The Grace of Kings (37 page)

“I had some of my men dress up as palace guards to test you,” Chatelain Pira said, his voice cool. “They found out that you weren't sincere in your confession. You still seem to be laboring under the impression that you're looking at a deer, instead of a horse, and I'm telling you it is a horse. Do you understand?”

Pira's men tortured him all night.

Pira had the best doctors come care for Crupo. They bandaged his hands and salved his tongue. They fed him healing soup and applied herbal paste to his bruises. But Crupo shrank at their touch, terrified that it was but a trick from Pira to hurt him more.

One day, more palace guards came to visit Crupo in his cell.

“The emperor wishes to ascertain the truth of your confession. Have you been tortured?”

Crupo shook his head.

“The confession—it wasn't true, was it?”

Crupo nodded vigorously. He mumbled and croaked and tried to indicate with every gesture that it was all true, every single word. He was a traitor to the emperor. He wanted the emperor dead. He was very, very sorry for it, but he deserved what he got. He hoped that his performance, this time, would pass muster.

Emperor Erishi was filled with great sorrow as he listened to the report of the captain of the palace guards. Somewhere deep inside himself, he had refused to believe that the regent really wanted to commit treason against him.

But the captain of the palace guards recounted his men's visit with Crupo. In a safe room where Chatelain Pira was nowhere to be found, Crupo had insisted to the interrogating guards that he had not been tortured. He was very contrite, but the confession was true.

The emperor was distraught.

Chatelain Pira came to comfort him. “It's hard to see inside men's hearts, no matter how well you think you know them.”

Emperor Erishi ordered Crupo's heart cut out of his chest and brought to him so he could see whether it was red with loyalty or black with betrayal.

But when the heart was brought to him, the boy lost his courage; he ordered it fed to his dogs without looking.

Chatelain Pira now also had the title of prime minister, and he turned his attention to the rebellion.

Someday, he would enjoy watching the boy emperor beg him for his life: the day that he took away the empire from the House of Xana. But for now, he had to get rid of the rebels first.

Directing armies from afar did not seem very difficult to him. If Crupo could do it, so could he.

With the fall of Amu, only three Tiro states remained in rebellion: rugged Faça in the north, with its strength of ten thousand beyond the dark woods of Rima; rich Gan in the east, with ten thousand more foot soldiers and the rebels' only remaining navy on the island of Wolf's Paw; and martial Cocru in the south, which faced off against General Tanno Namen across the Liru River.

Kindo Marana did not think much of King Shilué of Faça, who was opportunistic and weak, nor did he have much respect for King Dalo of Gan, who was content to stay on Wolf's Paw and forget his ancestral claims to Géjira on the Big Island. Marana's plan was to combine his forces with Namen's for a coordinated general assault on Cocru, the only Tiro state that posed a real threat to the empire.

But before he could put his plan into operation, a messenger arrived from the Immaculate City with the news that Regent Crupo had been caught in a treasonous plot and executed, and Prime Minister Pira now ordered all Imperial forces be amassed for a gene­ral assault on Wolf's Paw.

“Pacify the Outer Islands first.” The messenger read the words of Goran Pira. “And the Big Island will come to heel by itself.”

This seemed to Marana the wrong strategy, but he suppressed his annoyance before the Imperial messenger. The emperor and the new prime minister seemed to think war a game they played on that model of the empire in the Grand Audience Hall. He might be the Marshal of Xana, but ultimately he was just a token, to be picked up and put down wherever his superiors wished.

For a moment, he almost wished he had given in to the temptation of Princess Kikomi.

But that opportunity was past, and the path of treason would remain for him only a thing of the imagination. He was too meticu­lous, too attached to beliefs about order and a man's proper place.

Marana sighed and sent out the new deployment orders. The Imperial armada and its twenty thousand soldiers would sail north around the Big Island, bypassing Faça for Wolf's Paw.

Simultaneously, Namen was to leave a small number of defenders at the Liru River and the edge of the Rima woods. He would then take another twenty thousand men through Thoco Pass, through gentle Géjira and its wealthy garden cities and peaceful rice paddies, and meet the armada at the point where the Shinané Mountains ran into the coast. From there, the empire would launch an all-out assault on Wolf's Paw.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

THE PRINCEPS'S PROMISE

ÇARUZA: THE NINTH MONTH IN THE FOURTH YEAR OF THE REIGN OF RIGHTEOUS FORCE.

King Thufi thundered at the gathered ambassadors and kings of the Tiro states.

He was sick of how
pettily
everyone behaved. The debates had raged on for months, and yet nothing was ever decided. Rather than coming together with a plan to march on Pan, the assembled dignitaries preferred to squabble over how to divide up the spoils of an imaginary victory.

Rima and Amu were gone, and Haan never managed to free itself, even temporarily. The empire was going to reconquer the Tiro states one by one, a repeat of Emperor Mapidéré's feat decades earlier. The rebellion was teetering on the abyss of failure.

The fiction of the equality and independence of all Tiro states is nice,
Thufi thought,
but now we must face reality.

“No more debates,” King Thufi declared. “I'm nominating myself as princeps.”

The room fell into stunned silence. There had not been a princeps for hundreds of years.

But no one objected, at least not openly. Cocru, after all, had the largest army, and it was the only Tiro state to have won any victories in the field against the empire.

“Marana and Namen are throwing everything they have into an assault on Wolf's Paw, and we have to put aside our differences and do everything we can to help Gan”—the Gan ambassador nodded vigorously at this—“Faça and Cocru will send every man who can be spared, and the rest of you must do what you can to help—money, weapons, intelligence. The Six States will make a collective stand at Wolf's Paw.”

