Remnants: Season of Fire (34 page)

I moved toward the bath and undressed, brushing away the hands of the maids, wanting to do this myself. Naked, I stepped down into the hot, steaming waters, relishing the wince of pain as if it might sear away everything wrong and against the Maker that had crept into my mind and heart. I didn’t stop, even as my body begged me to, as I entered the center of the pool where it was deepest and I could dip down and below, letting the water cover my head. I stayed under, massaging my scalp, my face, my ears, my neck, my shoulders, as if I could scrub it away. Sethos. The Six. Even Keallach, if necessary. He was distant. A pawn to Sethos, as I very nearly was myself. Was he within reach of redemption? Possibly. But he’d have to make his way himself. There was only so much I could do. And right now, all I knew was that I had to be free of this place. I had to escape. Before I became one of them.

I rose from the water, gasping for breath, and the maids wheeled back, laughing at my splashing as if I played.

“Well, someone’s eager to get through her bath and see the emperor,” said the matronly one. “She’s smitten, I’d say!”

I bit my tongue and forced myself not to grimace. “I’d like to wear leggings today,” I said.

“Leggings!” she responded. “Impossible! There’s not a lady in the land that —”

“I’d like to wear leggings and a tunic,” I insisted. I pretended a sly grin. “The emperor said last night that I was setting trends already. Perhaps leggings on ladies will be the next thing.” I leaned my head back agreeably as the younger one reached forward to lather my hair. She worked the lavender-scented suds through the strands, and then gestured for me to dip. When I rose, I looked at the matronly one again. “So? Is it possible?”

She looked every bit as chagrined and pained as she felt, as if I’d forced her into a terrible corner. But I didn’t relent.

“Well, you’re tall, but you’re thin. Perhaps I can find a pair that would fit.”

“That’d be grand. What’s your name?”

“Halla, m’lady.”

“That’s wonderful, Halla. I’ll be certain to tell the emperor what a fine aide you are to me.”

She smiled at that, and her spirits buoyed. The others sparked with agitation and jealousy, and the younger girl tried to do an extra good job as she spread an oil through my hair next, one that would keep it from tangling. After I took the sponge and bar of soap and saw to the rest of my bath myself, I rose, wrapped a long towel around me, and gave in to the two maids who would see to my hair while Halla set off to find my leggings and tunic.

“Oh, and please remember to bring me a tunic and boots too,” I called lightly as she left, adding the boots to my list as if I’d already asked for them.

She froze. “M’lady, that’s impossible.”

“Is it?” I asked, careful to look confused. “Weren’t you just thinking you knew of a way to obtain the leggings?”

She looked caught, horrified, and I smiled. “Don’t worry, Halla. Remember, I have the emperor’s favor, and you have mine!” I said brightly. “I only hope to entice the emperor into a bit of archery today.” I waggled my eyebrows. “Or better yet, a bit of sparring. I can hardly make it interesting for him in the confines of a Pacifican gown.”

“No, no, m’lady,” she said, sounding anything but convinced. But she left then, presumably to do as I asked.

The girls beside me remained silent. I knew they found me shameful, unworthy with my outlandish requests. But that was all right by me. When one reached to powder my face, I blocked her hand. “No. Nothing on my face at all.”

“Are you certain?” she asked, aghast.

“Beyond certain,” I said, staring at my reflection. And for the first time in a long while, it seemed, I smiled an earnest smile.

Once I pulled my tunic over the leggings and cinched tight the belt, I turned toward the mirror and smiled again. I felt free. More myself than I had in days. My fingers itched to hold a sword. I actually hoped that Keallach might favor a bit of sparring. It would feel good to loosen up those muscles, to remember the ways that I seemed to have buried. I even thought that I was strong enough to do actual battle, if it came to it.

“Please, will you send word to the emperor?” I said to Halla. “Tell him I’m inviting him to the south lawn for a bit of sport?”

