I run to her, but I’m yanked back by the collar of my shirt. The grizzled man, the seneschal Alberich, pulls me to him. He smells of metal and sweat. I stare at his puckered stump that wraps around me and pins me to him.
“Boy,” he says gruffly, “this isn’t for your eyes.”
“No!” Edric snarls. “He must watch.”
He rips the fabric of my mother’s white linen dress, tearing it from her shoulder. She rakes her nails across his face. The scratch cuts him open. He bleeds but isn’t deterred. He smiles a shark-toothed grin. My mother raises her hand again, but he grabs her wrist. She tries to slam her knee to his groin. He casually turns aside, deflecting the blow.
My father finishes stripping the dress from my mother’s smooth, mocha body. Her naked breasts quiver as she’s exposed for all to see. She wants to cover herself, I can tell, but resists the urge. She stands proud, arms at her sides, eyes burning defiantly. My father wears a look of admiration as he meets her gaze. The moment doesn’t last long, though. He knocks her to the floor. She kicks at him. She claws. She struggles. It’s no use. My father is too big, too strong. He knows how to hold her down. Edric’s leviathan tattoos dance.
I clutch at Alberich, even though he frightens me. I try to hide myself from the violence. He grabs my head with his good hand and turns it, forcing me to watch my mother scream as Edric’s fists slam into her. On the dais, the blonde woman, Olympias, stands imperiously. Her son, Edgaard, my brother, begins to cry. He tries to hide his eyes, too, but his mother forces his head toward the scene, just as Alberich forces mine.
A hand reaches out and clasps my own. Lavinia. She holds it tightly but never takes her eyes off Edric. Her eyes narrow with hatred for the man we both call father.
“Monster,” she whispers.
Finally, Edric stands, flexes his muscles like a bull seal, and slowly backs up the steps, returning to his spot beside the emperor. My mother, bloodied and alone in the middle of the floor, grabs the tatters of her garments and swaddles herself in them.
Alberich releases me, and I run to her. She does not look at me. She seems lost in some other world. I don’t know what to do or say. But when she stands, she releases a carefree laugh through a deformed mouth.
“That was nothing, Edmon. He thinks to shape you with his notions of pain, but you are stronger than that, aren’t you? You will forget what you saw here today.”
“Yes, Mother.” I nod. She takes my hand, and alone we walk toward the grand double doors, our heads held high. It’s the first lie I’ve ever told her.
I will never forget what I saw this day.
I will kill Edric for what he has done.
Our sondi docks on the shores of Bone. I sprint down the boarding ramp.
“Edmon! Edmon, wait!” my mother cries.
I don’t heed her. I don’t care. She is too injured to follow. My chest is thick with hurt, my face strained with the effort of keeping the tears within. I run past the docks and up the narrow, winding roads. I race by the white adobe villas and shining azure roofs. It’s afternoon, time of the midday nap. There are no people in the streets. An old woman opens a door, and I duck into an alley. I don’t want her to see my dirty tear-streaked face. I feel just like what Lavinia called me—a fool.
I am a fool. I’m worthless.
The uphill climb through the town slows my run to a trudge. I finally reach the edge of the manse grounds high on the cliffs. I wanted to go somewhere no one would find me. Instead, all I’ve done is return to the only place I know how to get to: home.
Fool. Lavinia’s voice still echoes in my head. Monster . . .
I don’t enter the house but skirt the grounds to the edge of the cliffs. The sea sparkles below me, aqua green with white-capped tips. A crevice between two large rocks looks like it can get me closer to the edge, so I climb through the crack. There’s a hidden path just beyond. It leads to a shelf that juts out from the cliff wall a little lower down. I scramble down the tiny trail, skidding on graveled limestone. If I slip, I’ll tumble into the waves below. My chest pounds. I want to die, but when faced with actual death, I’m petrified. A strange feeling.
I make it to the shelf and collapse on the edge, my legs dangling out into space. I pick up a stone and toss it angrily over the side of the cliff, expecting to hear a splash. I wait, but I don’t even hear the stone land, I’m so high up. I stare at the horizon where the white-hot sun never sets, and the world seems too big for me. I lie on my back and let hot tears stream unabated down my cheeks.
You’ve just been disinherited, fool.
You will forget what you saw here today . . .
My thoughts are a tumble of despair. All I wanted to do was meet my father and impress him. Now, I hate him more than anything.
“Hey!”
A high-pitched shout startles me, and I scramble to my hands and knees. There’s a feral creature sitting on a rock above me. My heart leaps into my gullet.
No, I realize. It’s no creature at all, but a girl.
I try to stand, but I slip and fall forward onto my stomach. My chin smacks the rock. It breaks open bleeding. The gravel gives way beneath me, and I slide over the edge of the shelf. My hands claw for purchase, my fingernails tear into the stone, and my feet dangle over the edge of the long drop into the bright green sea.
I’m going to die. I don’t want to die!
The girl springs forward, dives, and clutches my wrists before I fall over the edge.
“Help me, stupid!” she shouts. “You’re heavier than you look!”
My feet kick, trying to find purchase on something, anything that will help me climb back up.
“Stop!” she shouts. “Look at me! You need to calm down. If you keep kicking, you’ll pull us both over the edge. Relax.”
Her words are confident and calm. I stop thrashing and hang limp while she strains against the dead weight of my body. Her feet spread eagle against two boulders on opposing sides preventing me from going over.
“Take your right foot and lift it as high as you can. Search for a hold that you can step on.”
“I can’t!” I shake my head.
“You can. Because you have to. What’s your name?”
“Edmon.”
“I’m Nadia. Edmon, if you don’t want to die, lift your right leg.”
I slowly do it. My toe finds purchase. “I got something!”
“Good. Now, on the count of three, push with your right leg. One, two, three!” she shouts.
I push with my leg as Nadia pulls. As I slide on my belly over the lip of the outcropping, the bit of rock I just pushed off breaks free from the cliffside. I scramble to higher ground while Nadia looks over the edge, watching the rock splash into the sea below.
“Whoa!” she exclaims. “You almost bought it.”
I huddle against a large boulder that doesn’t seem to be moving anytime soon.
“Bought what?”
“The kelp farm,” she says. “You’re not too smart, are you, little boy?” She hops on top of a rock and squats, gazing down, inspecting me. “Or too good on your feet.”
No wonder I took her for a wild creature.