Anoni slashed down two more attackers. “Tell those novices thank you for us,” she said to Copelia. “Take care.”
With the yellow light from Vansainté’s arm, Corinado watched Anoni beside him. She was still bleeding a little in a ruined gown, yet she moved like lightning, killing marines before they could make the group pause for a moment. She quickly dealt out punches and a few clubbings with a sword hilt to get rid of panicked courtiers in their way. They reached the dais as stray crossbow bolts buzzed past them. Thinking quickly, Corinado pulled down the moonrose branch.
“They won’t have it while I live,” he said as Anoni pushed him down the passage after Vansainté. They ran, single file, through the narrow, dusty passages. Ten minutes later, they came out in a dark stable yard on the south side of the palace. A figure with a staff almost got stabbed for her trouble before Anoni recognized her as clergy. The priestess and four other clergy were holding the reins of a group of Delkeran mounts, already saddled.
***
Imperial Palace
Anoni
“She said to get them ready,” the priestess said, shooting Vansainté a sharp look. “Nice arm. Good to know one man on earth can find his pants in the dark.” The priestess turned back to Anoni. “May the Goddess guide you and light the way.” Anoni thanked her and joined the rest of them in mounting the Delkerans. She realized she didn’t have a scabbard for her sword, because it wasn’t her sword. With a curse, she handed it back to Corinado.
“Vansainté! Give me my damn sword!”
He hurriedly took it off and threw it to her, saying only, “So now you want the sword.”
She ignored him, put the sword and belt on over her dress and mounted. The dress was nearly her undoing but she managed to get astride without spooking the horse. Raw silk was not good riding gear.
“Emperor, are you ready?” she asked Corinado.
“Let’s go,” he said beside her.
“Right,” echoed Anoni. Chest burning, she kicked her stallion, riding for the open gate of the yard. Outside, they found the main streets lit brightly with torches and filled with people. On every street corner, musicians played for the milling crowds. Women and men had turned out wearing bright and beautiful clothes. Children rode on their parents’ shoulders waving small flags in temple colors. Others wore white feathers in their hair in tribute to the Miliarnes cranes. Stalls were set up in front of inns and eating houses, selling beer, pastries, and grilled meat on skewers. People were singing, laughing, and clapping everywhere. Even the clergy, in silver robes and masks, danced through the crowd with firefly lanterns swinging from poles.
Anoni exchanged a startled look with Corinado. “You and your holiday. We’ll have to walk.”
Vansainté dismounted. “Come on. Too many people to make a run for the city wall. We’ll have to go slow.”
Corinado was unrepentant. “They haven’t heard about the ball...This is what the people of Aquillion feel about the Goddess and the emperor. There is hope the rest of the people of the Empire feel the same way.”
They dismounted and began their way south through the city. Anoni dragged Corinado into a clothing shop for a few minutes. She returned with boots and a stout cloak covering her dress and another for covering Corinado’s distinctive coat. She also had a bag of clothing to change into when they got out of the city. Their next stop was a goldsmith to pick up money. They stopped for supplies at shops held open so late to get business from the festival. Always they worked their way south and east through the crowded streets. Aquillion had taken Corinado at his word, rejoicing for life with all they had. They passed a section of people singing the Dragon Song at the top of their lungs. Corinado paused momentarily to listen, but Anoni ushered him on.
“The Highlords will be trying to shut the city gates,” Anoni cautioned. She watched a group of small children that someone had dowsed in reflective green paint. They were dancing their little incandescent hearts out on a second-floor roof garden. They were imitating fireflies or lightfish, she thought. She added, out the side of her mouth to Corinado, “We are lucky that the festival was set to have the city gates open for all. But if the Highlords finish searching the palace, they’ll close the gates.”
They went as fast as they could through the crowded streets. They finally reached a minor southeastern gate an hour later. Carts moved into the city with more supplies for the festival, and the guards supposed to be assigned to it were drinking from huge beer flagons and singing on the wall. No one noticed their group move out into the darkness beyond the rejoicing city.
They stopped a few hundred yards down the road to mount up.
“Where do you want to go, Your Highness?” Anoni asked once she was back in her saddle, still clinging to consciousness with her fingernails.
“Where is safe with the Highlords controlling the land?” he asked.
“Until we find out how the people react,” Anoni hesitated, “it would be best to leave the empire proper. South are the fronts where the Empire’s armies are still fighting. That means North, back to Safiro, or East.”
“East are the Daro Wastes,” he said, thoughtfully.
“The eastern provinces are still rebelling against Empire rule,” Vansainté added.
“Then we keep going east until the winds change,” Corinado said and kicked his horse into a gallop.
CHAPTER 25
East of Aquillion, Trade Road to Erolia
Corin
The Dragons didn’t slow the horses until they crossed the Trade Road and parted from the Tahoi River, an hour before dawn. They found a clearing a little ways off the road before they made camp and picketed the horses. Highlord-paid trackers were a certainty once they sobered up from the merrymaking of the festival. Anoni could barely stand, she was so tired. Her chest still burned, and every time she took a breath it felt like a fire lit there.
