“He told me himself he is not the emperor. That Beyon’s son—”
Rushes flinched when she heard a slap. “I told you that if you spoke of that again I would hurt you. Take care of the boy. Now go back before they notice you’re gone.”
Rushes held her breath. If this man noticed her, found her hiding here and listening to his words, he kick her into the abyss without a second thought. Zell or Gorgen would beat her, anger guiding their words and their fists. But this man had no anger and no kindness either. She could feel it in him, an emptiness.
The woman was not afraid of him, though. She did not see what he was. “And then you’ll send me to Gehinni province, as you said?”
“With a bagful of gold, just as I promised.” Rushes did not believe him. It came out of his mouth with too much ease, practised and smooth. “Just remember your training in the desert. Stick to the ways you’ve been taught.”
The door Hagga had used swung wide and in the light of the corridor Rushes saw the silhouette of a large man, more wide than tall, and a flash of his scarlet robes. Then he was gone, and their corner of the Ways fell dark once more. As for the woman, she was moving up the steps, signalled by a soft shuffling and the whisper of silk.
Rushes reached Hagga’s plate and stuffed the fruit into her pocket before following in the wake of her unknown companion. They moved upwards, the other person hurrying through the dark with sure feet, hopping easily over the missing stairs and the cracks in the narrow walkways. At the entrance to the women’s wing Rushes ducked into a shadow, but there was no need. The iron door that should have required a key swung open in her direction, blocking her from the other person’s sight.
She thought on their words. The most important thing right now was the slithering friend. Someone had brought a snake into the women’s wing, and they meant to kill the emperor’s brother.
The Many were gone; the eyes that might have followed the mysterious woman through those gleaming halls did not exist. Rushes had to brave it herself, though they would surely send her to Gorgen after she found Empire Mother Nessaket. But Prince Daveed might be hurt if she didn’t warn them. She tried to grab the edge of the door before it closed. Heavy, it slipped from her grasp, but something else stopped it—a piece of stone tile, placed near the bottom. Rushes waited, exploring the width of the crack with her fingers, testing the strength of her hands as she waited for the corridor to clear.
She took a bite of the round, firm apple Hagga had left for her. The sweet and sour taste brought a tear to her eye. With the Many one did not taste, feel, or smell, not with her own body. Perhaps if Demah had taken an apple with her that morning, she would have remembered that. Perhaps she would have felt that sweetness on her tongue, the juice tickling her gums, and thought that it was worth being alone.
The corridor in the women’s wing had fallen silent. It took all of Rushes’ strength to pulled open the door and step through, and by that time the hall was not empty. Three concubines saw her and began to shout.
“Filthy slave! What are you doing, spreading dirt in our halls?”
She looked at her dress and her shoes. Dirt and moist stone had turned them grey.
“You need a whipping!” But they passed by, and did not call the guards. Things were not as they were downstairs. Rushes moved down the corridor, her dirty shoes sinking into the rich carpet, until she saw Nessaket leaving her room, accompanied by six guards. Rushes slipped into a niche that held a seat with cushions, keeping her shoulder to the near wall, watching the men. There were ten guards in all and four lingered by the door, their attention on the empire mother as she walked down the hall, her black hair swinging against her shoulders.
They would never let her wait here. By the time Nessaket returned, they would have discovered her and dragged her down to Gorgen. She darted forward and slipped behind their backs into the empire mother’s room. Once there she took her place in the shadows between two wardrobes, far from the single lantern that cast a soft light around the mirror.
Madness. She would be killed for this.
No sooner had she pressed her shoulders against the wall than a guard entered the room, walked to a gilded cradle that had been set beneath the window and looked down. “Sleepy tonight,” he said aloud.
“He loves to sleep.” Rushes jumped at the sound of a woman’s voice. She had not seen her when she ran in. She leaned out and looked at her: small, with short dark hair, probably a nursemaid. When the guard turned she snapped back into the darkness, hoping he would not see her bright hair. He passed by without looking.
