Bones of the Empire (93 page)

Estin clenched his jaw and tried not to look at the kits. No matter what he did, their faces were burned into his sight. He could not make himself push the sword into Phaesys’s chest.

Through it all, Phaesys kept his eyes closed and arms spread, accepting what might come.

“Dammit!” Estin shouted, throwing the sword away. The kits flinched, remaining tightly clamped onto their father’s legs “Who are you?”

The female relaxed slowly, putting a hand on Phaesys’s shoulder. At her touch, he dropped to his knees again, this time with the two kits standing over him, still watching Estin nervously. The kits appeared to be trying to look like they would fight Estin off if he attacked their father again, though the attempt came out as pitiable, rather than frightening.

“I am the master of the council,” the female replied, walking up to Estin and forcing him back a step. When he did not back up a second time, she pushed him. “I am one who was left behind. I am the one who decides your fate in these lands. Given that you are so blinded by your own anger that you do not see what is right in front of you, Feanne, please do introductions…”

Behind him, Estin realized he heard muffled crying. In fear that Feanne had been hurt, he spun and found her hugging three of the wildlings who had escorted Alafa into the tent. Almost immediately, he realized who he was looking at, while Marr stood apart from the others, looking uncomfortable.

“Alyana,” Estin whispered. The young female fox looked over her mother’s shoulder at him. She was older—an adult, like the others, but the mischievous gleam in her eyes matched her mother’s. The multiple faint white stripes on her tail left no doubt that she was his child.

“Theldis,” he said, looking to the tall thin male whose orange-tinted eyes were a defining trait. Unlike his siblings, Theldis’s tail was long—not so long as Estin’s, but unusually so for a fox. He smiled crookedly while trying to pull himself out of his mother’s grip.

Turning his attention to the last of the three, the third smiled sadly as he nervously avoided Estin’s gaze. “Rinam.”

Estin’s attention shifted to Marr, who was trying to disappear into the shadows of the tent. When he looked at her, she very nearly dove behind one of the elven soldiers. “You’re not ours, but that ring…”

“She’s with me,” Rinam piped up, getting a surprised look from Feanne. “I…I really wanted to introduce her under better circumstances. She liked grandmother’s ring…”

Marr nodded nervously, her large ears drooping. To Estin and apparently Marr’s surprise, Feanne slipped herself free of the other three, grabbed Marr, and pulled her into a hug of her own. Marr looked ready to run at first, but she finally relaxed into Feanne’s arms.

Turning in place, Estin stared at the veiled female. Her eyes spoke of a grin, though he could not see it. He looked down at her hand, where the silver ring shined. She made no attempt to hide it. Now that he knew what he was looking for, he could make out Asrahn and Lihuan’s marks in the precious metal.

“Oria,” he whispered, grabbing her in a tight hug. She began crying almost immediately, tearing off her veil and burying her face against his shoulder. “How long have we been gone? How did you survive? How…any of this?”

Oria laughed between sobs, wiping at her face and leaving a smear of the black dye across her cheek. The simple motion rubbed off much of the powder in her fur, exposing the bright red beneath. “Sirella helped me a lot. She made up some story about me being the child of a councilmember. I didn’t have any say until the magic failed…which cost the enchanters, healers, and elementalists their places on the council, bringing me into the ruling three. By the time anyone knew better, I was in charge of almost every aspect of rebuilding Corraith. It’s been a rough few years. About five, to be exact. Thank you for sending the letters to let me know you survived Corraith at the very least. They arrived seven months ago with a group of gypsies, though they charged me a fortune to deliver them.”

Estin groaned at the idea of it having been so long when only a few of those years had passed for him. As he clung to Oria, his attention went to Phaesys, still kneeling with the two kits at his sides, both of whom were watching Estin with a mix of curiosity and horror. As soon as Estin looked at Phaesys, he dropped his eyes back to the ground.

“Please tell me that you didn’t—”

Oria punched him in the stomach to stop him from finishing the thought. “Phaesys has redeemed himself,” Oria told him, shoving him away as she grinned. Walking over and putting her arms around the kits, she added, “Dad, I want you to meet your grandchildren. The female is Elia, and the male…he’s Atall. I thought it fitting.”

Estin’s heart ached as he looked at the two kits. Slowly, he knelt and held his arms out. The two foxes cautiously inched forward, looking to Oria for assurance. When she nodded at them, they approached more readily, studying Estin as they went. Just before they reached where he could have grabbed them, they looked at Phaesys, who smiled slightly and bowed his head farther. They ran to Estin and began poking at him and looking over his scars with wide-eyed wonder.

Through it all, Phaesys did not budge from where he knelt.

While Estin and the kits met—which largely involved the kits running around him and pulling his tail—Feanne moved from one of their children to another, talking quietly and frequently hugging. She wiped at tears the whole time, looking as though she could not really convince herself that any of what she was seeing was actually happening.

After a little while, Feanne came over and plucked Elia off Estin’s tail—which she had taken to hugging and demanding he drag her around by—and asked if Estin would mind switching places.

Estin hugged her and went to join his own children. When he did, he saw Marr try to back away again, but he grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her back to stay with the group.

“I…I probably shouldn’t be here right now,” she said, wriggling her arm in an effort to slip away. “I’ll let you catch up…”

Dragging Marr with him, Estin went to a water bowl he had seen near the edge of the room, likely meant for them to be able to freshen up. He took up a towel in his free hand and dipped it into the water before turning back to Marr. Gently, he used the wet cloth to wipe away the dried blood on her muzzle.

