'You should hold on to it as hard as you can,' Lady Dela said flatly 'It means your life.'
We sat for a moment, each of us silenced by the terrible possibilities that lay before us.
'Well,' Lady Dela finally said, 'I must tell Ryko.' She rose from her seat, swaying with the carriage's motion, and poked the driver's back. 'Pull up, man.' She looked back to me. 'Do not come out. Do not even show your face.' She smoothed her hair and I saw her hand was trembling. 'This is going to kill him.'
The carriage slowed and came to a juddering stop. Immediately, Ryko pulled up his own horse. Lady Dela gave me one last reproachful look then stepped down from the cabin, hurrying to deflect Ryko's approach.
Rilla stalled to unpack boxes from the food basket. 'You may as well eat something. It will probably be a while before we move on again.'
1 craned a look over the driver's shoulder. Ryko had dismounted and given his reins to his second-in- command, who had been riding at the front with him. As Lady Dela approached, the islander bowed, his head angled questioningly. She motioned him further along the deserted road, and as they walked away from us their voices became lost in the clattering calls of roosting birds. Suddenly Ryko stiffened and stepped back from Lady Dela. He turned to the carriage, his fists clenched. Even though I could not see his face clearly in the dusk light, his fury crossed the distance between us. Lady Dela grabbed his arm, and it was not a woman's hold. I watched him turn back to her, the tense lines of his body showing his fight for control.
'I am sorry,' I whispered.
'You should have told me,' Rilla said. She opened another box — full of silvery poached eel
— and placed it on the seat next to me. 'Maybe I could have helped.'
'How?' I asked. 'Do you have the dragon's name written on your forehead?'
Instantly, I regretted my sarcasm. At least she was talking to me. 'I'm sorry' I said. 'You're right. I should have told you.'
'More to the point, you should have told the master,' Rilla said.
'I thought I could find the name before anyone realised I had no power. Before he realised.
And then he died.'
Rilla sighed. 'Well, that's all history now.' She stacked the lacquered lids, placing them back into the basket. Then, folding her hands in her lap, she sat for a moment staring out into the new darkness.
'So,' she met my gaze, 'is it time, Lord Eon?'
I turned away from her quiet dignity. 'I'm not your lord any more, Rilla.'
'Oh, yes, you are,' she said, her sharp tone pulling me back to face her. 'You have to be Lord Eon fot us all. For me, for Chart, for those two out there. And for the new Emperor.' She lifted her chin. 'I ask you again, Lord Eon. Is it time?'
'Yes,' I finally said, 'Take Chart and get as far away as you can.'
Lady Dela returned to the carriage — her grim face forestalling our questions — and we resumed our journey. Ryko kept his distance, riding ahead, stiff and straight in the saddle. I watched for a while, but he did not look back. Even when we changed horses, he kept well away, his eyes averted from me.
As the night deepened into the spirit hours, I managed to eat some of Rilla's food while Lady Dela tersely explained the Imperial ghost watch. I tried to concentrate on my part in the elaborate rituals and ignore the unspoken dread that hung between us: that I would probably not live long enough to practise them.
Although my mind was past any point of rest, my drained body could hold out no longer; after the third and final horse change, I slept. Occasionally I was jolted awake by a rough piece of road and looked out to see the figure of Ryko still riding at the front. After the long hours of travelling, his body should have been bowed with fatigue, but I could see no change in his tense vigilance. Perhaps he was fuelled by his rage. Perhaps hate.
I was glad to return to the oblivion of sleep.
The calls of roadside hawkers finally pulled me out of my exhaustion and I awoke, huddled in the corner of the carriage, just as we approached the city gates. Lady Dela was sprawled asleep in the opposite corner, the harsh lines of her face softened by slumber. Rilla was already hunting through the basket for refreshment, her hair and gown smoothed into her usual neatness.
'Something to break your fast,' she said softly, passing me a small woven dish containing a shelled hardboiled egg and a few
pickled vegetables. At least I would not have to wash it down with the foul mix of Sun drug and ghost- maker's tea. 1 was done with both drugs.
'It is not much of a last meal,' I said, attempting a smile.
She ignored the comment, carefully shelling another egg. 'When we arrive at the apartments I will prepare the cleansing bath as Lady Dela instructed.' Her voice was low. 'No doubt the protocol officers will have sent the proper herbs. Then, while you are washing, I will air the Story Robe. It is a good thought on Lady Dela's part for you to wear it.'
'You should just go.'
She shook her head. After you are prepared for the ghost watch.'
I was humbled by her dogged loyalty. 'Thank you,' I whispered. 'But after that, promise me you will go.'
Beside me, Lady Dela stirred. She wiped her mouth, squinting in the morning light.
'I did not expect to sleep.' She looked out at the line of carts and foot travellers waiting to enter the city on the common dirt road below our paved carriageway. 'We have arrived, then.'
As we drew up to the city gates, Ryko rode back towards us. I sat up, my fingers tightening around the wicker dish, but he manoeuvred his horse alongside Lady Dela's side of the cabin.
'I will leave you now, lady' he said.
She nodded. 'Good luck.'
'Leave?' I said. 'Why are you leaving? We have to get the red folio back.'
Ryko finally looked at me and the hardness in his eyes stilled my breath. 'I must warn the Resistance to be ready' He pulled on the reins, his horse snorting at the brutal turn. 'But don't be concerned for your safety, Lord Eon. I will be back to guard you, as is my duty' His voice was bitter. 'T always do my duty'
And when have I not done my duly?' I muttered, but he was already gone.
CHAPTER 19
The special blend of sweet herbs and frangipani petals floated on the surface of the water and clung to my shoulders in velvety clumps. Rilla had prepared the ritual cleansing bath and left me to wash myself, hurrying back to the dressing room to ready the Story Robe and her escape. I sank further into the soft warmth of the large soaking pool and breathed in the damp fragrance, massaging my strained wrist. I had already scrubbed my body as hard as I could, but the touch of Ido was still on my skin and in the aching strain of my hand and hip.
He must never take my body again. I would rather die.
I stopped kneading my hand, shocked by the dark whisper that had pushed itself into my mind.
Was I really ready to die?
I licked my lips, the sweet bath herbs reawakening the vanilla-orange heat of his mouth on mine. I should run. Escape with Rilla and Chart into the islands. This struggle for the throne was not my fight. I had been pushed into the centre of it by everyone around me: my poor master, the Emperor, the Prince,
Lady Dela, Kyko. Even Rilla and Chart. They all expected me to bring victory. But it was not my fight.
I sighed. That was not true. It was my fight now. I lived or died by the Pearl Emperor's hold on the throne. And the lives of too many good people depended on my courage to face the wrath of the young Emperor and win his support. Or, if things went badly, the courage to welcome his sword into my body and stop Ido from bringing Sethon to the throne. And stop his mad ambition to create the String of Pearls.
The memory of the Prince's swift punishment of Teacher Prahn over the missing red folio made me shiver. That had been a small mistake by an old man. And there was the young noble who had accidentally hit him on the practice field. I'd heard the Prince had broken three of his ribs. What would he do to me? A girl who had tricked him and betrayed him, who had promised him power and mutual survival, all the while knowing it was a lie. I prayed the small hope I had to offer would be enough to stop his sword hand.
Ido had been right, I could not welcome death. Not while there was still hope.
