by Devin Madson
‘When you tell me who you are.’
I wanted to put my hands around his thin neck and squeeze. There was no time to explain, even had I wished to do so. ‘No time,’ I said. ‘Trust me.’
He did not sneer. He seemed to consider me, the look in his eyes making it plain he had already seen inside my head. ‘Are you going to help me or not?’ I snapped.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Take everything from me and amplify it, push it out as loud as you can, do you understand?’
‘Yes, but are you–?’
I cut him off, striding to the door. ‘No more time. Let’s go.’
Together we made our way back through the Keep. Mere minutes had passed since I left the throne room, but it felt like an age. An age full of fear, knowing there was only one way I could save them from their stubborn pride. I would have to be free. I would have to let Malice win.
Back in the throne room the scene was like a tableau. Hana knelt, her wrists still bound. The executioner was there, his burly shoulders unmistakable in black and silver silk. The guards were silent. In his own well of darkness, Kin stood apart, a deep scowl ravaging his face. The battle beyond this room seemed not to reach him. For him there was no one except this young woman who had torn up his world.
Before me a circle of guards parted and Shin fell at my feet. Blood oozed from cuts, every patch of visible skin broken, bruised and bloodied. One of the guards kicked him and he rolled across the wood, teetering on the verge of consciousness.
Beside me Endymion spoke, but I wasn’t listening. The executioner moved. I saw him out of the corner of my eye, saw too the change in Kin’s expression. His fury died. The enormity of it all came to him, but it was too late.
I swear on the bones of my forebears.
I took a deep breath and lowered what remained of my shield.
On my name and my honour.
Colour flooded into the world, every soul a chorus of emotion. There was freedom in this world, freedom to breathe, freedom to smell and feel and see and taste.
That I will do all in my power to protect you from harm.
I took Endymion’s hand. It was cold and strange, not like the hand I was used to, its fingers shorter, its palm less smooth. My thoughts began to wander into memory until Endymion forced through the connection.
Never had I felt anything like its power, his very fingers seeming to reach into my soul.
I will mind not pain.
His mind melded into mine, his memories before my eyes. Through the figures crowding the throne room I could see rain pounding the dark road. Around me a pair of strong arms gripped the reins and with every breath came the stink of the horse between my legs. There were other smells, all so vivid, the blood, the sweat and the sweet scent of jasmine oil. Then I looked up and saw my father. He was smiling at Endymion, a smile he had never given me.
I will mind not suffering.
The emotions began to gather strength, but with dreadful ease Endymion ripped it free, all control gone beyond my hands.
I will give every last ounce of my strength.
For so long I had tried to eradicate my instincts. I had tried to live without a heart, and now raw emotion ran through me, twinging every nerve and fibre that had so long fought against it.
I will give every last ounce of my intellect.
Like molten metal it burned along my arm. Anger for my failure, fear for the future, and hatred for what I had been unable to change.
I will die in service to you if the gods so will it.
Endymion’s strength tore it out like poison, long after there was nothing left to give. It boiled inside him. It saturated his soul, held within until he could no longer keep it.
I will renounce every honour.
The blast shook the floor. Guards fell, thrown off their feet. Emotion crackled through the air like sparks, anger’s dense fumes choking every breath.
I will give every coin.
For an instant I saw the scene, the tableau broken. Hana a crumpled heap upon the floor. Kin thrown into the shadows. And darkness came to me as the last shred of soul was sucked out through my fingertips.
I will be as nothing and no one in service to you.
Chapter 23
Lord Laroth dropped like a stone. He crumpled, all steel gone, leaving nothing but the fragile bones that held his form. I knelt, heart still thundering, and put my hand to his chest. It rose so slightly I could almost believe I had imagined it.
‘Darius?’
I shook him, but he did not stir. His head lolled to the side like a broken doll, and my stomach twisted. I was the only one left standing. Around me dozens of men lay dazed and unconscious, and the air was still thick with emotion. Power hummed through my veins.
