Picking up the heart-shaped button, she rubbed it between her fingers.
This time she'd done damage that no amount of prayer would be able to undo.
His face had been so red! Maybe he would hand her over to the swingman.
For certain she'd lost her comfortable room in the palace. "Gone the cushy bed." She whispered. She stood the heart button on its edge and flicked it off the bed.
"Gone the comfortable palace." She flicked the round button.
"Gone the concubine's head." The third button followed the first two. "The king lopped it off with malice."
And all she could do was sit and wait to die. If she tried to run, the king would take Comfort.
Of course, if he did hang her, he'd take Comfort anyway. The law stated that if you disobeyed and were killed, the master could take a member of your family to replace you.
So why should she wait for him to kill her? Maybe she could get down the mountain and get Comfort and the little boys before the troopers did. Or maybe she could get to Lord Carrull. Maybe he would help her. Or those Deliverance Day people he mentioned. They helped slaves.
She slid off the bed, scooped up her buttons, and headed for the door.
Just to check.
Just to peek out and see if a guard had been posted in the hall.
Silently, she twisted the knob ... cracked the door open ... and ... found herself staring into the king's face.
She slammed the door and raced to her bed.
The king entered. "You were going someplace?'
"I was just looking."
"Just looking. Just talking. Just unwilling to live wisely. That's the manner of girl you are. You rush into trouble. Am I right?"
She hung her head. "My mother has told me I have a bad habit of speaking rashly."
"Your mother." He crossed to the chairs by the fire and sat down with a sigh. "Your mother was a beautiful woman."
Repentance shot a glance at him. "How do you know that?"
He paused for the smallest of moments. "I've seen you. It's not possible that you came from an ugly mother. Besides, I have a sketch of her in the paperwork Jadin gave me. But is your mother wise as well as beautiful? That's what I can't see when I look at you." He twisted in his chair to look at her. "She scolded you for your rash tongue, you say, but she failed to train it out of you."
He patted the chair next to him. "Come here so I can see you without straining my neck."
Why was he sitting before her fire as if he'd come to tea? She couldn't figure this old king out. She went and sat.
"Tell me about your family," he said. "How many young? And how does your father occupy his time?"
She stared at him mutely, not sure what to say. Not sure how to best protect her family.
"When you should be silent, you spew forth unfettered. And when I command you to speak, you refuse. Your mouth needs instruction. That much I can see." He held up one finger. "Lesson. When the king asks a question, you answer. Respectfully."
She knew that. Jadin had taught her that rule.
She'd forgotten.
"Shall we try again?" the king asked. "Tell me about your family."
"My father fishes in the winter when the water cools and the holly pokes come downstream. He sells them two-fer-a."
"Toofurah?"
"Two-fer-a-bead. Two fish for one bead."
The king nodded. "And what does he do in summer when the holly pokes aren't running?"
"He builds things."
"Such as?"
She thought for a moment. "One summer he made a cooling system for our cave. Then he made several more and sold them."
"The cooling system must have worked well if he was selling it."
"It did work. Cold water from the cliff runs through a pipe on the ceiling. The pipe is full of holes so the water drips down like the curtain of a waterfall. It falls into a trough a couple of feet off the ground at one end and runs down the trough to land on a paddlewheel. The paddlewheel turns a fan, which blows air across the curtain of water. It cools the whole cave." She finished and felt her face flush as she realized her father's invention was childish and crude compared to the wonders of the mountain. Besides, the king had never asked her for a detailed explanation of how the system worked. She'd gotten carried away. Again.
"Your father is a smart man. What about the youngsters? You have one sister and two brothers, your papers say,"
"Plus the two boys taken as weanlings."
"Their names?"
"Tribulation and Devastation."
"Those are your parents?"
"Those are the boys taken for slaves when they were babies."
He gave her a hard look. "If they are gone you would do well to forget them. Tell me about your family as it is now."
She might as well tell him. If she lied, he'd be able to find the truth easily enough. "Comfort is after me. She's in her fourteenth year. Then there were the two boys taken from us—Tribulation and Devastation. They would be in their thirteenth and twelfth years." No, she would not forget them as her parents had. They were still part of her family.
The king flushed red, and Repentance pushed quickly on. "After that, Mother had two more boys—Restoration is in his eighth year, and Fullness is in his seventh."
"And did any of you go to school?"
"Of course we went to school!"
"Respectfully!" He reached out and rapped his knuckles on the top of her head.
"Ouch!" She scrunched back into her chair.
"Did any of you go to school?"
"Yes, your highness. We all went to school."
"And you learned
