Responsibility of the Crown

by G Scott Huggins

  The Blue Chamber was a small but opulently furnished room accessed through an unobtrusive door behind the dais. Azriyqam stepped inside and saw the Crown’s gaze resting on Jo-ad, who took three steps in and froze. The younger children scattered out of the way, looking to Khiirya.

  The Crown opened his mouth but stopped when Avnai entered the room. If his father’s anger was fire, Avnai’s was deadly ice. With absolute calm, he turned his younger brother around and felled him with a single, open-handed blow to the face.

  “If you want a duel, you little shit,” Avnai said quietly, “get up, and I’ll give you a scar that you and your future wife will both remember for the rest of your days.”

  Jo-ad’s face was white as tallow except for one reddening cheek. His eyes were big.

  His father towered over him. “You have dishonored our House and your sister more deeply than I could have believed possible. Nothing can excuse it. How dare you?”

  “I—” the boy stammered, “I never thought she’d actually do it! Any civilized person would know better than to—”

  “Silence,” said the Crown. “You might at least have had the decency not to make it worse.” He turned his back on his son.

  Realization was dawning on Azriyqam. It had all been lies. Jo-ad’s “instructions” had been an enormous joke to make her humiliate herself.

  Avnai looked down on his brother. “Azriyqam never got a chance to become what you call civilized, but she has lived through years of abuse, the like of which you could not endure one day. She’s shown more courage than you can imagine. What kind of coward sees his lost sister come home and tries to take revenge on her for making him the third child?”

  Jo-ad flushed scarlet with shame. Azriyqam felt nothing. She was still numb with shock.

  “At least do what’s right now,” said Avnai.

  Shaking, Jo-ad got to his knees. He bowed his head. “I apologize to the Crown and to my sister for my discourtesy. I have dishonored my House and beg forgiveness.”

  Without turning, the Crown said, “For this, forgiveness will take time, and it will not come without penance. Do not leave your quarters until I send for you. Meditate on what you might do to make amends for your craven stupidity.”

  Jo-ad scrambled to his feet and left the room.

  The Crown turned back to her, pain in his eyes. “I’m so sorry, Azriyqam. I never dreamed that he would—that my son—” he shook his head.

  Azriyqam’s head whirled. She didn’t know what to think. Where was she when kings apologized to her and the family she had just met vied to honor and humiliate her all at once?

  She ran from the room. Back to her apartments. It was the only place she knew to go, even though they were empty. For all that she had supposedly come home, she was still, she realized looking out at the darkening sky, a prisoner.

  A knock sounded at her door.

  “Who is it?” she asked, voice cracking.

  Avnai came in. “It’s me,” he said. He blinked in the darkness. “Dead and absent gods, hasn’t anyone been here to wait on you?” He checked himself. “No, of course. Merav left and everyone’s just assumed you would know to call for servants. Which you don’t. Well, come with me. You haven’t seen my rooms, and I’m ready for dinner away from all the fuss of the palace.”

  Gratefully, she followed him. They circled the main tower and went up two levels. Avnai led her into a spacious, well-lit apartment and pulled a silken cord. Within seconds, a servant appeared, and he ordered dinner. He poured some clear wine from a bottle on a sideboard. Azriyqam took a drink and she promptly burst into tears.

  Avnai held on to her for a few moments. When she had subsided enough for him to speak, he said, “I’m sorry. We all are. Father is particularly ashamed. I wouldn’t want to be Jo-ad right now. Or ever. He’s always been an ass.”

  “I always thought that if my mother ever came for me, everything would be wonderful,” Azriyqam said softly. “But it’s just the same as it ever was. I’m still a freak with no place.”

  “No,” said Avnai firmly. “You are in your proper place. You’re just not used to it, nor is it used to you. You desperately need a companion. Damn Merav, anyway.”

  “I’ve never had a companion. My only friend is Zhad, and I haven’t been able to see him since we arrived.”

  “Well, that’s easy enough to arrange, or would be, any other night. He was just invested in his knighthood. He’ll be in the middle of a feast with his new brothers in arms and then sitting vigil all night.”

  “Brothers in arms?” Azriyqam said. “He can’t even see to swing a sword.”

