Blood of Fate

by Dan Sugralinov

  “Keirinia?” Luca recalled the name of his first courtesan. “I’m busy, you can atone after dusk.”

  “But, my lord!” she said in playful tones. “I can’t wait to get started, there’s a lot of atoning to be done! I’m so hot for you, my emperor! And, forgive me, but this is so unlike you!”

  Another oddity in his performance. He had to fix this, otherwise his offended lover would start flapping her tongue, and tomorrow the entire capital would be whispering that the emperor had changed. He had to let her in and let her ‘atone.’ Otherwise she wouldn’t leave him alone.

  Ma Ju Ro opened the door. Keirinia was leaning against the door frame with her hand on her alluringly curved waist. She smiled, baring her delicate and even teeth, then slowly swept her tongue along them.

  “Come in, Kei,” Ma Ju Ro said. The correct mode of address came to his tongue on its own, and he took a step back to let his lover enter. But she didn’t hurry to do so.

  “Here?” she smiled again, pressed herself against him and whispered in his ear intimately, “Piglet, let me atone for my guilt where you’ll be most comfortable! Let’s order them to bring your breakfast to the bedroom, drink some wine and stay in bed all day? The weather outside is awful, and you had that assassination attempt! You’ve been through so much already today, piglet, you need to rest from all this hassle! If you like, I can call Priscilla and Olga! You know I don’t usually like that, but for your sake...” She embraced him and looked him in the eye.

  Not knowing how to react to such grandiose plans, Luca frowned just in case, and Keirinia interpreted it in her own way. She fell to her knees before her lord, lifting the hem of his tunic. For the first time, he felt the touch of a woman’s hand there. And not just her hand! Sacred Mother!

  Luca let out a moan and drew back reluctantly. Confusion flashed in his lover’s greedy, lustful eyes.

  “Is something wrong, my lord?”

  Detected intrusion of toxic substance!

  Effect level critical.

  Analyzing reaction options...

  Unable to release neutralizing agents — insufficient non-organic energy reserves!

  Cannot generate antidote — does not exist!

  Luca felt that agonizing itch in his body again. It seemed to penetrate into his very bones. It became difficult to breathe. He felt a stabbing pain in his heart. The emperor was covered in sweat. Grabbing at his throat, he tried to say something, but all he could do was wheeze indistinctly. Then he fell in a heap at the feet of his first courtesan.

  Keirinia rose lightly. She kicked the emperor’s head carelessly. His wheezes got weaker, rarer. Pulling a small vial from her stocking, the courtesan poured the contents into her mouth, gargled it and spat it out.

  A triumphant smile danced in her eyes.

  Chapter 24. Special Attention to Courtesans

  TRY AS SHE MIGHT, Keirinia couldn’t resist the temptation, and struck her hated ‘piglet’ as hard as she could, at first in the stomach, then in the temple. The sharp toe of her high-heeled shoe hit the bone and broke. The courtesan gasped, swore and jumped on one leg, grimacing in pain.

  Stumbling, she carefully watched the fat slob lying at her feet. He had finally fallen still and silent. Not a single sound came from his lopsided mouth, and a brown foam was drying on his lips. Gathering saliva in her mouth, the lover spat on his disgusting corpulent body with pleasure, aiming at his repulsive face.

  Then she walked out, slamming the door loudly behind her.

  The small room now contained two corpses: the former emperor in the body of the used-up boy, and the former cripple boy in the dead emperor. Both their hearts were stopped. Only the first body, unlike the second, had no superpower endowed by the Wheel. Logs continued to display in the emperor’s vision as if he was still there to read them.

  Detected extensive damage to internal organs!

  Nervous system afflicted.

  Breath — absent.

  Heartbeat — absent.

  Detected clinical death of carrier.

  Providing cells with oxygen... failed! Insufficient non-organic energy reserves!

  Carrier brain death in: 00:49… 00:48… 00:47…

  A conversation began to resound behind the door. The old servant had come again, but was intercepted by the courtesan.

  “The emperor is resting and has ordered that he not be disturbed! He has expended much energy and... fluid, Nem,” Keirinia pronounced in a singsong voice and laughed. “He needs to sleep.”

  “As you wish, my lady,” the old man answered in his shaky voice. “If you wish, I can bring you both breakfast and serve it right here.”

  “So nice of you, Nem...” the courtesan purred laughingly. “Thank you, but I’d best go back to my chambers...”

  The voices faded. Metamorphosis continued to review the options for counteracting the toxin, cycling over the data received at the moment the emperor was poisoned. The power continued to regenerate the body, but it was all in vain: its cells were dying too rapidly, falling like dominoes. All non-organic reserves, the energy of the Wheel that powered everything it gave to travelers, were exhausted. They were recovering, of course, but slowly. And the pace was the same in any world, in the body of any carrier; roughly one percent of the reserves every twenty four hours and change, as time was measured in Luca’s world.

