I wondered how to get her attention. I couldn’t see any guards from here, but they must surely be around, and would hear me if I called her name. She would never see me through this tiny slit in the fence. I didn’t even know if she could walk, if her foot was broken.
At least I could see that she was all right, but this was torture.
I forced myself to pull away and looked around until I found a twig. Maybe I could get her attention by sticking it through the fence.
When I came back to the spot, the Emperor himself was walking up to her.
Emperor Leonidas, the man who conquered my kingdom, sitting beside my sister. “You’re not too hot, are you?” he asked.
“Oh no. I love hot weather. I’m like a cat in the sun.”
Hearing her voice, I realized how I missed home, and how she was all the home I had left unless I could get Gaermon back, but it was a shock to hear how lightly she spoke to him.
“You look like you don’t get enough of it,” he said.
“Princesses aren’t supposed to be tan. But I don’t feel like much of a princess right now.” She said it like she didn’t entirely mind.
The Emperor was tanned himself, and he chuckled.
“Your guards wouldn’t let me fall asleep and get a sunburn, would they?” she asked. “The pain medicine is making me sleepy…”
It was just as Phoebe warned me. He was trying to win her over. Sitting too close. This pain medicine was surely dulling her mind.
“It’s healing quite quickly, isn’t it?” he said.
“Not quickly enough…” She looked down, pulling up the hem of her dress and now I saw her foot, splinted and bandaged too much to assess the damage. “I’m afraid I’ll be crippled now…”
He looked at her for a moment.
“…speak to you seriously about something…” His voice lowered as he shifted onto the blanket into a more relaxed position. He took something tiny out of his pocket. I could see that it glinted in the sun.
“What is that?” she asked.
“A shard of crystal.” He put it in her palm. I was breaking into a sweat, just seeing his fingers brush her hand. “My surgeon extracted it from your foot when he was trying to set the bones.”
“Where did it come from?”
“I think it was already inside you. I think this is evidence of the poison or curse that has made you so fragile. There was an ancient weapon in the old histories called the Bone-Maker. A crystal—if you can call it that. A parasite really, that, if swallowed, would eat your bones and replace them with itself. Bones are quite marvelous constructs. They are strong and flexible. The crystals might seem harder than a bone, but in fact they are much more fragile. The strange thing is, I can’t believe your family would never have told you, never have tried to cure you…they had to have known, Princess.”
What is he saying? I could hardly hold back words of protest. He was trying to warp her mind. Don’t believe him, Himika!
“I’ve never heard of this crystal…” She turned it over. “I—I’m sure it wouldn’t be their fault. Is there really a cure?”
“Are you sure they didn’t have a reason to cripple you?”
“They loved me.”
“Did they love you too much, perhaps? Princesses marry and go away, and since your kingdom was left alone, you would have gone abroad to be wed, and probably never have seen your father again. Your mother died in childbirth…”
“My father would never ruin my life just to keep me near him.” She clutched her head.
“I don’t blame him,” Leonidas said. “I blame myself. Our kingdoms were at war. It’s complicated, and it happens, but there is war between nations, and then there are…relations between two individuals. That is to say—I isolated your kingdom and left you with no good marriage prospects within the realm.”
This was absolute nonsense. There was no way my father would have cursed Himika just so she wouldn’t get married. She was younger than I was, so the pressure was off her to some extent, as long as I had heirs. If he had asked her to stay in Gaermon, she would have done so. She would have been happy to marry a noble among the Gaermoni; maybe it wasn’t as prestigious as the old royal alliances, but…
No, this story was ridiculous. She should have seen that right away.
“There is a cure,” Leonidas said. “It will take some work and time, but there is a tonic that will replace the crystal with bone again. And then you would be as strong as any other woman.”
“What about my foot? Will the new bones grow in correctly?”
“I don’t know for sure…but at least it will be easier to manage if you are strong in all other ways.”
She glared down at her foot.
“When you’re on a horse again, you won’t even think of that,” he said. “You’ve seen my horses.”
“They’re…magnificent,” she said.
“Which one would you like?”
“Oh—please. Stop, I—I don’t want one of your horses. I’m not going to marry you. You have to understand. My father…my people…such conflicts supersede the individual, I believe.”
“Not forever,” he said. “The war is over, and I would like peace among our peoples…”
Fucking hell. I couldn’t stand another second of this. How close he was to her, all his damned lies and manipulation now…offering her a fucking horse… I turned away in a rage.
“What is that?” I heard Leonidas speak in a guarded tone. I had banged the fence a little. “Someone is watching us?”
His voice rose enough that a guard emerged from the bushes around me. I suppose they were watching me all along. I had lingered longer at the crack in the imperial fence than a curious commoner should. My hand twitched. I left my twin blades behind, as they were far too suspicious, but I still had knives hidden on my person.
Another guard appeared on the curving path ahead. There were probably more.
“You’ve been watching the Emperor and the Princess for a while now,” the guard said. “I think you’d better move along.”
“I apologize.” I tried to adopt the local accent as I spread my hands. Maybe the situation would easily diffuse if I didn’t challenge them. “I’d just never seen the emperor up close before.”