In truth, this wasn't a mere platitude. All the Tiro states
could
help. The remnants of Rima's army had made their way into Cocru, bitter men who longed for vengeance. A few Amu ships had escaped from the Battle of Amu Strait and limped their way to Çaruza, along with King Ponadomu and Princess Kikomi—though it was too bad that the airship they escaped in had mysteriously sprung a leak shortly after landing and had to be scuttled. And wealthy nobles from all the conquered Tiro states had fled to Çaruza, laden with national treasures that could be converted into military funds.

Even Haan had something to offer. King Cosugi had sent Luan Zya on a secret mission into Haan, where he had managed to start an underground movement among dissatisfied young men willing to make trouble for the empire in the heartland.

“Should we fail at Wolf's Paw, then the Islands of Dara will again sink back into barbarism and tyranny. But if we succeed, we will have extinguished the empire's last glimmer of hope. Kindo Marana will not be able to find more men willing to die for the empire in Rui and Dasu. The people of Xana have suffered almost as much as we have.

“We will rise or sink together, as one.”

Thufi did not trust the kings and ambassadors, who had their own agendas. To inspire the men to fight, he had to speak to them directly.

“Should we succeed, we will push on through the fields of Géjira, through Thoco Pass, and bring the war to the emperor in his palace in Pan. As princeps, I decree now that whosoever, be he churl or earl, captures Emperor Erishi will be made the king of a new Tiro state encompassing the richest parts of Géfica.”

The assembled ambassadors and kings offered halfhearted cheers at this announcement, but their applause grew louder as Marshal Phin Zydnu stared coldly at each of them in turn.

Words always seemed so much more convincing when backed by swords.

King Ponadomu muttered that the princeps was making promises with land that by right belonged to Amu, but considering he and Princess Kikomi were living on handouts from King Thufi, he kept his voice very low.

The house that Jia rented was outside Çaruza, in a tiny village right on the beach. It had been the summer home of a Cocru noble family now fallen on hard times. The house was large but not ostentatious, and the rent was affordable.

To the east, below the horizon, were the Tunoa Islands. Mata Zyndu stood for a while on the beach, tossing broken shells and pebbles into the waves, thinking about home. Then he ducked his head and walked through Kuni's front door.

“Brother Kuni and Sister Jia!” he shouted. “I hope this is not an inconvenient time for a visit.”

Mata and Kuni had returned to Çaruza a month ago, after it was clear that Marana and Namen were not going to attack Dimu. Kuni stayed with Jia and enjoyed being a father while Mata helped his uncle with his duties managing the Cocru army. They were both getting a little antsy, though, waiting for the kings and ambassadors to decide on a strategy for the rebels.

“Ah, it's Brother Mata,” Kuni said, standing up with Jia. “You know that there is no inconvenient time where you're concerned. You're family.”

Otho Krin came in bearing a tray of snacks and a tea set.

“How many times have I told you that you don't need to act like a servant?” Jia said. “You came here as Kuni's bodyguard, not to carry things for me.”

“I don't mind, Lady Jia,” Otho said, his face red. “I begged Lord Garu to bring me here, and I told him that I would make myself useful, whether it's protecting him or helping you with anything you need around the house. There's nothing I wouldn't do for Lord Garu . . . and you.”

“You're like a child who never grows up,” Jia said, but she was also smiling. “Thank you, Otho.” The awkward young man bowed and left.

Jia and Kuni welcomed Mata and they sat on the floor in
géüpa
. Jia poured tea while Kuni handed the baby to Mata. Mata, unsure what to do, held the baby gingerly in his big palm like a coconut. The baby didn't cry, but looked up at the giant man curiously. Kuni and Jia laughed.

“He has your figure, Kuni,” Mata said as he looked at the baby's chubby legs and round belly. “But he is much better looking.”

“You've clearly been spending too much time with my husband,” said a smiling Jia. “You're even learning his low style of humor.”

While they drank tea and snacked on dried mango chips and cod strips with bamboo eating sticks, Mata told Kuni about King Thufi's announcement.

“King of Géfica!” Kuni marveled. “That is certainly going to excite the officers and soldiers.”

“Indeed it will.”

“My brother, how can you remain so calm? Surely you see it as a promise meant for you to fulfill!”

Mata grinned. “There are many heroes in the rebellion. Who can say whom the gods will favor with such a prize?”

Kuni shook his head. “You do not need to be so humble. Strive for your destiny.”

Mata laughed, happy at Kuni's confidence but also feeling embarrassed. “Right now, I just hope King Thufi will make me commander-in-chief of the alliance forces at Wolf's Paw so that my uncle can stay in Çaruza—he deserves a rest, and King Thufi would feel safer with the marshal around in charge of homeland defense.”

“I'll go with you. We fight well together.”

Mata smiled. He did enjoy having Kuni Garu by his side. Kuni might not be much of a warrior, but he always had clever ideas.

Kuni and Jia then looked at each other and shared a smile. Kuni leaned toward Mata. “There might be another Little Garu soon.”

“Congratulations again! Well, you two certainly aren't wasting any time.” Mata toasted the happy couple.

“We Garus are like the dandelions: We multiply no matter how difficult things are.” Kuni gently stroked Jia's back, and Jia looked contentedly into the eyes of the baby in her arms. The walls around them were bare and drafty, yet Mata thought it felt warmer here than in the stone halls of King Thufi's palace, full of luxurious tapestries and hurrying servants.

He had never thought much about children. But these days, in the company of Princess Kikomi, his mind was drifting to things other than war strategies and battle tactics.