Reyna was close enough to Ana-si to touch. She lifted her veil, and when the girl’s eyes widened, held out her hand. “I’ve kept my promise. Mei first.”
Ana-si snatched the shell necklace from Reyna. Her expression was full of a desperate hope. “Where?”
“Outside, waiting for you at the bottom of the steps—Ana!”
Ana-si twisted around just as Jian-so’s dagger arced downward. His blade missed, slicing through air, but Ana-si lost her balance and tumbled into the pit. The screams from the onlookers started when Samuel, covered in layers of clay, reached up and caught her. At the same time, Levi lifted his head. His eyes met Reyna’s shocked ones. Blue eyes untainted by mud or magic. Because of his wax plugs. His sword came up, tempered by clay but still sharp enough to slice through the back of Jian-so’s boots, severing the tendons at his ankles. The shriek that emerged was a hideous thing.
But the sound that followed was not.
Somewhere, deep within the pit, shielded by sleeping men, guarded by Samuel, Ana-si began to sing.
Twenty-Eight
REYNA DID NOT BEGRUDGE the Miranese their screams. Had she not known the truth behind the clay soldiers, now slowly coming to life in the king’s funeral pit like something from a nightmare, she would have screamed too. Though she liked to think she would have shown a little more dignity than these noble mourners, who were shoving others aside as they raced for the stairs, arms flailing above their heads in complete and utter panic.
The soldiers were an eerie sight. Unmoving at first, then looking around in confusion, their movements disjointed, like so many oversize marionettes. Clay shells cracked, giving them the appearance of broken pottery. Kneeling, Reyna reached into the pit for Levi. When he grasped her hand, she pulled with all her might, and he landed beside her, hard on one knee. He turned to look at her. Just looked at her and said, “You’re safe.”
“I was scared to death.” Reyna placed her palms on his cheeks. Felt the tackiness of the clay. “The ship was gone and I thought—”
“Jian-so said it was his father’s decision.” Levi rested his forehead against hers. “He took one look at me and thought I’d make a nice addition to his army here. I will not lie to you. Being thrown into a vat of clay is an unnerving experience.”
“How long were you going to stay in that pit? You could have been trapped here forever!”
“I was waiting for you to come,” Levi said. “Preferably with Mei, or news of her. Something to tell Ana. I didn’t have enough men to fight him off.”
Reyna gaped at him. “I was your plan?” There were a thousand things that could have gone wrong. What if she had not arrived in time? It had not been a certain thing. She had nearly been too late.
He said, simply, “I knew you would come.”
A voice behind them interrupted.
“This is all very touching,” Ken-so said, testy. “However, these men are starting to look upset. They’re also armed.”
Ken-so raised his voice in order to be heard above Jian-so, who keened on the ground several feet away. The lone priest had stayed behind to tend him. His soldiers had fled. Ken-so was right. The baffled murmurs from the pit had changed to ominous mutterings. The clay soldiers had begun to move about. Who knew what they would do, left in the dark, carrying all manner of weapons?
Levi said to her, “I need your help.” He scrambled to his feet, clumsy, and waved his arms high above his head. He shouted, in Lunesian, “Friends!” and had to repeat himself —“Friends! Friends!”—before the volume dropped noticeably. All eyes turned his way. This time, when he shouted, it was in Caffeesh.
“Friends!”
And then, in Oslawn, “Friends!”
Levi looked at Reyna, expectant. Understanding what he needed her to do, she stepped to his side and said, in del Marian, “Friends!”
“Reyna!”
She could not see the man who shouted back at her, his voice full of shock. He was lost among so many others. But she recognized Lord Elias’s voice. He was alive. He was safe. She would keep her promise to Mercedes after all.
Smiling now, she pressed a hand to her heart, where Lord Elias and Jaime and all the rest could see, and continued on—in Bushido, in Pyrenean, in Mondragan—so that the men might understand that however bizarre and inexplicable the circumstances, they were not in danger. “Friends!”
