Naamah's Curse - Jacqueline Carey [188]
Bao suspected it anyway, regarding me with a wry look. “I swear, Moirin, you fall in love as easily as other people fall out of a boat.”
“I don’t!” I protested.
“You do.”
None too gently, I tugged on a hank of his longish hair. “Why did you let it grow? I thought it gave enemies a handhold in combat.”
He didn’t answer right away. I withdrew a little, propping myself on one elbow and watching his face, watching Bao decide whether or not he was ready to talk about his time in Kurugiri.
“She liked it that way,” he said eventually.
“Jagrati?” I asked softly. Bao nodded, a muscle in his jaw twitching. “Was it terrible there?”
“No,” he said after another long silence. “Or maybe it was. I don’t know how to talk about it. I was in a terrible place inside myself while I was there, thinking you were dead, thinking I had only myself to blame for it.” He shrugged. “It was a strange place. So much opulence, so much stolen treasure, hidden away in a stark fortress. Between her spell and the opium, it seems like a fever-dream now.”
“How did you get there?” I wanted to keep him talking.
“There’s a cauldron that hangs on a chain and a winch from a plateau above the trail,” Bao said. “I heard about it during my journey there. I petitioned Tarik Khaga to take me into his service. A day later, someone came to blindfold me and lead me through the maze. I thought…” He shrugged again. “There is a kind of honor among thieves and thugs when it comes to the rules of combat. I thought perhaps there was among assassins, too. When I was granted an audience, I said I had come to claim you. I offered to fight any man among them for the right to take you away with me.” He gave me a sidelong look. “Stupid plan, huh?”
“Better than none,” I said. “So Jagrati ensorceled you instead?”
Bao shook his head. “Not right away, no. My story, our story… it wasn’t what she expected. It intrigued her. She’s the one who rules Kurugiri, you know. Not him.”
“I know,” I said. “I saw.”
“So.” He blew out his breath. “No one had ever attempted to rescue someone they had taken before. She thought it was a piece of irony that the only living soul to do so had come on a fool’s errand. She wanted me to know it. She let me search to my heart’s content, questioning anyone I liked. She even gave me access to the harem. And there was no trace of you anywhere. By the end of the first day, I knew it must be true. The Great Khan had killed you, and sent me away in vain.”
I stroked Bao’s arm, not knowing what to say.
He glanced at the vivid zig-zag markings on his skin. “Then she unveiled Kamadeva’s diamond. I didn’t even care by that time. I was drowning in despair. Might as well drown in false desire and opium instead. And there were fights there, lots of fights. It suited my mood. I’d lost Master Lo, and then I’d lost you. The only two people I ever truly loved. I’d died a hero, and wasted the life that was given back to me on stupid choices. Running away from you, marrying Erdene. I didn’t care if I got killed again.”
I took a long, deep breath. “I am very, very glad that you weren’t.”
“Me too.” Bao fell quiet once more.
I waited a while before prompting him. “So the Falconer’s assassins quarrel amongst themselves?”
“Not exactly.” The muscle in his jaw twitched again. “Sometimes Jagrati would choose a favorite and keep him for days on end. Other times, she liked for us to fight for the honor of her favors. To the death, if she was in a foul mood.”
“Oh.” I didn’t know what to say about that, either.
“I don’t know how long I’d been there when I felt something change,” Bao mused, touching his chest. “You, your spark was back, only it was all tangled with opium dreams and the spell of that cursed diamond, and I didn’t know what to believe.”
I nodded. “I felt the same way the other day.”
“You understand, then.” He looked relieved. “Jagrati does not like to lose what is hers. I do not know if she suspected the truth, but she set out to convince me that it must be a lie of some foul magic. And