The woman sang a song to the babe, about ships fighting on the ocean and a child who floated away. Rushes listened, caught by the fate of the child on the waves, but also by the spray of salt water, the snap of the sails, and the clash of swords on a rocking boat. When the song was finished she remained with her eyes closed for a time, relishing the images, forgetting that she had sneaked into the empire mother’s room . But soon she remembered how foolish she had been Perhaps the nursemaid would take pity on her, help her to get back to the Ways. She in turn could warn the nursemaid about the snake. No-one need to know she was here, dirtying the silk rugs. She thought a moment before nodding to herself. It was the best plan. The tiny woman, a servant herself, might understand.
She crept out, skirting the lantern, keeping to the shadow. As she neared she realised the nursemaid was sleeping, chin against her chest, one arm extended over the prince. Rushes paused, wondering whether to wake her. She might cry out, and then the guards would come.
Movement drew her eye to the window-screen, a shimmer of brown-onbrown, a curve where there should not have been one. A snake slithered through the holes in the wood; it must have come through from the balcony. Its head extended over the cradle where Prince Daveed lay sleeping, his chubby arms extended to either side.
She knew snakes; she knew them from the long grass and the summer heat of childhood days. She remembered her father sticking a long branch beneath a boulder and lifting a snake from its middle. “Keep your distance,” he had told her, his indigo eyes intent on the danger, “Use as long a stick as you can find.” Then he took it away from their little hut, where it could not cause them any harm.
Rushes looked around the room. The only thing that resembled a long stick was the fireplace poker. The silk-clad all had fireplaces, though she had never seen one used. She lifted it and tested the heavy iron. She could not hold it extended for very long, so she would hold it and wait for the right moment. She crept back to the cradle and watched the snake’s slow movements. It was only one third of the way through. It had not seen her, or did not think her a danger; she remembered one threatening her father, the way its scales seemed to shiver, the angry position of its mouth. This one was relaxed. She waited. Prince Daveed moved his head, just a little, and she tensed her fingers around the iron. She tried not to think what would happen if the nursemaid should wake up and scream, or if Nessaket returned and began to shout.
If only I had that luck-stone.
At last the snake bobbed its head and slithered down to the edge of the gilded cradle, but half of it remained wound through the window-screen. She prayed to Mirra it would come all the way through before anyone moved and frightened it. She extended the poker, slowly, beneath the snake’s middle, feeling the ache in her arm muscles, afraid of dropping it and waking the baby.
With a quick movement the snake dropped and just as quickly Rushes lifted the iron poker
. I will be bitten. It will slide off and escape.
She ran to the balcony, threw the poker and shut the door. She heard a dull thud as it hit the wooden screen and then a clatter as it fell upon the tiles. Without pausing to judge whether anyone had heard she hurried to the screen and fastened the shutters. She backed away and leaned against the fireplace, counting her breaths until they slowed.
“Very good, Red-rose.” The emperor stood behind her, his white robes glowing in the light from the single lantern. She stifled a yelp of surprise and forced her feet to stillness; she would not run, though every part of her wanted to do so. She shivered, recalling his touch. He knew everything —about her brother, Beyon, Gorgen—all of it. He had gleaned it all from her eyes that night. It made her feel sick, butterflies crawling along her skin.
In her fright she forgot her obeisance, but he did not notice, jerking his head towards the balcony. “I will kill it,” he said, drawing a dagger from his belt, a twisted one, and ugly. He opened the doors, stepped out and disappeared into the night. She heard a scrape of metal on stone and he returned, grinning in a cold way, like the Fryth priest. “It is dead.”
At last the nursemaid woke, looking around the room in confusion as she blinked the sleep from her eyes. The emperor leaned over her and gave her a kiss, but even in that affectionate motion Rushes detected an air of scorn. “Little Mother. You may leave.” She gave Rushes a curious look before bustling from the room.
“I think we can do without her guarding skills,” he said, to nobody in particular, looking down at his brother Daveed. “Look at this one. He is not so strong. Pelar will be the strongest.” He lowered his voice. “Pelar is my son.”
“Yes, Majesty.” Rushes wondered why he shared it so intimately, like a secret. Everyone knew Pelar was Sarmin’s son and heir. She wondered how he had killed the snake so easily—Emperor Sarmin, who had lived most of his life in one small room with neither snakes nor any other animal.
