Chapter 19 #3
He stripped me himself, gasping as his fingers uncovered more glowing flesh, and I wished the elder tree’s imprint had not been quite so obvious. Tenderly, he cleansed the night’s activities from my skin: washing away the muck and dirt, leaving behind only the glowing evidence of forest magic.
When he was done, and I was clean, he pushed me back on the bed, sliding next to me until we touched from shoulder to hip.
“What am I going to do with you, if you insist on throwing yourself into danger?” Tallu asked.
“Love me half as much as I love you,” I said. “You will love me because there’s nothing I want more than for us to live happily.”
Tallu bent his head, kissing my braids, the light from them reflecting on his face, making him gleam and glow. “I love you so much that I would not wish you to do this. My life is not worth yours. Not to me.”
“Well, it is to me. So we are at an impasse, and we can either enjoy a night of peace before we achieve our goal, or we can continue arguing about which of us would prefer to fall upon a sword that no one is holding.” I framed Tallu’s face with my hands.
He closed his eyes, pressing his forehead against mine.
“Lord Chaliko said tomorrow we will know where Namati is,” I said. “What will we do then?”
“I am not sure. It was the conceit for arriving here, so we couldn’t not ask for him,” Tallu said. “But he is not our true goal.”
“Lady Chaliko said Spider will come to us. And when she does, we can demand your freedom and then leave.” I could see the future. It would happen. “And leave the Imperium to its war.”
“I do not think it will be much of a war. If Bemishu cares so little for the rest of the Imperium, Kacha will leave him to the Ariphadeus.” Tallu leaned to the side, and I stroked a hand down his face.
“Kacha will conquer what he can, and most of the lords we left in power will stand against him, but once it becomes clear I disappeared in Tavornai, some will come over to his side.”
“Is that our plan, then? Just abandon the imperial people to Kacha and flee in the night?” I asked. I couldn’t help but think of the charred forest and the people so desperate for Tallu to save them. The soldiers who had died for us deserved better.
But what did better mean? Did it mean Tallu fought for the throne? And what if he won?
“Now is the best time to escape. There are so few with us,” Tallu spoke as a breath of air, barely more than a whisper. “We could disappear here once free of the fate my father wove for me and Hallu. Take those who should come with us and no one else would ever know what happened to me.”
“And leave Kacha to sit on the Imperium’s throne?” I asked. “On the charred bones of the One Dragon?”
“Perhaps,” Tallu said. He looked pained. “It is not the end I would wish for, but we have no forces to fight him.”
“You do not think Namati will lend his aid?” I asked.
“I think Namati cares only to conquer Tavornai and subjugate the pirates he has pursued since he enlisted,” Tallu said. “I cannot see a way through.”
“We could fight Kacha,” I said.
“I have spent my life on this task,” Tallu said. “I will not spend yours. Not when you are so quick to give it up for me.”
I could not look away from his sharp gaze, the intensity of his russet eyes. “Tallu—”
“No. If he threatened you, I would burn his life from his body, but we have a chance to run. I have a chance to spend the rest of my life on you rather than on death.” Tallu ran his fingers over my braids. “Let me treasure you as you deserve.”
I had no answer for him, because I wasn’t sure I wanted to take away the hope he held in his gaze.
Eventually we fell asleep. My dreams were confusing. In some of them, I was back in the strange room, only it wasn’t Riini with me. Instead, something massive and dark whispered into my ear.
The voice apologized, begging my forgiveness for something I hadn’t been sure they had done.
In another dream, I was reaching for the threads that had long since disappeared from my mind, trying to remember memories I had given up hours earlier. In those dreams, Irad?o looked at me with pity. “You shouldn’t have given them up if you cared about them so deeply.”
I woke, hot and sweaty, the glow gone from my skin and hair. Tallu lay next to me, and I could smell the blood on his breath, feel the weakness as he gasped in his sleep.
It was only when he was relaxed and open like this that I could see how much the illness was eating at him, how much he had already lost to it. There was a soft tap on the door, and Tallu sat up immediately, drawing his hand over his face. He shook his head.
The door cracked open, a servant’s rough whisper coming through the narrow opening, “Your Imperial Majesty?”
“Enter,” Tallu called out.