She wrung her hands. “There’s difficulty in that, m’lady. When I stepped out for your tray a moment ago, I heard that
the emperor, well, he’s away on Pacifican business. He’s not due back for a few days.”

Her words stopped my flood of hope like a hard slap to my cheek. “What? He-he left?”

She patted my shoulder awkwardly. “Don’t fret, m’lady. He’ll be back in a few days. Men are like that, you know. Even men as refined as our emperor. Given to do as they please without ever informing the women.”

I nodded, accepting her misinterpreted response, but chafing inside. But then it came to me. Maybe this was my perfect opportunity to escape. There’d be time for Keallach to follow if he was truly led away from the dark. If he was meant to be with us and had the strength to face his own sins. I hoped he would. But now, clearly now, I had to leave this place. Regain my strength. Rejoin the Ailith and my fellow Remnants. And tell them what I knew. The awful, awful news about our sister and brother who would never join us. Niero would know what to do, where to go, how to proceed. Niero always knew.

Thoughts of each of them sent joy through my heart. I thought quickly. “It’s a shame Keallach is gone,” I said. “Perhaps the Six are still here? Or did they go with him?”

“Only Lord Sethos went with him,” she said uncertainly.

“Excellent,” I said, thinking about the Six, and their casual, assuming ways. Would it not be something if Lord Cyrus stood with me and we turned arrow and sword on the other five? Would it not remove a critical barrier between Keallach and the Remnants? It was they who held him captive here, as surely as Sethos did. I couldn’t take down Sethos without my fellow Ailith about me. But five of the Six? I smiled. They had thought they would capture me, control me. But they would find out what it meant to face a Remnant of the Maker, sent to destroy those like them and free the oppressed.

“Summon them to the south lawn. And bring refreshments.” The words were odd on my tongue, a mere mimicking of what I’d heard from the men around me. But I delivered them with such force and assumption that the women scurried off to do as I bid.

I shoved away my concerns of past battles, of how emotions crippled me. I was stronger now. I’d learned a lot, and the Maker had reminded me of what I needed to concentrate on. I closed my eyes and thought of my trainer, and of Asher, and of Niero holding my hands and willing me to remember what they said.

But I couldn’t take them all down. Even if Cyrus decided to stand with me. It was foolhardy. They wouldn’t expect such a move from me, but would it be wiser to steal my way through the palace, killing them, one by one?

When I thought of it that way, the first pang of regret swung through me, like the pendulum on a clock. I faltered. Did I have enough warrior in me to fight this fight? If it meant I got a step closer to freeing Keallach and rejoining the Ailith?

It was complicated. But I knew if I continued to go back and forth, I might very well lose the momentum I needed to fuel my courage.

Halla returned, far too quickly to have done what I asked. She was wringing her hands. Behind her, I saw two Pacifican guards in their gray uniforms and two Sheolites in red waiting in the hall.

“M’lady, the Six are already assembled in chambers,” Halla said, glancing back to the men. “They’ve requested you join them.” I saw, then, what alarmed her, as she looked me over from head to toe, knowing the Six might hold her responsible for my unorthodox dress.

My pulse quickened. “It’s all right. It will be all right.” Perhaps this was just the opportunity I needed to challenge them for some sport and take them by surprise.

Halla reached out and grabbed my arm. “You must change.”

“Nonsense,” I said, pulling away. I felt more myself in these clothes than I ever did in the Pacifican gown.

Halla gaped at me in horror, probably fearing for her position, but I ignored her. It was high time that these people learned that a woman couldn’t be tamed by simply putting her in a dress.

I strode toward the door and gestured out while looking at the Sheolites. “Well? Let’s get on with it.”

“We cannot take you into chambers, m’lady, without the proper clothing,” sneered one red-robed guard.

“Your emperor will allow me to wear anything I wish. Shall I summon him?” I said, pretending ignorance.

“He’s
away
.”