  “Well, the Knights of the Outer Gate are more of an honorary order,” said Avnai. “But it is an honor. Zhad has been given excellent rooms. You can visit them; they’re exactly nine floors down the staircase we just came up. You’re not a prisoner. No more than the rest of us are, anyway. You’ve never really had duties people expected you to perform, have you?”

  “All they ever wanted from me was to stay alive and out of the way so they wouldn’t have to look at me or think of me. Like a piece of cargo. Now there’s so much to do, and I don’t know any of it.” She stared at him. “How bad was what I did?”

  “Well, it’s going to be memorable, but Jo-ad will be making a very public apology. The disgrace is his, not yours. I’m assigning you a rotation of servants who will be yours. Your room has a bell like the one I pulled. All you have to do is pull it and give orders.”

  “But won’t I wake someone up?”

  Avnai chuckled. “It’s their job to be awake. Just like any sailor on a night watch.”

  “But…just for me?”

  “Yes, because you’re important, now.” Servants arrived with food and began laying it out. “Now, let’s relax and have a quiet meal together.”

  * * *

  The next morning, Azriyqam woke calmer than she had been since arriving at the Kreyntorm.

  A servant did indeed come at her pull of the bell. “Will you be wanting your clothes laid out for the family breakfast, kyria?” the girl asked.

  Azriyqam’s stomach tensed. She’d forgotten about the family breakfast. Jo-ad would be there and everyone who had seen her humiliated. If it were only Avnai, perhaps that would be all right. Avnai, she could trust, but she couldn’t face the rest of a family she hardly knew. Not now.

  On the other hand, she didn’t want this girl to know, either. “Of course,” she said, as smoothly as she could. She had to see Zhad. Now where had Avnai said he was? “By the way, do you know where Zhad’s quarters are?” The girl looked at her blankly. “My friend, Zhad, who arrived with me? Who was knighted yesterday? Sir Zhad?”

  The girl shook her head. “I’m sorry, kyria, but I serve only in this wing of the tower, but you can ask the statues.”

  Azriyqam blinked. “The statues?”

  “Of course. Being of royal blood, the statues will answer you. Ask them where any room is and they will direct you.”

  “Truly?” But then Azriyqam remembered that Avnai had spoken to one of the statues yesterday to open a door. “Thank you.”

  Once she was dressed and the servant had gone, Azriyqam crossed over to the main tower. Almost immediately, she saw a statue of a centaur in an alcove. Feeling foolish, and after making sure no one was within earshot, she asked, “Where is Sir Zhad?”

  For a moment, nothing happened. Then the statue replied. “No such person is in the Kreyntorm.”

  “But he has apartments here! Avnai told me!” Azriyqam protested. “Where is he?”

  “The Crown Prince Avnai?” the statue answered. “He is down twenty flights of the staircase behind you, take a right, and through the oak door on your left.”

  That couldn’t be right. Avnai should be at the family breakfast. No, wait. The servant girl had said that the statues would tell her where a room was. Not where a person was. Would that work?

  “Where are Sir Zhad’s apartments?” she asked.

  “They are down twen
ty flights of the staircase behind you, take a right, and through the oak door on your left.”

  She backed away. The statue was lying to her. It didn’t recognize her as royal blood. What if she wasn’t royal blood? What if they found out?

  She had to talk to Zhad, right now. What had Avnai said last night? Nine flights down from his room. She followed the stairs to Avnai’s door and then went nine flights down. She hammered on the door. “Zhad. Zhad!” she cried. “Oh, by all the dead gods, Zhad, open up!”

  She was starting to cry when a very sleepy Zhad opened the door. “Responsibility?” he asked. “You haven’t come to see me in three days, and I must say you picked a hell of a time. Keeping vigil is pretty fun the way these Knights of the Outer Gate do it, but I didn’t get much sleep.”

  “Oh, shut up, Zhad.” She pushed past him. “I could be in a lot of trouble.” She sat him down and explained about the statues, and about how she’d been humiliated last night. It poured out, so much that she couldn’t stop. She found herself telling him everything about the past two days.