  Only when the carrier’s condition was approaching the point of no return, with the risk of brain death and the loss of the carrier’s consciousness, did the metamorphosis power update its information on its surroundings.

  Detected slightly alkaline liquid on skin!

  Analyzing...

  Identified human saliva. DNA matched to individual ‘Keirinia.’

  Detected available materials: 99% water, less than 0.01% chlorine, sodium, potassium, calcium...

  Detected unknown organic component!

  Analyzing...

  Probability that component is antidote — 99.9992%!

  The lines of information fluttered past Luca’s dead, drying eyes. If his metamorphosis could sing, it would have. The Wheel knew no other worlds ruled by a sentience similar to that on this planet that had toxins like those that had entered the carrier’s body. But the metamorphosis didn’t care. The non-existent antidote had been found.

  Separating out the active substance, the superpower immediately distributed it throughout the entire body. Information on the antidote’s molecular structure was saved in the Wheel’s archive.

  After ensuring that the poison had been neutralized, the metamorphosis ability began regenerating tissue at full speed, using every tiny percentage of Wheel energy that had been saved. It succeeded — Luca’Onegut’s brain was still whole, and the emperor himself awoke a mere few instants before his final death in this body and reincarnation in his second world.

  Ma Ju Ro looked around with a dim gaze and made an attempt to stand. His eyes were filled with blood, his flaccid legs disobeyed him and he nearly fell. Stopping, he stood for a long time, listening to his own heavy breathing and regaining strength.

  Incredible as it was, Luca could remember very instant he spent on the tightrope between life and death. He recalled it not as an active participant, but as an observer. And in that capacity, he had managed to see every single detail of the scene, right down to the smallest wrinkles of expression in the corners of Keirinia’s eyes.

  And so, as he recovered, he began to walk around the room, furiously pacing and grinding his teeth. He frowned and thought about how to punish the girl after this sordid and almost successful attempt to kill him, and about how to prevent further attempts. He even began to wistfully daydream about his calm and uneventful days in his crippled body. But there was no time for nostalgia.

  Luca was angry, and it was a concentrated anger at everything, focused on his favorite courtesan. He even had a feeling thought — could he now consider Keirinia his first woman, and was he himself no longer a virgin? He decided the answer was no, for many reasons. Firstly because t
he act wasn’t completed, and secondly because of suspicions that it was all meant to go a little differently. That wasn’t the right way. Yes, it was definitely not done that way. These aristocrats did everything... wrong.

  The emperor’s brain, now recovered from its hypoxia, feverishly generated all manner of tortures and punishments for that treacherous snake Keirinia, venomous in all senses of the word. His fantasies went all the way to taking off her skin layer by layer before bathing her in a mix of salt and chinils. Ideas tumbled chaotically in his head. Luca thrashed around and nearly called the servants to send them to Yadugara’s basement to collect the bloodsuckers, but common sense won out.

  His mind seethed, but the empathy and unsleeping conscience that had developed in his crippled body asked an important question: was the courtesan guilty?

  The answer to the question was obvious; she was. Yet how could Luca judge her? Judging by her behavior, she hated Ma Ju Ro, and it was obvious that she had good reason. But Luca wasn’t Ma Ju Ro, and the boy saw with surprise that his anger dissipated and only cool rationality remained; the situation had to be turned to his advantage. He had to either punish and banish all his lovers as an example, which would certainly make his life easier, or...

  His stomach rumbled and twisted. His hunger had awoken, he had no energy left, and the emperor, still without a decision, flew out of the room and went the main hall of his chambers. He saw a head disappearing behind the doorway and shouted.

  “Breakfast! Here! Now!”

  A gray head appeared in the doorway to the imperial chambers.

  “I am serving it as we speak, my imperial majesty!”

  “Wait! Bring Hector and Keirinia here!” Ma Ju Ro added.

  The captain’s presence should help him make the right decision based on how the girl behaved. Or the woman? How old was she anyway?

  The carved wooden doors opened wide, and a stream of servants bearing treys began to dexterously lay dishes and jugs at a huge table that could have seated thirty. Luca gave in to his wonderment at the sight of so much food just for a single emperor. This would have fed his family for weeks!

  He didn’t have enough knowledge of the world to determine what all the food was. He could only say with certainty that whatever was in the pots was probably soup or stew, and he saw could see some kind of mush in a dish with more meat (again, he didn’t know which kind) than vegetables. He supposed there was a better name for it than mush.

  In any case, the boy was in no condition to ponder on the injustice of the world. He greedily threw himself into some hearty fish stew generously spiced with fiery Tassurian pepper, and then at the sky-burningly hot mush, or whatever it was called.

  The emperor sweated profusely and his eyes were streaming, and his metamorphosis struggled to neutralize the hot peppers, seeing it as a threat, and to disintegrate the animal fats before they could add to the carrier’s personal fat stores.

  His ability gradually told him which of the foods would be healthiest, and the boy wolfed down eggs and seafood, recovering his nutritional deficits.

