Page 58 of The Second Marriage
Feba’s mouth tightened. “That seems likely. Unfortunate. Well, the truth will come out in due time. I think it’s best for you to continue attending the negotiations while everything is resolved.”
“And Sejun?”
“There’s nothing to be done there. Even if the Chedai don’t believe he’s guilty, he’s a vital source of information, and they won’t release him until he’s been questioned. I don’t know when that will be. It seems they’ve taken a number of people into custody, so I imagine they’ll be busy for some time.”
“But he’s innocent! He was taken advantage of—he’s notconspiring—”
“Taral, you know better. Of course we know he’s innocent, but the Chedai don’t, and Aditya wants him under supervision until the full plot is uncovered. He’ll be comfortable enough in the cantonment. They won’t risk offending us by abusing him.”
Taral dug his fingernails into the palms of his hands until his scalding frustration subsided. Feba had to think first and foremost of the success of the peace talks. His priorities weren’t hers. She cared about Sejun’s life and eventual freedom, but his immediate distress didn’t factor into her calculations. She wouldn’t spend her political capital arranging for his release.
“I’m sure this isn’t the outcome you were hoping for,” Feba went on. Her gaze held sympathy that Taral didn’t want. “But Sejun will be fine. The best thing for us to do is carry on with the negotiations and let the inquest play out.”
Taral swallowed down a bitter response. He understood Feba’s position. He simply didn’t like it.
“I’ll defer to your judgment,” he said, as he had no other choice.
Feba left. Taral finished eating without tasting any of his food. He would be useless today, too distracted by worry to pay attention to anything that transpired in the meeting room.
What would happen to Simra, and to Lavi? What would happen to any of them? He regretted leaving Tadasho. He and Sejun could be safe at home in the fortress, and they would be together. Taral had brought Sejun to Chedi and led him into danger. It was his duty now to secure Sejun’s release and take him home.
But he didn’t know how he could manage that. He didn’t speak the language and had made no meaningful connections in the Chedai court. He wished Iniya had come as she would be able to charm the king into releasing Sejun at once. Taral had no charm and no other resources to rely on. Without Feba’s help, he was out of options.
No. That wasn’t entirely true. He did have one option left.
CHAPTER27
They put him in an empty room without windows. A single lantern swung from a hook mounted in the ceiling, casting his shadow against the wall. He stood at first, then sat leaning with his back to the wall, then stood again when a guard came into the room with a bundle of fabric slung over one shoulder. The man dropped the bundle onto the floor and nudged it with his foot to lay it out flat: a mat and blanket for sleeping, and none too comfortable from the looks of it.
“I’m spending the night here?” Sejun asked, dismayed. He had hoped he would be questioned a little about whatever it was and then sent on his way.
The guard shrugged. “Seems like it.” He produced a waterskin from over his other shoulder and dropped that on top of the blanket. “Superintendent said you’ll be questioned in the morning.”
Sejun swallowed around the knot in his throat. “I don’t even know why I’m here.”
The guard’s expression was one of blunt indifference. “Guess you’ll find out in the morning.”
“Thank you,” Sejun said after a moment, when it was clear he would receive no other response. The man grunted and went out.
Even with the mat, the floor was hard and cold beneath him. He didn’t feel ready for sleep, but there was nothing else to do. He reached through the bond for Taral, who was somewhere in the palace above him and quite worried. Had he learned where Sejun was, or did he only know that Sejun was missing? He would swoop in, surely, soon enough, and make everyone see that there had been some awful mistake, and that Sejun was innocent.
He passed a fitful night on his mat, never sure if he was asleep or only drifting. At last he heard voices in the hallway and knew then that he had been asleep because he was dreaming of bathing in the river at Merek, so far away now. He sat up and wiped his mouth just as the door opened and a guard came into the room, a different one from the evening before.
This guard didn’t speak to him. He put down a tray of food and a chamber pot and left again. Sejun relieved himself and ate the simple meal of flatbread. His body ached from lying on the floor all night. Taral was awake and worried again, or still. Sejun wished he could give Taral some reassurance—that he was unharmed, at least, and at least thus far.
He waited. After some length of time—hours?—the door opened again. Sejun scrambled to his feet. Someone came into the room, not a guard but a man wearing the elegant clothing of a courtier, tall and thin with an unruly thatch of black hair. He looked at Sejun for a few moments as Sejun did his best not to fidget. Then the man said, “You’re no conspirator.”
He spoke the words with certainty, as if he knew Sejun well instead of having laid eyes on him for the first time half a minute ago. Sejun was afraid to incriminate himself somehow with his reply and so said nothing.
“Foolishness,” the man said in an undertone. “Well, explain yourself to me, then. You delivered quite the missive.”
“I did? You mean yesterday?” Sejun swallowed. “You mean the letter from—” He broke off, his brain managing to catch up with his mouth before he finished his sentence.
“The letter from your courtier friend. Yes.” The man weighted the wordfriendwith heavy irony. “Which you so obligingly delivered to the curiosities seller Simra. And so innocently, it seems, that you weren’t even sure what I was referring to.”
“Who are you,” Sejun said, not sure he wanted to hear the answer.
The man’s mouth twitched to one side. “You may call me Poplar. I serve the king.”