She let out a breath. Emperor Beyon had called her Red-rose. Had he told his brother? Surely he meant to be kind if he called her by that name, though her body believed otherwise, shaking so badly that she had trouble getting down on her knees. “I did not recognize Your Majesty.” He said nothing to that, only turning to look at the grey walls. “Are you a prisoner?” he asked, “Did I send you here?”
“No, Your Majesty. I came here myself.” She prostrated herself on the cold granite, praying to Mirra he would leave her there, that he would pick up his lantern and go on with his strange business, whatever it was. “Why?” His voice carried a command within it, clear as any whip. “For my stone?”
A cold sweat ran along her skin; her stomach roiled. “No. I ran from the Little Kitchen, Your Majesty.”
“Why?” He asked again.
She opened her mouth, but found her tongue too heavy to speak. Her shaking grew worse, as if the rock below her shuddered and heaved. And then the metal of the lantern clanged beside her and she felt his hands, warm and soft, pulling her upright to face him. He put a finger against her cheek and she froze, the terror digging deeper now, bringing bile to her throat. “Red-rose,” he said, “What have they done to you?” The way he spoke reminded her of another man, another time, as if someone else watched her from the emperor’s eyes.
She said nothing-could say nothing-but his eyes were like the Many, bringing forth all the pieces she’d hidden away. Her brother; Demah; Emperor Beyon, dead, with the pattern around him; Lord Zell and his friend; Gorgen. They each fit into the design of her sorrow, and as he held her gaze it made itself whole. A wail escaped her, a rough, naked sound that trailed away beyond the iron bars. Shame and regret made Rushes heavy, so heavy she feared she would fall away from his strong arms, through the stone floor and far into the rock, all the way down to where Meksha made her secret fires.
But the emperor released Rushes and the floor held cold and steady beneath her knees. He stood and she recognized his fierceness, the set of his shoulders, ready to fight. His brother Beyon had always looked so before dealing his justice. But it was not Rushes he meant to punish; he walked away from her without another word, into the darkness from which she had come, moving quietly.
The emperor had taken the stone. Sahree’s stone. Her luck stone. What could protect her now? When she had wiped away the last tear, she lifted the lantern and moved towards the entrance to the Ways.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
NESSAKET
Nessaket made her way between gryphons and gargoyles, past chairs and benches, to the great statue of Herzu, gleaming in the light of high wall-sconces. His face looked down at her from a distance of twenty feet, fangs gleaming, eyes fierce. The dead baby in his left hand looked downwards too, eyes blank. She had achieved little; Herzu was impatient. All Nessaket could offer in recompense was a sacrifice. She reached into the pouch where Dreshka had placed a dove for her, well-trained by the palace birdman to trust her hands. She took it from the velvet and it fluttered its wings, adjusting to its new freedom. She wrapped one hand around its body and twisted its neck with the other before climbing up on the altar to place it in Herzu’s right hand. All was silent.
Tuvaini had once told her that he dreamed of Herzu as a handsome, tall man, not unlike himself. Perhaps gods revealed themselves within their worshippers, showing themselves both kin and stranger, human and deity, at once. Nessaket had never dreamed of Herzu; He did not favour her. She knelt on the rough mat that surrounded the altar. The stiff fibres below her knees were meant to cause discomfort and, over time, a unique pain. Nessaket prayed until her knees were on fire.
Once finished, she examined the dim corners of the nave. She did not see Dinar among the seats and statues, but this was not unusual; he often retreated beyond sight of the worshippers, his priestly tasks shrouded in power and mystery. This did not concern her. As empire mother, she had her own power; he would come. “Dinar?” she called out, moving to the side of the altar where a door led to the private chambers. It stood open but only blackness moved beyond it. “Dinar!” He would hear her. He would come.
