The night after the rain was windy. Wind swept into the main roads and the narrow lanes alike. Beneath her torn skirt, Tina’s exposed ankles were streaked with mud. She hurried along in little steps as though bewitched, staring only at the back of the man ahead of her. Metion still held the baby. She had pleaded over and over, confronted him, clung to him, even thrown herself at him. None of it had helped. There was nothing she could do but follow.
Would he hurt the baby? She could not tell. If he did, why? Of course, he had no reason to take the baby away, either. Had he known who the baby was, he ought to have been either more courteous or more cruel. If Tina were his object, there would be no need to wander around like this. But Metion merely kept walking somewhere with the baby he had taken. Tina fixed her attention on the seal hanging from his wrist. He was a man from a fine family. There had to be a reason for what he was doing. Surely he was not a mercenary after a reward, or a rogue planning to sell a woman…
Metion suddenly looked back, and Tina gasped in surprise.
“Come in.”
Only then did she see that he was holding a door handle and looking at her. It was a side door so low that she would have to stoop to get through. Tina stumbled inside. Metion followed and shut the door. It was dark.
“Where are we?”
Without answering, Metion felt about in the darkness and lit a candle. In its light, Tina saw clothes and bolts of fabric hanging everywhere. It seemed to be a tailor’s shop. The owner was nowhere to be seen. He had probably closed up and gone to bed. How had Metion opened the door? Tina grew tense.
“What if the owner comes…?”
“You needn’t worry about that.”
Metion looked around, took down a plain black tunic, and handed it to her.
“Put this on.”
“But these are someone else’s clothes.”
“The clothes you’re wearing would more than pay for them. He’ll come out ahead.”
Tina hesitated, then took off her cloak and the torn dress beneath it, exposing her breastband. Metion stopped short. A few seconds later, he turned away.
“If you were thinking along those lines, you’ve misjudged me.”
“What? I…”
Tina began to speak, then closed her mouth and changed. Metion muttered to himself. Of course. She was a dancer.
Dancers stood at the very bottom of Epherium’s society. They had no right even to conceal their bodies and often changed clothes in the street. Tina must have lived that way herself. Until last year. The habits of a lifetime did not disappear in a year or two. Metion remained lost in thought, frowning, until Tina called to him and he turned his head.
“I’m dressed…”
“Do something about your hair, too.”
While Tina braided her hair, Metion gathered a cloak for himself and several lengths of cut fabric. Then he discarded the red velvet around the baby, found a plain linen cloth, and wrapped the baby again. A man of high birth would hardly have occasion to care for an infant, yet his hands were oddly practiced. Just as he finished fastening the cloth securely, the baby woke. Their eyes met. The baby stared at him, then grinned. For a moment Metion looked as though he might smile back, but he turned his head.
“Ready? Let’s go.”
“Can’t you tell me where we’re going now?”
“No.”
Metion carried the baby out through the door they had entered. Tina could only follow. After a few turns through the alleys, a high wall suddenly rose before them. It was the wall of Hiemora, the iron fortress surrounding the royal city. She remembered passing through it last year, at dawn, in a cart covered with a canopy. She had shivered at the thought that she might never come out again. Back then, Tina had entered through the Donkey Gate, used by commoners. But the gate she could now see in the distance was the Full Moon Gate, through which only the king, the royal family, and nobles were allowed to pass.
Metion made Tina cover her head with a kerchief and approached the Full Moon Gate. Its green marble columns supported a lintel crowned by six carved images of Lansisha, the goddess of gates. It was very beautiful, but commoners were forbidden to approach. Only on the two annual festivals when the Summer Gate was opened and the Winter Gate closed, or on special occasions such as a king’s accession, a queen’s investiture, or the birth of a prince, could they see it up close.
The gate had already shut for the night, and soldiers stood guard before it. Tonight there were twice as many as usual. Metion left Tina waiting a little way off and went to the captain of the gate. He held the baby tucked under his arm like a parcel.
“It’s me. I need to go out on some business.”
“What brings you out at this hour? Do you know what happened today?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care. You’ll have a hard night of it, though.”
Metion opened his purse and handed over a handful of something that jingled. The captain accepted it respectfully and slipped it into his clothes. Then he called his men and told them to open the small door to the left of the main gate. They seemed to know one another, but Tina had not imagined that mere acquaintance could open a city gate so easily. She stared in astonishment.
Metion looked back and beckoned her over. As she approached, she heard the captain ask,
“Who is that woman?”
“A maid belonging to someone I know. I’ve borrowed her for the day. Don’t mention seeing me tonight.”
Metion winked. The captain nodded and laughed. As Metion passed through the door, the baby gave a muffled whimper. Metion immediately coughed loudly several times. He even snapped at Tina as she followed.
“What are you standing there for? Hurry up!”
