He moved to a sideboard, removing alcohol from cabinets where it had been stored to protect it from rolling around during rough times at sea. As he poured us all drinks, I watched him and Spider.
“I thought you were enemies,” I said.
“I’ve spent the past twenty years chasing her, learning her every movement, learning to anticipate what she needs before she asks for it herself. It is hard to explain what turns a man’s heart.” Namati placed four glasses on the table, passing them out to Tallu and me before offering one to Spider. “All I know is that after so much time, I found that I knew her better than anyone else, and she knew my soul the same.”
“And you?” I asked Spider. “Have you also fallen for the man who chased you for twenty years?”
“I have seen the future,” Spider said. “And I know that my destiny is with him.”
“The imperial general and the Pirate King. It certainly would make a good opera,” I observed. “Lots of soaring arias and duets.”
“And moments of deep betrayal,” Tallu said, considering his glass.
Namati nodded, taking a long drink. “You believe I have betrayed you. I have. I have betrayed the task and the mission your father sent me to sea with.”
“No.” Tallu looked around. “How did you manage it? It would be one thing for you to run away with her, to abandon all of your sailors, but it seems that both sides have joined hands. How did you achieve it?”
“Are you asking so that you might look out for the signs?” Namati asked. “To cut off such affection before it takes root?”
“I’m asking because I have seen the future as well, and I know that the promise given to the first emperor is hollow.” Tallu considered his glass, still not taking a drink.
The words hung in the air, heavy with meaning. The heir of House Atobe was declaring the promise that had driven the imperial expansion false.
Tallu may as well have cracked his golden crown into pieces and thrown it into the ocean.
“Lots of men have died because of the promise,” Namati observed.
“And yet here you offer a better way.” Tallu raised his glass, taking a deliberate sip. “Will you tell me of it?”
“A better way,” Namati said thoughtfully. He looked at Spider. “I do not know if it is abetterway. But it is a way of compromise. My men and I have been here for twenty long years, some of them even longer. And over time, you grow to know the elven people. You grow to feel sorry for them. Out of pity, at first. Then, over time, your heart grows less callused, and you realize that you are the cause of their destruction. And then you are lost. Some of my men refused, but we could not let them return to the Imperium.”
“Peace is not merciful,” I said. “Are you willing to fight forit?”
Tallu looked at me sharply, his glass hitting the table. “Airón.”
I ignored him. There was one way to end the curse on Tallu and his brother, and we could not do it alone.
“You have come to ask for my help against Kacha and Bemishu.” Namati nodded. “My answer was spun in the threads of fate before you asked.”
I paused, wetting my lips. “You know who she is?Whatshe is?”
Spider clicked her tongue against her teeth but didn’t say anything more.
“As I said, I spent the past twenty years learning her. How could I not?” Namati stood. “I will help you retake your Imperium, Emperor Tallu, and in exchange I will be granted sole governorship of Tavornai.”
He bowed, respectful but not subservient. Tallu had gone pale, his expression fixed. “No. That isnotwhat I came to ask. I will not accept. If we are to have a united continent, it must not be with an imperial governor of Tavornai.”
“Tallu, do we have any other choice? You know we need him,” I said in Northern. In all likelihood, Spider spoke the language and, for all we knew, Namati did, too, after serving the Imperium for so long.
“So I should sell Tavornai and hope that that is close enough to the prophecy offered?” Tallu looked at me so fiercely that he may as well have been a hunting hawk. I gritted my jaw, knowing he was right. “If I am to unite the continent I will not do so by selling out those who my family has already wronged. Would you melt the walls of the Silver City just to save your own life?”
“No,” I agreed, even though I knew I might to savehislife. “But we need to defeat the generals. If you come to my mother or King Vostop of Krustau and say you want to be allies, they will think it is only because you cannot defeat the generals on your own. They won’t believe that it is anything more than desperation.”
“They will believe I am the snake who bites the milkmaid once she carried him across the river, because it is my nature,” Tallu agreed. “But if we defeat Bemishu and Kacha, and go to them in true power, then we can make peace.”
I clenched my fists. Who knew how long that would take? Would Tallu even survive to see it,couldhe survive to see it? What about Hallu? Could either of them endure to see the united continent that would save their lives?
“Tallu,” I heard, the word so broken that at first I thought I had spoken it.
