The emperor lifts his hand and Yun flinches. ‘Do you wish to join him?’
‘It’s all my fault,’ I cry.
‘Do not look away, little sister.’ Yun, who I’ve never seen shed a tear, has wet eyes. ‘You must watch.’
A crowd of senior monks shoves through the gardens before a horde of palace guards thwarts them.
‘This is injustice!’ one of the monks yells, but he too is silenced.
Amidst the chaos, at the emperor’s orders, Eliyas is dragged to the front of the courtyard.
The horror of what I’ve caused sets in.
Uma reaches my side. The air lingers with a haze of smoke, half of the guards at the outer walls subduing the breach, with another sizeable number fending off the angered monks and priests. Something slithers in the air... as if the wind itself is holding its breath.
Despite the yells and clanks of fighting, at the emperor’s order, the notables of the eight great clans are forced to bow cross-legged in the courtyard, ivory blades pressed to their foreheads. A guard pushes me to sit between Azra and Yun.
Seeing Eliyas kicked down like a beaten dog, my vision blurs. I cannot sense anything, as if my soul is watching from afar. I see myself stand. I must go to him.Older Brother, my lips shape, but Yun hooks a finger into my collar.
‘If the emperor sees even a tear on your face, you will be next,’ he warns before tucking an arm around my waist. ‘Take my hand; squeeze it,’ he orders. ‘The urge to cry will disappear.’
The sky lightens above us. It’s a bloodied dawn, the stained-glass domes of the palaces reflecting the violent sky. The grounds shudder below the angered gusts of a grieving wind.
‘She lied!’ Dunya’s shrill cry breaks through the clans. ‘She is deceiving us!’
Quickly, a guard grasps a great axe, while holding the familiar cage of courtly cranes. They are executed first, a symbol of Eliyas’s status as Chief Dream-Interpreter. Their bloodied heads fall in a sombre manner, the white stumps of their long necks twitching in a final cry, but at least in death, they’ve been freed from their cage. At them, Eliyas labours forward, struggling against the guards. His lips move in a prayer, more concerned with the dead birds than his own well-being.
He’s struck in the face by a guard as if he was never the son of theemperor. I force back a cry. Eliyas is splayed down and laid out like a lamb to be butchered. He cranes his neck and our eyes lock. Even caked in blood, Older Brother looks calm – serene.
Life has been unkind to me, but with him, there were the sweeter moments. Past the betrayals, the warlords, the clans... heismy brother. I wish to see him smile again; to carry me on his back; to feed me halva; to hold my hand and guide it through martial stances; to tighten my shawl and tuck it beneath my chin.
As the tide of sorrow washes upon me, I remember that I am responsible for this, and it ceases. I keep my eyes steady upon him; I do not falter.
From Eliyas’s feet, a familiar black shadow rises that no one can perceive but I. Wispy tendrils grow into knobbed, crooked limbs, and white eyes. A gap carved into its face reveals pointy teeth. The shadow droops, sniffing Eliyas in fascination. My being trembles. The shadow pauses, glancing at me in question.
More smoke cloaks us like a dark burial shroud. In the row to one side, Uma’s expression urges:you can stop this. My fingers clench and I imagine nur shielding Eliyas. It would only take a moment.
Eliyas mouths something, and I know it is the prayer that all the faithful do before their end: the Oneness of the Divine. Still looking at me, a bittersweet smile graces him. As if he’s always known who I would choose. My hand clamps to my lips.
Behind him, and eager, the shadow’s arm dives into Eliyas’s chest, tugging out a sinewy red organ. Its teeth tear into the pulsing heart. I watch on, numb.
I must save Older Brother. My fingers point up, flickering with a Heavenly bond.
I halt. The emperor is watching me.
I have power. Why must I sit here quiet? Why am I not using it?
The emperor blinks slowly.
I curl into myself. I do not move again.
Because a different power ensnares you, more poignant and dangerous than any blessing from the Heavens: the deception of bonds. You are chained to it, my mind taunts me, as all I do is watch.
The emperor does not give me time to come to a decision. The executioner’s axe crashes down and blood splatters the entire first row of our clan. A streak tracks down my cheek like a red tear.
Eliyas’s head rolls off into the grass.
Then the screaming begins.