She made it to the campfire before Yupendra caught her and pushed her down to sit. “You are still bleeding. The emperor can look after your horse.”
“I’m tougher than I look,” she growled, trying to stand, but Yupendra pulled her down again.
“Good, ‘cause right now you look like shit,” Corinado said, taking the reins of her horse and picketing it near his own.
Yupendra pulled her cloak away from the wound. “I don’t have much with me to help with this, but the bullet might need to come out. How are you feeling?” he asked as he looked in her eyes, examining them, eyebrows drawn together. Something was bothering him.
“What?”
He didn’t say anything, just went back to poking the wound. He had a telling silence.
“What is it, Yupendra?”
“You’ve stopped bleeding. And your eye is glowing. Do you feel the Ozuk working within you?”
She did a quick internal survey. Nothing felt otherworldly except the fire in the wound. She answered Yupendra’s question with a shake of her head. He didn’t look convinced.
Giovicci came up to look. “They stopped using those weapons back when, because the Ozuk had power over the...what’s the word...powder? The explosion?”
“The Ozuk’s not saying anything about it,” she said.
“I think all I can do is clean it a little. I’ve never dealt with this kind of wound before. I’ll wait and see what it looks like in the morning before I go digging around in it,” Yupendra said, dabbing at it. Meanwhile, Arjent went to look for water and Wix lit a small fire.
Trying to take her mind off Yupendra’s concerns, she cast about for a different subject. It struck her that she was still hearing hoofbeats in the distance. Turning to Vansainté she said, “I think I heard someone following us,” Anoni said.
“Yes, but that’s not the interesting part,” Vansainté said, while he finished brushing his stallion. “Even if we don’t have divine or Ozuk aid, Delkerans are the fastest horses around. Our follower has been with us since the capital. Which means”—he gave his horse a pat—“that they have a Delkeran too.”
She concentrated on the sound. “Sounds like only one horse. I think we’ll let them come to us,” Anoni said.
“I suppose. I just hope they get here before I fall asleep,” Vansainté sighed. Yupendra took some canteen water and cleaned Anoni’s wound, and then went about cleaning cake out of a cut on Arjent’s arm. The young man was covered with the bright remnants of frosting he hadn’t gotten out with creek water. Later, the eight Dragons settled into a circle for the night. Anoni had her bedroll off to the side, between Corinado’s and the circle. She sat there for a moment, tiredly gnawing on a piece of bread she had picked up from a street vendor near Crescent Avenue on their way out of town.
***
East of Aquillion, Trade Road to Erolia
Anoni and Corin
Anoni looked up as Corinado came back from a trip to the creek near their campsite. He stood over her for a moment in silence, face still dripping from his peremptory wash.
“If you’re all right, will you come and talk to me?” he asked and then held out a hand.
Anoni sighed. “Sure.” Following him through the dark forest, she snagged her skirt several times. She had to stop and free its tatters, cursing so loud it had Corinado smiling. Finally, they reached a big fallen log within a shout’s distance from the camp, but shielded from view by trees and underbrush.
“Here,” she said as she thrust a second piece of bread into his hand and climbed to sit on the log. The tree must have been five hundred years old at least. the trunk being wide enough around that two men probably couldn’t have hugged it and had their hands touch. Corinado climbed up beside her, leaning against a branch that was perpendicular to the trunk, looking at her in the faint starlight. In her rush out of the camp, she had left her cloak on her bedroll. Her shoulders were still bare and pale in the moonlight, revealed by the red dress. It was looking the worse for wear, but she didn’t seem to mind. She rolled her shoulders, cracking the joints to relieve some of their tension.
“Aren’t you cold?” he asked as he made a move to take off his cloak and give it to her.
“I’m fine,” she said tiredly. Forcing formality, she said, “I didn’t know you would want to talk about this so quickly, Your Highness.”
He frowned. “Why wouldn’t I want to talk about this now?”
“I just thought perhaps you would leave it until we reached the border. But I understand it is important, and you must want the most capable leader for your bodyguard...”
“What do you mean?” he asked, startled.
“I failed you,” she said grimly. “As the Red Dragon, I’m responsible for guarding and protecting the emperor. I failed. Even with three years of planning, I failed to defuse the threat to the throne.” She sighed, not looking at him. “Vansainté would be a very capable leader. Law dictates that a disgraced Dragon should be executed by the enforcer of the Imperial Guard Corps. Since he is not present, I could do it myself. You could ask Giovicci to witness it. His people have similar customs.”
“For all your talk of breaking rules, you’re ready to kill yourself to satisfy some stupid law!” Angrily, Corinado shook her by the shoulders. “Do you want to get away from me so badly? You stepped into that shot and you couldn’t have known the Ozuk would help you with that.”
She shrugged off his hands stiffly. “Your Highness, a Dragon knows if anything happens to the emperor, death is the punishment. In some cases, the entire family of the errant Dragon was condemned as well. There were times in the Empire’s history that the entire corps of Dragons were executed as an example to the people. You are—”
“Stop calling me that! You said you would marry me!”
“I never said that,” she said quietly. He scowled at her.
