Outside, waiting for them, were three familiar figures, Luca Pa’narion, Juria Sweetwater, and her Laxtor, Surm Barlot. Half a Company of Bears were drawn up in the space outside the exit, but when Ker looked up, every crest and ridge was lined with soldiers, their purple tunics, with a scattering of green, glowing in the sunlight. She thought about Flashing, to see what all the auras would look like, but she resisted.
“I greet you, my prince.” Luca came forward and folded himself to both knees on the stony ground. “I am the Talent High Inquisitor Luca Pa’narion, at your service.”
“Thank you, Talent Inquisitor.” Jerek managed a small smile, as Luca waggled his eyebrows. “Please rise.”
“Thank you, my prince. May I present—” Before Luca could continue, a muted scream drew every eye upward. The griffin, feathers and fur sparkling in the sunshine, circled the clearing three times before coming in for a landing, scattering soldiers right and left. Only Juria Sweetwater stood her ground, her eyes narrowed and her lips parted. Surm Barlot shouted orders, and the Company began to reform, leaving Weimerk a clear space.
“This is Weimerk, the griffin,” Jerek said.
Luca nodded. “It certainly is.” He looked at Ker, and she smiled back. “As I was saying, may I present, my lord prince, my lord griffin, the Faro of Bears, Juria Sweetwater. Faro, our prince, Jerek Firoxi.”
“Jerek Brightwing,” the boy corrected.
“A. Name. Of. Good. Omen,” Weimerk said, preening the feathers on his right wing.
The Faro bowed again, and waited courteously for the griffin to speak again before she came forward, hitching her bear-skin cloak a little higher on her shoulders. She glanced at Ker, and Ker nodded back. Juria Sweetwater inclined her head to Jerek.
“I have brought my Bears to your service, Jerek Brightwing. May I shelter them here?”
Ennick stepped up. “Plenty of room, Jerek. Section Clover and Section Honeysuckle have been empty for ages.”
Norwil coughed, and both Jerek and Juria turned their heads to him. “As Speaker for the Mines and Tunnels, I welcome you, Faro of Bears. If you come in, we can see about finding accommodation for yourself and your soldiers. Like Ennick said, there’s plenty of room.”
Juria turned her eyes to Jerek, though she still addressed Norwil. “A Faro cannot enter, nor pass the range of the Serpents Teeth, without the permission of the Luqs of Farama,” Juria said.
The muscles in Jerek’s face tightened as he clenched his teeth. He took a deep breath, raising his chin.
“You may enter.”
Ker held her breath as the Faro of Bears kneeled and put her face into Jerek’s hands.
Epilogue
ENNICK found the strange man exactly where Griffin Girl told him the man would be. Tunnel one hundred and seventy-three, just past the Cherry Blossom Shaft, and before where it crossed with tunnel five hundred and fifty-seven. The man was standing, with his arms spread out and his cheek pressed tight against the wall of the tunnel, his hands twitching. His blue tunic was very dirty. Ennick’s mother would have made him change and wash if he was as dirty as that. And his black cloak was covered with dust. There were tiny, tiny lines of red rock in the tunnel wall just there, like the tiny, tiny wrinkles around Ennick’s mother’s eyes. Only red.
Close around where the man was pressing himself against the rock, the tiny, tiny lines were flashing, a little bit like sparks from a fire. Ennick wasn’t afraid. Griffin Girl had told him to come here. He put his hand on the man’s shoulder, and the man’s eyes opened to look at him. The pupils were so big Ennick could hardly see any color in the man’s eyes at all.
“My name’s Ennick,” he told the man. “Kerida Griffin Girl said you should come with me.”
The man swallowed and licked his lips. Ennick could see the man’s lips were dry. He was probably thirsty. Ennick would give him some of his water when they were moving.
“There’s a griffin,” the man whispered. Now Ennick could see he had the griffin’s old claw in his hand, and he’d been scratching at the surface of the rock face with it.
“That’s right.” Ennick laid his hand on the man’s wrist and made him be still. “His name is Weimerk, and he’s my friend. He says one day he’ll be big enough to carry me, if Kerida says it’s all right.”
“I saw him,” the man said. He shut his eyes again. “I saw the griffin. He showed me the way here.”
“That’s right,” Ennick said. “You left all your friends, but don’t worry, we found them. Don’t you want to come where your friends are?”
“The griffin.” The tiny, tiny red lines flickered again.
“Weimerk’s there, too, or he will be if Kerida asks him to come. Do you want to see him?”
The eyes opened again. This time Ennick could see that there seemed to be red lines in the man’s eyes, too. “I can see him? Yes,” the man said. “I want to see him.”
“Come on, then.”