The guard paused. Shit. I don’t think my accent was convincing. It was so hard to shake my royal upbringing. “Stand up straight and look at me,” the guard said.
I knew he was onto me now. I shouldn’t have come here; it was stupid, I just wanted to see her. I tried to bolt.
The guards shouted at each other. An arrow flew past my head just before the man in the bushes tried to tackle me. The other drew a blade, I heard that behind me. I realized there was no point in drawing my knives. I would quickly be outnumbered and Himika would only have the privilege of seeing my bloodied corpse.
A door opened in the fence, and Leonidas walked out with Himika in his arms.
My stomach churned at the sight. I lifted my hands in surrender.
“Raio!” Himika cried, and then she clapped her hand over her mouth like she feared she’d given me away.
I smiled in the most devil-may-care way I could manage under present circumstances. “No worries,” I said. “It was too late for me already. I just had to see if you were okay…”
“Please don’t hurt him!” she cried at the guards. “Where have you been?”
“All over the place…”
“This is your brother?” Leonidas said. “Spying at my gates?”
“Please,” Himika said. “Yes—my brother. The only family I have left. Please—“ She looked at the man who held her in his arms. Debasing herself to plead for me.
I tried to catch her eye. Don’t do it…
“Prince Raio,” Leonidas said. He was older than I expected him to be, in a way that was imposing and reminded me that I was half his age, and that for all my skill with the blade, I had expected my father to be around for much longer. He waved a hand at the guards. “Stand down. It’s all
right.”
“But, sir—“
“Stand down, I said,” Leonidas snapped. “This man is precious to the princess.”
Himika wouldn’t look at me at all. She let her hair fall across her face. She knew I wouldn’t want her to plead for me. She looked so small in his arms. Her feet, with the one splinted, were both bare. I suppose she didn’t need shoes at all, as long as she couldn’t walk.
“Have you heard of the Bone-Maker, Prince Raio? I have found evidence that the princess is infected by this rarest and most vile of weapons. It would have happened when she was a child.”
“I've never heard of anything like that! It must have been one of our enemies.”
“You have no idea how to cure it, then?”
“I…no.” My palms sweated. If only Father were still alive. I already knew where this was headed. He had whisked her away from me so easily. It must be a trick of some kind, but…if it wasn’t…
“Do you want to go with your brother?” Leonidas asked Himika, gently.
Himika finally looked at me, but she was stricken.
I think we both knew that it was a rhetorical question and the emperor would never actually let her go.
But it wasn’t just that.
What if he could heal her?
I would rather have her broken beside me than whole and well—but owned by him. Was it wrong to think so? She should feel the same, I thought. The Gaermoni would rather bear pain than lose their honor.
“Himika…” I held out a hand, even if it was hopeless.
Himika bit her lip. “Raio…we don’t have a home to go back to…”
“I have an idea, my lady,” the Emperor said. “Prince Raio, as the brother of the princess, you could be her head guard.”
I bristled, repulsed by the very thought. “I would never serve in the palace of the man who killed our father.”
Emperor Leonidas held up the shard of crystal. “This is the substance of your sister’s bones,” he said. He threw the crystal onto the stone path and it shattered into pieces like glass. When they called her the Glass Princess at home, perhaps it was more true than anyone realized.
“Let me heal her,” he said. “I have more resources to break an ancient spell than anyone in this land—I will make her strong. And when I do, come back for her.”
“Your Highness, you are not letting him go,” one of the guards said, shifting a little on his feet. “He’s one of your greatest enemies.”
It sounded like a generous offer, and indeed, it surprised me. I couldn’t believe he was actually letting me go.
But I also sensed the motive. He was making a bargain that by the time I returned, Himika would be firmly in his clutches. And also a bargain that I wouldn’t attack him as long as he kept her close. I was very much afraid he was right.
“I don’t think he is,” Leonidas said.
He stood strong against me, his cape fluttering in the warm summer wind, as he clutched Himika’s small body without ever showing signs of her weight tiring him.
My mind scrambled for a way to regain control of the situation, and I found nothing. This was worse than I could have imagined. All my ancestors must be looking down in shame. It was humiliating to be let go, to be considered not enough of a threat to bother with, while he held Himika.
I spat on the paving stones and I looked at him. I knew what he was about. The hands of his guards moved back to the their weapons.
“No, no,” Leonidas said. “I understand. He’s a young buck who has earned some right to his pride. But he also knows I’m telling the truth. He won’t hurt me. We’ll meet again, Prince.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Phoebe
It took us a couple days to prepare before we could leave. Niko had to tie up some loose ends, and I sent a message to Abel telling him we had decided to go to Gaermon after all and that I regretted things could not have gone differently. If I really was going to Gaermon, I knew I would have sent this sort of message first. But now, night was almost upon us, and I was packing up the last little bits of toiletries in Niko’s bathroom, which I suppose was actually my bathroom now, because I used it more than he did. Wretch kept rummaging in my bag and pulling things out of it.