By then, they had moved away from the gate. Beyond the walls lay nothing but empty country. When Tina looked back, the strangely magnificent Full Moon Gate resembled a gravestone planted in the wilderness.
Queen Sabina huddled alone in a wide room lit by only a few candles, trembling. When a court lady entered to announce General Livolla, she finally sprang upright.
“My apologies.”
At his first words, something between a groan and a wail escaped through Sabina’s tightly clenched teeth. Her fists shook with fear rather than anger. Livolla dropped to his knees.
“We searched every corner of the city, but…”
“They’re gone? Did they turn into smoke? Did they dissolve into water? Are beautiful girls wandering about with babies so common that no one saw her for an entire day and night?”
“Suspecting that someone had hidden them, I ordered my men to look for anyone who had a woman and child with him, even if his identity was beyond question. We have several reports and are following them up. One man used a false identity, so I have ordered him pursued first.”
“A false identity?”
“Yes. He claimed to be a son of the Urs family of Kisa, but there is no record of a man of that name entering through the city gates this year.”
Urs of Kisa had fourteen sons. It was an excellent family to borrow a name from. Sabina stamped her foot in anger.
“You let him go just because he gave a name?”
“No. They say he showed a seal. That seems to be why they believed him, but…”
“Useless fools! Incompetent wretches! Do you understand what this is? Do you know what’s at stake? If His Majesty hangs me, I’ll take every one of you with me. Do you think any of you will survive? Do you have any idea how terrible His Majesty’s wrath can be?”
They were all in the same boat. That much was clear. At daybreak, the king had learned that his favored concubine Erektina and Prince Polytimos were missing. He had sent a force large enough to be an army to search the city.
The queen would be his first suspect. They could not afford to give him anything to seize upon. When the king’s search parties began making inquiries, Livolla recalled his men, leaving only a few behind. He had already been uneasy because they had carried out their own questioning while pretending to be the king’s soldiers. Yet he could not simply sit and wait. If Erektina and the prince survived and the king found them, they were finished.
Luring them outside the palace to kill them had been the first mistake. They should have killed them in the detached palace, even at the risk of transporting the bodies afterward. The plan had been to make it look as though she had run away with an old lover, but the lowborn woman had been quick to catch on. She could hide better than a rat.
Whatever happened, they had no choice but to wait. At that moment, waiting was the hardest thing of all. Sabina waved Livolla away and rose. He took a letter from inside his clothes.
“Your Majesty, there is a message from Lord Herodion of your family.”
Herodion was Sabina’s eldest brother and head of the family. Sabina snatched the letter Livolla offered and bit her lip as she opened it. Herodion, who surely knew the whole situation, would severely reproach his sister for her rashness. And rightly so. If this went wrong, it would destroy not only Sabina but their family as well.
But as she read, her expression changed. The instant she finished, she tore the letter up, threw it into the brazier, and asked,
“Where is Ayub?”
“He is waiting outside.”
“Bring him in. Quickly.”
Livolla left, and soon a man called Ayub entered. He was very short. Black clothes covered his entire body, and he wore a hood with both hands concealed inside his sleeves. Only his sandaled feet and the mouth and chin beneath his hood showed. Dressed like that, he bowed to the queen.
“May peace and glorious favor dwell with Her Most Exalted Majesty the Queen.”
“Peace and favor? If you don’t act at once, I shan’t so much as close my eyes.”
“I shall do what I can in advance, so that Your Majesty may sleep in comfort.”
“Find two people. A young woman and a little boy.”
“Do you mean His Most August Majesty the King’s favored concubine and her son?”
Those connected with the queen’s family knew that she did not acknowledge Polytimos as a prince. Sabina glared at Ayub, then nodded.
“Yes.”
Ayub lifted his hood a little.
“I ought, of course, to carry out your august command at once, but as Your Majesty knows, I have no gift for finding people.”
On his half-exposed forehead, Sabina saw a brand. By the candlelight alone, the red centipede looked alive. It marked him as one who practiced the sorcery of evil spirits. It was why he could never remove his hood in public.
The evil spirits that had lived underground since time immemorial were dangerous creatures, forever hungry for blood and enemies of every god. They were not worshipped. But a few people could control them by special means, and those people were called evil-spirit sorcerers. They did not revere the spirits. They merely used them. The centipede tattoo was no sign of devotion, but a kind of charm to keep the spirits from devouring them. That was why it had to be placed somewhere immediately visible rather than concealed.
“I know.”
“Then may I kill them?”
“So long as no one finds out, I care nothing if you tear them to pieces.”
Ayub nodded.
“Your Majesty knows my condition?”
She did. She had entrusted insolent, lowborn creatures to this man before. He had demanded the same condition then. Sabina nodded.
“The bodies are yours.”
Ayub smiled.
“Your Majesty’s favor overflows my cup.”
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