The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - By N. K. Jemisin Page 0,27

his words disturb me. For now, I was just grateful. It will be enough, I said. Thank you.

He inclined his head, then vanishednot all at once, as Sieh had done, but fading over the space of several breaths. Even after I could no longer see him, I felt his presence, but eventually that faded, too. I felt, properly or not, alone.

I climbed back into bed and was asleep in a span of minutes.

* * *

There is a tale of the Nightlord that the priests allow.

Once long ago, before the war between the gods, the Nightlord descended to earth, seeking entertainment. He found a lady in a towerthe wife of some ruler, shut away and lonely. It was not difficult for him to seduce her. Some while later, the woman gave birth to a child. It was not her husbands. It was not human. It was the first of the great demons, and after it and others like it were born, the gods realized they had made a terrible mistake. So they hunted their own offspring, slaying them down to the tiniest infant. The woman, who had been turned out by her husband and was now deprived of her child as well, froze to death alone in a snowy forest.

My grandmother told me a different version of the tale. After the demon-children were hunted down, the Nightlord found the woman again and begged her forgiveness for what hed done. In atonement he built her another tower and gave her riches so that she might live in comfort, and he visited her ever afterward to see that she was all right. But she never forgave him, and eventually she killed herself for grief.

The priests lesson: beware the Nightlord, for his pleasure is a mortals doom. My grandmothers lesson: beware love, especially with the wrong man.

8

Cousin

THE NEXT MORNING, a servant arrived to help me dress and groom myself. Ridiculous. Still, it seemed appropriate to at least try to behave like an Arameri, so I bit my tongue while she fussed about me. She did my buttons and shifted my clothing minutely as if that would somehow make me look more elegant, then brushed my short hair and helped me put on makeup. The last I did actually need help with, as Darre women do not wear cosmetics. I could not help feeling some consternation as she turned the mirror to show me all in paint. It didnt look bad. Just strange.

I must have frowned too much, because the servant grew anxious and began rummaging in the large bag shed brought with her. I have just the thing, she said, and lifted out something that I thought at first was a party masque. It certainly looked like one, with a wire eyeframe attached to a satin-wrapped rod. But the masque itself was peculiar, seeming to consist only of a pair of bright blue feathery objects like the eyes of a peacocks tail.

Then they blinked. I started, looked closer, and saw that they were not feathers at all.

All the highblood ladies use these, said the servant eagerly. Theyre very fashionable right now. Watch. She lifted the frame to her face so that the blue eyes superimposed her own rather pretty gray ones. She blinked, lowered the frameand suddenly her eyes were bright blue, surrounded by long, exotically thick black lashes. I stared, then saw that the eyes in the frame were now gray, staring blankly and fringed with the servants own very ordinary lashes. Then she put the frame back to her face, and her eyes were her own again.

You see? She held the rod out to me. Now I could see the tiny black sigils, barely visible, etched along its length. Blue would look lovely with that dress.

I recoiled, and it took me another few seconds to speak through my revulsion. Wh-whose eyes were they?

What?

The eyes, the eyes. Where did they come from?

The servant stared at me as if Id asked where the moon had come from. I dont know, my lady, she said after a flustered pause. I could inquire, if you like.

No, I said, very softly. Theres no need.

I thanked the servant for her assistance, praised her skill, and let her know I would have no further need of a dressing servant for the remainder of my stay in Sky.

* * *

Another servant arrived shortly afterward with word from Tvril: as expected, Relad had declined my request for a meeting. As it was a rest day, there was no Consortium meeting, so