Page 144 of A Drop of Corruption

“A song. For I have practiced greatly upon the Pithian lyres, as you may soon see, and would much enjoy providing you with music! That should make a fitting end to these sad days, yes? To play a Pithian song before a Yarrow king, in celebration of his coronation?”

She waved to me. I reached into one of the many crates and produced her twinned lyres, bound up in cloth, and brought them to her. She unwrapped them and played a tune so melodious that some of the guards gasped in surprise.

“We have minstrels enough,” said Pavitar sourly.

“Ah, but this song shall accomplish something quite startling, Your Majesty,” said Ana. “One that will astonish even one of your high breeding!” A wide grin bloomed on her face. “It is going to achieve amiracle.”

“A miracle?” said the prince.

“Yes,” proclaimed Ana. “For with this song, I shall make this dead man talk!”

There was a shocked silence. The soldiers in the back of the chamber muttered as a few of them translated what Ana had just said. Kardas stared at me, his gray face coloring, but I studiously avoided reacting.

Malo hissed to me: “What in fuck is she doing?”

“I’ve no idea,” I whispered through clenched teeth, for this mad flourish had not been part of the careful instructions Ana had given us.

Pavitar scoffed. “What is this foul jest? Do you mock us at such a time?”

“Did you not once declare us thaumaturges and magicians, Jari?”said Ana. “I swear to you that it is so. Or would it be acceptable if I asked afavorof you, Your Majesty?” She reached into her pocket and, with an artful twist, produced an oathcoin: the very one that Darhi had given me so many days ago.

The prince gazed upon the oathcoin. “Ah. Yes. An unusual request, to ask for something so simple in exchange for so valuable a token. But…I shall take your coin, Immunis Dolabra, and hear your tale and your music…no matter how odd it may seem.” He plucked the oathcoin from her fingers and placed it in his pocket. Then he sat upon the throne, with Pavitar sitting on a small stool behind him.

“Excellent,” said Ana, grinning. “Fetch me a chair, please, Din, and I shall begin.”

—

“First of all, Your Majesty,”said Ana, sitting, “I shall tell you the most startling thing I discovered—for the dead man in the box is actually not imperial at all!” She sat back in her chair, pausing dramatically. “Can you guess which land he hailed from, so long ago?”

The prince blinked when he realized Ana would not continue until he guessed. “Ahh…I’ve no idea. I am little traveled, other than in my own lands.”

“Ah—but heisfrom your own lands, Your Majesty!” said Ana. “This man isYarrow,through and through.”

“Is he?” said the prince, interested.

“It’s true!” said Ana. “Yet he comes from broods closer than you may know! For despite his imperial look, this man is actually a child of your dead father, Your Majesty—royal issue of the now-fallen king of Yarrowhimself!”

Pavitar, Kardas, and the prince stared at her, open-mouthed.

“Pavitar,” said the prince, shaken. “Pavitar, surely…surely that isn’t…”

Pavitar swept forward, knelt beside the reeking corpse, and opened the dead man’s eyes with a thumb. “This cannot be so! This man’s eyes are white, and bear only a hint of green. And his teeth areunnaturally white from your accursed magics! And besides, his features are clearly that of the Empire!”

“True!” sang Ana. “I will grant that the masquerade was quite masterful. Why, the dead man even bore an imperial name—that ofSunus Pyktis! Yet hewasyour father’s child, Prince Camak, though he left this realm long ago, before his eyes ever greened. As for his race, this Pyktis, like many true Yarrow souls here—including Darhi and yourself, Your Majesty—hadRathrasblood in him. For many children of the court bear imperial bloods, do they not?”

Neither the prince nor Pavitar answered, though I sensed this question was deeply distasteful to both of them.

“Yet his fate sent this fellow on a journey far from here!” said Ana. “For long ago, your father had this Pyktis sent abroad to hide among the Empire. There he was to pass as a common Rathras child, gamely pretend to be an imperial boy, and join the Empire’s ranks, in the hope of achieving one thing only, something your father had desired for years untold—he was to return to Yarrow and destroy the Shroud.”

The prince now looked so stunned he nearly slipped out of his throne.

“These are lies!” snarled Pavitar, standing. “You admit this villain was an imperial, then invent far-fetched tales to deny it!”

“I regret to say, Your Majesty, that it is true!” said Ana. “So secret was Pyktis’s identity that even Darhi knew nothing of his existence—nor did he know of the king’s plot to place one of his own trusted children upon the Shroud, with the hopes of destroying it! Indeed, he couldnotknow, for the king by then had sadly lost a great deal of his wits and had forgotten it entirely.”

Now Pavitar was positively apoplectic, and he gestured so violently that he leapt off the stone floor. “Now you impugn the dead!” he bellowed. “I demand you cease this, or I shall strike the head from you, witch!”

I tensed at that. Ana seemed to sense my movement and waved a hand at me. “You may try, but I do ask that you wait until I’m done! Besides, I don’t think you’reallowedto demand I stop, given that your prince took my coin, yes?” She turned back to the prince. “Anddon’t you wish to hear this, Your Majesty? For these are the once-hidden works of your father—and that man in that box was your half brother.”