Chapter 3 #2
“Having heard what Generals Kacha and Bemishu have done to the populations they have conquered, Krustau also has no wish to see them anywhere close to our borders.” Vostop frowned slightly.
“Would you trust on our word alone that we will help your men defend the Lakeshore Palace, even if Your Imperial Majesty is not in residence?”
“Your word, no,” Tallu said. “But my husband speaks sense. We have the opportunity to bind our two nations together, if you are amenable to it, King Vostop.”
“Of course we would be willing to sign another treaty—” Vostop started, pausing when Koque shook her head.
“The Dowager Empress is unmarried, yet still of House Atobe,” I said. “You are unmarried as well, King Vostop?”
“I am.” Vostop said the words so quickly he nearly bit them off.
“Good. Then that is how the alliance will be settled.” I raised my eyebrow, and Vostop nodded slowly.
“We would be more than happy to welcome Empress Koque into our guild and host her as my queen.” Vostop could not seem to look away from Koque, the expression on his face that of a man who had been denied for so long he no longer recognized when he received the very thing he wanted.
“Would you… that is, I would only accept such a proposition if the Dowager Empress was amenable to it.”
Empress Koque turned to look at Tallu, something frozen in her expression as she tried to keep control.
From what she had said, Koque had been performing for the court since an age when she should have been playing with dolls, and from the flash in her eyes, I wondered if there was something I wasn’t hearing.
“I will do as my patriarch demands of me,” she said formally.
Vostop’s face visibly fell, but he rallied quickly enough, his chin nearly touching his chest when he said, “Even without an alliance of marriage, Krustau stands ready to support you, Emperor Tallu.”
“I do demand it,” Tallu said, turning to Empress Koque.
She went pale under the glittering makeup she wore, her eyes glancing at me with venom. Then, like the receding tide, her face went blank, and she raised her chin.
“Of course, I will do as required of me as a member of House Atobe.” She didn’t look at any of us, staring at the back wall of the room.
“It is settled, then.” Tallu turned back to Vostop. “You will marry Empress Koque, cementing the relationship between the Imperium and Krustau.”
“As King of the Shadow Throne, although it may be buried under lava still too hot to even look at, I would more happily call it an alliance between the two of us as individuals, Emperor Tallu, rather than our nations.” Vostop looked up, his eyes fixed on Tallu.
“Good,” I said. “I am glad to have found such an amenable solution to such a thorny issue. I wonder if you might have some time for me before dinner, King Vostop. As one foreigner who very recently married an imperial, I do have some advice.”
“As an observer of your happy union, I can only hope to learn from your experience,” Vostop said, his words finding the delicate balance of flattery and sincerity required in the Imperial Court.
“With your leave, my lord.” I caught Tallu’s eyes and glanced behind him, indicating Koque, who still stared at the wall behind Vostop.
He dipped his head once and I stood, leading Vostop to a nearby sitting room.
A harried yellow-clad servant rushed in after us, asking if I wanted any refreshments.
I waved her off. Dinner would come soon enough, and I had a feeling we would need to spend most of it eating in order to avoid awkward silences.
Na? trotted into the room behind the servant, patting at my knee like a helpless thing until I reached down and picked her up. We both knew it was a facade, like everything else here. I almost clucked my tongue at her but thought better of it.
The servant bowed and left, and when she opened the door, I saw Irad?o lingering in the hallway, a question in her eyes. I shook my head once.
Turning to Vostop, I glanced significantly at his three guards. “I am not sure how it is in Krustau, but conversations this intimate in nature are usually held in private in the north.”
Vostop turned to his men, speaking quickly in Krustavian, the language sounding as though it came from the back of his throat.
Without a grumble, all three men left, shutting the door behind them so Vostop and I were left in silence.
We had taken up two of the several couches arrayed around the room, imperial elegance mixed with the stone walls of Krustavian practicality.
I wondered if it was too obviously a metaphor for his new marriage with Koque. For a moment, we both waited in silence, but I heard no whispers of footsteps at the door, and Irad?o would have said something if there was someone lingering at the keyhole.
