The solange-eyed one sighed. “Are you ready for tonight?”
“You mean if you die and I inherit your inglorious crown?”
“Yes.”
The wind whistled. What was this? Why might he die?
“I’m ready.”
The solange-eyed one nodded. “Good. If anything goes wrong . . .”
“Yeah. Yeah. I’ll give you a funeral befitting of a king. I’ll bury you under the city with an entire lead army, a mercury river, and a mountain of gold. I’ll even make sure the jackaltooth don’t tunnel in and devour your corpse.”
The solange-eyed one crossed his arms.
“Fine. If you die, I’ll protect the body.”
“Mari.”
“Mari.”
Ah. So the solange-eyed one hadn’t told his brother who or what the girl was to him. He was holding the knowledge close, keeping it secret.
Hmm.
The battle-hardened brother shook his head. “Are you sure freeing her is worth four years of your life?”
The wind sniffed the solange-eyed one. Did he have four years to lose? How many grains were left in his hourglass? It couldn’t tell—they were running too quickly to know. The seconds of his life were rushing through the palm of the solange-eyed one’s hand, and if he closed it, they would all run free.
“She’s worth it.”
He didn’t say anything more, even though both the brother and the wind waited patiently.
Finally, the brother nodded. “I’ll keep watch. Make sure no one kills you while you’re not in your body.”
“Thank you.”
The brother looked at the solange-eyed one out of the corner of his eye and then reached over and gripped his arm. He held him for a long moment.
Then he smiled and asked, “You trust me not to kill you?”
The solange-eyed one finally gave his brother a full grin. “Without a doubt. You can’t be a Barca without a brother.”
They stared at each other, sharing a private joke the wind couldn’t decipher.
After a moment, the battle-hardened brother pulled away. “I’m going to grab something to eat. You want anything?”
“No. I’ll be down in a bit. Just give me ten minutes.”
The wind shifted the papers on the long table, waiting for the footsteps of the brother to fade. They echoed for a long time. There was so much stone in this place.
Finally, though, the solange-eyed one and the wind were alone.
The wind, impatient, whispered its question again.
The solange-eyed one finally answered.
He stared at the papers, their edges curling in the wind, and whispered, “I sacrificed an eye.”
