Page 70 of The Poet Empress
He blinked open his eyes and found that his vision was blurred. There was something wet all over his face. Blood. He could tell by the way it tasted in his mouth, copper and salt. He coughed and some more of it burbled out.
Someone was bawling. Terren. Maro had always hated how much of a crybaby he was.
The younger boy was kneeling beside him and dabbing at his mouth with a cloth. “You’re finally awake,” he said between sobs. “I didn’t want to leave you until you were. Stay here, okay? I’m going to get Doctor Shu.”
Maro’s hand darted out and caught his arm. “You’re not going anywhere.”
If word got out about the Heavenly Fatigue, they would send Maro home.Let him recover until he has the Crown,they’d say, not knowing how much time mattered. Not knowing how badly Tensha was dying, how critical these years were.
Not knowing that if he went home, he might not even receive the Crown in the first place. Nobody wanted a weak and bedridden prince to inherit the dynasty. They wanted someone powerful and strong.
“But…” Terren whispered. “Doctor Shu said… he said you were running towards a cliff—”
“You will tell nobody about this. Do you understand?”
“But—”
“Do you understand.”
He flinched. “I’m sorry. Please don’t be mad.”
“What time is it?”
“I… I don’t know. It’s still night. Everyone’s asleep.”
“Good. There’s still time to keep working.” Maro wiped his mouth with a sleeve and stood. When he discovered that Terren’s cloak was draped over him, he scrunched it up and threw it onto the moss. Then he took two steps towards the end of the tunnel.
“Wait,Maro.” Terren clung to his leg to stop him from moving, but Maro shook him off easily. “Maro, please, stop.” He tried again, this time clamping his arms across his waist, but he was littler—he had always been littler—and Maro flung him off like an irritating bug. He reached the wall, pressed his hand to the cold stone, and channeled.
“Stop it!” Terren screamed. He yanked at Maro’s sleeve with just enough force that his hands left the wall, cutting off the flow of magic. “Please. Stop it.Stop it.”
Maro imagined himself strangling him. Imagined his hands closing around that little throat, cutting off all that sniveling and screaming.
He didn’t. Instead, he said, “I am the rightful heir, Terren. I do what I please.”
“But…” He was crying so hard he could barely speak. “But I’m scared you’re going to die.”
Maro looked down at him with disgust. “Our father has done so much for this country, even in his sickness. The Shouyuan Emperor and Prince Han have lost their lives in these very mountains, in the campaign that won us the Fallen Sun Pass. You were born second, so you never learned the meaning of duty. You never learned that there is no glory without sacrifice. There is no greatness without suffering.”
He turned back towards the stone and continued his work on the Salt Road. This time, Terren didn’t stop him.
When he woke the next morning, everyone was standing around his bed.
Maro sat up, rigid with horror. Commander Remi, Master Len, Master Ganji, his advisors from the Dawn Pavilion—they were all there, their faces solemn in the stark morning sun. Behind them, wearing the gravest expression of them all, was Doctor Shu.
“Your doctor has informed us of your condition,” Commander Remisaid. He spoke very gently, as if Maro wasn’t already eleven but a little baby. “We have already sent a messenger to the capital, announcing your intent to return. You will have the day to pack up your belongings, and then you will go home.”
The horror, sheer and cold, clawed its way into every vein and every crevice in Maro’s body. He couldn’t even speak.
“At least let him finish the Salt Road,” Master Ganji said, his voice iron. “There is not much of it left. The credit for building it must go entirely to the first son.”
“No. We cannot take that risk. The crown prince is too important for us to lose.”
“But Commander—”
“A crew will remain behind to excavate the rest of the tunnel. It will not be as permanent or as safe as what our prince would make, but it will do for now. After his recovery, he can return to finish it.”
“Commander.”Master Ganji’s fists shook with rage. “You are surely aware of the damage it’ll do to our prince’s already-tarnished reputation. They’ll say he can’t even complete his most important mission without help—just like his first Blessing.” He spun to look at Doctor Shu. “Tell them. Tell them he is capable of doing it!”
