“As a baby is being born, you will need a receiving blanket. I wanted to leave you one gift before I went.”
Yuma opened the box. Inside was a thick blanket, a pretty blue with white flowers embroidered on it. The Host stretched out his hand and stroked the embroidery.
“These flowers bloom on the grasslands,” he explained.
“I have been at many herdings but never seen these. What are they called?”
“They were very common when the first Host came to Danras, so we just called them grass flowers. Did you know that over hundreds of years, the world has become cooler and cooler? These grasslandswere once very warm. So, you don’t see these flowers here now. That is the way of life. If one thing is whole, another decays, and we forget even the memories of things that once were.”
He then gave her a blessing for a safe delivery and left. Alone, Yuma sat staring into the cradle, lost in thought. Why hadn’t Lysandros told her about this? If she had known before that this path would lead to the Host leaving, would she have been insistent on aligning with the Empire? What kind of place would Merseh be without the Grim Kingandthe Host…
“Foolish girl. Too late to have such thoughts now.”
The sudden voice made her head jerk up. She was no longer in her spacious quarters in the Feast Hall but in an even larger room where everything was made of obsidian. In the middle was a wide stairway of black rock, and the voice was coming from above it. There was a strange noise in the background, nothing she had ever heard before.
“Grim King.”
She had never laid eyes on him directly like this, but she knew it was him. A tall man sat on a throne made of human bones, wearing robes that looked woven from fire and shadow. He was gaunt. On his head was a crown woven of bones and gold.
“So, do you find the Empire more to your liking than me?”
“The Empire is our equal ally, not our conqueror. Nor are they tyrants who kill people on a whim.”
The Grim King scoffed.
“Is that so? Your ‘equal ally’ has taken your Host like a pig to a slaughterhouse.”
“The Host goes to their capital of his own volition.” She said this, even when she knew the truth.
“Well, well, well,” mocked the Grim King, “if the Empire only wants to hold hands, then it’s not a bad idea to live your life fat and happy in its grasp. But should they want more…”
Yuma could not stand where she was any longer. As she made her way up the obsidian steps toward the throne of bones, the Grim King stopped speaking. Each of her steps echoed in the room.
“How did you bring me here?” she asked.
“Rest assured this is not my true castle, and you are still in that shabby little hut sitting next to that shabby little cradle that isn’t fit for a horse’s trough.” He cackled. “The child inside of you has potential. Seeing as he doesn’t even have a true form yet but still can bring us together… Yes, this is your dream. And I have entered it through your son.”
This didn’t make much sense to her, but she had other objections to voice first. “I may have been your subject the last time we met, but we are now enemies. What do you propose to do this time? Since your eyes are all over the Rook Mountains, you should know the Imperial forces are coming from the southwest, yes?”
“Do you remember, when we met last summer, how I said I would flood the river to sink Danras into the steppe?”
This time, it was Yuma who scoffed.
“Why don’t you try? The Trina River is low because of the winter, and even that much is frozen. The Imperial forces will have your castle surrounded by the time it thaws. You can bring forth your armies that need no water or food, but how long can you withstand an enemy that has the support of Danras?”
“You are correct,” said the Grim King. “I won’t last the next autumn. I will be too busy fighting such a siege that Danras couldn’t be further from my mind. Your child will be in the lightof the world by then as well. Perhaps not by the starlight of Merseh, though.”
Inexplicably, a chill ran down Yuma’s back at these words.
“You still do not understand,” he continued, “what it means that we can talk as we do now. This would not be possible if yours were a common child. Do you know what the Empire does to uncommon children? And do you think such a child would escape the notice of someone who is an inquisitor of the Empire—his own child no less?”
34
EMERE
That night, Emere walked alone through the streets to Rakel’s house. Rakel had said it would be better if he stayed hidden underground while the Elders discussed the situation, but it did not sit well with him that Septima could wake up in a strange place with only Rakel’s assistant, whom she didn’t know. But what vexed him the most was what he was feeling after meeting Loran in the Ebrian hideout.
Loran had been even more majestic than he remembered. She now exuded confidence that befitted a true king who vanquished the mightiest of the Empire’s vaunted arsenal. It was exactly what he had foreseen in her, ever since he’d met her.
