, okay?”
“Oh dear, really? I haven’t seen an angry Wuhen since he was an adolescent.”
“Everyone has their limits. Wait right here. I want to assure Wuhen that only I can hear him, at least when he’s not raising his voice.”
She nodded.
I stepped to the door, quietly sighed, and opened the sliding entry. Sitting by the little table, and at an angle that allowed him to stare into the hall, was the armored prince. He rose an eyebrow as he saw me enter and close the door behind me. Not taking his eyes off me, he slowly rose from his seat and bowed.
Rising from my own bow, he said, “I saw my mother’s carriage here, but you I did not expect. I’m suspecting that was the point.”
“Your mother was actually an unplanned addition to my party. She doesn’t know you’re here, or that I wanted to speak with you alone.”
It was nigh imperceptible, and it really happened more in my mind than in the physical realm, but the prince’s body tensed up. “And wh
at about, princess?”
“About the two barrels you obtained in Chakrud shortly before your family became infected with the desiccation disease. Tell me, Your Highness, do you have any idea what I believe were in those barrels?”
I felt myself transform into a lifelike painting the instant my words ceased inhabiting the room. It was a tiny interval of time between my heart beats and the time Wuhen took to think of his response, a currently unknowable reply that forced me to step out of the metaphorical canvas and get a grip on my prana.
Finally, with no change in his tone of voice, he said, “Who else knows?”
Prana coursed into my fingers as his arms moved up, but they simply intertwined in front of his plated chest. “Save for the person who gave me this information, only my friends and I. Ikumi and Lord Ren do not know why I wanted to speak with you alone. I can’t exactly spread news like this unless I know with absolute certainty that you betrayed your family and homeland. Are you admitting that you infected your family with the desiccation disease?”
“I’ll admit that I played right into the Hoic-Dro’s hands.”
“Played into their hands? Are you telling me you haven’t told your father the Advent tricked you even after you discovered your mistake? Is it because you now belong to the cu-”
“You’re right, princess, I haven’t told my father, but not because I’ve aligned myself with the old cult. Indeed, only recent events have made me aware of their secret sway in the world.”
“Then I don’t understand. What did you think you were doing?”
“Righting wrongs, both past ones and those that have yet to be. You see, I was well aware the barrels carried the desiccation disease and that that much of my family would fall ill to it. I also knew of the paste’s existence, though I did not realize at the time that it only cures a small percentage of people. I had no intention to make those I care for suffer the disease for months on end.”
“Then what was your intention?”
“To kill someone I care little for.”
“Who?”
“There’s only one person in the empire that would require such an approach.”
His unwavering glare reminded me of the very person he meant to assassinate. “Gods above, your father?” His eyes more than his head nodded. I unconsciously took a small step back as I tried connecting the dots. Shaking my head, I asked, “Why? And how did the Advent trick you?”
“I still can’t say with absolute certainty that it was the cult’s idea, but it seems quite unlikely that it was anyone else. It helps explain a few things.”
“Let me get this straight, you’re saying someone else gave you the idea to use the desiccation sickness to kill your father, and you agreed to it?”
“Yes.”
“And this person already knew you wanted your father dead?”
“I may have let a few unkind words about my father slip into the conversations we had after her comrade was killed. As far as I knew, she and her friend belonged to the Eglor tribe, a Chiszir nation just southwest of Tho Blye.”
“You confessed to an outsider that you loathed your father? Was she special to you?”
“No… but her comrade was. Turalun Beki. She and I had become well acquainted over the two years I visited her native land. Her father was a minor chieftain who worked hard to promote peace with the empire. She was often a part of the meetings, even if she didn’t think diplomacy and negotiation were her strong suits. She preferred sparring for fun and fighting when her people needed her. Never have I seen anyone so beautiful and fierce.”
“You loved her.”
“Swiftly and intensely.”
“And how did she feel about you?”
“Like many of her people, she was wary of me at first, but despite the Chiszir’s natural enmity toward outsiders, I learned that she craved knowledge about the world at large, knowledge I could provide. From there she softened her stance on me. It didn’t hurt that she valued my strength. I had never been so glad for all the blood that dripped out of me almost every day of my youth. All that pain paid off when she confessed that my strength was worthy enough to take her as my woman.
“Of course, no one could learn of my love for her. No one in Wregor would approve a marriage, and her Chiszir rivals might kidnap her if they learned of my new weakness. In any event, we were content enough to wait out our situations for a while longer. Until she died in battle, that is. I wanted an excuse to keep meeting with her, so I told my father that her tribe showed promise in becoming an ally in the region. In reality, some sects of her people continued raiding our borders.
