Father’s next words genuinely shock me for their open provocation of a man he would have obeyed blindly a year ago.
“Doma Kiya gave birth to twins in Lord Ottonor’s tomb. You knew she was pregnant and yet you and the High Priest entombed her anyway. That’s blasphemy.”
“A charge you will never be able to prove. The priests are furious at having their authority flouted by a callow boy who has allowed power and a single victory on the field to go to his head. Much like the daughter you threw at him.”
“My lord, I forbade her from talking to him. Alas that my strictures went unheeded.”
“I would feel more sympathy for you, General, if Jessamy did not remind me so much of you. Ah, Captain Neartos.”
The captain walks up to the other side of the cradle. “I searched every room. The house is empty, my lord.”
“Is there something you are looking for, my lord?” I can’t see Father’s face, only the perfect military posture of his back and the powerful muscles of his bare arms.
“There is something I am looking for that has escaped me, but it’s hard to imagine how it could have crawled so far without help. Never mind. I am here to give you your next assignment, General. We have received an increasing number of messages from the north of criminals and outlaws disrupting garrisons and temples, stealing grain and gold, and making a nuisance of themselves. Now that Nikonos is dead, you will take the Royal Army and restore order in the northern provinces. Kill the rank-and-file rebels but bring the ringleaders here for trial and public execution. Is that clear, General?”
“Yes, my lord.”
Crushed behind the trellis, I exhale my hate into the tiles.
“Now, the war council awaits our presence. There’s a carriage waiting outside.”
With badly concealed reluctance, Father settles Wenru in the cradle, hesitates without looking up on the roof as if to remind me to stay hidden, and at last strides out.
Gargaron and Neartos exchange words in such low voices that I can’t hear, a longer conversation than I expect, and one that I’m sure contains vital information if my plan is to work. At length, tapping his whip against his thigh, Gargaron departs. Neartos goes into the kitchen. Soon after the women hurry out into the courtyard. A carriage rumbles away, easy to hear now that I’m listening for it. After a while Santhay goes back into the kitchen and returns outdoors with a lightened expression.
“They’re gone, thank the Mother. What were they looking for?”
I scrape out of my hiding place and drop into the courtyard, immediately scooping up Wenru. Kicking, he squawks in outrage. At once the three of them surround me.
“Who are you and what do you think you’re doing?” demands Santhay.
“I’m General Esladas’s daughter. I want to see my brother, just for a moment, if you don’t mind.” I can’t quite bring myself to cradle Wenru in my arms, so I hold him by the armpits as I hurry into the family courtyard.
“What did they say?” I demand as soon as we are alone.
When he sticks out his lower lip in petty defiance, I pinch his thigh.
He wails, and I pinch him again, so he stops. Santhay appears at the gate and I wave her away with a false smile as I pretend to soothe him.
“There was only one other person in the tomb with us. Lord Ottonor had a living spark placed in his body so he could walk to his final resting place. I’m sure I heard scratching later, like someone desperately trying to claw their way out of the coffin. It terrified me. So maybe that spark hadn’t quite faded when the coffin got tipped over and his corpse fell onto my stillborn brother’s body.”
His stubborn stare challenges me, as if to say I can’t get him to talk no matter what I threaten, but I sense a quiver of curiosity.
“Here’s what I think happened: The spark and Ottonor’s frightened, trapped self leaped into the baby’s flesh, but the stolen spark was by then too weak to jolt the dead baby’s heart. Later, beneath the City of the Dead, we were flooded by a tide of sparks, and the baby woke, quite to our shock.”
His eyelids flare.
“A strong second spark could have fused the baby’s heart and shadow with Ottonor’s self and the weakened first spark. Thus, Wenru was born. Is your self that of Lord Ottonor?”
He stuffs a chubby fist in his mouth and glares at me.
“I understand why you fear to confide in me. No one cares about the part of you that was once Lord Ottonor. All they see is a mule. But what if I told you I can get you revenge on the man who murdered you?”
After a long, considering pause, he removes his hand from his mouth. The eerie voice that emerges has the soft tone of a baby’s, not yet hardened by years and lies.
“Can you truly?”
“With your cooperation, yes. Or things can just go on as before, and you can hope General Esladas isn’t murdered by his palace rivals, leaving you an orphan with no protection.”
The threat convinces him. “Gargaron told Captain Neartos that in three days the Royal Army will march north to put down the rebellion. He wants them to wait to leave Saryenia until the West and East Saroese armies are well away from the city with Lord Thynos. Then he told the captain to kill Esladas after the rebellion is put down, or at any time if Neartos feels the general’s loyalty is wavering, and name himself as the general in command.”
“Go on,” I say grimly.
“He said Kalliarkos has become incorrigible and unmanageable. That if Queen Meno? doesn’t give birth to a boy, there are foreign princes available who can become king consort to an Efean queen.”
“Can you get word of this to my father?”
“You want me to speak to him, when he has no idea what I am, and then pray he doesn’t kill me because he thinks I’m a monster? Do you think it’s been easy, knowing I must hide myself?”
“But I told him about you at the inn.” Yet I’m not sure he was really listening because he could think only about Mother. “I don’t know how long the war council will go on, although obviously Gargaron has already decided the outcome. But I need Father to get this message immediately. What if he can’t come back here tonight?”
“Steward Haredas comes by every evening to check on me.”
“Of course! I’ll write a note in cipher that you can give him. Do you promise you’ll pass on the message? Will you swear on the gods?”
“I swear on the holy names of Seon and Inkos and Hayiyin that I will cooperate with you if you can promise me revenge on Gargaron. And anyway…”
He sighs a baby sigh. His lower lip trembles.
A thread of sympathy vibrates in my heart. “What?”
“I’m afraid to grow up in this body. I have a better chance with Esladas to support me. As he did with you and his other daughters. We all noticed his loyalty, even if most people couldn’t approve of it.”
The words offer an odd sort of comfort.
“All right, then. It must be hard to have to pretend to be something you’re not. Truce?”
He has such a solemn baby face that I want to laugh but manage not to.
“Truce.”