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“I turned myself, actually,” Tarelay said morosely. “I could not break the Obeisance, and I was going to tell him against my will. I became a bird so that I could only speak in song. I will admit it was foolish. He found someone who could speak rock-thrush and stole the secret from me. And then he stopped me from turning back, to punish me.”

“What was he like?” Kalcedon wanted to know. “Was he truly terrible?”

“I think these are done,” Oraik interrupted. “They might be overdone. I hope nobody minds burned food.” He slipped the fish off their wood skewers onto broad leaves Tarelay had gathered.

“Demanding. On himself, and others,” Tarelay answered. “A fair ruler, but not a beloved one.”

“Fair?” I straightened up off of my elbows. “He stole Kalcedon’s mind, and his mother’s! He trapped you—”

“Your rules are not ours,” Tarelay said. He looked at me, half his face lit flickering red by the fire’s glow, sharp ears and high cheeks, eyes like black pools. “Doubtlessly, a mouse finds a cat monstrous. Is a trapper a living nightmare, to a rabbit?”

“But we’re people.”

“You are human,” he corrected. “You live your whole life in the time it takes one of us to mature. Most of your kind is blind to magic, with dull senses and duller brains.”

“You are heartless,” I said.

“No,” he answered sharply. “We are not heartless. We are different. I do not condone how my kind, most of them, treat humans. I do not think it is ever appropriate to take another’s will. There are those who agree with me. Most do not.” He turned to Kalcedon. “You will need to be prepared. The Obeisance can be outwitted or tricked. Even a Sorrowsworn may avoid being commanded, if you have left holes in your commands. Do you understand? This is how some of them will see you—like a fish on a fire. They will seek to use you, devour you, or destroy you entirely. You must be on your guard.”

“Nothing new about that,” Kalcedon said sourly.

“Then he can’t stay here.” My palms felt slick. “If it’s that dangerous…”

“Whether he knew or not, he was born to rule,” Tarelay answered without emotion. “You may as well tell a bird to avoid the sky.”

“Isn't anyone hungry?” Oraik asked hopefully.

“I am,” I told him, and stretched out a hand. Oraik quickly handed me one of the fish.

Tarelay kept speaking.

“Think over what kind of ruler you want to be, Lord Kalcedon, if only so somebody else does not make the choice for you. Should you wish it, we have a chance to move these lands forward to a new age.”

I felt the deep breath Kalcedon took, and watched as his eyes fell shut in deep thought.

Chapter 57

The rambling house sat in southern Nis-Illous, just past the outskirts of Zebitun village. Its walls were more colorful than the typical limestone, decorated as they had been over the years with ceramic mosaics. Scattered pots dotted the messy garden. Some held plants while others were empty, or stacked, or half-broken but not discarded.

I sat in front of the house, on the slope down to the water. A gangly russet hound loped over to me, received a scratch behind his ears, and trotted back to the house with his nose on the ground. I sighed contentedly as I scanned the horizon. Then I smiled.

“Meda,” my brother Dareios called from the yard. “Any sign?”

“His ship’s in view,” I called back over my shoulder. “An hour, maybe two.”

“I’ll tell momma.”

Even after half a week at home, being inside the Protectorate made me feel strangled with cold. The Ward was down, but there was no heat source nearby. The fae seeds Kalcedon had given me to plant on Nis-Illous would take weeks to germinate.

Two hours later I stood and stretched, watching as a narrow Cachian ship came up to my family’s squat dock.

“Oraik’s here,” I announced quietly. “Stop avoiding your duties, Lord.”

“Tell the overgrown idiot I say hello,” Kalcedon’s spelled voice muttered in my ear. “Horns. Put that down, will you?” his voice pitched, directed towards somebody else. “…Nobody around here will follow instructions the way I mean them. This would be much easier if you were here,” he told me.

“Something to look forward to,” I said. Kalcedon chuckled. Then the space beside my ear fell silent.

A distant figure tied the boat beside our fish-craft. Then Oraik disembarked and looked up at me with his hands shielding his eyes. I waved. He waved back and grinned.