And he did, appearing as a darker form cut from shadow, a dream of Herzu himself, finally granted to her. “You are here,” he said, as if he had been waiting, “come.” He moved back into the swell of night, beyond her vision, and she had no choice but to follow, blindly, feeling her way along the wall. For the first time she wondered what occupied his time beyond the altar, here in the dark, but she would show no fear. After a minute an open door shed light onto her path, and she could see Dinar ahead of her, his muscled arms hanging to his sides, his shoulders straight and square, a bloody knife in his hand.
No fear. She continued to move towards him and stepped into a bright, dirty room that stank of vinegar. Lit candles were scattered over every surface; the light flickered a sickly yellow and gleamed against his bald scalp. Besides the table she had seen, a desk and a chair stood against the wall, and a set of tall, disorganized shelves graced the far edge of the room. Every surface lay covered with books, melted wax and spatters of what looked like blood. “I need deadseeds.” Deadseeds would take care of any unborn heir inside of a concubine.
Dinar moved to the shelves and tossed a book aside, then two. Finally he lifted a ceramic canister tied to a rope and shook it. Nodding to himself he cut the rope with the knife and returned to her. “Deadseeds.” He put the canister in her hands and regarded her with flat, cold eyes as he produced a small pouch and held it up for her inspection. “And pika seeds.”
Nessaket turned the cold clay in her hands, heard the plinking of the deadseeds within. She had used pika to kill Tuvaini’s lover Lapella and it had not been a kind death.
Dinar spoke into the silence. “The empress sent a slave to fetch pika seeds of her own. But you hesitate.”
Nessaket thought of Mesema, her honest face, the way she spoke without thinking. “The empress is not capable-”
But Dinar grabbed her hands and slammed them against the wall, holding them there as he spoke, his breath against her face, smelling of garlic and bitter root. “You think I will protect your son, when you do not protect him yourself?”
The pressure against her hands grew intense; tears came to her eyes. “I am the empire mother! I-”
“Empire mother twice over,” he agreed, twisting the skin around her wrists, “and what have you accomplished? Beyon satisfied his bloodlust here in the palace, but we could have done more. So much more. The whole world under Herzu’s great gaze.”
Nessaket jerked her hands from his grasp. The pouch full of pika seeds dropped from his palm and made a soft landing on the floor. “Arigu and I would have succeeded but for the Pattern Master,” All those plans, so carefully laid upon the pillows. Her betrayal of Beyon. For a moment she saw his dark eyes, the way they had been before his brothers died, when he still loved her. “But that future has not been lost. When Pelar is on the throne, and Daveed his trusted advisor, a man of Herzu…”
“Why speak of the future, when today a Mogyrk austere wanders the palace freely?” Dinar stepped away. “And when the emperor is ready to declare peace with him?”
“I have slowed the negotiations. But they will go on if steps are not taken. His wife-”
“His wife is more powerful than you? A tiny child from a land where the god hides?” Dinar smirked. “Perhaps so; after all she asked for pika seeds. Perhaps she will use them and your suffering will please Herzu.”
She thought of Arigu, gone beyond the mountains, Tuvaini, dead, Beyon, dead. “How dare you. I am the empire mother.” It could not all be about suffering. There had to be something at the end, some reward, some reason for all the pain and betrayal and blood.
Dinar turned and walked out into the dark corridor. She lifted the pouch of pika seeds and followed him. He would not get the best of her. He came to another door, opened it and stepped in, and now she saw how he had occupied himself while she prayed. A massive golden hand lay upon the floor, large enough for t
wo people to lay end to end in either direction, cupped for sacrifice. A man lay upon it, motionless and covered with blood; his eyes were closed. Dinar had peeled back the skin of his chest and secured it with hooks. What he had done with the reddish murk below she could not tell. It looked like the red, pulpy centre of a blood-orange. Dinar had sewn shut the man’s mouth; behind the black threads that held closed his lips she could see cotton stained with blood. A chamber-pot scent mixed in the air with another, something of rotting leaves and dead things.
“You want to give your son to Herzu. You should see what it is you do not understand.”
Vomit rose in her throat but she could not look from the tortured man. He held a fascination.
“Look.” He held her shoulders and pushed her towards the prisoner. “Look at the bone beneath his flesh.”