  “I heard about what happened to you. They apparently have back-stabbery raised to a high art, here. However, although speaking against the royal family isn’t exactly smiled upon, consensus among my brethren last night was that young Jo-ad’s arse needs an appointment with the flats of some unfriendly swords. But I can’t believe you’re not related to this family. You recognized Avnai, right? And he, you.”

  The knot in her gut loosened a bit. “Let’s have some breakfast of our own,” Zhad said. He pulled the bell and ordered breakfast, as if he were as used to all of this as Avnai.

  “You’re absolutely loving all this, aren’t you?” Azriyqam said, as breakfast arrived.

  “Let’s put it this way,” said Zhad around a mouthful of honeyed-and-buttered scone. “I’m eating better and living higher than I ever imagined. If tomorrow I die, I’ll be better off than if I’d lived a full life on Ekkaia. I mean to enjoy myself as much as I can and ride your father’s gratitude for saving you as much as possible.” Before she could respond to this impertinence, he cocked his head. “Aren’t there rather a lot of people running about outside?”

  Azriyqam listened. There was the tramp of many heavy feet passing the door. Before long, a knock sounded.

  “Come in,” called Zhad. Avnai entered and behind him two liveried Kreyntorm guards, fully armed. He saw Azriyqam and visibly relaxed.

  “We missed you at breakfast,” he said. “Especially Father. I should have known you’d be here half an hour ago. Go tell the Crown she’s all right,” he said to his escort, who saluted and left them.

  “Is…Father…especially angry?”

  “More at himself than you. He questioned your poor servant until she was in tears. She said you were on the way. That’s what you told her, yes?”

  Azriyqam nodded.

  “You’ll hear from Father about that,” he said. “We don’t lie. That’s a lesson we all learn early around here. You can tell a servant that it’s none of their business where you go, of course, but we don’t lie to them.”

  “Jo-ad lied,” she said, voice dark.

  “Yes, and he’s paying for it. I’ve never seen Father so angry. Rarely been so angry myself.” His eyes narrowed. “Jo-ad was not at breakfast today. In fact, Father has decided that he won’t be there until you invite him back.”

  “Really?”

  “Indeed. Don’t feel pressured to, either. No one will ask you to. Forgive in your own time. He’ll have to appear at various state functions, but you don’t have to speak to him. Father is a different matter. You do need to speak to him. As I said, he’s not angry with you, but he never thought you might have run off. Being at breakfast is…well, it’s a duty. He does love you. It hurts and puzzles him why you’re afraid of him. He was minutes away from calling Ambassador Celaeno onto the carpet and threatening war when the statues couldn’t locate you. Then he remembered that you’ve not been United with the Theurge yet.”

  “What’s that? Is that why the statues didn’t work for me when I asked them, like the servant said?”

  “Yes,” he smiled. “She couldn’t have known better. Did they speak to you?”

  She told him the contradictory directions she’d been given. He chuckled. “They’d been asked by someone they didn’t know how to find a member of the Royal Family, or close to it. If you’d followed those directions, you’d have presented yourself at the office of the Colonel of the Palace Guard. They have a rudimentary sense of irony.”

  Despite herself, she smiled.

  “Come. Let’s reconcile you to Father, and then I have something I want you to see.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter 5

  It was late morning when Azriyqam looked down into the Court of Blades. Avnai had brought her to this vantage point, a small balcony with its own veiled curtains. Through them, she could see but not be seen by those below. She had no trouble hearing them, however.

  Avnai entered, following the Crown. Both had light helmets under their arms and were wearing mail over thick cloth. Training armor, Avnai had explained. She’d seen similar things, rarely, from her nest on Ekkaia, but the weapons had been rattan, and the armor wicker. Here they carried live steel.

  “…can understand why meeting a whole new family could be somewhat overwhelming,” the Crown said, “and what Jo-ad did to her was inexcusable. Anyone might have fallen for it, but why is she acting like a peasant? Lying to servants, cowering in her chambers, cringing when she’s spoken to.”

  “You didn’t see how she was being kept, Father,” said Avnai, laying aside his omnisword. He drew a medium-length sword and a shorter, heavy chopping blade that tapered to a thick point in his left hand. The Crown did likewise. Each of them took a few practice slashes in the air. “They had her cooped up in a cage scarcely bigger than the one they planned to feed me to the crows in. Her nest, she called it. They hardly let her out to breathe. She’d been teaching herself to fly, and that badly. Ready.”

