Page 64 of The Second Marriage
The room looked just as he had left it three eons ago. He sat on the divan with a heavy exhalation. Taral sat down beside him, and Sejun put his head on Taral’s shoulder and closed his eyes, falling into the comfort of Taral’s scent. The bond radiated with Taral’s mingled concern and affection. Sejun had missed him terribly.
Taral put his arm around Sejun and held him. After a while, he said, “Would you like a bath?”
“Yes. I’m caked in my own filth after being held in captivity for a year.”
Taral laughed. “It was two days, and I’m glad to see your sense of humor wasn’t at all diminished.” Then he sobered. “I hope they didn’t harm you.”
“I can’t say I enjoyed myself, but no, I wasn’t harmed aside from being bored half to death and sleeping on the floor.” Sejun sat up and rubbed at his eyes. “Will you tell me what’s happened?”
“Yes. Let me find a servant first, and then I’ll tell you everything I know.”
Sejun undressed as servants came in with hot water for his bath. From the position of the sun, it was late afternoon. He had lost all track of time in the cantonment and was shocked that only two days had passed, but Taral had no reason to mislead him about that. Sejun truly wasn’t any worse off than he had been before his arrest; he had been fed and watered as one would care for a horse, and had slept a great deal more than he usually did. Still, he had found the whole ordeal more distressing than he would admit to Taral, and every time the door opened he expected it to be a guard returning to tell him there had been some mistake and he would have to go back to his cell.
He set his robes aside to be washed. Taral spoke with someone at the door, then came inside with a tray of tea and closed the door behind him. His bland talking-to-strangers face softened as he looked at Sejun standing nude beside the washstand. “Tea first, or bath?”
“Tea in the bath,” Sejun proposed, and Taral smiled.
Taral washed Sejun’s back for him so Sejun could sit in the tub and drink his tea. A dove landed on the windowsill and walked along it, cooing, before flapping away again. Gradually, the heat of the water and the gentle strokes of Taral’s hands began to soothe his frayed nerves.
“I don’t know everything yet,” Taral said after a while. “I imagine it will take a while to unravel the plot. Your friend Nirav is a traitor, it seems.”
“And Tarush?”
“He was the other courtier at the bookshop with you?”
“Yes. He scolded me quite thoroughly about how the Mountain Kingdoms are meddling where we aren’t wanted. It seemed absurdly villainous to me at the time, and now I wonder if he did it to distract me so that I wouldn’t ask Nirav any questions about his letter.”
Taral wrung out the cloth and moved around the side of the tub to wipe at Sejun’s face. “Nirav did use him in that way, but it seems he didn’t know he was being used. He’s not a separatist, only an isolationist with no manners. But Nirav hoped he would accost you in that way and primed the pump before you joined them by talking at length about how helpful and wise the mountain people are.”
Sejun closed his eyes as Taral passed the full warm rag over his face. “Clever. The fewer people who knew of the plan, the fewer people who could betray it. The shopkeeper is a separatist?”
“A double agent. They’ve been letting the separatists use the bookshop as a meeting place and informing on them to the palace. They saw Nirav give you the letter and alerted a guard to follow you.”
“I had no idea I was being followed.” Sejun set his empty teacup aside and took the cloth from Taral to wash under his arms. “The sorcerer who questioned me told me that Lavi and Simra aren’t under suspicion.”
“No.” Taral’s relief swelled through the bond. “They did nothing. A blessing from the One God. Who else would receive my letters about fossils with enthusiasm?”
“I love to hear about your fossils,” Sejun said loyally, and Taral rewarded him with a kiss on his bare shoulder. “Who was the letter meant for, then?”
“That I don’t know. One of their customers. Someone of importance, is the impression I gathered from King Aditya. But I don’t think that person is in custody yet, so he didn’t want to tell me who it is.”
“The crown prince,” Sejun said, remembering the gossip he’d heard.
But Taral shook his head. “It seems he’s been going into the city to make offerings at the temple. I don’t believe he’s under suspicion at all.”
Sejun thought about all of this as he finished washing himself. He doubted that the matter would be resolved before the mountain people left Chedi, and he wondered if they would ever learn the full scope of the conspiracy or what Aditya did about the separatists. What would happen to Nirav? What would happen to Harini, who was meant to marry him this winter? Smiling, welcoming Nirav—but every smile had been meant to wield Sejun for his purposes.
“Feba will wish you had left me in Tadasho,” he said. “What a mess I’ve made for everyone.”
Taral kissed his shoulder again. “The king has been trying to uncover these separatists for some months now. And you managed it single-handedly by being open and trusting. Nirav thought he could use you, and in doing so betrayed himself and all his compatriots. That wouldn’t have happened if he thought you were the cunning type.”
“My stupidity saves the day,” Sejun said wryly.
“You are not stupid,” Taral said with more ferocity than Sejun thought his comment deserved. “You think the best of people and expect others to do the right thing. I would be pleased to live in a world where that’s true.” He sighed. “And who’s to say the separatists are doing the wrong thing? Aditya rules now, but that doesn’t mean he ought to.”
“But that would mean war,” Sejun said. “Wouldn’t it?” He eyed Taral. “Do you think he shouldn’t rule?”
“He seems a decent enough ruler from my limited perspective on the situation. But so does Mentun, for that matter. I’m only speaking idle thoughts aloud.” Taral rose to his feet and ran a hand over Sejun’s head. “Wash your hair. I’ll see about having some food brought.”