She followed the line of a colossal finger, eyes on the white solidity of breastbone. As she drew close the man screamed inside his throat, moving for the first time, his legs thrashing against her shin. “He’s alive.”
“What is pain to a dead man? Of course he is alive.”
She drew back and watched Dinar use his knife to clean dried blood from under his fingernails. “Only by stripping away the flesh do we find the spirit of a man.”
She wondered if it were possible for Mesema to go behind her back, to obtain pika seeds in secret. As she had gone behind Beyon’s back. “No,” she said, “love can be stripped away. Trust. That, too.”
“Yes.” Something in his face told her that he preferred to do it with a knife. “When all is stripped away, one shines with the dark of Herzu.” He turned to her, smiling like a cat, his knife gleaming where the blood did not cling to it. “Now you understand.”
Nessaket held the canister to her chest. “I do.” Herzu demanded all, or nothing-war, or peace-with Daveed making up the balance. She backed away, out into the dark corridor. Dinar had forgotten her; he occupied himself with his sacrifice. Images flashed in her mind as she walked to where her guards waited; black thread through a bloody lip; bloody rib bones; Dinar’s smile. The god grew impatient. The pouch filled with pika seeds felt heavy in the palm of her hand. Something terrible would have to happen.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
RUSHES
Hagga came into the Ways, calling across the blackness, her voice accompanied by the tempting smells of bread and apple. “Come along, child,” she said, “You can’t hide in here forever.”
Rushes pressed herself against the wall, though she knew Hagga couldn’t see her. She’d found this little platform in the Ways when she was still with the Many. Stairs rose from the commonly used paths and led to a narrow ledge just big enough for her to sit with her legs drawn up. Perhaps a door had once graced this landing, but no longer.
“I’ll leave this food here,” Hagga said at last, turning away. Her door to the Ways opened and shut, a bright flash of yellow lantern-light, and then darkness.
A trap. Rushes didn’t move, though the flesh of that apple filled her mind. She listened for Gorgen first. He would be waiting nearby, still and quiet like herself, angrier than ever. At long last she let her feet down to dangle over the edge. Far below in the chasm lay bones upon bones, the new fallen among the ancient. Some of the Many had walked across that floor, picking their way between rib cages. Gold gathered there too, some coins so old that the faces stamped upon them were no more than legends. The Many had not been interested in coins. They had always let them fall, turning away, looking for something more useful.
She rolled to her feet, one hand on the wall. The stairs were just five paces away, and her shoes were soft. If Gorgen was out there, he might not hear. His silence frightened. He was one to shout and bluster, not wait in the darkness. Whatever punishment he had planned must be worth some patience. In all the whole day and night she had been hiding she had not heard him, not seen him, once.
A scattering sounded below her. A rat, maybe, running between the bones and the money. Or a person. She remembered the emperor in the dungeons, remembered his wild, bright eyes. That too had been a dark, lonely place. She scooted down the stairs, eyes scanning the darkness. The apple was closer now, just over the bridge. She could smell it, a smell of freedom, of trees and open air, but the bridge scared her, so narrow as it was and with a drop to either side. She fell to her hands and knees and began to crawl.
And heard a rustle, an unmistakable sound of fabric against fabric. Gorgen! Rushes froze, but whoever shared the Ways with her moved off, up another set of stairs, on his own business. A coincidence. Not Gorgen. The rustle sounded again, this time accompanied by heavy breathing, and then a voice.
“Do you have the seeds?” A man, or so she thought. His tone was high, but commanding.
A woman answered. “Yes.”
The two carried no lights and spoke so quietly that Rushes had to creep forward, listening hard.
“What did you tell the priest?”
The woman spoke with an accent, hard on the consonants, similar to Marke Kavic’s way of speaking. “That the empress sent me. As you told me.”
“Good,” he said, as if someone had just put a tray before him, and he was eager to eat. “All eyes will fall upon her when we use them. But first our slithering friend. The brother dies before anyone.”