‘Endymion!’
I spun, shocked to hear a voice in the dead silence. Kimiko was there, her eyes widening at the chaos. ‘What did you do?’
‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I did what he told me to. I didn’t think it would be so strong.’
She stopped at my side, her face pale. ‘So this is the Monstrous Laroth,’ she said, looking down. ‘Pretty. I’d rather be taking him with me, but–’ she flashed me something like a mocking smile ‘–orders are orders.’
‘What orders?’
Kimiko didn’t answer, just stepped delicately across the swathe of fallen bodies. She stopped at a sprawled pile of crimson silk and looked down, her head tilted to the side. The mound did not move.
Only one man was allowed to wear full crimson.
Kimiko knelt. She pressed a hand to the man’s neck. He did not move, did not so much as twitch beneath her touch. Was he dead? Had I killed Emperor Kin?
Drawing back her hand, Kimiko slapped the immobile emperor across the cheek.
‘What are you doing?’ I asked.
‘Hitting the emperor.’
I felt giddy and began to laugh. She joined in, her shoulders shaking. The whole world seemed to have gone mad.
Still chuckling, Kimiko took something from a pouch and waved it beneath the emperor’s nose. He jerked violently, sitting up as though attached to strings. There was no true consciousness in his eyes and he began to fall back, but Kimiko gripped his arms and dragged him up. He ought to have been a dead weight, but although she grunted, it seemed to take no great effort.
‘Don’t tell Katashi I was even here,’ she said, catching Emperor Kin beneath the shoulders. ‘He won’t understand that I have to obey.’
Then, guiding Kin’s stumbling steps over his fallen men, Kimiko led him toward one of the enormous crimson-coloured windows. I watched them, an odd pair in the muted rose light. Touching the glass, Kimiko paused, but it was only for an instant. Emitting her sadness she stepped forward, a gasp from Kin all that was left behind.
Around me the unconscious began to stir. Guards groaned. They lifted hands to their heads and passed fingers over fluttering hearts, yet at my feet Lord Laroth did not move. Darius. I couldn’t get his memory out of my head, the sting of the knife so real, the sight of his fair wrist against Malice’s stuck before my eyes.
An Empath.
Lord Laroth was lying on his left arm, but I had to see, I had to know.
I rolled him over. Dark hair had stuck to his forehead, the redness of where his cheek had lain on the wood the only colour in his face.
Running steps sounded outside. The throne room doors were open and I spun, reaching for my bow. Men came, Pikes, their armour bloodied, their hands stained with charcoal. Each wore the black sash with which Katashi honoured his mother, a tribute drenched in blood.
Katashi strode in. He had Hatsukoi in his hand, an arrow loosely held to her string. In a moment his gaze took in the scene, sweeping across the sea of barely conscious bodies until it came to rest on me.
‘
What happened?’ he said. ‘Where’s Kin?’
I could not tell him. Kimiko was right. He would not understand.
‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I haven’t seen him.’
Katashi snarled, his aura flaring. He kicked a fallen scabbard and it spun away across the floor. ‘Search everywhere,’ he snapped at his men. ‘He can’t have gone far. Search the Keep, search the grounds, search the forests if you have to. I want him found. Go!’
All but a handful departed, their footsteps fading with their hearts.
Pain tore across my throat. It was a familiar pain, ghostly in its brevity, and when I touched my neck I found nothing but smooth skin. Katashi was watching me. The pain came again and I gritted my teeth. The remaining Pikes were picking their way around the room, turning each semi-conscious man. Most were Kin’s soldiers, and every red-belt they found they thrust into the arms of death.
Blood ran across the floor.
I felt the Vices coming. Malice, on soft feet, Avarice always in his train. Brushing past me the scented spider had eyes for nothing but the fallen man at my feet. He knelt at Lord Laroth’s side, pressing two fingers to his neck.
Relief.
His broken doll lived, but all too well could I remember Darius’s fear.
