with a wicked grin. At him scratching his crotch against the robe, hating clothes as much as me.
“It will not match mine, I can promise you,” he said.
The Leopard led me up six flights. We approached a room I had not seen before when the smell of the river came to me. Not from outside, but one of the five or six smells I knew but did not welcome. One was in the room, the rest were close but not here.
“I smell the boy,” I said, “not far from here. We should go get him now, before they can move again.”
“A man of the same mind as me. I said the same thing three times now. But they say too many are they that hunt them, and an entire army hunts me, so we must move at night.”
I did not know that voice.
“The Tracker is here. He can tell you what happens when plan is thrown to whim.”
That voice I knew. I stepped in and looked for the new voice first. She lay on cushions and rugs, a mug in her hand, strong drink of the Fasisi coffee bean. A hat on her head, wide at the top like a crown, but of red fabric, not gold. A veil, silk maybe, rolled up to reveal her face. Two large disks at her ears, the pattern a circle of red, then white, then red, then white again. Her gown also red, her sleeves baring her shoulders but hiding her arms. A large blue pattern in the front, shaped like two arrowheads pointing at each other. I almost said, I know no nun who ever dressed so, but my mouth had gotten me into enough trouble. Two women servants stood behind her in the same leather dress that Sogolon loved to wear.
“You are the one they call Tracker,” the King sister said.
“That is what they call me, Your Excellence.”
“I am nothing close to excellent and everything far from perfect for years now. My brother saw to that. And Sogolon is no longer with you. Has she perished?”
“She had what was coming to her,” I said.
“She was one for plans, Sogolon. Give us tidings.”
“She went through a door she should not have, which probably burned her to death.”
“A horrible one from what I know of deaths. Strength through your sorrow, this I wish for you.”
“I have no sorrow for her. She sold us as slaves in exchange for safe passage through Dolingo. She also took the body of a girl and gave it to the soul of a man whose body she stole long ago.”
“You don’t know any of that!” Bunshi said. I wondered when she would speak. She rose from a puddle on the floor to the right of the King sister.
“Who knows, water witch? Perhaps he took revenge by dragging her with him through one of the ten and nine doors. I heard that you cannot return to a door until you have been through all ten and nine. This she proved true, if you were one of those that wonder,” I said.
“And you let him.”
“It happened so quick, Bunshi. Quicker than one could care.”
“I should drown you.”
“When did you learn that she changed the plan? Did she not tell you? You a liar or a fool?” I said.
“With your permission,” Bunshi said to the King sister, but she shook her head.
“At some point, she decided we were all unfit to save your precious boy. Even as we, the unfit, freed ourselves and saved her from the one called Ipundulu,” I said.
“She—”
“Made a mistake that cost her the child? Yes, that would be what she did,” I said.
“Sogolon only tried to serve her mistress,” Bunshi said to the King sister, but she was already facing me.
“Tracker? What is your real name?” the King sister said.
“Tracker.”
“Tracker. I understand you. This child carries no stakes for you.”
“I hear he is the future of the kingdom.”
She rose.
“What else did you hear?”
“Too much and not nearly enough.”
She laughed and said, “Strength, guile, courage, where were men of such quality when we needed them? Where is the woman that you have hurt and abandoned?”
“She hurt herself.”
“Then she must be a woman of more power and means than me. Every scar I have, it is somebody else who put it there. Which woman is this?”
“His mother,” said the Leopard. I could have killed him in that moment.