Chapter 31
WORTHLESS
That last part, about the emperor’s birthday banquet, had all been made up.
It was what Maro had written in his journals, so it was what I had believed at first. But a few pages later, he wrote, It is what I wish had happened. I was really upset that day, so I didn’t want to write the truth.
Here is the truth.
He had cast that Blessing, and it had turned into a map of Tensha.
But Terren had not been standing next to him.
Instead, he had been with his mother and his other advisors from the Maple Pavilion.
The emperor had not been watching attentively.
Instead, he had sat sick in his throne, his eyes barely open.
When Maro had finished his spell, his father only grunted in acknowledgment and said nothing more.
Some of the guests in the audience had begun to clap, but they were quickly interrupted.
“Please, everyone, your attention. I have something important to say.”
It was the empress, Qin Rong. Her swan-feather gown haloed around her as she made her way down the hall to the dais. She was accompanied by Lady Autumn and Long Shan, one of Terren’s tutors. Her own son, baby Isan, began crying in the arms of his wet nurse, but nobody was paying attention.
“As Mother of the House,” she said when she reached the front, “I am obligated to investigate any reports concerning the Inner Court—including any princes not yet of age. I have reason to believe the first son did not write the spell he’d shown us.”
Maro felt like he was falling.
“Several witnesses have informed me that they believe the second son was its real author. Prince Terren, you see, has been spotted in the Dawn Pavilion. Some gardeners have even witnessed him passing a slip of paper to Prince Maro—one with a Blessing on it.”
No. No no no.
He wanted to hit something, to scream, but all he could do was stand silent as a statue.
Lady Sky’s face had gone completely red. “It is our emperor’s birthday. Qin Rong, have you no respect for your husband?”
“Of course I do. That is why I do my duty, even if it is unpleasant.”
Father was angry. Maro could tell by the way his eyes burned and the corner of his mouth turned down.
But he was very sick by then, and when he tried to rise to stop the accusations, he coughed and sank back into his seat.
He didn’t even have a chance to speak. Two of the empress’s eunuchs rushed him back to the Inner Court to rest. “Your Majesty,” they said as they retreated, “we must not overtire ourselves on such a happy occasion.”
As soon as the emperor was gone, the fighting began.
The people of the Maple Pavilion repeated the empress’s accusations.
“Maids saw Terren sneaking out of his bedchamber,” they cried.
“Where else would he be going but to see his brother?” The people of the Dawn Pavilion shouted angry words back.
“Maro has shut himself in his room for months to write that Blessing. He didn’t even allow himself to break for supper.
” Throughout it all, Maro felt barely there, like he was living in someone else’s dream.
No, not a dream. A night-story. The kind that churned stomachs and made blood run cold.
It felt like forever before the accusations were finally put to rest, and only when Hesin arrived with a letter from the emperor.
“I understand where the accusations came from,” he read off the scroll, “but my eldest son has integrity and would not lie about such a thing. And in any case, you have all felt that Blessing and seen its effects. How can such an ardent, patriotic poem be written by anyone other than the true heir?”
But by then, it was too late.
The guests were already whispering horrid words, and Mother was weeping again, and Master Ganji was pushing one of Terren’s tutors into one of the fake rivers.
The story of tonight, Maro knew, would spread like the gray fever.
Rumors would reach even the farthest walls of Tensha, each telling more exaggerated than the next, and everyone would have it in their minds that the first son was a liar and a cheat, even if neither of those things were true.
It would take years and years for him to restore his honor. He might not be able to do it at all.
Worthless.
He felt ashamed. So ashamed that he wanted to bury himself deep in those useless mounds of dirt he’d made.
Master Ganji had tried to warn him, hadn’t he?
He and his advisors will first try to gain your father’s favor.
He had tried to warn him and Maro hadn’t listened.
If that doesn’t work, they will depose you by force.
And now everything he and Mother had worked for was ruined.
And if that still doesn’t work, they will kill you.
“Ma-ro.” A timid tug at his sleeve.
Maro looked down at his brother, an awful lump forming in his throat. “Did you set me up?”
Terren tried clumsily to climb onto his back, but Maro shook him off like the autumn wind a leaf.
“Did you set me up.”
His eyes grew huge and brimmed with tears. “No.”
So little, but so much cleverer than he let on. So timid, but that sigil shone so bright. Maro considered him for a long time, feeling like crying himself.
“I believe you,” he said at last, very quietly. “But I have to stop playing with you anyway.”