“So you decided to take matters into your own hands, regardless of how much pain and suffering that might cause others. Is that it?” Léna stared at her. “If he is truly mad, then you have set him loose in the world. Do you understand the folly you’ve committed?” Her voice was softer, though no less stern.
Ocyrhoe looked down, her cheeks flushing. “Yes,” she said in a small voice. “I’m so very sorry. But there is nothing I can do to help you find him.”
“I know, child.” Léna placed her hands on the sides of Ocyrhoe’s head and kissed her lightly on the crown of her skull. “But that doesn’t mean you don’t know where he has gone.”
Ocyrhoe looked up at Léna. “I don’t understand,” she said.
Léna brushed Ocyrhoe’s hair back from her face. “Which gate did you send them to?”
“Flamina. I thought the sooner he got out of the city, the better.”
“Give them that much,” Léna said.
“What will they do to him if they catch him?” Ocyrhoe asked.
“What do you think they will do?” Léna asked. “He is Pope. Why should he fear the people who serve him?”
Ocyrhoe shook her head. “I think Fieschi wants to kill him.”
“Would you dare say as much to the Senator?” Léna asked. “While the Cardinal was standing next to him, in the same room?”
Ocyrhoe froze. All of a sudden she couldn’t breathe, much less shake her head. The Bear had taken my sisters, she thought frantically. How could Léna have forgotten that?
“You must consider your actions carefully,” Léna said softly, and the woman’s words released Ocyrhoe from the terror that had gripped her. “You must know the repercussions of what you do before you act. Regardless of your concerns about the Cardinal, is the priest not safer here than out in the wilderness where any brigand or ruffian could harm him? He only has Ferenc to watch over him. That may have been enough before, but now Father Rodrigo wants to preach to the people. Is that not dangerous for him in his state?” She stared at Ocyrhoe for a moment, waiting for her to nod in agreement. “When I call in the Cardinal and the Senator, you will tell them which gate. Yes?”
“And then what?” Ocyrhoe asked, panic twisting in her belly. This time she got the words out. “Orsini silenced our sisters. I see how he looks at me. He wants to do the same again.”
Her outburst gave Léna pause. “I will make sure he doesn’t hurt you.”
“How can you do that?” Ocyrhoe demanded, trying to stall the inevitable. “He took all of them, even when we realized they were disappearing. He still got everyone except me. They were my family and they could not protect me. How can you assure me otherwise?”
An odd look came across Léna’s face. “Trust me, little one,” she said. Her expression melted into a soft smile. “I will have a talk with the Senator soon. That’s all it will take. Just a little chat.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
To Eternal Glory
?gedei Khan took his morning meal late and alone in his ger. After Alchiq’s visit he had spent the remainder of the day in repose, mostly napping off the effects of the copious amounts of wine he had drunk, but some introspection had flitted across his mind during the long afternoon. It was the sort of post–drinking binge thinking he avoided as much as possible, as it was full of all manner of recriminations and self-loathing, but this time he let it run its course. When it was gone, he had fallen into a deep, dreamless slumber and had woken this morning feeling quite rested.
Still, he did not rush into the hunt. Now that his brain was free of the fog of the wine, the importance of this hunt was that much more evident. He wouldn’t go so far as to admit that the health of the empire rested upon the death of the Great Bear, but the symbolism of the hunt was significant. He was not superstitious—the empire had left all that behind when the clans came together and formed one people—but he understood the value in giving his subjects an event they could claim as a watershed moment in their lives. A token of the empire’s strength and everlasting value. It was best to delay such rewards, to further emblazon their reception with as much gravity as possible.
The Darkhat scouts knew where the Great Bear roamed—less than a day’s ride to the north. Master Chucai had suggested he take a jaghun with him, but ?gedei had scoffed at such an idea. What beast would not flee in terror before a hundred men? Half as many might still be too many—surely his trackers alone could find the bear’s den—but to take less would be to incite Chucai, and he was not in the mood to suffer that man’s persistent disappointment. It was his hunt, after all.