Repentance looked at Generosity. "Is ... " she was afraid to ask. "Is Tigen alive?"
Generosity's flashed a wide smile. "It'll take more than a bonk on the head to put that young beast down, and that's giving it true."
"Where is he?"
"He's in his quarters. His mother is with him."
"And his brothers, no doubt." Repentance shivered. And then pity washed over her. The Prince's children would suffer when they learned of their father's betrayal. Sober had been right. Everyone dies. It was better, then, to die well. At least Repentance could hold on to the comfort of knowing that the man she lost had died bravely and with honor. He wasn't wearing the coward's cloak before Providence.
He had chosen to die with honor, and she had to choose to live with honor. So she had better start living. Comfort and Generosity left, and Repentance sighed, and forced herself out of bed and into the bathing room. When she was dressed, she still felt that she couldn't face anyone. She wandered out of the palace by the front door, circled around to Misty Lake, and sat on the bench at the dock, the foggy gloom fitting her mood.
It also brought her close to Sober. He was in the lake somewhere. Under the palace. His body was, anyway. His life spark was safe with Providence. She was sure of that. Providence would never turn his back on his faithful friend Sober Marsh.
"Ah, here you are." The king stood at the bottom of the steps. "May I sit with you a moment?"
She scooted over.
He hobbled up the stairs, leaning on a cane. "I'm sorry to interrupt your solitude. I saw you go by my library window and I wanted to talk to you privately." His face was bruised and he looked thinner than when she'd last seen him.
She nodded, waiting silently.
He folded and unfolded his hands a couple of times. Then he cleared his throat and wiggled on the bench. Finally, he said, "I find myself wondering why you saved me ... I didn't sleep last night, going over it in my mind. I sentenced you to the swing frame. I was keeping you as a slave. You had every reason to hate me. The young farmer, on the other hand, you loved. Am I correct in that?"
She nodded.
"So you made an incredible sacrifice. Why did you save me and let him ... ?"
She sighed. "I could have saved Sober. We could have clubbed the prince over the head and escaped." She looked at the king. "But you would have died, and the prince would have ascended to the throne. It never occurred to me that we could roll him into the lake. It all happened so fast. But even if we had murdered him, the young Lord Gaylor would have taken the throne. Either way, the village of Hot Springs would have been destroyed."
"So you sacrificed the one you loved to save your village?"
She gave a little joyless laugh. "I killed one that loved me, to save many that have, for all my life, called me cursed."
The king cocked his head. "I don't understand."
She shook her head. "It's not important. Have you heard of Harding and Hamchet Banniss?"
The king nodded. "Very famous brothers."
"I sacrificed Sober, because he wanted to die like Harding, not Hamchet."
The king nodded. "I see."
"I was about to open his door when he told me you were in another cell. He made me go save you."
"Can you forgive me? Will you ever forgive me for not believing you?"
She reached over and gave one of his hands a squeeze. "I was not trustworthy. I don't blame you for not believing me." She started to cry. "I'm more to blame than anyone. If I'd buttoned him in the beginning none of this would have happened."
"But if you had buttoned the farmer in the beginning, I'd have never met you. And I'd be the poorer for it."
She wiped her eyes and gave him a sideways look.
He chuckled. "Your face. Always your expression gives you away. Yes, Repentance, I mean it when I say I am richer for having known you." He put one arm around her shoulder. "I want to tell you the stories of two lowborn women. A long time ago an overlord king buttoned a lowborn woman. That woman was not faithful. She defiled the button bed. So the king, in a fit of rage, cut off her head, killed everyone in her village, and took the rest of the lowborns as slaves."
Repentance sniffed. "I never understood why I had to pay the price for something that happened so long ago and had nothing to do with me."
"The ways of Providence are hard to understand," the king said. "Why did he give the overlords the strength to enslave the lowborns? And why now, after so long …? Yesterday a lowborn woman made a great sacrifice to save the life of an overlord king. That king, in a fit of gratitude that matched his predecessor's fit of rage, decided that all slaves in the kingdom would go free."
Repentance pulled away to look at his face. Was he having a joke on her?
He nodded. "I may be assassinated for it. The rich overlord nobility will hate me. And the kingdom will go through some hard times as the bead flow is interrupted and readjusts. I'm well aware of these things. But what is a man to do? I have always prided myself on being a fair-minded man and one who pays his debts."
She threw her arms around him and
