The woman still squatted next to the wall where the guard had pushed her, regarding Raoden with an indecipherable look.
'Come,' Raoden repeated, a bit more urgently.
Karata nodded, regaining her composure. She pulled open the king's door. and the two of them vanished the way they had come.
'He didn't recognize me,' Karata said to herself, her voice amused yet sorrowful.
'Who?' Raoden asked. The two of them squatted in the doorway of a shop near the middle of Kae, resting for a moment before continuing their trek back to Elantris.
'That guard. He was my husband, during another life.'
'Your husband?'
Karata nodded. 'We lived together for twelve years, and now he's forgotten me.''
Raoden did some quick connecting of events. 'Thar means the room we entered…'
'That was my daughter.' Karata said. 'I doubt anyone ever told her what happened to me. I just… wanted her to know.'
'You left her a note?'
'A note and a keepsake,' Karam explained with a sad voice, though no tears could fall from her Elantrian eyes. 'My necklace. I managed to sneak it past the priests a year ago. I wanted her to have it-I always intended to give it to her. They took me so quickly… I never said goodbye.'
'I know,' Raoden said putting his arm around the woman comfortingly. 'I know.'
'It takes them all from us. It takes everything. and leaves us with nothing.' Her voice was laced with vehemence.
'As Domi wills.'
'How can you say that?' she demanded harshly. 'How can you invoke His name after all that He has done to us?'
'I don't know,' Raoden confessed, feeling inadequate. 'I just know we need to keep going, as everyone does. At least you got to see her again.'
'Yes,' Karata said. 'Thank you. You have done me a great service this night, my prince.'
Raoden froze.
'Yes, I know you. I lived in the palace for years, with my husband, protecting your father and your family. I watched you from your childhood, Prince Raoden.'
'You knew all this time?'
'Not the entire time,' Karata said. 'But for enough of it. Once I figured it out. I couldn't decide whether to hate you for being related to Iadon, or to be satisfied that justice took you as well.'
'And your decision?'
'Doesn't matter,' Karata said, wiping her dry eyes by reflex. 'You fulfilled your bargain admirably. My people will leave you alone.'
'That's not enough, Karata,' Raoden said, standing up.
'You would demand more beyond our bargain?'
'I demand nothing, Karata,' Raoden said, offering his hand to help her to her feet. 'But you know who I am, and you can guess what I am trying to do.'
'You're like Aanden,' Karata said. 'You think to lord over Elantris as your father rules the rest of this cursed land.'
'People certainly are quick to judge me today,' Raoden said with a wry smile. 'No, Karata. I don't want to 'lord over' Elantris. But I do want to help it. I see a city full of people feeling sorry for themselves, a people resigned to seeing themselves as the rest of the world sees them. Elantris doesn't have to be the pit that it is.'
'How can you change that?' Karata demanded. 'As long as food is scarce, the people will fight and destroy to sate their hunger.'
'Then we'll just have to fill them.' Raoden said.
Ka rata snorted.
Raoden reached inside a pocket he had formed in his ragged clothing. 'Do you recognize this, Karata?' he asked, showing her a small cloth pouch. It was empty, but he kept it as a reminder of his purpose.
Karata's eyes blazed with desire. 'It held food.'
'What kind?'
'It's one of the pouches of corn that is part of the sacrifice that comes with a new Elantrian,' Karata said.
'Not just corn. Karata,' Raoden said holding up a finger. 'Seed corn. Parr of the ceremony requires that a grain offering be plantable.'
'Seed corn?' Karata whispered.
'I've been collecting it from the newcomers,' Raoden explained. 'The rest of the offerings don't interest me- only the corn. We can plant it, Karata. There aren't that many people in Elantris: it wouldn't be hard to feed them all. Goodness knows we have enough free time to work a garden or two.'
Karata's eyes were wide with shock. 'No one's ever tried that before,' she said, dumbfounded.
'I figured as much. It requires foresight, and the people of Elantris are too focused on their immediate hunger to worry about tomorrow. I intend to change that.'
Karata looked up from the small pouch to Raoden's face. 'Amazing.' she mumbled.
'Come on,' Raoden said, tucking the pouch away, then hiding the stolen sword beneath his rags. 'We're almost to the gate.'
'How do you intend to get us back in?'
'Just watch.'
As they walked, Karata paused beside a dark home.
'What?' Raoden asked.
Karata pointed. On the window, inside the glass, sat a loaf of bread. Suddenly, Raoden felt his own hunger stab sharply at his insides. He couldn't
blame her-even in the palace, he'd been watching for something to swipe. 'We can't take that chance. Karata.' Raoden said.
Karata sighed. 'I know. It's just that… we're so close.'
'All the shops are closed, all the houses locked,' Raoden said. 'We'll never find any.'
Karata nodded, lethargically moving again. They turned a corner and approached the broad gate to Elantris. A squat building sat beside it, light pouring from the windows. Several guards lounged inside, their brown-and-yellow Elantris City Guard uniforms bright in the lamplight. Raoden approached the building and tapped on a window with the back of his fist.
'Excuse me,' he said politely, 'but would you mind opening the gates please?'
The guards. who had been playing a game of cards, threw back their chairs in alarm, shouting and cursing as they recognized his Elantrian features. 'Be quick about it,' Raoden said airily. 'I'm getting tired.'
'What are you doing out?' one of the guards-an officer by appearances-demanded as his men piled out of the building. Several of them pointed their wicked spears at Raoden's chest.
'Trying to get back in,' Raoden said impatiently.
One of the guards raised his spear.
'I wouldn't do that, if I were you,' Raoden said. 'Not unless you want to explain how you managed to kill an Elantrian outside of the gates. You are supposed to keep us in-it would be quite an embarrassment if the people found out that we were escaping beneath your noses.'
'How did you escape?' the officer asked.
'I'll tell you later,' Raoden said. 'Right now, you should probably put us back in the eity before we wake the entire neighborhood and start a panic. Oh. and I wouldn't get too close to me. The Shaod is, after all, highly contagious.-
The guards backed away at his words. Watching Elantris was one thing: being confronted by a talking corpse was another. The officer, uncertain what else to do, ordered the gates opened.
'Thank you, my good man,' Raoden said with a smile. 'You're doing a wonderful job. We'll have to see if we can get you a raise.' With that, Raoden held out side.
