Song of Ashes

36: Taste of Freedom

It seemed Sarka's words had given both of the Beloved pause for different reasons. Caol's face hovered close behind Tayo's. His was a monster's visage, hungry and suspicious. The hope that had lit Tayo's expression was flickering and dying.

"Sarka?"

She glanced at Konn, who had spoken. He had heard the entire exchange...her side, at least. She ignored him, looking back at the Beloved. Did he think her mad? Well, no matter. He was a priest. There were litanies of insanity that he himself must believe.

"We punished the Annari for their treachery," Caol whispered, his voice feathery around the edges. "We will punish you, too, Tayo, as soon as we have our due from Sarka the Scarred, she who ran. She who betrayed her mother. Her Queen."

"Kogoren is no mother to me." Sarka spat. Caol snarled, but she ignored him, too, looking at Tayo. "I had no right to promise-"

Caol was crouched on the sand behind Tayo; he shifted, as if to pounce, but Tayo rounded on him, his grown nearly a scream of rage. Sarka was reminded, not for the first time, of the wildcat who'd nearly taken her life.

Caol shrank back, his lip curled away from his teeth, and Tayo spat, "She is mine. You will not touch her!"

"You relinquished your right to her when you failed in your task! Any of us may take her now."

"Freedom, Caol. We deserve it. We deserve a life, the life we never had. Even now, we are denied our position at her hand in the Opal Realm. And what have we done to deserve her disfavor? Nothing!"

"There is no life but Kogoren."

"Listen to yourself," Sarka said. Tayo's defense of her had rekindled her hope. "Caol, isn't it? Listen to yourself. What are you defending?"

She could tell Caol's fingers itched for her throat, but Tayo did not intend to let him take her. Without violence as a recourse, Caol could only respond. "I will defend her forever. She is my beloved. My goddess. My wife."

Sarka's hot reply was out before she could think. "Tender words indeed for a goddess with more husbands than she knows what to do with. I've heard she takes a new one every year, or she did, at least, before the end. The captain you...the captain you drove to her death, she oversaw a crew of two dozen men. Any time she needed one of them, she would run through six or seven names before she remembered the right one, unless it was her first mate."

Caol had narrowed his eyes; his hands were curled into fists. A low growl vibrated through the air. But Tayo was crouched between them, and Sarka was less afraid than she should have been.

"And you're not her first mate, are you?" she continued. "Not with that great crooked nose of yours. What's a woman to do with that many husbands? Trip over them. Use them as furniture."

Konn was still standing there a few paces away, watching. He met her gaze, but it was clear that he still could not see the Beloved. She felt nauseous. Her head had begun to ache, not just where she was bleeding, but in some deep and vital part of her brain.

Tayo said, "Leave us, Caol."

"What if she does not succeed, Tayo? You are outcast. You'll be shunned for all time from Kogoren's court, from her graces. You will never redeem yourself. It is irreparable, what you've done. And in exchange? You do not have your freedom yet. You never will."

The most curious thing happened, then. Sarka was not sure, at first, whether she was seeing it or whether her aching brain was playing a trick on her, but when she blinked and looked again, she confirmed it to be true.

Tayo had smiled.

This was not the sharp, cold smile of feline amusement he'd given her a few nights before, either. This was a boy's smile, handsome and full of sunlight. He said, "My brother...she cannot reach me here. I have already tasted freedom."