‘What are you doing here?’ Katashi demanded. ‘This castle is already home to enough spiders.’
Malice didn’t look up. ‘I am merely here for what is mine, yes?’
‘For what is yours? This castle is mine now, which means everything in it belongs to me. Every man and woman answers to me.’
On the other side of the room, Avarice snarled. ‘What do you think you’re doing, you shunty kasu?’ He had gripped a Pike’s arm, twisting it back until he dropped his knife. ‘That isn’t a red belt,’ he snarled. ‘That is Lady Hana Otako.’
Hana. I took a step toward the small figure, but Malice gripped my arm. ‘Alive?’ he said, and when Katashi looked at me, the warning pressure in Malice’s fingers increased.
‘Yes, Master.’
‘Pick her up. Find a room unoccupied by a corpse and stay with her until she wakes. Don’t let her get up and don’t let her leave, yes?’
‘Yes, Master.’
Katashi turned on him. ‘What right have you to give orders?’ he said. ‘This is my castle and she is my cousin.’
‘My deepest apologies, Your Majesty,’ Malice said, bowing. ‘I was quite forgetting. Would you prefer to leave her here?’
‘No. But I’ll have one of my own men sit with her.’
‘And Lord Laroth?’
‘Lord Laroth does not leave this castle. He stays here, and when he wakes I will decide what is to be done with him.’
Malice held Katashi’s gaze. The air between them hung thick with contempt. Whatever the Vices’ powers, the Pikes outnumbered them, and it was Malice who broke the tension with a smile. ‘Your Imperial Majesty,’ he said, each word oozing derision. ‘We shall relieve you of the burden of caring for Lord Laroth by returning him to his room.’ He nodded to Avarice, who came and lifted the limp form without so much as a grunt of effort.
Katashi said nothing, his attention claimed by the remaining Pikes. They had gathered around the still form of Hana and were staring down at her, muttering.
‘Come, Endymion,’ Malice said, watching Avarice carry his precious burden away. ‘Let us leave His Majesty to his preparations. He has an oath to take this morning after all.’
‘And I would have The Usurper to behead if it wasn’t for your interference,’ Katashi snarled. ‘I know it was you, Spider, and if I don’t find him your head will roll instead of his.’
Malice’s faint smile remained fixed. ‘I trust you will think better of that threat, Your Majesty,’ he said. ‘But for now let us part. Endymion?’
‘He can stay with me.’
‘I am sure he is physically capable of such an act, but he is sworn to me by his own word, yes?’
‘Is that true?’
Through the tall windows the sun was rising, fingers of light reaching above the horizon. My mind felt numb. I had wanted revenge, but when I had seen Lord Laroth suffer, it had been all wrong. He was no monster. I had seen inside his heart.
‘Endymion?’
‘Yes, Your Majesty,’ I said, the words sounding strange. ‘It is true. I told you we would both pay the price.’
‘How unchivalrous you are, Endymion. Such a martyr, yes?’ Malice took hold of my elbow, and bowing very slightly, turned me toward the door. I went with him. I had questions I could not ask and thoughts I could not voice. All I wanted was to see the underside of Lord Laroth’s left wrist.
‘Your idea?’ Malice said as we gained the comparative peace of the hallway.
‘What was?’
His eyebrows went up. ‘The emotive blast. Any stronger and you would have killed every man in that room, yes?’ He walked through the smoke of a guttering torch as he spoke. Its light was no longer needed now morning had come, but there were no servants to douse them. The castle was changing. Even the air felt different. Katashi’s aura had spread across the building, taking instant ownership of his birthright.
‘I did what he asked me to do.’
That made Malice stop. ‘Darius? But such desperation! And I thought nothing would shift him. Perhaps he missed me after all.’
He chuckled and we walked on, the sound of rebels laughing in the distance all that disturbed the peace. On the old floor, Malice’s sandals clicked.
