She rolled her eyes. “You princes and your manners,” she mocked. But then she grew quiet, and even looked troubled. She glanced at Tomaz, and the Prince looked to the big man as well.
“Tomaz… thank you for what you did. What you were willing to do. Sacrificing your life the way you did to save the Kindred… to save me.”
Tomaz nodded, face drawn and still tight with emotion. The Prince cleared his throat, which had a sudden lump in it.
“Thank you,” Tomaz said, “for bringing me back.”
There was a long pause, in which Leah and Tomaz looked at each other once more. The Prince, finally realizing that there was something that had been left unsaid, asked, “What is it?”
They both looked at him, and then Leah cleared her throat.
“When you brought Tomaz back… you gave him something.”
The Prince looked from the girl to the man, confused about what she was saying, trying to see if this was a joke.
“I… uh… I don’t understand,” he said.
Leah opened her mouth again to speak, but then closed it and turned to Tomaz. He quirked an eyebrow at her, and she shrugged in response.
“I think I’ll just show him,” Tomaz rumbled. He began to undo the lacings on his simple cotton shirt.
“What are you doing, Tomaz?” the Prince asked, very confused.
“Just… just wait,” Leah said, looking at him anxiously, and the Prince realized that they were both frightened of how he would react to what they were about to show him. His mind began to race through all the possibilities as Tomaz undid the final lacings on his high-necked cotton tunic. Had the Prince somehow left him so badly scarred it would affect his life? Was there a gaping hole in his side, a permanent wound that would not close? What could frighten them this badly?
The giant pulled the shirt over his head, and the Prince’s mouth dropped open.
Tomaz’s chest was covered with dimly glowing red lines that seemed to pulse and twist as he moved. They outlined the muscles of his chest, his shoulders, his arms, his stomach. They moved up the sides of his neck and stopped just short of his chin, and now the Prince understood the purpose of the shirt’s high-necked collar. Tomaz turned slowly, and the Prince saw that the markings, like carefully banked coals ready to burst into flame, continued on his back as well, lining every muscle, weaving in and out the Blade Master mark.
“How is that possible?” the Prince asked. “I killed him. It should have gone back to the Empress.”
“We think you absorbed it along with his life,” Leah said, speaking slowly and watching him closely. “And when you brought back Tomaz, you passed it to him along with his memories.”
Tomaz turned back to face the Prince, who found himself speechless.
The Ox Talisman, for its part, continued to pulse with a fiery red light, beating in time with the giant’s heart.
Epilogue: Prophecies Fulfilled
The carrier pigeon landed on the man’s knee. He reached down and pulled the message from the small leather pouch tied to its foot. The bird flew off again, back to the south where it had come from.
“What news?” a voice asked from behind the man.
He untied the small roll of parchment and read. He did so slowly, not wanting to miss any of the details. “Reports confirm what we all felt. The boy has defeated Ramael.”
The second man let out a low, rich chuckle. “Good,” he said languorously, tasting the word. “What is next?”
“We wait,” the first man said. “He will come to us.”
“What was the prophecy from the Visigony?”
“It is only part of the larger cycle,” the first man reminded him.
“Yes,” the second man purred, “but this one mentionsme.”
The first man recited it for him in the sing-song voice of a bird:
The Raven shall kill the Ox