Ken-so came to stand with them. His face was the color of freshly scraped parchment, made even more stark against the black of his funereal robes. There was no point in him speaking Miranese. The pit was free of them, save the dead king. And so he called out once, in the language of his long-banished countrymen. In Coronad: “Friends!”
* * *
So began the painstaking process of explaining how the men had come to be here. Levi’s tale was as brief as he could make it, for it was a story that had to be repeated over and over in a variety of languages. Interruptions were frequent. How long had they been here? It was midsummer, Levi had answered. Anger turned to fury. She knew it would only worsen once the men came to realize that not all their shipmates were there. Many, the ones deemed flawed by Prince Jian-so, had long since lost their lives.
Levi broke off only once, early on, spotting a face below. A young man was lifted high by the Truthsayer’s crew, who clearly knew who he was. Here, at least, there was laughter and relief. Levi reached down and grabbed his brother, Asher, pulling him into his arms.
Reyna had to turn away. And that was when she saw Blaise kneeling by an unconscious Jian-so and his loyal priest. Jian-so’s boots had been removed. His feet were bare. Blaise was tying strips of cloth above his ankles, slowing the bleeding inflicted by Levi’s sword. The cloth must have come from the priest’s robe. His hem was torn, speckled with blood.
Reyna knelt beside Blaise. “Where’s Mei? Ana?”
“Gone.” Blaise tied another strip tight. After one glance, Reyna kept her gaze carefully averted. There was an awful lot of blood here, seeping into the dirt. “Happy. Ana found us by the steps and they ran off.” Blaise looked down at Jian-so. “I can’t believe what he was going to do here. To everyone.”
“Leave him.” Ken-so had come to look down upon his cousin. “Let him rot.”
The priest looked overwhelmed, close to fainting.
“Your Grace, listen to them,” Reyna said of the men in the pit. “They’ll need someone to blame. If he’s gone, who is left?”
Ken-so was. His little boy, Ippen-so, was. The truth of her words sank in. He said, “Will he live?”
“He might,” Blaise said. “I don’t think I can save his feet.”
There was no time to dwell on Jian-so’s grisly injury. Lord Elias hoisted himself onto the ledge. He barely got to his feet before Reyna flung her arms around him.
“You’re not hurt?” Lord Elias said, his arms coming around her. The embrace threatened to crush her bones. Bits of clay crumbled from him and fell to the ground. He stepped back, inspecting her from head to toe. “You’re in one piece?”
Levi was nearby, still speaking to the men, urging them to leave the tombs. They would be able to breathe more easily in the fresh air, and bathe in the river. Some had already gone into the pool to wash off the clay. The water, once as clear as glass, had turned to mud. A mass exodus ensued. Asher sat at Levi’s feet, elbows on knees, still a bit dazed. Levi kept a hand on his brother’s head, as if afraid he would vanish once again.
“Yes,” Reyna said. “What about you?” Ana-si had said the men would suffer no ill effects. Reyna needed to be sure.
“I’m fine,” Lord Elias dismissed. “Midsummer, Reyna. Mercedes—”
“Was perfectly well when we left.” Levi glanced over at that. But she would not frighten Lord Elias by telling him of his wife’s true condition. Not when he was so far away from home and could do nothing about it. “The king wanted me to tell you he’s watching over your ladies. You’re not to worry about anything except returning home. Quick as you can.”
Her li
e cleared away some of his anxiety, enough that he noticed his surroundings for the first time. His mouth fell open. “Blaise?”
Blaise looked over and smiled. Her dress was splattered with blood. “Sir. I am very glad to see you.”
“Who is that?” Lord Elias looked down at her patient, his expression hardening. His hand moved to the sword at his belt.
Levi stepped in front of him, deliberately pulling his attention away from Jian-so. “Lord Elias. We should speak. Outside.”
Lord Elias did not move. “This is Jian-so?”
“Yes,” Levi said. “I need him to live. For now, at least. Will you hear why first, before you put that sword through him?”