‘I remember my first time,’ he said abruptly, staring into the distance. ‘A man had come into my mother’s room without permission. He dragged her across the floor by her hair, and when she shouted for her owner, he did not come. She did not fight. She had to be careful of her reputation, but there was I watching and all she could do was cry. I wanted to hurt her for being weak.’ He paused, licking his lips. ‘I still remember the sound of their screaming. I was six years old.’
Trying not to think about the horror of those words, I said: ‘These men didn’t scream.’
‘No, you hit them too hard for that, yes? The human heart can only take so much before it shuts down to protect the body from harm.’
We walked on, the truth increasingly hard to ignore.
It had felt good.
At the end of the long passage, Malice stopped outside a door. It was the door I had come to what felt like a lifetime before, full of anger. Lord Laroth’s room.
Inside, Lord Darius Laroth was lying upon the divan, his hair and robe sprawled carelessly around him. Avarice fussed around the man as though he were a wayward child to be cosseted and lectured.
‘How is he?’ Malice asked, crossing the floor.
‘I’ve never seen him this bad,’ the Vice growled. ‘You never did this to him, not even in those early days.’ The man turned and glared at me, blaming me with every ounce of his being.
Malice splayed his long fingers upon the unresponsive chest. It rose and fell gently beneath his touch, but it looked as though the body was just breathing in memory of its function.
‘He’s in there,’ Malice said. ‘Just very weak.’
‘Who knows how long it will take him to recover,’ Avarice said, still glaring at me. ‘You fool. Don’t know what you’re doing, huh? Nearly sucked the life right out of him.’
‘He gave it to me.’
Avarice lunged, hands reaching for my throat, but Malice stepped between us. ‘No, Endymion is too strong for his own good,’ he said, turning the enraged Vice aside. ‘But Darius was not to know that.’
‘He did know.’
‘If he dies because of you I will rip your head off,’ Avarice snarled
‘No, Avarice. Go now. Keep an eye on Katashi. It seems like we might be here for a few days and we wouldn’t want him to do anything foolish, yes?’
For a moment I
thought Avarice would refuse, so protectively did he look at the unconscious man upon the divan, but with nothing more than a grunt he went to the door. I felt his anger stalk past, disappearing into the passage.
I had to know. Quick steps took me to the divan and I knelt on the matting. Lord Laroth’s hand hung toward the floor, and pinching the fabric between dry fingers, I drew it back.
A birthmark stared up at me. Three horizontal lines crossed by a diagonal.
Malice had called him brother.
‘I’m your brother,’ I said.
A dry chuckle sounded above my head. ‘Told you so, did he?’
Had he? He hadn’t wanted to.
Bitter tears stung my eyes, but I would not let them fall. Darius had known, from that first moment in Shimai he had known. But he’d had no choice.
I looked up at Malice. ‘You’re a Laroth.’
‘We are Laroths, yes?’ he said. ‘Our father was a busy man it would seem.’
‘Are there more of us?’
Malice shook his head. ‘No. Although until now we didn’t know about you. Your priests hid you well. There was always the rumour Empress Li’s last children were his, and here you are to prove it.’
‘Hana?’
‘Painfully Normal I’m afraid. A pity, yes? She is only your half-sister.’
‘So I’m not an Otako.’
‘Oh, but you are. Whatever he might have known to the contrary, Emperor Lan formally acknowledged you as his son, yes? You are perfect. Laroth and Otako in one. The key to Kisia’s future.’
There was a sharp knock on the door and Avarice returned, still glowering. ‘Katashi Otako is preparing for his oath,’ he said. ‘The nobility are arriving from Koi and will be given the opportunity to pledge their allegiance. There is… some confusion.’
Malice laughed. ‘Ascension by blood. It will prove an interesting morning, yes?’
‘So it would seem, Master.’
‘Good, thank you, Avarice. Wait outside.’
Avarice departed, sliding the door closed behind him.
When we were once again alone, Malice held out his hand. ‘Come, Endymion,’ he said. ‘Shall we complete our bargain?’