by Devin Madson
“We can wait here until the danger has passed,” I said. “And in the morning I will order the carriage to take us away from here.”
“Where are we going, Mama?” the boy said, coming to press his face into my skirt. “I don’t want to go. I want Juno.”
I kept the fingers in his hair calm, but the hand at my side clenched hard. “You don’t need Juno anymore.”
Nyraek stared very hard at me as though trying to read my mind – something I hoped he could not do.
“You are going to come to live at my estate in the country,” he said to the boy. “It is much quieter there. You will meet my son, too. He is—” Nyraek took Takehiko’s slack wrist and drew back his sleeve to see the birthmark. “—like you.”
That made the boy look up from my skirt. “Like me?”
Nyraek had always worn a leather band tied around his wrist like an archer’s bracer, but he untied it then under Takehiko’s rapt gaze. In the faint moonlight it was hard to discern the line where his skin lightened, but the birthmark was impossible to mistake.
“You—” Takehiko looked up. “You’re not afraid of me.”
“No. I’m going to look after you.”
Sure my heart would break if I watched them any longer, I turned toward the door. Midnight approached yet there was still no sign of Gadjo or the Imperial Guards. Had Cheng ignored my order?
“Perhaps we should leave now,” I said. “Rather than waiting.”
“No,” Nyraek said while Takehiko traced the line of his father’s birthmark with a finger. “If this man you mentioned wants to make a scene then better we keep away from untrustworthy eyes. Cheng I trust, but General Kin—”
Footsteps interrupted his words. At first they were soft like the distant patter of rain, only to rise to thunder as they approached. Nyraek swore and reached for his scabbard only to find it empty.
“Hide the boy,” he hissed, squaring up before the door.
“Hide him? Where? The room is empty.”
His eyes darted about but a second later the screen door slammed back upon its track and guards made faceless by shadows poured in. A dozen at least. One gripped my arm, but when another tried to touch Nyraek he shook them off with a snarl. “I can walk, Bahnu. I will walk. I am unarmed, as you see.”
“Let him go, Bahnu,” came the voice of General Kin. The man stood in the doorway, scowl in place. “Brave men walk to their own deaths.”
“Ah, General Kin,” said Nyraek. “I always said you would go far, but I did not expect you to rise to my position so soon.”
“His Majesty has honoured me.”
If anyone else heard Nyraek’s snort they made no sign of it. “Indeed,” he said. “There was a time he honoured me, too, so you had better watch your back.”
“I am His Majesty’s loyal servant. I am no threat. There is no need for me to watch my back.” He gestured to his men. “Bring them all. His Majesty is waiting.”
It had been a gamble, but if anything could make Emperor Lan angry enough to break his own decree not to see me, it was the presence of Nyraek Laroth in his palace at my invitation. But as I was pushed out of the room behind Lord Laroth, new fears tempered my relief. With General Kin’s grim gaze upon me I knew death waited.
You will die before you thirtieth year. Your children will die. The empire will burn.
We were in the hands of the gods now.
It ought to have been the throne room ‒ a grand stage for a final stand. Instead it was to the Emperor’s apartments we were taken, General Kin ahead and an army of footsteps behind. Seeming to be fuelled by fury, the general moved at such a pace I had to drag Takehiko by the arm, but no matter the speed servants still stopped to whisper.
Nyraek scowled, not looking at any of the guards who had once been his men. They didn’t look at him either, some perhaps the ones responsible for letting him in for one last tryst with his lady. Not until we approached the Emperor’s apartments did Nyraek flick his scowl my way. I could risk no words, but just in case he could hear my thoughts I apologised in the silence of my head.
I’m sorry. This was the only way.
The general went in first, sliding the double doors closed behind him. Light bloomed through the thin paper along with low voices. Then the doors opened again spilling light upon us.
“Ah, Lord Laroth and Empress Li, my darling wife, do come in.”
