The Shadow's heir

Right there and then, Laela vowed to herself that she would not go home until she had found Inva again and helped her in any way she could. Testified to her innocence, at the very least. But that wouldn’t be good enough. No, Laela decided, she would free Inva instead. Buy her freedom and take her back to the North.

That decision made her feel better.

But after that, she got to thinking about the others. How many others like Inva were there? How many hundreds or thousands of other Northerners were out there, treated like property and probably killed as soon as they stopped being useful? How many were there who had it far worse than Inva ever had?

All of a sudden, she found herself thinking about Arenadd. She remembered the scars on his neck, and the lash marks on his back. She thought of the black robe he always wore. And the slow, chilling realisation came to her, the thought that she could guess what all those things meant. And there was the way he spoke, too-his passionate insistence that all men should be free, that slaves should be rescued, his utter hatred for the system that let them live that way at all.

He was a slave, she thought. He must have been. That’s why. .

No wonder, then, that he hated Southerners so much. No wonder he had spent his entire life killing them and driving them away. No wonder he was prepared to do anything and everything in his power for those here in Amoran.

“An’ me?” she said aloud, to the dark ceiling high above. “What does that make me?”

Unexpectedly, she found herself feeling utterly ashamed of her Southern blood. Ashamed, too, that she had ever let herself hate Arenadd for setting his people free. For the first time, she felt as if she understood those people who hated her for being a half-breed, and in that moment she did feel ashamed of it. Inherited shame.

The feeling passed quickly. It wasn’t her fault, and there was no such thing as a race that was better than any other. She should know.

But like it or not, she was a kind of Southerner, and she couldn’t help but feel as if she had a responsibility to try to make amends. After all, it had been Southerners who had sold those slaves to Amoran in the first place. And as a Northerner, she had a duty as well. A duty to her people, and to her King.

Those were inspiring thoughts, but they still led her back to the one question that had put her in this state in the first place. Was she willing to go through with this? Lie to the Emperor? Marry a man she didn’t know? Betray Yorath?

In the end, shortly before dawn, she settled on a compromise. She would speak to the Emperor again and find out more. She wouldn’t lie, but she would ask questions, and at least find out if a half-breed bastard was an acceptable match. That should do to begin with.

As she drifted off to sleep, she forced herself not to think about what she had seen in the Temple. It was too soon to think of it. And besides that, she wasn’t sure if she ever wanted to.

26

Laela Paramount

By the time morning came, Laela was exhausted. Her eyes were dry, and her headache had come back with a vengeance.

She dragged herself out of bed regardless, and once her breakfast had been served, she sent Telise to pass on a message to the Emperor requesting another audience.

The slave returned just as Laela was finishing breakfast, bowing low. “My lady, the Emperor will see you this afternoon.”

Laela rubbed her forehead. “Why not sooner?”

“The Emperor will see you when he chooses,” said Telise, with an iciness that surprised her.

“Right then.” Laela gulped down some water and tried to think. “In that case, while we’re waitin’. . I want t’know where Inva is.”

Telise looked blank. “Your previous attendant?”

“Yes, her,” said Laela. “Middle-aged woman, no hair. What have they done with her?”

“She has been punished-”

“I know,” Laela growled. “Punished how?”

Telise looked nervous. “Punished fittingly, my lady.”

“Where is she, then? You said she’d been sent away. Where to?”

“I don’t know, my lady.”

“Then who would know?”

“Master Zel, my lady. He is master of the slaves who serve here.”

“Right.” Laela stood up. “I want t’see him. Now.”

“Yes, my lady.”

Oeka appeared, bright-eyed, with her tail twitching. “Where are you going?”

“I’m gonna go find out what happened to Inva,” said Laela.

“Why does it matter? Why are you not seeing the Emperor?”

“He ain’t available right now,” said Laela. “Anyway, I wanna find out what happened to Inva-see if I can help.”

Oeka fell in beside her as she left the rooms. “Why would you want to help?”

“Because I’m the one who got her in trouble,” said Laela. “They blamed her for what happened to me. She wasn’t even there!”

“What do you care?” said Oeka.

Laela had expected something exactly like this. “Because I’m human, an’ I don’t just care about myself.”

“You would be wiser if you did,” said Oeka. “No-one else will care for you as much as you yourself.”

“See, this is why griffins ain’t ruling the world,” said Laela. She grinned. “C’mon, yeh selfish goose. Let’s go do some altruism.”

“I do not know that word,” Oeka said primly.

“Me neither,” said Laela. “I just copied it off someone. Hurry up, Telise! We can walk faster than this, y’know.”

“Apologies,” Telise said smartly, and hurried off down the corridor.

They had to leave the neat quietness of the guest quarters and move on into a noisier, busier part of the palace that griffiners probably weren’t meant to see. What Laela did see, along with that, were slaves-far more of them than she had seen before. Some Northerners, some Amorani, some from Maijan, some belonging to races she had never seen before, but all of them shaven and collared, and all of them hard at work. She passed a big long room where dozens of slaves were busy washing clothes and linen, and caught a glimpse of a massive kitchen where dozens more were preparing meals and washing pots and plates. To her surprise, aside from the occasional patrolling guard, she didn’t see anyone who looked like a supervisor watching over them. But the slaves worked industriously anyway, as if they had nothing else to do but the jobs that earned them no pay, and no respect.

And that was exactly how it was, of course.

Eventually, Telise guided them through all this and into a slightly quieter area, where a smaller group of slaves were busy stripping the petals off flowers and putting them in bowls. Telise weaved her way through them and stopped by one man who didn’t seem to be doing anything. He was Amorani, and the stubble on his head was grey, which was just about the only hint to his age.

As Laela and Oeka caught up with their guide, the man turned to them and bowed briefly. “Sacred griffin, I am blessed to see you and your human.”

Oeka had been enjoying this sort of treatment long enough that she didn’t react much to it now. “Why do you speak to me, slave?” she rasped.

The man bowed again, more respectfully this time. “I have just been told that your human wished to speak