right.'
'It is settled then,' I said.
The liberation discs were still in my hand. I hurriedly separated them out, untangling the leather thongs. 'Here is your freedom, Rilla,' I said, but as I passed her the token, a sudden realisation stopped my hand. Rilla was no longer bound to me. She could leave. Then a darker knowledge whispered its truth: she was the only person alive who knew my secret.
'Rilla…' I faltered, unable to voice my fear — it would seem as if I distrusted her.
The disc dangled between us. For a brief moment, our gazes met and I saw the quick understanding in her eyes. She gathered the disc and thong into her cupped palm.
'Honour is not limited to men, my lord,' she said softly 'I will always be with you.'
I nodded, ashamed of my doubt, and held out Chart's disc.
'Your freedom, Chart.'
He eyed it hungrily. 'Put…on me?'
I slipped it over his head, arranging the pendant against the patched cloth of his tunic. I would need to order new clothes for him. He clutched at the disc and held it tightly against his chest as though it might disappear. 'Thank…you.'
'Come, we'll celebrate in the library' I said. 'Rilla, will you direct the maids to bring wine?
And they should also prepare a room for the new heir.'
Below me, Chart giggled.
'Of course,' Rilla said. All her grace was back in force, but I had a feeling Irsa and the other maids were about to feel a mother's revenge. With a sharp clap of her hands, she ordered the staff to their duties.
Lon stood effortlessly with Chart in his arms and followed me across the courtyard to the house. I cast a quick look back at them as we walked through the cool corridor. Lon was listening to his new master's excited commentary. It seemed he had the knack of picking out the words in the strangled sounds. Or perhaps it was just that, unlike Irsa, he was listening for sense rather than nonsense.
I walked into the library, unprepared for the ghosts of my master still lingering there: the last scroll he had been studying was stretched across the desk, a pen lay on a half-finished letter, and the smell of the herbs he burned for concentration scented the air. The familiar ache of grief, kept at bay by the joy of freeing
my friends, swelled through me. 1 shut the door, steadying myself against its solid support, and motioned Eon to the visitor chair. He carefully settled Chart on the seal.
'Thank you, Lon,' I said, forcing myself lo walk lo my master's desk. But I couldn't sit behind it. Not yet. 'Fine! Rilla and she'll tell you what you need to do. Then ask her to join us in the library'
Lon bowed. 'Yes, my lord. Thank you.' He turned to Chart and bowed again. 'Thank you, Master.'
Chart's eyes widened at the unaccustomed obeisance.
I waited until Lon had closed the door then said, 'It's strange having people bow to you, hey?'
Chart clapped his hand to his forehead. 'Makes…my head…hurt.' He grinned up at me.
'You…used to…it?'
I shook my head. 'I haven't got used to anything.'
His hand found the liberation disc on his chest. 'Hard to…be…free sometimes?'
I stared at him. Everything had happened so fast that it had never occurred to me that I was free. But of course I was — I was a lord. Strange, then, that I did not feel any sense of freedom.
'Thank you,' Chart said seriously, holding up the disc. 'Means so much…to Mother. And to…me.' He took a deep breath. 'Master told me…to tell you…something…' He stopped, swallowing convulsively, '…when…he died.'
'Tell me what?' I squatted down awkwardly beside him. Had the master told Chart that he loved me? Did Chart know what I really was? If he did know the truth, he had kept his counsel well.
'He used…to…come to kitchen…at night…when he…couldn't sleep…to talk to me. Needed to…talk to… someone.' He licked his lips, preparing for another long sentence. 'He was…sorry Thought…it…was for the…best. But sorry…for hurting you…so bad. Thought…he had…killed…you.'
'Killed me? What do you mean?'
'When he…had your…hip broken. You nearly…died. Don't…you remember?'
'I lad my hip broken?'
What was Chart talking about? It was an accident. I was hit by a horse and cart. Run down in a street soon after my master had taken me from the salt farm.
Something deep and denied held me still. Dim images were slowly sharpening into an awful truth. There had been no horse and cart. No accident. I felt a terrible certainty building inside me. The memory of a bitter taste and heavy limbs, a big man with a tattoo across his face and a hammer in his hand. And pain. So much pain.
'Why?' I croaked. 'Why?' I grabbed Chart's arm. 'Did he tell you why?'
Chart cowered back into the chair. 'No.'
But I knew why. He crippled me to hide Eona. He had made me untouchable. To make money. To get power. His betrayal crashed through me like the hammer smashing my bones.
He took away my body My wholeness. I tried to stand, but all my strength was surging into another place. Into rage. My hip throbbed with old agony. I fell onto my hands and knees, crawling away from Chart, away from the pain.
'I…thought…you knew.'
'Knew?' I screamed.
Chart's terror registered somewhere in me, but it was too small against my fury My head hit the edge of a shelf and I pulled myself upright. In front of me were his scrolls. His precious scrolls. All lovingly stacked.
I pulled a box out of its slot and threw it at the wall. The crack of splitting wood and slithering parchment shrieked through my blood. The second box hit the desk, skittering pens and ink blocks onto the floor. One after the other, I flung the boxes at the back walls. The clattering crash drove me along the shelves, throwing faster and faster, the noise stoking the rage inside me. Chart cowered in the chair, whimpering. I heard the door snap open.
'Lord Eon!'
¦ '
I turned, panting, my arm raised to throw
Rilla was standing in the doorway holding a tray of wine cups, her eyes wide with shock.
'What arc you doing?'
Couldn't she sec? I was destroying him. 1 was hurting him.
But he was already dead.
I let go of the box in my hand. It hit the floor, smashing open, the parchment uncurling in a hiss of release. Through a blur of tears, I saw Rilla come towards me. And then, for the first time since my master's death, I felt all my sorrow and rage roll into a racking sob.
CHAPTER 16
I hunched over the small oil lamp beside my bed and dug my finger and thumb into the leather pouch, pinching up a generous dose of the Sun drug. Outside, the sounds of my palace staff preparing for the Daikiko journey carried across the pre-dawn quiet: the clip of horse hooves on stone flags, the creaking of cartwheels, and Ryko's voice ordering his men to check the load straps. It would soon be time to leave.
I dropped the drug into the bowl of ghost-maker's tea that Rilla had left with my breakfast.
For a moment the powder floated on the top, then broke apart and dissolved into the murky liquid. I tied off the pouch and pushed it into the pocket of my travelling tunic alongside the precious ruby compass.
The Sun drug was my last resort. With only a slim hope of deciphering the folio in time for the test, it was the only other way I could think to forge a quick connection with the Mirror Dragon. Ryko had said it kindled the Sun energy in the Shadow Men, rebuilding their manliness and fighting spirit. Surely it would stoke the Sun energy in me too.