Reluctantly, Lord Elias agreed. Levi instructed some of his men to stay behind with Blaise. Jian-so would have to be guarded and moved. Reyna decided to stay too. Levi turned to speak to her; before he could, someone grabbed her hand. “This clay itches!” Jaime announced, and swung her around in circles, while she laughed and cried and held on tight. When Jaime finally set her on her feet, she saw that Levi was still there, watching.
“Lord Jaime.” Levi’s tone was civil. “I’m pleased to see you’re well.”
Jaime’s smile was amiable even through the clay. He kept an arm around Reyna’s shoulders. “Prince Levi. The same.”
Levi paused, waiting for something. Lord Elias looked at him, then at Jaime, then at Jaime’s arm. Finally, Levi said to Jaime, “You’ll join us? There’s much to discuss.”
“Oh, you don’t need me, if Lord Elias is here,” Jaime said. “I’ll stay with Reyna—”
“Jaime.” Lord Elias shook his head in exasperation. “Let her go before you get your head knocked off. Come on.”
“What?” Jaime’s arm slipped away. Before he could say more, Lord Elias marched him off. Levi went as well, but only after brushing Reyna’s cheek with the back of his hand and saying, “I’ll find you later.”
Twenty-Nine
HORROR AND PANIC. This was how the Miranese reacted to news of Prince Jian-so’s crimes. Many fled the city, fearing retribution. The newly crowned Ken-so tried to reassure his countrymen. Miramar was under the protection of Lunes, he said. There would be no violence against them, he said. Who knew what concessions Levi had demanded in exchange? It meant that the kingdom of Miramar might not be burned to the ground, but it would never be as it once was, so isolated and remote.
Ken-so’s first attempts at diplomacy were rebuffed. Sneers met his offer to house the captains of the pirated ships at the palace. They chose instead to camp with their men by the river, near the tombs. Undeterred, Ken-so sent carts full of food and clothing and tents. They were distributed by servants, their faces full of trepidation, which eased as the days passed and they found themselves returning to their homes each night, unmolested. Ken-so himself came by every day, with his son, to meet with Levi and others. Trying to find some way to keep his kingdom intact.
Messenger ships were dispatched to meet the fleet awaiting word near Aux-en-villes. The Truthsayer had been located downriver, undamaged.
Jian-so was kept under guard at the palace. His day of reckoning would come; privately, Reyna thought it had come already. Blaise had been allowed to visit once. She had found him near catatonic with pain, the stumps at his ankles wrapped in bloodied bandages.
Botan-so’s tomb had been sealed, leaving him without a soul to guard him on his journey to the afterlife. The order had come from Ken-so. If there were any Miranese who protested his decision, who believed in the tradition of tutto mortise, Reyna did not hear of it. Not one person came forward to speak for their dead ruler.
* * *
As for Prince Asher, he kept to himself. Polite in mixed company, but quiet, and prone to taking long, solitary walks along the riverbank.
“Everyone else has had time to grieve,” Reyna said when Levi brought it up. He was worried. This was unlike his brother, who had always been the livelier of the two. A thousand friends and no enemies. “Your father’s death is still new to him.”
“Asher was my father’s favorite,” Levi said. “I worry this will sink him.”
“It might.” Reyna remembered her own losses. Her parents, her grandfather. “But not forever. We both know this, I think.”
She stumbled across Asher the next day while walking along the river. She came this way sometimes, keeping an eye out for ships bearing the royal flag of del Mar. Asher sat on a rock jutting out over the water. He looked over his shoulder, and when he saw it was her, rose and offered a bow. He wore Levi’s clothing. A billowy shirt and rough linen trousers, both a little big on him.
“Lady Reyna.”
“Prince Asher.” Reyna smiled and would have continued along the path. She had no wish to intrude on his privacy.
His next words stopped her. “You don’t have to go.” He stepped to one side, offering her space on the rock. Surprised, she joined him. They sat side by side, legs dangling over rushing water.
“I wanted to thank you,” he said. “Levi says we would still be in that tomb if it wasn’t for you.”
“You’re very welcome,” she said, though it was far from the truth. “I’m sorry about your father.”