The emperor sat once more upon his grand chair, not in his full court robe but in a crimson dressing robe finer than anything most of his subjects would ever own. His long dark hair hung loose tonight, falling to his shoulders like a lion’s mane. A hint of the animal glinted in his eyes too ‒ bright and hungry as the guards led us forward to bow.
I did so, and cared nothing for how long he kept us with our foreheads pressed to the reeds. Each moment he thought to bestow humiliation only brought midnight closer.
“Rise.” Emperor Lan grunted as we got to our feet, his eyes having drifted to Takehiko. “I see you have the freak with you.”
“And I see you have your whore with you.” I had longed to say the words for many seasons, and the sight of Jingyi emerging, her hair loose, from the emperor’s bedroom made them impossible to hold.
Jingyi looked as though I had stuck her with a knife, but Emperor Lan laughed. “Rich for you to speak of whores as you stand there with your lover and your ill-begotten freak of a son,” Lan said. “I was merciful and gave you a way out, Li, but you weren’t even smart enough to take it.”
Before I could reply he gestured to General Kin. “General, take a full escort and see Lady Matoda arrives safely back at her father’s house.”
“Captain Bahnu will organise an escort.”
“No, General. There are those—” Lan’s gaze hung upon me “—who would do harm to the future Empress of Kisia. These are dangerous times and her safety is paramount. You will go yourself.”
The usually brusque general hesitated. “In dangerous times, Your Majesty, my place is at your side.”
“And as Lady Jingyi will soon be my empress we are as one,” the emperor said, turning his scowl from me to his general. “I do not see why my order is so difficult to grasp. You do not like my choice of bride?”
Never had I seen Kin’s face redden, but it did so now as he bowed. “Your choice is very fine indeed, Your Majesty, and I assure you that I am not lacking understanding of your order merely concerned for your safety. That is, after all, my job.”
“And very good at it you are, but I think even you must agree that six guards are enough to protect me against an unarmed man, an old woman, and a little boy.”
Kin nodded the short, sharp nod of a dismissed soldier. “Yes, Your Majesty. When you are ready, Lady Matoda.”
“I am ready now, General,” she said in her sweet, musical voice, and stopping only to smile upon the emperor she swept from the room as though the rest of us did not exist, her head high and her hands clasped. General Kin followed, but as he stopped to speak a word in Captain Bahnu’s ear his eyes lifted to mine and for a moment a different man stood in the general’s place, a man whose heart shone through his eyes, whose lips framed words he dared not speak, whose brow furrowed with fear. If only I had some of Nyraek’s skill, some of Takehiko’s sight, I might have understood without Kin needing to speak. Instead he departed upon the emperor’s whim and the door slid closed behind him.
Emperor Lan glared at Nyraek. “That man is worth a hundred of you, Laroth,” he said, leaning forward in his chair. “Was humiliating me with a bastard son not enough for you? Have you returned from exile against my orders just to play the hero? What a pathetic end to make.”
Nyraek bowed his head. “It was never my intention to humiliate Your Majesty. I—”
“Shivats to your intention,” Lan snarled. “I ought to have had you executed, but such things only breed more talk, and you know how I dislike rumours and gossip.” His dark eyes snapped to me. “But now you and that bastard boy have made your last breath of trou
ble.”
Takehiko flinched as I put my hands upon his shoulders. “Please, Your Majesty,” I said, the pleading words bitter upon my tongue but I had a part to play. “I make no supplication for myself, but you acknowledged Takehiko and have raised him from the cradle as your son, I beg you not to harm him now.”
He laughed. “Not harm him? He ought to have been drowned at birth. That’s what your people do with freaks, is it not? Why don’t we let Lord Laroth make the choice?” The emperor smiled upon his former general. “What is more important, your life or his?”
“His.”
Not even a pause for thought. And this was the man whose life I risked to see this through.
“Too easy a question for an honourable man,” Lan said. “Let me instead ask which life is more important, this bastard, or your own heir?”
In the silence midnight crept closer. The emperor started to laugh. “You should have chosen your own life, Laroth, it would have been much easier that way. Guards, take the boy.”