“I apologize, Your Imperial Majesty.” The servant stepped through the door, bowing as low as physically possible, their fingers forming a perfect triangle. “Lord Chaliko wanted to inform you that someone has arrived and is willing to speak with you about the location of the traitor Namati.”
Tallu frowned, glancing at me, and I frowned, considering what we already knew. Lady Chaliko had said Spider would find us as soon as the elder tree regrew, but other than the forest dragon no one had been there when Riini and I finished our task.
Was it Spider? Was that possible?
If anyone knew where Namati was hiding, it would be Spider.
“We will get dressed and meet this person.” Tallu swung his legs over the side of the bed, raising a hand to rub at the bridge of his nose. He gestured for them to enter.
Within seconds, his servants pushed inside the room, and I saw Homisu winding his way through the imperial servants.
He presented me with a fresh set of clothes and dressed me as Tallu’s servants fussed with his outfit.
By the time we were done, he was dressed as impeccably as though he was holding court in the Mountainside Palace.
Lerolian rushed into the room, coming through one of the walls, and I yelped, even though I had had months to get used to the way the blood monks could travel through solid objects.
“General Saxu and Commander Rede are furious. The person Lord Chaliko has brought in has her own crew with her, all of them are armed, and none of them will give up their weapons.” Lerolian spoke quickly, moving backward before a servant walked through him.
When Tallu glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, Lerolian continued, “It’s a pirate captain.
Yet Lord Chaliko is serving her as though she’s…
well… you, Tallu. He honors her greatly, and General Saxu is about to imprison her and all of her men as well as execute Lord Chaliko for betraying the Imperium. ”
I wished there were fewer servants around, or that I could think of a tactful way to ask Tallu my questions for Lerolian, but instead I had to be satisfied that he seemed to read my questions on my face.
“The servants say that this is not the first time she and Chaliko have spoken, although all of them seem surprised to see her, as usually she sees him on her ship.” Lerolian glanced out the window.
“They seem to fear her more than Chaliko does, although I can’t understand them very well, and few of them speak to each other in Imperial.
“Sagam and his sisters spent all night talking. Mostly about their parents. Sagam apologized for sending his sisters away. He and Joxii both wanted to know what happened to the young girl, but Riini refuses to explain what she has been doing for the past three years.” Lerolian frowned, as though trying to remember anything else.
His face fell. “The Kennelmaster does not look well. It would be a surprise if he survives the next few days.”
I felt something inside me clench and then relax. The Kennelmaster was a variable we couldn’t control; he had his own goals, his own purpose, and we might align with his desires or we might not, but either way we hadn’t been able to trust him.
Still, his loss would be a great blow, not just for Tallu’s ambitions, but also because I could see how he and Irad?o were similar. There was a reason that she had felt she could trust him when she couldn’t even trust me.
Tallu was finally released by the last servant and Lerolian looked at him, a frown on his face.
“We will continue listening for new information, but we can get little more out of the servants. None of us speak the language of the elves, and among each other that is the language they mostly converse in.”
In the mirror, Tallu gazed coldly at himself, as unmoving as a statue as he examined the fall of his robes, the perfect knot of his belt.
I looked presentable enough myself, and when Tallu extended his arm, I took it, allowing him to lead me out the door and into the hall. General Saxu himself waited for us, having a hushed conversation with Commander Rede while Sagam stood nearby, listening.
After Lerolian’s warning, I expected it when General Saxu began with, “Your Imperial Majesty, I believe House Chaliko has been compromised.”
“How so?” Tallu asked, his tone curious.
“They’ve brought a pirate in to speak with Your Imperial Majesty.
We cannot allow it. Even if we could trust the word of a pirate, it is madness to assume she will not double-cross you as soon as she thinks she can.
” General Saxu frowned, his hand resting on his sword.
“Give us your leave, we will bring you the heads of everyone involved.”
“I do not want anyone’s head. We will hear what this pirate has to say, and then we will make our decision. Unless you have become emperor while I slept?” Tallu’s words were calm and chilly, and Saxu pursed his lips in response.
“Of course not, Your Imperial Majesty,” Saxu said.
“Then understand that I am being the emperor you wished me to be. I will speak with this pirate and if I am unsatisfied, then you may kill her.” Tallu began walking toward the dining room.
“As you pointed out, I am not one to waste a tool at my disposal. Let us go see what sort of tool this pirate will be.”