  The Crown moved, faster than Azriyqam would have expected a man of his age could. His swords flashed in the sun, forcing Avnai back. The prince parried skillfully with his own thick blade, but he was hard pressed. His riposte knocked the Crown’s shorter sword aside and nearly landed in his ribs, but the older man’s sword sprang up before Avnai’s with a twisting motion and sent it spinning to the ground.

  “Point.” Avnai bowed. “They didn’t even really see her as a person, much less a guest. She was raised as a pet, or a slave. Loved as much as a slave and barely given even the dignity of that much work. In truth, she was less than a slave or a pet. Peasant is an improvement for Azriyqam. That she can conduct herself like one testifies to her strength of character.” Avnai grabbed his omnisword this time. He spun it in his hands, and the Crown moved more cautiously.

  “Ready,” he said. This time the Crown didn’t launch himself to the attack. He circled. Avnai’s longer blade bobbed steadily. Finally, he struck. Avnai met his father’s sword and stepped forward, slamming the sharpened guard into his father’s heavier blade. Then he pivoted the sword around and swung down. The long, forward-curved blade slipped behind the Crown’s ankle and took his left foot out from under him. The Crown tottered and recovered. “Point,” he said, face dark with effort. “I could burn that ship to the waterline for what they did to her, and I would, if not for the damned Consortium. This is all their fault. All of it. Someday…”

  “Someday,” Avnai agreed.

  “But she doesn’t have to cower all the time. She could stand up for herself. Look people in the eye. I’m afraid for her; she’ll need to be able to face people down, hit back. She’s not powerless here, why is she so needlessly afraid?”

  “You could put her in a room with Jo-ad. She might be ready to hit him.”

  “It would be a thrashing he’d deserve,” said the Crown. To Azriyqam’s horror, it looked as though he was considering it.

  “May I see your sword and falchion?”
The Crown passed them over. Abruptly, Avnai said, “Hold this, please,” and passed over his omnisword. Then he took both blades and got into guard position. “Ready?”

  The Crown looked appalled. “I don’t know how to use this thing.”

  “Learn fast, kyriarch.” said Avnai. “Defend yourself.” And he leapt to the attack.

  Cursing, the Crown sprang backward, batting at Avnai’s shorter sword. The omnisword’s pommel blade scraped across his own belly armor twice. Avnai stepped inside the long blade and stopped his own sword with the blade touching the Crown’s helm at the level of his ear.

  “Gods dammit, son, you don’t play around with live blades!” yelled the Crown. “What the hells are you doing?”

  “Making a point, sire,” said Avnai firmly. “Or an edge, if you will.” He grounded the sword. “Were you frightened? Just a little?”

  “Anyone with an ounce of sense would be frightened if he has to fight a skilled man with a weapon he’s never touched!” snapped the Crown. “Oh.” His eyes lit with understanding. “Oh,” he said more quietly. “I see.”

  “Yes, I think you do. Azriyqam’s fear is not her fault.” Avnai paused. “It is Shaaliym’s.”

  The Crown’s head jerked up, glaring at his son. Avnai raised his hands. “I do not say this because of any partisan feelings toward my mother. Her jealousy of Shaaliym—and of Khiirya—is her foolishness, not mine. But it was Shaaliym who chose Azriyqam’s fate.”

  “She did the best she could,” the Crown choked out.

  “And it wasn’t good enough for her daughter,” Avnai said, evenly. “But yes, she did. Just as her daughter is doing the best that she can.”

  “And it isn’t good enough for herself,” said the crown with a sigh. “Therefore, it is our duty to make it better. We need to teach her then, and the first thing she needs is Union with the Theurge.”

  Avnai rocked back. “Sire? Is that wise? The danger—”

  “—is greater to her if we delay. The Kreyntorm will not protect her fully if she isn’t invested in the Union. Jo-ad is invested already. Our sorcery is our only real strength against the Consortium, and halfdragons need it more than anyone. I won’t spend the next two years wondering when some spy might try to sneak past our defenses and take her from us.”