The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - By N. K. Jemisin Page 0,35
and sighed.
Instantly Sieh brightened and bounded over to my bed, pulling back the bedcovers and patting my side of the mattress. Can I brush your hair?
I could not help laughing. You are a very, very strange person.
Immortality gets very, very boring. Youd be surprised at how interesting the small mundanities of life can seem after a few millennia.
I came to the bed and sat down, offering him the brush. He all but purred as he took hold of it, but I held on.
He grinned. I have a feeling Im about to have my own bargain thrown back in my face.
No. But it only seems wise, when bargaining with a trickster, to demand that he hold up his end of the deal first.
He laughed, letting go of the brush to slap his leg. Youre so much fun. I like you better than all the other Arameri.
I did not like that he considered me Arameri. ButBetter than my mother? I asked.
He sobered, then settled against me, leaning on my back. I liked her well enough. She didnt often command us. Only when she had to; other than that she left us alone. The smart ones tend to do that, exceptions like Scimina notwithstanding. No sense getting to know your weapons on a close personal basis.
I did not like hearing such a casual dismissal of my mothers motives, either. Perhaps she did it on principle. So many of the Arameri abuse their power over you. It isnt right.
He lifted his head from my shoulder and looked at me for a moment, amused. Then he lay back down. I suppose it could have been that.
But you dont think so.
Do you want truth, Yeine? Or comfort? No, I dont think it was principle that made her leave us alone. I think Kinneth simply had other things on her mind. You could see that in her eyes. A drive.
I frowned, remembering. There had been a driven look to her, yes; a grim, unyielding sort of resolve. There had been flickers of other things, too, especially when shed thought herself unobserved. Covetousness. Regret.
I imagined her thoughts when, sometimes, she had turned that look on me. I will make you my instrument, my tool, to strike back at them, perhaps, though she would have known far better than me how slim my chances were. Or perhaps, At last, here is my chance to shape a world, even if it is only that of a child. And now that I had seen what Sky and the Arameri were like, a new possiblity came to me. I will raise you sane.
But if she had also worn that look during her days in Sky, long before my birth, then it had nothing whatsoever to do with me.
There was no contest in her case, was there? I asked. I thought she was the sole heir.
No contest. There was never any question Kinneth would be the next head of the clan. Not until the day she announced her abdication. Sieh shrugged. Even after that, for a time, Dekarta expected her to change her mind. But then something changed, and you could taste the difference in the air. It was summer that day, but Dekartas rage was ice on metal.
That day?
Sieh did not answer for a moment. Abruptly I knew, with an instinct that I neither understood nor questioned, that he was going to lie. Or, at least, withhold some part of the truth.
But that was fine. He was a trickster, and a god, and when all was said and done I was a member of the family that had kept him in bondage for centuries. I could not expect complete trust from him. I would take what I could get.
The day she came to the palace, Sieh said. He spoke more slowly than usual, palpably considering each word. A year or so after she married your father. Dekarta ordered the halls empty when she arrived. So that she could save face, you see; even then he looked out for her. He met her alone for the same reason, so no one knows what was said between them. But we all knew what he expected.
That she was coming back. Fortunately she had not, or I might never have been born.
But why had she come, then?
I needed to find that out, next.
I offered Sieh the brush. He took it, sat up on his knees, and very gently began working on my hair.
* * *
Sieh slept in a sprawl, taking over much of the very large