“What does that mean?” I asked, confused. “Are you saying, three emperors before Tallu was cursed, Wollu was told of how to break it?”
“I am saying that the moment he smashed the One Dragon’s eggs, the moment he killed the One Dragon, there was only one possible way this could end. Unite the continent, Emperor Tallu, last of the Dragon Chosen, and befree.” Spider looked at him, her fingers twitching in time with her breath.
“You want me to conquer the continent,” Tallu growled. “You want me to be worse than Wollu, because I am not hounded by my greed, instead by cowardice and desperation? I will not shed more blood to prolong my own life. I will not sacrifice anyone for me or my brother.”
“Is that the only way?” Spider asked. “It is clear whose son and grandson and great-grandson you are if that is how your thoughts run.”
“I freely admit it. I am my father’s son. I bear the blood of elvesand blood mages on my hands. I am the grandson of Emperor Rellu and I looked the other way, the same as he did, when faced with my father’s depravity.” Tallu looked down, opening his hands wide. “I am the great-grandson of Emperor Wollu, who killed the One Dragon and put a crown on his head that he did not deserve. I know that my family has the blood of the One Dragon on it. I admit it. IamHouse Atobe. So do not tell me to take up that mantle when I already wear it.”
Spider bore her teeth, the spaces between them stained dark. She shook her head. Turning, she strode through the fog, parting it before her like the curtains on a play. The fog began to close around us, and I knew if we stayed, we would be stuck.
Grabbing hold of Tallu’s hand, I pulled him through.
“The grief of a boy who became emperor. But you were not borne of Millu’s loins alone. If she had been given that prophecy what would your mother, Empress Tasaro, have done?” Spider’s braid swung like a pendulum.
“I refuse to believe my mother would have done something so monstrous to save her own life.” Tallu’s words were hopeless. He had spent his whole life deconstructing his family’s evil and now he was told that the only way he could live was to fulfill the destiny of the house he hated. He slowed, a slight frown on his face. “My mother wouldn’t have heard the words ‘unite’ and assumed it meant conquer.”
“No,” Spider agreed.
“My mother knew there were more ways to unite a people than to subjugate them. She would have... she would have created a peace, a united continent of alliances and trust.” Tallu turned to me, his expression open as though he had finally freed himself of a prison when I was only beginning to feel the key in the dark.
I saw something red in the distance, and Spider fixed on it, walking with purpose.
“Wait,” I said. “Wait. You mean that four generations of emperors have killed their way across the continent when their fatewas to create peace? It will be impossible now! Two of the nations no longer exist. And why would the Dragon Seers give Wollu the answer to a question he hadn’t asked yet?”
“Perhaps the One Dragon cursed them with the sight of all of time. Or, perhaps, the One Dragon told them. Or, perhaps, they did it because only that second prophecy saved them from the same fate as the One Dragon.” Spider shook her head, she held up one hand, and a thousand golden threads dripped from her fingers. When I looked at them, they looked like the shape of a flower, but when she twisted her hand at an angle, they shifted into the shape of a serpent. “It is all in the perspective. The threads of fate show themselves in the weaving.”
“It is said that Wollu drank from the waters and saw the truth of what they said.” Tallu frowned, touching his chin, even as he considered something, his eyes unfocused as he stared at the fog. “Wouldn’t he have known that he cursed his own line by doing what he did?”
“Your father also knew what he did to his own son and still killed the blood monks,” Spider said. “Do you understand now?”
“Yes,” Tallu said, relief making him sag. “I can be free.”
Spider hummed and continued heading toward the red shape in the fog.
It slowly formed itself into Empress Koque, her face stained with tears as she stared out at nothing. All at once, she gasped, wiping her face clean.
She frowned, looking around, as though seeing for the first time the fog that enveloped us. “Tallu?”
Tallu’s eyes drifted shut, his shoulders hunching forward. I knew it was relief, such a great tension that had been lifted from him. But Koque read something else in the arc of his spine, the way his whole face tensed, wrinkles forming on his forehead when he finally opened his eyes to look at her with an exhaustion beyond his years.
Koque took in his expression quickly, then stepped forward,making sure Spider’s attention was fixed on her. She kept Tallu behind her as though she needed to protect him still.
“I heard the Pirate King visited us. I was sorry to have missed becoming acquainted with you.” She bowed her head, respectful, but not a sign of Spider’s superiority. Then she blinked, her eyes narrowing as she tracked the four pairs of arms sprouting from Spider’s back. “Only the Pirate King is not your only title?”
“No.” Spider shook her head. She leaned forward, whispering into Koque’s ear. When she stepped back, she searched Koque’s face, her eyes crinkling sympathetically. “Your son needs you.”
Koque gasped, and stumbled forward, wrapping Tallu in a tight hug. She shushed him, murmuring against his temple.
“What did you tell her?” I asked Spider.
“Tallu is not the only one who has a fate. He is not the only one who deserves to know his.” Spider blinked at me, and the arms that had been framing her like wings slowly melted into each other until she was left with two mortal arms. “Do you want to know yours?”
A pit of terror opened up in my stomach, and I knew that I had no desire to know my own fate. What if we failed to create the right sort of peace, the right sort of alliances? Would my fate be to watch as Tallu slowly died? What if my fate was to be his widower?
Or what if my fate was to betray my family in order to create ‘peace’?
The mists drifted apart, exposing where we stood. We were at the very edge of Tavornai, close to where we had come ashore. An armada was spread before us, a hundred ships, clearly elven and imperial.