Asher looked at her with the same brilliant blue eyes as his siblings. “Your own parents must be worried. You’ve been gone a long time.”
“No. They died years ago.”
“Then you understand.” Asher turned back to the water. “Being an orphan sounds better in the fairy tales, doesn’t it?”
“I . . . hmm?”
“It’s not as fun when you’re the orphan,” he explained.
Reyna found herself smiling. “I suppose that’s true.”
They shared a brief silence, before Asher said, “I was very young when my mother died. I don’t remember her well, like Vashti and Levi do. But my father . . .”
Asher was my father’s favorite, Levi had said. The youngest child.
“When my parents died,” Reyna offered quietly, “I remember thinking that there was no one else on this earth who would love me, as they had.”
“Yes.” Asher’s head bowed; he breathed deep. “That’s how I feel too.”
“Except you’re wrong.” She touched his arm, just for a moment. “We’re here because your brother sailed through the Strait of Cain looking for you. Because your sister bullied my king for reinforcements.” Asher’s lips curved at that. “I wish I could be there to see her face when you go home.”
Asher’s shoulders hunched even more, drawn up around his ears. He closed his eyes, and Reyna was reminded once again of Levi, alone with his grief at the docks.
When Asher lifted his head and looked at her, his eyes were blurred with unshed tears. “You’re wrong too, Lady. About who loves you. I’ve seen how my brother looks at you when he thinks no one else is watching.”
And Reyna decided that she liked this brother of Levi’s, very much. They did not speak for a time, only sat there companionably, the silence broken by the river beneath them and the men back at the campsite, calling out to one another.
* * *
Late that evening, a light disturbed her sleep. Reyna rolled over in her tent and opened her eyes. Ana and Mei were there by her feet, sitting beside a lantern. They wore white Miranese robes with amber sashes.
“I thought you’d gone.” Reyna kept her voice low. She sat up on the mat. Hers was one of a dozen tents erected in the makeshift camp. Blaise slept in one beside hers. They were surrounded by men who made their beds beneath the stars.
“We were far away,” Ana said. “Mei found something in the river and wanted to come back to give it to you.” The look she gave her sister was indulgent. “So that you will not forget her. And . . . there is something I need to do as well.”
Reyna gathered Mei close, careful not to crush her wings. She was so frail. They would be journeying far. How would they manage?
“You don’t have to give me anything, Mei. I won’t forget you,” she said, then stared when the
child opened her palm and showed her what was in her grasp.
A pearl the size of a mandarin. Flawless and translucent. In a year spent at Aux-en-villes, its riverbeds blanketed with oyster shells, she had never seen one this large.
Mei asked, “It’s pretty?”
Reyna smiled and kissed her temple. “Very pretty, thank you. I’ll keep it with me always.” To Ana, she said, “Won’t you wait a bit? The ships will be here soon. We can take you wherever you need to go.”
The smile faded from Ana’s face. “No more ships,” she said. “No more men. Come, Mei.” She took her sister’s hand in hers, then went still, ear cocked, listening. Her expression cleared. “It’s only your captain. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye,” Reyna echoed.
Ana lifted the flap on the tent, and, with a final smile from Mei, the sisters were gone.
* * *
Reyna found Levi by the water, sitting with his back against a tree.
“I saw Ana go by,” he said when she had settled by him. He hooked an arm around her neck, pulled her close. “Do you think they’ll be safe?”
“I think so. I hope. You didn’t speak to her?”
“I hid behind a tree until they left,” he admitted, making her smile. “She terrifies me.”
She did not tell him that Ana had known he was there. The night was warm, breezy, and the moon beamed silver in the sky. A crescent moon. It reminded her of Lunes. Of Levi. She wondered if she would ever look at a moon again and not think of him. Before she could think better of it, she said so.
He did not answer right away. “Looking at the moon and thinking of me sounds sad, Reyna. It sounds like I’m nowhere near.” His fingers played absently with the end of her braid. “Lord Elias says he’ll leave on the first del Marian ship he sees.”
Levi’s eyes were troubled. Why would that bother him? “He’s worried about Mercedes.”
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