Her father was pretty much the way she’d pictured him, though. Not wealthy, not powerful, but proud in his way, although deeply unsettled by the events of the day. And by his current company. His eyes were full of reproach when he looked at Rule, but he stood back and allowed his daughter to speak.
The boat father and his family had been in cells in the Justice Court. A squad of the city’s contingent of Fists had brought them there about the time Reno showed up. The city Fists had somehow figured out that the Siji family had caused the invasion of the giant herd beasts. Maybe someone with a sorcery Gift had seen that the beasts were being called and been able to follow that call back to its source. Lily wasn’t clear on that part. But Kongqi had agreed that they would not be held responsible once Rule explained—or confessed; there had been a distinct odor of the confessional in his terse account. He’d ordered them released.
Mei Ling had refused to go. Not without speaking to “Wu Tǔ Ní.” And Rule wouldn’t refuse her whatever satisfaction she might get from accusing him in person, and her father had naturally accompanied her.
Rule wasn’t, Lily thought, thinking clearly. Guilt could do that to you.
She stood in front of him now, big eyes wet with tears, and asked him if it was true, what she’d been told—that she and her family had been under a compulsion created by “that terrible old woman.”
Rule was wearing the translation charm. He understood her. “Tell her yes.”
Lily did. This made Mei Ling’s tears evaporate in a flash of anger. She gave Lily a dirty look. Lily didn’t think Mei Ling had been told who she was. She turned those melting eyes back to Rule. “Then you were under compulsion, too. The old witch made you deceive us.” The word she used also meant “hag” or “sorceress.”
“No, Mei Ling,” he said gently. “I knew what I was doing. I did it of my own will. I used you and your family. I needed . . . my son’s life was at stake and I was desperate. That does not excuse me. It doesn’t make what I did right.”
Lily repeated what Rule said, word for word.
“Your . . . son,” Mei Ling whispered. She closed her eyes as a shiver traveled through her. When she opened them, she was staring at Lily, not Rule. “Who are you?”
“My name is Lily Yu.”
“No, who are you? Why are you here? Why do you speak for him?”
“I am Rule’s . . . the wife of Wu Tǔ Ní.”
“You are a witch, too! Like the old hag!” She looked Lily up and down, clearly dismissing what she saw. “You have enspelled him.”
“Lily,” Rule started.
“No,” she told him in English. “Let her make up her own story about it. She will anyway, and she needs someone to hate right now.”
Mei Ling drew herself up proudly. She pressed one hand to her stomach. “You may be able to hold him with your sorceries, but I carry his next son.” With that, she turned her back on both of them and asked her father, with what Lily was sure was deceptive meekness, if he would take her home now, to their boat.
As the two of them moved away, Rule spoke in a low, urgent voice. “Lily, she isn’t—I didn’t—”
She looked at his worried, guilty face, and shook her head. Then she took his hand. “I know that. Even if you had cheated on me—and you didn’t. I know that. Everything else aside, she’s only seventeen.” And passionately in love with Wu Tǔ Ní . . . who was a story she’d told herself. A story Rule had encouraged her to tell, but it wasn’t real.
Yet the feelings were real, even if they were fed by fantasy. Lily glanced at the retreating backs of the boat father and his daughter. She wouldn’t go back to seventeen for anything. “You feel guilty, but not because you had sex with her. But you did use her, and in order to make her believe you wanted her, you had to let yourself want her. And that makes you feel like pond scum. As you should,” she said, nodding approval. “It may have been necessary, but if you act like pond scum, you should feel like it. But even if I were wrong about everything and you had cheated on me . . . well, if she did carry your child, you’d know. And she’d probably be leaving with us, because there is no way in hell you’d abandon your child. No matter what it cost you, me, or the whole bloody world.”
He blinked. After a moment he said slowly, “Have I mentioned lately that I love you?”
“It bears repeating.”
His hand tightened on hers. “I love you.”
She smiled. “I know.”
THIRTY-EIGHT
THEY’D gone to the Justice Court for the confrontation with Mei Ling and guilt. They walked back holding hands. Lily couldn’t make herself ask the question foremost in her mind, so she made a statement of it instead. “Toby seems to be okay.”
Rule’s grip tightened on hers. “I installed the heir’s portion of the Leidolf mantle in him.”
“You—” She stopped. “How? When? From here? You left it in Mateo. He’s back on Earth.”
“Right after Toby Changed. When I knocked him to the ground and stood over him, I reached, and . . . retrieving the heir’s portion felt odd. Very odd. Time seemed . . . distorted. It wasn’t difficult, precisely, just strange. Placing it in Toby was easy. I was surprised to find I could do it while wolf. I’d always thought the Rho had to be two-legged to install the heir’s portion.”
Lily was silent a moment before her mouth kicked up in a small grin. “I’ll bet Mateo is really confused right now.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” he said dryly. “He’ll doubtless consider it new evidence of my perfidy.”
She snorted. They started walking again. Alice met them before they arrived. “The gate is functional,” she said in her uninflected way. “I am on an errand for the Zhu Kongqi now, but will return to open the gate when it is time.”
“You fixed it?” Lily asked. “You’re sure?”
“Quite sure. The gate’s tie to the tower was frayed, but not fully severed. Such a repair was well within my knowledge and ability. The tower itself is no longer sound, but both tower and gate should hold for another six to eight uses before we must disconnect the gate from the tower so the tower can be rebuilt.” She tilted her head slightly. “It is unlikely that I will see you or Cynna again after you leave.”
“I . . . yes, it seems unlikely.”
“That is a pity. I have grown to like Cynna, and had much to learn from her still. I do not think I like you, but you are an interesting person. I would have enjoyed getting to know you better. You were right,” she added, “about the passions of dragons. I don’t know what the Zhu Shēngwù was thinking to say otherwise.”
Lily watched Alice walk away, her head crowded with thoughts, then turned to look at Rule. He was looking at her. “The gate’s fixed,” she said stupidly. She felt a little drunk on victory, or maybe it was exhaustion.
He didn’t speak. His throat worked when he swallowed. After a moment he nodded, and they kept walking.