“You don’t need a wife now, you need an imperial bodyguard. You need a Red Dragon who can keep you safe from the Lords and help you plan how to retake the throne.”
“Can’t I have both?”
“No. No you can’t.” She looked a little sad. “They’re mutually exclusive. I can’t be your bodyguard and your wife. Though I’m not exactly competent to be the Red Dragon anyway...”
“Shut up. We were all out maneuvered. I don’t blame you.” She poked him in the chest to accent her words. “I blame me.”
At least she wasn’t bowing at him anymore, Corinado thought.
She continued, “I was so caught up in my hatred of Markham that I didn’t see the politics as the real threat.”
“Weren’t we all. Is the problem that you can’t treat me as Corin, even if you know I am him?”
Anoni frowned, puzzled. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Rules. Rules for yourself as well as for the Empire. I think you have so many rules, memories, whatever...tied up in the emperor, you can’t see me for who I am.”
“I don’t think so, Your Highness,” she said stiffly.
“Don’t start. You’re just going to have to. I’m not the prince anymore, or the emperor,” he said angrily. “And you’re no longer the steward’s daughter. It’s an open field now, Anoni. There are no rules but survival.”
She just shook her head.
“I know you. And you know me, you just don’t know it yet,” he said. He thought for a moment. “Here, we’ll start with the first step.” He leaned more fully against the branch, straddling the wide trunk.
“What about the throne?” she interrupted. “Half the Empire is looking for you and you just lost your father’s throne. It can’t just not matter to you...”
“Tomorrow will take care of itself.” He firmly grasped her shoulders and pulled her into his chest so she was leaning back against him.
She did so reluctantly, but sat up again, unsatisfied. “But how can you...?”
He pulled her back, none too gently. “You’ll think of something,” he said softly in her ear. “You always do. If you’re at my back, I feel like...”
“What? Keep in mind we’ll probably have to fight a civil war to get you back your throne. That is, of course, after we fight free of the Daro Wastes and negotiate aid from the Lords of Oruno, who have been neutral in all martial conflicts for the last four hundred years...” She huffed, “What exactly do you think I can do at your back?”
“If you’re there,” he said tranquilly, “I feel like I could do anything. I could even win.” He brought his arms around her. “So the emperor exists no more. His place was in Aquillion, not here and not now. I want you to call me Corin, you know me as Corin. If I’m going to survive this I’ll have to just be a man. And you, Anoni, just a woman.”
Her breath hitched in her throat and she said, “I can’t. Corin died in my arms.” Tears began slipping down her face. She stared out into the night forest, remembering Corin covered in blood on the Isle of Asteri. Corin dying. Corin dead in the ground. She spoke unconsciously, mind still back there. “Corin had curly brown hair, and clear blue eyes. He was innocent. He used to talk to himself when he thought we weren’t listening. We thought he was a little strange.” The tears came faster the more she spoke.
“Maybe not just a woman,” Corinado muttered. He brought his hands up to touch her shoulders. The muscles were in knots. He began to massage them. It seemed that of all of them, Corinado had taken Corin’s death the lightest. Anoni couldn’t let it go. “He was an odd one,” he said, thinking of those early days on the trail when he hadn’t even known how to pitch a tent.
“Patient. Even when he was like a child thrown in among wolves, even when he knew enemies were everywhere. We laughed at him, soldiers at a soft lord’s son. But he learned, he kept on,” she said, voice broken, the stone in her chest loosening a little.
Corinado worked his thumbs into the muscles at the base of her skull, thinking of Corin Deviida, his identity for so many days. He went on with her eulogy. “He was alone. Knowing for the first time that he had been fostered by the lords to be a lamb for the slaughter. For the first time, he had to feel the gravity of his position. He had to straighten under the load.”
Her sobs subsided into deep sighing breaths. “Corin saw more than he should. He watched everything. He knew I lied. He always walked too stiffly, like someone was watching him.” Her breath hitched almost into a laugh. “I used to watch him when he slept, always tossing and turning on the hard earth. But he liked sleeping under the stars.”
Corinado did not stop his massage until he was sure all the knots were gone. “He sought acceptance from a group of elitist guards.”
“He sought acceptance.” She nodded gently. “But in his lack of judgment, he gave acceptance too.”
“He came to know the guilt of what he had done, hurting a friend in the past,” Corinado said, a little bitter.
“He was innocent,” she insisted, and Corinado let it go. “He knew wonder without fear.” Her throat tightened again. “Then I killed him. I wasn’t paying attention and I cursed at him when I was just afraid of what was inside me.” She buried her face in her hands. Corinado remembered the days he had worked side by side with the Dragons. They had been some of the best of his life. She could not accept that the argument they had had on the beach had found its true mark.
“He died at the hands of traitors,” Corinado insisted gently, hugging her.
“That innocent boy went out into the dark and was greeted by the enemies we were supposed to keep him from,” she said, taking his hand and pressing it over her mouth, trying stop the words that were spilling out. She rocked back and forth against him.
“He went to a sacred place as a stranger but he didn’t stay a stranger,” he said gently. “He knew his way for the first time in a long time. He chose to wander the dark forest and ruins alone.”
A Glimmer on the Blade Page 45