  The old man Nem stood immobile nearby, hurrying his servants with whispers. Dishes disappeared as soon as Luca had dipped his spoon just a few times.

  At first he watched them with longing and confusion as they were carried away, but later, after tasting a roasted sea bass, he grabbed the dish and roared. The servant froze, looking over at Nem, unsure what to do. The old man waved at him, shooing away his overzealous underling, then broke into a smile.

  “My lord... Have your tastes changed? Allow me to note that...”

  “I do not allow it!” Luca snapped, enraged that the servant had pilfered a lobster on a tray from under his nose while he was distracted with the servant. He’d only gotten to the pincers! “Everybody, get out! I’m going to finish eating, then you can come back and tidy up. But first... bring me back that lobster!”

  The old man fell to his knees in horror, trying to grab the ruler’s hand and kiss it, and he did so. Luca pulled his fingers from the old servant’s grasp. His metamorphosis instantly awoke with a declaration: “Detected human saliva: 99% water...” Nem lost his balance and fell under the table, with the tablecloth following after him. A servant rushed after his superior and dropped his tray on his imperial majesty. Which was the final straw.

  “Get out!” Luca roared, but then saw that the captain and his courtesan had arrived and disappeared behind the door, taking the shout as intended for them. He had to shout again: “Hector! Keirinia! Come here!” Something floated up from the uncharted depths of Esk’s legacy and he added: “Right now!”

  For a moment, chaos reigned at the threshold to the imperial chambers. The servants were trying to get out, Nem crawling on his knees in tears, already fearful of his impending sentence. Keirinia tore at her dress and also wanted to fall to her knees and beg her revived ruler for mercy, but the senior servant was already taking up all the begging room... Hector watched it all in disgust.

  “Your imperial majesty,” he said. “Your will is done. I was on my way to report to you when I met a messenger. Has something happened?”

  Luca remained silent. He nodded at his courtesan’s silent pleading. The servants had already cleared out, and the girl remained in the center of the chambers, fearing to run and to approach.

  The emperor pointed at the empty chairs nearby.

  “Nothing has happened, captain. It occurred to me that you might have missed breakfast in the commotion of the morning. So you will share breakfast with me, Hector.” He moved his gaze to the frozen girl. “You too, Keirinia. There’s too much food here for one person...”

  He dropped his head, biting into a well-cooked piece of marinated meat, but still had time to notice the surprise in their eyes. It was unclear to him what had caused it. The offer to share breakfast, or the remark about the amount of food? Either way, he’d done something wrong again.

  Keirinia didn’t touch her breakfast. Hector didn’t stand on ceremony, and for a long time, the only sound in the hall was that of men’s jaws, tearing, chewing and grinding through exquisite delicacies as if it was all simple peasant food. The courtesan cringed, but then took hold of herself and put on a mask of caring tenderness, playing the role of hostess as their table. She had an enlightened conversation with herself, prattling away about something or other, but Luca didn’t know what exactly. He couldn’t hear it over the sound of chewing in his ears. As a result, he and Hector limited themselves to interjecting the occasional noise of approval.

  Once the emperor was full, the captain of the palace guard put aside his cutlery, wiped his mouth with a napkin and, without preamble, began his report, but a belch from the emperor immediately interrupted him. Luca blushed in embarrassment, but it was taken as a sign of disapproval.

  “Forgive us, your imperial majesty!” Keirinia apologized for the captain, burning him with her gaze.

  “Um...” Hector didn’t understand the reason for the apology. Luca considered it best to stay silent, and the captain continued. “The previous first advisor has told me all the names. Apart from the doctor, whom you have forgiven, a number of other high-ranking individuals were involved in the conspiracy...” A hand went into a pocket and he pulled out a piece of paper. “Here is a full list of those named. Lentz was merely the executor of the plan, and Naut was present in the morning at his own initiative. The cretin couldn’t wait to spit on your lifeless corpse, my lord. All the conspirators have been arrested or placed under guard. We are currently seizing their properties, including country manors. The families of these traitors to the Empire have been isolated in the palace tower. We are tracking down suspects not named by Naut by means of the observers, with the involvement of some... freelance agents.”

  The slight hesitation in the captain’s report did not escape Ma Ju Ro’s attention.

  “What agents?” he frowned, recognizing that merely playing with his eyebrows immediately lent power to his words.

  “Apologies, my lord. There
is a band of thieves in the city. I am well acquainted with their leader, Weasel...”

  “Captain?” Keirinia exclaimed. “You? With a thief?”

  “It so happened, my lord,” Hector admitted, paying no attention to the courtesan, “that he is the son of a comrade of mine, an old friend. Since my comrade died, I have been keeping watch over the boy. In short, I hired his crew for surveillance. They are quick, clandestine and inconspicuous, and they know the city like the back of their hand.”

  “Very well,” Luca nodded. “There’s something else. I realize that the inquisitors are likely very busy, but I would like them to pay special attention to all my courtesans. I have reason to suspect that some of them may have been hired by my cousin Rezsinius.”