“There’s a reason I’m dressed this way, and it has to do with the Six. Take me to them, and I’ll explain it to them myself.”

The leader shrugged and gestured for us to go. Two Pacifican guards led the way, with the two Sheolites behind me.

“What did the Six say they wanted of me?”

“They didn’t, m’lady,” said one Pacifican congenially over his shoulder. He dared to give me an encouraging look. “I’m sure it’s a small matter.”

He believed his own words, I was certain of it. He was apparently as taken in by the emperor’s “consort” as everyone else in the ballroom had been three nights ago; I could feel it. If I was good enough to win Keallach’s heart, then I was good enough for these people. It gave me chills, their blind
devotion, their mindless support. Was it Sethos’s work, behind the curtains, that allowed this show to go on? As Pacifica grew, if they were able to usurp the Trading Union, that band of power would be more challenging to maintain. Undoubtedly, that is what lead them to summon me.

The men led me downstairs to the first floor, then down a northern hallway of the palace that I’d never been in. These appeared to be Keallach’s public rooms and offices. At the very end of the hall we entered a large, wood paneled room, with an elaborate oil painting on the ceiling. It depicted the sky with a noble female figure dressed in white and carrying a scale in one hand and a sword in the other.
Lady Justice
, I thought she was called.

But my eyes went immediately to the Six sitting in the wooden chairs — elaborate thrones, really — that were part of the paneling on the long wall. The men, all large, looked somewhat dwarfed in them. I was led across the marble flooring to a single chair sitting dead-center in the room, a good distance from the Six. “Sit,” said Jala, and I obediently did as I was told.

The two Sheolites remained on either side of me. The Pacificans went and stood to either side of the Six, their hands on the hilts of their swords. It didn’t take empathic skills to find out I was in some sort of trouble.

“Three nights ago at the ball, m’lady,” said Maximillian, hands on the arms of his carved chair, head straight, “you came precariously close to humiliating the emperor. We must demand your complete obedience from here on out, whether in public or private.”

“On the contrary, Lord Jala,” I returned. “I was manipulated and forced to do something I did not wish to do. I cannot
allow Keallach to use his gift to compel me into a compromising position.
That
is not acceptable.”

Maximillian scoffed at this and looked at Fenris, to his right. “Do you know how many young women would give their right eyetooth to kiss the emperor?”

“Well, I am not one of them,” I said.

“That is not what I observed.”

“I was compelled, and
confused
. Rest assured. I am no longer confused,” I said, pausing to let each word roll off my tongue.

“It is unfortunate you see it that way,” he said, rising, and stepping down to the marble floor. He came closer. “The time for wooing is over, Andriana. You must accept your fate and fully join our cause.”

“I cannot do that.”

“I believe you can.”

It was my turn to laugh without humor. “I was born to fight against you and yours,” I said. “You are somehow working with Sethos to use Keallach. That’s become clear to me now. And together, you are the scourge upon our land. You choke the Union’s people, use them, seek to control them. When they are destined for freedom, destined to come together to worship the Maker —”

I saw his hand coming and reached out to block it, but I was too late to stop the other. The force of his slap was so strong, I leaned hard against the left arm of my chair. Slowly, I straightened, turning back to him, hatred seething within me. I tried to lunge for him, but the Sheolites on either side of me shoved me back in the chair, hard enough to send pain from my hips upward.

“You,” Maximillian said, “shall learn to keep your tongue.
To never speak that name in this palace or anywhere in the empire again. You shall turn your back on your primitive ways and learn what it takes to be a Union queen, worthy of our emperor. Only then shall you become empress.”

“I don’t wish to become your empress.” I hissed.

Maximillian paused and dropped his hands. “Do not try us, Andriana. We brought you here today to make it clear that you will serve as the symbol of a vanquished and submissive Union. You continue to believe you have far more power than you actually do. Here, cut off from your precious Ailith, you belong to us.” He leaned forward to emphasize his last words.