“So my mother tells me,” she muttered. “Opinion’s divided …”
“You fight men.”
“Yes.”
“You beat men.”
“Sometimes …”
“Sumael says you beat them three at a time! Your crew respect you. I could see it in their faces. They fear you.”
“Respect, I don’t know. Fear, maybe, your—”
“Vialine. I never saw a woman fight like you. Can I?” Before Thorn could answer the empress had put her hand on Thorn’s shoulder and squeezed at it. Her eyes went wide. “Great God, you’re like wood! You must be so strong.” She let her hand drop, much to Thorn’s relief, and stared down at it, small and dark on the marble between them. “I’m not.”
“Well, you won’t beat a strong man with strength,” murmured Thorn.
The empress’s eyes flickered to hers, white in the midst of that black paint, torch flames gleaming in the corners. “With what, then?”
“You must be quicker to strike and quicker when you do. You must be tougher and cleverer, you must always look to attack, and you must fight without honor, without conscience, without pity.” Skifr’s words, and Thorn realized only then how completely she had learned them, how totally she had taken them in, how much the old woman had taught her. “So I’m told, anyway—”
Vialine snapped her fingers. “That is why I sent for you. To learn how to fight strong men. Not with swords, but the principles are the same.” She propped her chin on her hands, a strangely girlish gesture in a woman who ruled half the world. “My uncle wants me to be nothing more than prow-beast for his ship. Less, if anything. The prow-beast at least goes at the keel.”
“Our ships have one at the stern as well.”
“Marvelous. He wants me to be that one, then. To sit in the throne and smile while he makes the choices. But I refuse to be his puppet.” Vialine clenched her fist and thumped the table, scarcely even making the tiny fruit knife rattle on the platter. “I refuse, do you hear me?”
“I do, but … I’m not sure my hearing will make much difference.”
“No. It’s my uncle’s ears I need to open.” The empress glared off across the darkening gardens. “I stood up to him again in the council today. You should have seen his face. He couldn’t have been more shocked if I’d stabbed him.”
“You can’t know that for sure until you stab him.”
“Great God, I’d like to!” Vialine grinned across at her. “I bet no one makes a puppet of you, do they? I bet no one dares! Look at you.” She had an expression Thorn wasn’t used to seeing. Almost … admiring. “You’re, you know—”
“Ugly?” muttered Thorn.
“No!”
“Tall?”
“No. Well, yes, but, free.”
“Free?” Thorn gave a disbelieving snort.
“Aren’t you?”
“I’m sworn to serve Father Yarvi. To do whatever he thinks necessary. To make up for … what I did.”
“What did you do?”
Thorn swallowed. “I killed a boy. Edwal was his name, and I don’t reckon he deserved to die, but … I killed him, all right.”
Vialine was just a person, as Sumael had said and, in spite of her clothes and her palace, or maybe because of them, there was something in her even, earnest gaze that drew the words out.
“They were all set to crush me with stones for it, but Father Yarvi saved me. Don’t know why, but he did. It was Skifr taught me to fight.” Thorn smiled as she touched her fingers to the shaved side of her head, thinking how strong she’d thought herself back then and how weak she’d been. “We fought Horse People on the Denied. Killed a few of them, then I was sick. And we fought men in the market, the other day. Me and Brand. Not sure whether I killed those, but I wanted to. Angry, about those beads … I reckon …” She trailed off, realizing she’d said a lot more than she should have.
“Beads?” asked Vialine, the painted bridge of her nose crinkled with puzzlement.
Thorn cleared her throat. “Wouldn’t worry about it.”
“I suppose freedom can be dangerous,” said the empress.
“I reckon.”
“Perhaps we look at others and see only the things we don’t have.”
“I reckon.”
“Perhaps we all feel weak, underneath.”
“I reckon.”
“But you fight men and win, even so.”
Thorn sighed. “At that, I win.”
Vialine counted the points off on her small fingers. “So, quickness to strike, and cleverness, and aggression without conscience, honor or pity.”
Thorn held up her empty hands. “They’ve got me everything I have.”
The empress laughed. A big laugh, from such a small woman, loud and joyous with her mouth wide open. “I like you, Thorn Bathu!”
“You’re joining a small group, then. Sometimes feels like it’s shrinking all the time.” And Thorn eased out the box, and held it between them. “Father Yarvi gave me something for you.”