Eona - Alison Goodman [155]
The slap of fresh air made me gasp. Those sailors on duty and watch marked my arrival in the swinging light of the lanterns, but turned back to their windblown tasks. I made my way across the deck to the thick railing, the dipping roll of the junk every now and again sending me into an inelegant lurch. I found the rail and pressed the lower half of my body against the security of its solid wall.
Spray from the cut of our passage dusted my face with water and the taste of salt. Above, the dark sky bore down upon us, the banks of cloud like a huge bulwark between heaven and earth. As I watched a fork of lightning flash deep within them, I realized the source of my driving need for space and air; the approaching cyclone was affecting my Hua. Was this something that always happened to a Dragoneye? If I was this unsettled, Ido must be crawling up the walls of his narrow prison.
A stocky figure strode along the deck toward me with practiced balance: Master Tozay. I lifted my hand in greeting.
He stopped beside me. “Good evening, Lady Eona.”
“Not really, is it?” I said, tilting my head back at the sky.
“No.” He followed my gaze. “We will outrun most of it, but I think the edge will catch us. These weather patterns are the most bizarre I have ever seen.”
“Where is His Majesty?” I asked.
“Sleeping.” Tozay turned toward me, his thickset body blocking the wind that snatched at our words. With a gesture to his ears, he ushered me to the three-sided shelter created by the high horseshoe-shaped stern deck.
We stepped into the windbreak, the sudden release from the spray and rushing air making me cough. A single lantern, fixed beside a hatch that led below, cast our shadows along the deck. Tozay signaled to a man coiling ropes nearby to move away.
“I have a question for you, Lady Eona,” Tozay said, as the man obediently headed farther along the deck. “Why are you fighting for His Majesty?”
His tone was a return to our discussion in the boat. I settled my body more firmly into the rise and fall of the junk. “He is the true heir. He is—”
“No.” Tozay lifted his hand, stopping me. “I am not looking for an avowal of loyalty or defense of his claim, Lady Eona. I am asking you why you think he is a better choice than Sethon. Why you have joined this fight.”
The question held an intensity that demanded an answer in kind. I paused, and gave it thought.
“He is his father’s son, but he is his own man, too,” I said slowly. “He understands tradition, but he can step beyond it with the energy of renewal. He knows the strategies of war and power, but unlike Sethon, they are not his first love. His love is the land and the people, and he places his duty above all.” I smiled wryly. “He once told me that an emperor should have one truth tattooed upon his body: No nation has ever benefited from a protracted war.”
“From the wisdom of Xsu-Ree,” Tozay said. “Chapter Two.”
“That is strange,” I said sharply. “His Majesty also told me that only kings and generals were permitted to read Xsu-Ree’s treatise.”
I caught the flash of Tozay’s rare smile. “That is my understanding, too.” He leaned on the side partition that supported the small deck above us and looked out across the sea, his profile once more stern. “His Majesty will not ask you to break the Covenant again.”
“Why do you say that?”
Tozay grunted. “I could give you his complicated explanation about you being a symbol of hope, and the need for something that is not tainted by the corruption of power, and the Hua-do of the people.” He turned to face me. “But, in the end, it is because he loves you. He does not want you to suffer.”
Although his statement of Kygo’s love leaped through my blood, I shook my head. “His Majesty will not put his personal feelings above his land and his people. He has told me so.”
“That is what I always thought, but that has changed. For you.” Tozay’s eyes met mine, their expression unreadable. “Xsu-Ree also says that one of the five essentials of victory is a competent general unhampered by his sovereign. As Kygo’s general, my directive is to