“I wanted to ask you some questions about Spider,” I said.
Vostop blinked and wet his lips, taking time to consider his answer. “Spider? I thought, perhaps—” He shook his head. When he refocused on me, his eyes were thoughtful, almost suspicious. “What would you want to know about Spider?”
“From the stories my mother tells, the animalia Spider lives in Tavornai. Yet so much of your culture is based on strictures that worry over the threads she weaves.” I waited, to see if Vostop would take the bait or if I would have to ask an explicit question.
Vostop nodded slowly. “Yes, it is true, we understand the threads that Spider weaves bind us to civilization. You know the story of how the first guild was formed?”
I shook my head.
Vostop brought his legs up to lean against the back of the sofa, one hand along the wooden arm, while the other rested on his stomach, a set of golden rings glinting in the light as he drummed his fingers.
“After the One Dragon dropped the mountains atop Centipede to trap him, dwarves began mining the mountains. They found them rich beyond imagining, and, as with all wealth, it made men greedy. It made men cruel. And soon, if you met a man in the tunnels, you would rather raise your hammer to kill him than raise your voice in greeting.” Vostop’s voice had the quality of a song, so different from the heartbeat thrum of my mother’s stories, yet familiar all the same.
“And Spider saw this, as she sees the threads of fate, and she knew that the dwarves were weaving themselves a future where there were none of us left.
We would die alone in our mountains, surrounded by a vast wealth that none of us dared spend, lest we lose the power it gave us.
And Spider, who can be merciful, took the threads she saw and wove a different future for us.
Then, she took the form of a woman and went deep into the tunnels of Krustau.
“Each dwarf she encountered, she bound in spider silk, bringing them deep into the heart of the mountains until she had all of the dwarves that had left Forsaith to take up their homes in the mountains. When she had all of us, Spider showed us two tapestries.
“One displayed that terrible future where the dwarves became a lonely, greedy people.
The other, a future where our loneliness was bound together, where we formed guilds that were as close as family, and our wealth was shared with each other.
Of those men who lived in the mountains, she asked a simple question: which future did they want?
“No man wants to live alone. The heart is lonely in isolation. It cannot beat freely knowing there is no one who shares its affection. So the men chose the guilds.
“But Spider knew that such a promise needed to be signed in blood, so that no one ever forgot what happened. She bound the guilds in her spider silk. Should we break the promise of hospitality, should we break faith with our guild, we would be punished as one who attempts to break any of Spider’s threads. ”
As he spoke, his face relaxed, the years melting off of it. He was a good storyteller, perhaps as good as my mother, although I would never say that to her face.
“Attempts to break Spider’s threads?” I asked. “You do not believe that a man can break the threads of fate?”
“I have seen what happens when one breaks Spider’s threads.
That is what my cousin did, and he died for it.
” Vostop shook his head. “I have not attempted it myself, but we have enough tales of men driven mad, men who feel a thousand cuts for breaking the rules of hospitality. There are reasons we kill those who do. It is one thing to commit a crime, but the madness they bring can infect those around them.”
I couldn’t feel fear at the thought. I couldn’t feel worry about unraveling the threads I’d seen with my own eyes when Na? and I had healed Hallu.
“Where did Spider go after?” I asked. “Did she stay in the mountains?”
“She returned to Tavornai.” Vostop looked at me intently. “Why do you have so many questions about Spider?”
“In the north, we mostly tell stories about Sea Serpent and the great northern bear. We have a few stories about the other animalia, but we would never claim to do anything because of advice from Spider,” I said.
“In our stories she’s a tricky creature who rivals Fox for her cleverness.
I wondered how she came to be so central for Krustau. ”
Vostop inclined his head, although his sharp eyes watched me as though he didn’t believe me. “Would it be improper to admit I wasn’t hoping to tell old legends and instead hear what advice you have about marrying an imperial?”
“Learn patience,” I said. “Then again, that is advice I’m sure is passed down from every grandmother to every grandson, as it is universal. I know that Koque treasures your customs a great deal. She adopted the letter-writing style when you were visiting court, didn’t she?”