“No!” Too soon. Too soon. “You cannot.” Gripping Takehiko’s shoulders I pushed him toward the man he had always thought of as father. “Look at him,” I said. “This is your son, your boy, named for your grandfather. You cannot do this.”
In more than ten years of marriage I had learned that Lan didn’t like being told what he could and couldn’t do, but his rage at my words far exceeded my expectations. He rose from his chair, red faced and screaming. “How dare you speak such treason to me! I am your husband! Your emperor! Your god!”
It looked for one blissful moment as though he would grab Takehiko, but he stepped back with a snarl and jabbed a finger in the boy’s face. “Take him away. I want him executed. And both of you will watch him die before your own heads are hacked from their worthless bodies. Get them all out of here.”
A guard gripped Takehiko’s arm but did not fall, but neither did the boy move except to press a hand to his face as a low keening came from between parted lips. A second guard gripped the hand and yanked it away. “Come, boy,” he said. “Let’s—”
Takehiko’s keening grew louder and the guard went rigid, his eyes popping. And like a stiff board the man fell back, smacking his head upon the leg of a brazier.
“Kill him! Kill him now!” Emperor Lan shouted, backing away. Still holding Takehiko’s arm, the first guard drew a dagger only for Nyraek to bring his empty scabbard down upon his head with a mighty crack. Another guard rushed in, sword meeting scabbard as Lord Laroth stood his ground.
The doors slid and the two men posted outside paused a moment to take in the scene while another pushed past me, dagger drawn. I stuck my foot in his gait, catching the toe of his boot. He tripped, but would have regained his balance but for the knife I yanked from my sash. With no time for finesse I stuck it in his back, forcing him down. One cry of pain was bitten short by another as I ripped the knife free and brought it down again. He gripped my foot, tried to roll, but fire filled my veins and I stabbed him again and again.
“Not my son!”
Blood covered my hands, my heart revelling in its stamp as I spun to face the remaining guards. Three lay dead while the other three hung back, hovering before Nyraek. He might have been armed with only an empty scabbard, but he had taught them how to fight, he knew their strengths and their weaknesses, and had too long possessed their loyalty.
“Kill the boy! Now!” the emperor shouted from behind his chair. “Kill them all if you have to.”
“I’m sorry, General,” Captain Bahnu said, licking dry lips.
“So am I.”
He came in, sword swinging. Nyraek caught it on his hacked up scabbard and stepped in only to meet a corpse. A flurry of movement swept through the room owning the vague shape of a man ‒ a gust of wind that stank of wet leaves. And in its wake the meaty thwack of an axe cleaving flesh. Blood spurted. Men fell. And there before us stood Gadjo, breathing heavily and covered in crimson rain.
“Your Majesty,” he said, gaze flicking to me over Nyraek’s shoulder. “I have come for the boy.”
“You cannot have him,” Nyraek said.
“This is not your choice, soldier. Step aside.”
“Yes, it is. He is my son.”
Gadjo’s sneer softened as his brows lifted. “Your son?” He glanced at Emperor Lan then, a fleeting look of derision for the god who cowered behind his throne. “Interesting. I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”
Nyraek had not retied the bracer upon his arm and thrust it out, a punch into nothing but air. A smile turned Gadjo’s lips as he looked upon the birthmark, while in his hand the axe dripped blood onto the matting. In the other hand a knife, stained as red as his fingers. That was the arm he held out in response, no covering to remove as he admitted his aberration to the world. A birthmark shaped like half an arrow glared up at us, so red it might have been scarred upon his skin.
“I have never seen anything like that,” Nyraek said.
“If it comes to that, I have never seen one like yours. In another life perhaps this could have been different, but unless Empress Li lets me take your son I am going to have to kill you too.”
Curled upon himself, Takehiko rocked back and forth in the middle of the floor, his arms over his head, small hands gripping clumps of his hair. Beside him a body spilled guts like worms.
You need to get up, I thought. You need to kill the emperor.
The boy didn’t move.
You need to get up. You need to kill the emperor. Then you will be free.