“I killed that filthy kitchen boy,” he continued, the grin returning to his face, “I found him in the pantry and I snapped his neck.”
Cold claws held Rushes’ heart. “Gorgen is dead?” She thought of Gorgen, standing by the fire, talking, taking off his belt to give her a whipping. He had been terrible and fearsome, but always alive, with thoughts and fears and wishes of his own.
Rushes remembered the overfull rice sack, the kick she’d given. She went over it in her mind: the acrobat’s memories, the feeling in her legs, the run for the dungeon, and then the emperor’s fierce look in the lantern light, the set of his shoulders when he left her. “Your Magnificence!” Her knees failed her, and once kneeling, she fell into her obeisance at last. Turning her face to the floor allowed her to hide the horror that must be written there.
“I said that I would protect you. I kept my word. Not like my brother.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” But it had been Emperor Beyon who promised to protect her. She swallowed. She had imagined something, built on the ghost of a memory, but it was preposterous. Impossible.
He took her right arm and lifted her out of her obeisance. Emperor Sarmin was thin and wasted, but he loomed over her with shoulders as wide as his brother Beyon’s. Rushes clenched her teeth against a scream as he reached into her robes, but it was a smooth-edged stone, the luck-stone, he pressed into her hand. “He wants this,” said the emperor, “and I can’t let him have it. Throw it into the deepest part of the Ways where he will never find it.”
Who?
Again she thought of the Mogyrk priest and his cold smile. “Yes, Your Magnificence.” Her shaking hands wanted to keep it, to keep holding it. She put it into her pocket and it felt heavy, a reassuring weight at her side.
“I have kept my promise to you. Will you keep your promise to me, Redrose?” His dark eyes threatened. She remembered that look.
“Yes, Magnificence. I promise.” But in truth she was not sure; oddly, with Gorgen dead and the emperor as he was, the palace felt more dangerous, not less. She curled her fingers around the stone. It made her feel safe.
He touched a hand to his forehead as if it hurt. “One moment—I will return.” At the door he said something to the guards, who looked in and saw her at last. Their expressions changed from dismay to surprise when the emperor commanded they allow her to stay.
Rushes watched Prince Daveed sleep and turned the stone in her pocket. It grew warm against her skin. The emperor did not return, nor did the empire mother. Eventually someone would send her back to the Little Kitchen. Would they ask her about Gorgen? She could not tell anyone who had killed him, nor would anyone believe that Emperor Beyon lived on in his brother’s body. She had not been believed herself until he reminded her of his promise, though she had recognized him in the dungeon. Emperor Sarmin did not know her real name—Red-rose—nor had he ever promised to protect her.
But he had changed. When he spoke with her she saw his anger and his determination, even to keep his promises. But he used to carry sadness in his eyes, and speak with kindness. That was gone. She wiped a tear away. Perhaps those parts of him were already in heaven. She remembered his gray skin, the blood pooling in his lap, the pattern around him shining like light through a window that pierced the world. Perhaps those parts would forgive her for her role in his death.
She waited so long for the emperor to return that she began to doze herself, and forgot to be frightened. When Nessaket finally entered, her face twisted in anger, Rushes remembered enough to cringe. She had seen that look so many times and knew what came after, the crack of flesh on flesh, the feel of fists against soft places, but the empire mother stopped an arm’s length away and allowed Rushes time to fall into her obeisance.
After a minute in a tight voice Nessaket said, “Rise.” Rushes stood and the empire mother paced the small floor, hands clasped tightly behind her back. “My son the emperor boasted of his kill,” she said. “And he said you found the snake and rescued my son. Some would say that if you found it, then you are the one who put it there.”
“I would never do it, Your Majesty!”
“Do what, Rushes? You must say it.”
“Bring the snake, or hurt anyone, Your Majesty! Please, I am just a slave!”
Nessaket stopped pacing and stared into her eyes for a long moment. Rushes was reminded of the emperor in the dungeon, but this time, her secrets were not laid bare. It was just the two of them, face to face, and finally, Nessaket turned away and hit the high wooden screen. “You are telling the truth—I can tell.”