“She did,” Vostop agreed. “Although her imprisonment with Inor was unhappy due to her son’s illness, she adapted well to the city. I thought that, perhaps, under different circumstances, she might have enjoyed it more.”
I considered my next words. Tallu was likely confronting Koque now, but Vostop had spent three days with her while Tallu and I had gone to see Saxu. He had to have some idea what his lover was thinking. How would Tallu phrase it?
No, I was northern, and my mother never minced around issues of relationships. Too much trouble, too much chance of being misunderstood.
What would my mother say?
“I thought to offer her some happiness in a marriage with you,” I said. “I am not sure how I offended her so badly.”
Vostop said nothing, one finger absently tracing the delicate stitching of the couch. “Before the emperor offered me her hand, I had asked her to be my queen. She refused to answer me. That was her way of refusing me.”
“Did you enjoy your extra days with her?” I asked.
Vostop had the grace to look down, acknowledging that he had purposefully timed his visit. “I did not mean to fall in love with her.”
“The empress of the country that you were ambassador to? I imagine not.”
“We dwarves can live a long time. Not as long as the elves in Tavornai, but long enough. We learned early on that to love a human or an air mage or even a goblin is sorrow. You may love them with the entirety of your heart, but you must always know that they will die.” Vostop was smiling, the expression changing his face.
“Doesn’t it hurt, then? To love her when you know that she will die before you?” My heart was racing, and I hoped that Vostop’s ears weren’t acute enough to hear it.
“The opposite,” Vostop said. He swallowed.
“I love her wit and her eyes, and the way, when she smiles, it seems as though it is just for me. And when she is gone, I will carry those memories with me. Too many of my kind swear off love entirely. Or they love each other briefly, for the span of a human lifetime, until they fall out of love. A long life can be a curse. You have time to love and then begin to hate your lover. It can grow in your heart, a bitterness that affects everything else. Far better to have a moment of fleeting happiness knowing you will give them up than a lifetime of resentment hating your lover.”
“No,” I said. I considered northern winters, locked behind the walls of the Silver City.
I thought about all of the couples that my mother counseled or scolded or locked in a room together until they spoke true words to each other.
“I cannot imagine loving someone and being willing to give them up. Loving someone despite their flaws is part of the pleasure of being human. You must love who they truly are, not who they remain in your memory, preserved like a flower frozen during an ice snap.”
Vostop looked at me, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “There are times when I listen to you, and you seem very wise, as though you are of an age with me and have experienced life as I have known it. And there are other times when you seem very young.”
I had to laugh, the corners of my lips turning up. “And which of those is this time?”
“You seem very young. And perhaps I am older and more callous than I realized if hearing you say such kind things only makes me hope that you might die before you experience differently.” Vostop paused, his brows twitching into a frown.
“I understand that what you were trying to do was a kindness. But I will not take Koque’s hand if she does not wish to give it to me.
Krustau will protect itself, and if there is some benefit to us, we will protect the Lakeshore Palace in your stead.
I do not claim to understand what is going on in the Imperium, but I am unsure why Emperor Tallu would risk himself traveling away from the protected walls he could live behind. ”
“We will need allies if he is going to fight the traitor generals.” Even as I said the words, I realized there was another option. I could leave Tallu here, safe, and travel to Tavornai myself.
“And will he take Koque with him, away from the safety of the Lakeshore Palace? Hallu?” Vostop’s questions were pointed. It was one thing for Tallu to risk his own life, but the life of the empress and his heir?
“I must thank you for your advice and your knowledge, elder,” I said, rising and bowing my head. I couldn’t respond to a question I didn’t have the answer to yet.
Vostop looked around the room, pointedly examining one of the tapestries that covered the Krustavian carvings underneath it.
“If there is one thing the Imperium can do, it is survive. They can make anything look like theirs. I do not think your husband has much to worry about if he decides to retake his empire.”
I nodded again, heading to the door to see if Tallu had been able to find out why Koque was resistant to marriage. Before my hand touched the handle, Vostop said, “If that is his goal.”
I didn’t acknowledge his words, wondering how many others suspected Tallu wanted something other than his father’s empire.