“To what end?” Nyraek said, standing his ground before his son. “Look at him. He is just a child. What is it you need so desperately that you would make such threats to an empress?”
Get up. Kill him.
Gadjo tilted his head. “You mean you don’t know?”
“Don’t know what?”
He looked to me, laughter in his eyes. “That your son can kill.”
Nyraek had been too long a soldier to turn from his enemy, thus sparing me the full force of his hurt, but I could not miss the change in his tone. He licked his lips. “I see.”
“Perhaps now you will change your mind and let me remove the burden.”
“No.”
“Is that your answer, Empress? Because I can go from here and kill your children and be back within a few moments to see if you have changed you mind. I can even bring you their heads if that would be easier.”
Movement drew attention to the throne where Emperor Lan had gotten to his feet. “Who in the hells is this man?” he demanded, as though every one of his guards did not now lay dead.
Gadjo didn’t turn from me. “My name is Gadjo, Your Majesty,” he said. “But perhaps now is not a good time to draw attention to yourself.”
“What did you say about the boy?”
“That he can kill, Your Majesty. I imagine that is why he is here at this very moment and why all your guards are dead.” He still hadn’t turned from me and he smiled then, with a twist that seemed to apologise. “One last play, eh? I can respect that. If I let the boy kill him first, then would you let me take him?”
Emperor Lan dead and the weight of responsibility lifted from my shoulders. And if I did not, he would kill my children. Kill everyone until I agreed. Whatever his unseen abilities, Nyraek was no match for this man.
“Yes.”
“No!”
Nyraek jabbed his scabbard into Gadjo’s gut and snatched up Captain Bahnu’s dropped sword. Its swift upward arc ought to have sliced the servant open, but Gadjo disappeared throwing Nyraek off balance.
“I don’t want to kill you,” he said, sucking breaths as he reappeared behind him. “It has been many years since I last met another who was… different. But I will if you make me.”
“Not if I kill you first.”
Gadjo laughed, blurred, and reappeared behind Nyraek again, an arm around his throat tight enough to redden Lord Laroth’s features. “That is…” the man said, waving his knife. “Unlikely.”
&n
bsp; Wind ripped through the room, scattering papers and toppling screens. Unable to keep myself upright against the gale, I hit the matting, and when I hissed out pain, anger crackled with it like lightning. Gadjo slammed into the wall, while in the middle of the floor stood Nyraek, his sword gripped in white knuckles.
“I will not let you take my son,” he said, every second word punctuated by a gasp for breath. “If you want him, you will have to fight for him.”
Gadjo got to his feet, adjusting his grip upon both axe and dagger. Yet he made no move with either, just stared at Nyraek as though the silence had meaning. Lan, once more behind his throne, watched on as I crawled toward Takehiko. “Mama needs your help,” I whispered, setting my hand upon his hunched shoulder. “You’ll help me, won’t you?”
Silence.
“The emperor is not your father,” I went on, barely voicing the words. “Lord Nyraek Laroth is your father and if you do not kill Emperor Lan then your father is going to die.”
Still silence.
“I am afraid, Takehiko.”
“If you want me dead then come kill me yourself,” Emperor Lan said. “Don’t send a child to do it for you.”
I stood, stung by the jeer. My blade was already stained scarlet, what harm would a little more blood do? Leaving Takehiko I advanced step after deliberate step toward the man I had married all those years ago. Doubt had gnawed at me, but it shed with every step across the bloodied matting.
“You might be able to kill a man taken by surprise, but I was trained too well,” Lan said, eyeing my blade.
“And I am always underestimated.”
Lan sneered as I approached. “Underestimated? Or—”
He hurled the chair into my path. It caught my leg as I leapt aside, but I didn’t fall and spun back crowing with triumph. Crow became cry as a weighted chain smacked into my shoulder. It thrummed on through the air, and fearing its return swing cracking my skull, I flung myself down. But fingers closed amid my hair and an arm threaded around my throat, dragging me up.
“Or overconfident?” Lan said, his heavy breath hot against my ear. “Either way you make a pathetic end, my dear.”