I shoved them back in. “Girl, I’m sorry. I know you want Abel, don’t you?”
“Mrow?”
“But we have to go.”
I heard a sudden commotion somewhere below me. It sounded like glass shattering and then—well, other things breaking. General chaos. A couple of male shouts. Wretch puffed up all over.
Gilbert rushed into the room. “Are you alone in here, Phoebe?”
“Y—yes—I’m just packing. Niko’s downstairs, I think, and I thought Forrest was with you.”
We ran to the window to try and see what was going on. Below us, a vivid red glow lit up the street. At first I thought it was a particularly beautiful sunset hitting the buildings at a weird angle, and then I realized—no. Our building was on fire and it was casting a glow on the neighboring structures.
Now I was hearing all kinds of screaming and banging doors on the lower floors where the women were. The windows down there were all barred up, so they would have to make it out the doors. I felt sick. “We have to go help them.”
“I don’t know if there is much we can do! We might only add to the mess. There’s a fire escape. We have to get out of here!” Gilbert said.
Forrest entered the room then, much to my relief. “We can’t go downstairs,” he said. “There’s a fire spreading fast down there. I hope everyone got out.”
“Do you know what happened?” Gilbert asked.
“Not really, but I can guess we’ve been attacked.”
“Niko’s downstairs!” I cried.
“He’s smart, he’ll get out,” Gilbert said. “But we should hurry.” He tucked Wretch under his arm and I grabbed my bag. It had the two old priestess’ manuals in it, and some of my clothes.
We dashed up the stairs to the rooftop where Niko liked to brood. I tried to sense Niko as I ran, and all I could sense was a general mess of panic and movement, a stew of all my guardians, but at least I knew he wasn’t dead. And what about Abel?
Thank the gods, I felt that he was sitting at home and his mood seemed calm. I had feared that this fire was his doing…but now I knew that he was unaware of it. There was no way he could put me in danger and remain calm.
A rickety ladder had been built onto the side of the building, leading down into the alley. Below us, I could only see glow and shadow. The sun was almost down. This could be a trap, with soldiers waiting for us in the alleys. It was impossible to say from here.
“Shit,” Forrest said, leaning over to see smoke billowing from one of the windows. “I suppose Abel got your message.”
“No, Forrest. He doesn’t have anything to do with this.”
“If we climb down, anyone could pick us right off the ladder,” Forrest said.
“They won’t kill me. I’ll go first,” I said, staring down another moment that required a lot more bravery than I enjoyed. But it was getting easier.
“Phoebe—we can’t truly bet on the idea that they wouldn’t sacrifice Commander Abel,” Forrest said.
“If they wanted to kill me, they didn’t have to burn down the whole building,” I said. “I think they just want to run us out so we won’t have a place to call home.”
“I’ll play music to try and confuse anyone within earshot,” Gilbert said. “Beyond that, there’s nothing we can do, or else we burn to death.”
I think a part of me always knew it would never be easy to leave Capamere.
Gilbert handed Wretch to Forrest—damn cat, someone had to hold her so she didn’t go nuts—and took his violin off his back. He started playing a rather agitated tune, the bow dancing over the strings. I quickly hugged his waist and then Forrest, and I walked toward the ladder. I had a really bad feeling about this.
Abel…do you know about this?
I felt Abel’s at
tention. He sensed me trying to sense him, and he was trying desperately to shut me out.
Fire wouldn’t be your style, would it? You’re an ice dragon.
I suddenly sensed a jolt of fear—coming from Niko.
“Niko—he’s trapped somewhere downstairs!” I cried.
“Then hurry down,” Forrest said. “We’re right behind you.” He was forced to let go of Wretch, who dove down. She would find him for us. If only I could climb faster. The ladder creaked. The wooden planks felt half-rotted. There was some city law about having fire escapes ever since the walls went up, because the buildings were too tall to flee in the event of a fire, but every year a few tragedies occurred from poorly maintained or inaccessible fire escapes. How often did anyone think about a thing like that?
Well, I was definitely thinking about it now, with every step. Or what if Forrest fell above me? He was heavy. We’d both get taken out. I had to keep my face pointed at the wall or I would totally panic at the height, but I also desperately wanted to look behind me to see if I spotted any soldiers.
I could actually feel the heat of the fire rising up below me. The boarded up windows contained it somewhat, but I wondered how many women or guards were dying a horrible death inside. I felt like it was my fault, but if I thought about that I would lose it entirely. And where was Polaris? I shouldn’t even be thinking about her, though; she wasn’t really alive, was she?
As soon as my feet hit the ground, I ran after Wretch as she flew around the corner to the front of the building.
I saw Niko’s men escorting a crowd of women across the street. Some of the windows had been busted out, so they had managed to create more escape routes. Everyone looked very sweaty and stricken, but no one seemed hurt. Thank the gods. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as I thought.
But Niko himself—
He was still in there.
Another woman rushed out, coughing. A guard rushed to meet her and offer her a sip of water. “The Lucky Dragon—he’s—“ I heard her stammer out.
Priestess Bound Page 18