“It won’t be easy. I can’t get near-”
“He will be bitten. A charm has been set. The snake will find him.”
“And then Sarmin the Mad.” She spoke as if she looked forward to it, as if the emperor had done her some harm.
“What did you say?” Rushes heard the cold reproval in his voice. The woman had overstepped, but she continued without realizing it, her voice deepening with stolen authority.
“He told me himself he is not the emperor. That Beyon’s son-”
Rushes flinched when she heard a slap. “I told you that if you spoke of that again I would hurt you. Take care of the boy. Now go back before they notice you’re gone.”
Rushes held her breath. If this man noticed her, found her hiding here and listening to his words, he kick her into the abyss without a second thought. Zell or Gorgen would beat her, anger guiding their words and their fists. But this man had no anger and no kindness either. She could feel it in him, an emptiness.
The woman was not afraid of him, though. She did not see what he was. “And then you’ll send me to Gehinni province, as you said?”
“With a bagful of gold, just as I promised.” Rushes did not believe him. It came out of his mouth with too much ease, practised and smooth. “Just remember your training in the desert. Stick to the ways you’ve been taught.”
The door Hagga had used swung wide and in the light of the corridor Rushes saw the silhouette of a large man, more wide than tall, and a flash of his scarlet robes. Then he was gone, and their corner of the Ways fell dark once more. As for the woman, she was moving up the steps, signalled by a soft shuffling and the whisper of silk.
Rushes reached Hagga’s plate and stuffed the fruit into her pocket before following in the wake of her unknown companion. They moved upwards, the other person hurrying through the dark with sure feet, hopping easily over the missing stairs and the cracks in the narrow walkways. At the entrance to the women’s wing Rushes ducked into a shadow, but there was no need. The iron door that should have required a key swung open in her direction, blocking her from the other person’s sight.
She thought on their words. The most important thing right now was the slithering friend. Someone had brought a snake into the women’s wing, and they meant to kill the emperor’s brother.
The Many were gone; the eyes that might have followed the mysterious woman through those gleaming halls did not exist. Rushes had to brave it herself, though they would surely send her to Gorgen after she found Empire Mother Nessaket. But Prince Daveed might be hurt if she didn’t warn them. She tried to grab the edge of the door before it closed. Heavy, it slipped from her grasp, but something else stopped it-a piece of stone tile, placed n
ear the bottom. Rushes waited, exploring the width of the crack with her fingers, testing the strength of her hands as she waited for the corridor to clear.
She took a bite of the round, firm apple Hagga had left for her. The sweet and sour taste brought a tear to her eye. With the Many one did not taste, feel, or smell, not with her own body. Perhaps if Demah had taken an apple with her that morning, she would have remembered that. Perhaps she would have felt that sweetness on her tongue, the juice tickling her gums, and thought that it was worth being alone.
The corridor in the women’s wing had fallen silent. It took all of Rushes’ strength to pulled open the door and step through, and by that time the hall was not empty. Three concubines saw her and began to shout.
“Filthy slave! What are you doing, spreading dirt in our halls?”
She looked at her dress and her shoes. Dirt and moist stone had turned them grey.
“You need a whipping!” But they passed by, and did not call the guards. Things were not as they were downstairs. Rushes moved down the corridor, her dirty shoes sinking into the rich carpet, until she saw Nessaket leaving her room, accompanied by six guards. Rushes slipped into a niche that held a seat with cushions, keeping her shoulder to the near wall, watching the men. There were ten guards in all and four lingered by the door, their attention on the empire mother as she walked down the hall, her black hair swinging against her shoulders.
They would never let her wait here. By the time Nessaket returned, they would have discovered her and dragged her down to Gorgen. She darted forward and slipped behind their backs into the empire mother’s room. Once there she took her place in the shadows between two wardrobes, far from the single lantern that cast a soft light around the mirror.
Madness. She would be killed for this.
No sooner had she pressed her shoulders against the wall than a guard entered the room, walked to a gilded cradle that had been set beneath the window and looked down. “Sleepy tonight,” he said aloud.
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