“You’re part of the family, whether you like it or not,” he said, smiling as he cleaned her wound. “No broken bones here, just a bad cut and swelling. You’ll be fine in a few days.”

Bringing her hand up to clasp his, she replied, “Thank you. I just…I want you to know that if I’m not good enough for your son…”

Estin laughed and tilted her head to examine the deep gash near her whiskers that had been the source of all the dried blood. It might scar, but it would be subtle, if it did. Dozens of smaller scars covered much of her skin, as though she had been battered more times than could be counted. He had marks of his own like that from surviving in the streets. “You’re a penniless street urchin, right?”

“Yeah. I only have what Phaesys gave me to start my life on my own.”

“You already said you knew that’s where I came from too.”

Marr smirked and twitched her nose when Estin prodded at the wound. “I’m guessing that’s not what you want for your children. I’d understand completely. In Corraith, he could be with a lady of renown, or even be claimed by a family related to the council, or…”

“I want him happy, not rich,” Estin said, finishing his work. “If you’re good enough for him to be happy, you won’t hear an objection from me. Feanne might pick a fight, but that would only be if she thinks you need to bully Rinam more and don’t know how. Don’t tell her I said that or she’ll come after me next.”

Marr giggled and raised herself up on her tiptoes to lick Estin’s cheek before hurrying back to where Rinam sat, waiting.

Estin followed, nervously taking a seat near his children, who were watching, studying his every action. They barely knew him and were likely trying to match up their vague memories with the person now before them.

Over the next hour, they covered very few of the questions they all seemed to have, with everyone simply happy to see one another again. Most conversations went to events in the children’s lives that Estin had missed.

Once everyone had stopped wiping away tears and failed to remember the questions they had wanted to ask for years, Estin found himself pulled away from the group by Oria and Phaesys. Oria led him outside, with Phaesys following them, his hands clasped behind his back and his eyes on the ground as they walked. For all the joy Estin felt each time he looked over at Oria in her finery, he felt uncomfortable with Phaesys following them, though he was reluctant to speak up.

“You have questions,” Oria asked, once they were well away from the tent and past several of the wagons that had brought in the tent and all of her soldiers.

“Of course I do,” Estin said, glancing back nervously at Phaesys one more time. He never seemed to look up. “To start…master of the council?”

Oria grinned, revealing polished teeth. “Sirella did more than help me get the seat. She also manipulated enough of the other councilmembers into bad deals that I wound up with my seat secure, once I held all three of the large wells for the region. With the accompanying wealth, I bought up nearly all of our remote lands near the river. I control all trade into Corraith. Sadly, Sirella got tired of the game once she felt I had ‘won’ and went off on her own again. I haven’t seen her in over a year.”

Estin forced himself not to check over his shoulder. The faint jingling of Phaesys’s armor told him he was still following. “Can we talk here?”

“If you mean in front of him, yes. Phaesys and I have no more secrets between us.”

“I…” Estin trailed off as Phaesys moved to the edge of his vision when the three of them stopped. “I’m not sure how to ask what I really need to know. I don’t want to insult anyone.”

Oria studied him with glittering eyes for a moment before turning to Phaesys. “You wanted to speak with my father for years, did you not?”

“I did,” Phaesys answered softly.

“This is your chance. Speak freely. Your words may answer the questions he’s afraid to ask.”

Phaesys bowed his head in acknowledgement and moved to stand in front of Estin. Out of instinct, Estin backed away a step, worrying Phaesys might reach for his weapon at any moment. Instead, Phaesys dropped to his knees, clasped Estin’s ankle, and put his face to the ground.

“Please forgive me for what I’ve done to you and your family,” Phaesys begged, his voice muffled by the sand. “I made mistakes that I cannot ever take back. None of you have any reason to ever excuse anything I did back then. Please know that I never meant for things to end how they did, and would do anything to take back my actions, no matter the personal cost.”

Estin looked up at Oria in embarrassed confusion, though she just smiled warmly down on Phaesys. Looking past her, Estin realized the two kits had followed. They were watching from a safe distance, hiding among the wagons, though their ears standing straight up over the pile of crates they were using as shelter gave them away.

“You turned us over to the Turessians,” Estin said softly, trying to keep his voice from reaching the kits. “You are a traitor, Phaesys. I don’t know why Oria forgave you, but it won’t be that easy for me.”

“Easy?” Oria asked, her tone suddenly angry. “It’s been years, Father. I have forgiven Phaesys, but I will never forget what he did back there. Do not pretend that any of us have managed to do the right thing every time. He made a mistake and time has passed. Phaesys, be kind enough to tell Estin what you did to earn forgiveness.”

Lifting his head only slightly, Phaesys took his hands off Estin’s leg and put them at his sides, well away from his weapon. “I forfeited all of my father’s holdings to the council and relinquished my place in the army. Without fortune or profession, I lived more than a year as a beggar in the city. I had actually not realized how badly beggars were treated in my own city. It was humbling.”

“He was under council edict that if he came into my presence, he was to be executed without question,” Oria said without taking her glare off Estin. “I went looking for him several times when I was in a particularly dark mood, hoping my guards would see him and kill him. Apparently, he was smart enough to avoid me back then.”