Page 307 of The Priory of the Orange Tree

It was at this point that the High Ruler of Lasia looked at her for the first time. Ead felt a tingle at her nape.

“Lady Nurtha,” Kagudo said.

“Queen Sabran was the one who proposed an assault on Cárscaro, but I suggested that she meet the Nameless One on the Abyss.”

“I see.”

“Of course,” Ead said, “you are blood and heir of the House of Onjenyu, whose land the Nameless One threatened before any other. If you wish to avenge his cruelty toward your people, leave one of your generals to oversee the siege of Cárscaro. Join us on the sea.”

“I would be grateful for your sword, Kagudo,” Sabran said. “If you chose my battle front.”

“Indeed.” Kagudo sipped her wine. “I imagine you would enjoy the company of a heretic very much.”

“We call you heretics no more. As I promised in my letter, those days are at an end.”

“I see it only took the House of Berethnet a thousand years and a crisis of this magnitude to follow its own teachings on courtesy.”

Sabran had the wisdom to let her consider. Kagudo looked for some time at Ead.

“No,” she finally said. “Let Raunus go with you. He is a seafarer, and my people take precedence over an ancient grudge. They will want to see their ruler on the battlefield closest to home. In any case, Cárscaro has threatened our domain for too long.”

From there, all talk was of strategy. Ead tried to listen, but her mind was elsewhere. The Council Chamber seemed to press in on her, and at last she said, “If Your Majesties will excuse me.”

They all stopped talking.

“Of course, Lady Nurtha,” Jantar said, with a brief smile.

Sabran watched her go. So did Kagudo.

Outside, night was on the turn. Ead used her key to enter the Privy Garden, where she sat on the stone bench and gripped its edge.

It must have been hours that she sat there, lost in thought. For the first time, she could feel the weight of her responsibility like a boulder on her back.

Everything now depended on her ability to use the jewels with Tané. Thousands of lives and the very survival of humankind hung on that requisite. There was no other plan. Only the hope that two fragments of a legend would be able to bind the Beast of the Mountain. Every moment he remained alive would be another moment of soldiers dying on the foothills of Cárscaro. Every moment would be another ship burned.

“Lady Nurtha.”

Ead looked up. The sky held its first light, and Kagudo Onjenyu stood before her.

“Your Majesty,” she said, and rose.

“Please,” Kagudo said. She wore a fur-lined cloak now, fastened with a brooch over one shoulder. “I know the sisters of the Priory know no sovereign but the Mother.”

Ead gave her obeisance nonetheless. It was true that the Priory answered to no ruler but its Prioress, but Kagudo was the blood of the Onjenyu, the dynasty of the Mother.

Kagudo regarded her with apparent interest. The High Ruler was beautiful in a way that stopped the heart for an instant. Her eyes were long and narrow, slicing upward at the corners, set deep above broad cheekbones. Now she was standing, Ead could see the rich orange barkcloth of her skirt. The cap of a royal warrior had been placed over her hair.

“You seemed to be deep in thought,” she said.

“I have a great deal to consider, Majesty.”

“As do we all.” Kagudo glanced back at the Alabastrine Tower. “Our council of war is over, for now. Perhaps you would care to walk with me. I find myself in need of air.”

“I should be honored.”

They took to the gravel path that snaked through the Privy Garden. Kagudo’s guards, who wore circlets of gold on their upper arms and carried deadly looking spears, walked a short way behind them.

“I know who you are, Eadaz uq-Nara.” Kagudo spoke in Selinyi. “Chassar uq-Ispad told me years ago about the young woman whose duty was to guard the Queen of Inys.”

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