After years of nominal progress, my father concluded that my consular efforts had been for naught. Without consulting me, he sent an army to quell the raiders. Forgetting my own personal connection for a moment, his order obliterated my relations with every Chiszir chieftain in the area in one fell swoop. I promised them fairness. I promised we would only go after the raiders responsible for harassing our territory, not attack indiscriminately. Now there was no reason for them to trust my words or anyone from Wregor.
“I’ve led similar attacks in the past, but I could never allow the consequences of my actions linger. Turalun’s death forced me to linger on every single battle I participated in. Little more than massacres, really. One of my father’s favorite tactics is to lure away a tribe’s central force before pillaging their nomadic villages and taking their forces from behind. Very effective when we moved fast enough to take them by surprise.”
“So it’s revenge you wanted.”
Attaining a sterner tone, he said, “Revenge awoke a nobler purpose. Revenge forced me to recognize my father for what he is—a tyrant. Royal valkrean have a duty to balance this world, not reshape it to benefit us. You should understand that sentiment well. Alslana not so long ago shrank its influence for the betterment of a continent. Civil war would have eventually dragged most nations in your side of the world into a long, bloody conflict. The same will happen to Wregor if my father refuses to stop undermining our neighbors at every turn. It’s such interference that have allowed the Hoic-Dro to take a foothold in Jegeru in the first place.”
“I assume you believed simply waiting for your turn as emperor was unacceptable.”
“My turn as emperor may take twenty years or more to arrive. My grandfather did not become a gentler soul in his advanced age, and waiting too long could have my homeland reaching a destabilizing point of no return, no matter what I do. Admittedly, killing my father without risking my own death seemed like an impossibility.”
“Not until Turalun’s comrade gave you an idea of how to go about it.”
“Dobesu. I met her shortly after I learned of Turalun’s passing. Most of the Chiszir avoided the dishonest prince, but she came right up to me. She told me that Turalun illuminated her on our relationship. I was just glad to have someone hear me talk about her. Now I know I was played like the bleeding heart I was. Everything she said sounded genuine and sagacious. I told her about the misgivings I had about my father. Like a lamb to the slaughter she led me to believe that the paste cured the disease on anyone who was afflicted.”
“How did she do that?”
“By infecting herself and a Chiszir raider I produced for her. To this day the raider’s desiccation has never shown a sign of returning.”
I deliberated for a moment. “So the paste only works on those with Chiszir blood?”
“One of my assumptions as well. I know she didn’t give me a different paste to consume, for she gave me the same bottle she and the raider used. Still, if I hadn’t been so eager, I could have discovered that secret and avoided placing those I love in mortal danger.” He hung his head, dropped his arms, and sighed heavily. “And all without accomplishing my goal. Either my father is immune to the disease or somehow eluded the spores altogether. I thank the gods that you came, princess. You’ve brought me hope that my grand mistake won’t doom my family. For that, my blade will join yours in Jegeru when the time
comes, if you’ll allow it.”
“Now that’s the question, isn’t it? I’m honestly at a loss. It aches my heart every day being away from my family, yet you went ahead with a plan that brought suffering and fear to good people, and for the sake of killing your own father. I can’t begin to comprehend it. I’d rather you confess that you’re working with the Advent.”
“I assure you my sword will gut any Advent you put me in front of. All I want to do is make things right. I hate that my father forced me to endure your scholar’s cure, but nothing short of telling him the truth was going to stop that order. Until you came, all that’s kept me going is knowing that someday I will be emperor, however long that takes.” He took a step forward. “Give me a chance to aid you on the battlefield, princess. Once this cult business is over with, then you can decide whether to tell my father the truth of the matter.”
Realizing my blood was having trouble passing my locked knees, I bent my legs and shuffled my feet. The extra blood pumping through my head did not clear up the haze Wuhen’s confession produced. All I knew was that calling the guards now removed too many options. With that in mind, I said, “Maybe I will wait until the dust in Jegeru settles, or at least wait to discuss this with my friends. As much as I loathe to admit it, I can’t decide what to do right at this moment.”
“Fair enough. And what will you tell Lord Ren in the meantime?”
“Right, that. Something about us coming up with a plan to reveal the Wregor traitor. As you might have guessed by now, it was Lord Ren who put me on this path to your misdeeds.”
“Then I’m glad he involved you. I doubt I’d get a chance at atoning for my sins if he had been the one to discover my disgraceful secret.”
“I hope you’re sincere, Prince Ashina, for both our sakes. And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry about what happened to Turalun. I’d love to hear more about her someday.”
“And I’d love nothing more to share my memories of her with anyone who’s willing to listen. Whatever happens, princess, I’m glad to lighten the load on my chest.”
The Dragon Knight and the Light Page 37