When the man pushed himself away from the wall, he wavered for a moment, and before Ennick could catch him, crumpled to the ground. Ennick tsked and looked at him, hands on his hips, shaking his head. Then he stooped and gathered the man up in his arms.
“This is going to take a while,” he told the man. “Just you rest.”
The Sky Emperor, Guon Kar Lyn, Son of the Sun, and Father of the Moon, regarded with distaste the man lying prostrate on the marble floor in front of the Sky Throne. Guon Kar Lyn stroked the tricolor cat sitting in his lap and composed his face. “Rise.”
The Poppy Shekayrin was young enough to get to his feet quite quickly and without the use of his hands. Once standing, he clasped his hands in front of him and focused his attention on the Sky Emperor’s left slipper. As was proper. The eye embroidered on the slipper’s toe undoubtedly peered back.
“You have a report for me?” Sometimes Guon Kar Lyn tired of the protocols that prevented people from speaking to him until he had first addressed them. Sometimes.
“I do, Sky Emperor. I fear, however, that it will displease you.”
Guon Kar Lyn grimaced. At least this one was honest enough to say so. “Nevertheless, you must speak.”
“Yes, Sky Emperor.” The man shivered, as if he had been about to move, but changed his mind. “It is as you feared, Son of the Sun. Your sister the Princess Imperial Bakura Kar Luyn has . . .”
Guon Kar Lyn stifled a sigh. “You have my permission to say it.”
Nevertheless, the Shekayrin had to clear his throat before he could speak. “She has the taint, my emperor. The jewels spark in her presence.”
He must have made some movement, for the cat on his lap looked up at him and blinked with disapproval.
“I assure you she is safe for the moment, Father of the Moon. She has been well netted, and her magic will not work, nor will any other Shekayrin be able to detect her condition.”
“Thank you, Quo Dval. You have done well. I know it has cost you much to speak. Are there others who know of the Princess Imperial’s condition?”
“No one, my Emperor. I followed your instructions most closely.”
Strange, Guon thought, how no one ever seemed to see the danger in that. Somehow, no one ever thought the worst would happen to them.
Except Baku. As a mere toddler she had crawled into the lap of her favorite older brother and told him that he would be Sky Emperor one day, and that she would be dead. At that time, there had been eleven people between him and the Sky Throne he now occupied.
Well, he had been Emperor now for seven years. But Baku would not die. He loved her. Taint or no taint, she was his sister, and the sister of the Sky Emperor was too valuable to destroy, even though she could not now be given as wife to anyone here, no matter how badly an alliance was wanted—tentative plans forming in that direction would be immediately scrapped.
“You have done well,” he repeated, gesturing the m
an forward. The cat, now thoroughly offended, leaped down from his lap. Or perhaps the keen-witted animal knew what was coming?
“Come, I would reward you.” From his headdress he pulled a long thin metal pin, and freed the thumb-sized golden bell it affixed to the headdress. The mage mounted to the second step of the throne and Guon descended two steps to meet him. He might as well overwhelm the man with honors, it cost nothing. The man took the golden bell in both hands, bowing his head. Guon leaned to give him the ritual embrace, and thrust the long pin through the man’s clothing on his left side. The pin slipped between two ribs and pierced the man’s heart, which stopped beating almost immediately.
Guon stood motionless, bearing the man’s weight in his arms until he could be sure there would be no flow of blood, whereupon he slowly removed the pin. He allowed the body to sink to its knees, and slump to its right. He recovered the golden bell from where the man’s dead hand had let it fall, and restored it and its fastener to his headdress. He took the man’s soul stone and tucked it into one of the many pockets in his left sleeve. Now he would not have to wait until one was brought back for him. He returned to his throne. After a few minutes, the cat resumed its place on his lap.
He would call his attendants soon, and they would come with their customary efficiency to deal with the poor Shekayrin, taken so suddenly and so fatally ill, perhaps—who knew?—from the anxiety of having lost his soul stone. Which was why, he would tell anyone intrepid enough to ask him, the Poppy Shekayrin had asked for this audience.
Once the remains were removed, he would have his little sister brought to him, his precious Baku, who had loved him when he was no one, long before anyone else believed he would become Son of the Sun and Father of the Moon.
She was not safe here. Though he was Sky Emperor, though she was Princess Imperial, she was not above the law, and the law said that witches could not live. Netted or not, she could not live.
The cat in his lap rolled over, presenting its belly for his hand. Every time he was surprised by the softness of its fur.
He would send his sister to the new province of Farama as wife to the new ruler there. It would cement his grip on the place. And Baku would be safer than she could be here, away from anyone who might suspect—or know. Away from the hot scrutiny of this court, her taint might never be discovered.
It would break his heart to part with her, but she would live.
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Halls of Law Page 48