“I thought you were at the Birdsong festivities,” Leo said, rising.
“There was a slingsword tournament. Samson and I played,” she answered.
He noticed the stiffness in her posture, the look she shared with Yassen. An awful certainty rose in Leo as he glanced between her and the holos.
Only a few people could create these reports or access this level of data. Only those with special security clearance, like him, Muftasa, Arish, Majnu, Ferma, and Elena.
And looking into his daughter’s eyes, Leo knew.
Skies above, Elena, what did you do?
“Leave us,” he said, his voice cracking like a whip. “Now.”
The guards, Yassen, and Arish quickly left. A hawk screeched overhead, but then it left too.
Leo sat back down on the bench, and wordlessly, Elena joined him.
For a while, he said nothing, the holos hovering between them. Anger, shame, disappointment, they blurred and passed, morphing until they became shapeless. He wanted to berate her, scold her, shake her, hug her, cry to her, and all that blurred and passed too. Until he could only feel one thing.
“I,” he began, voice soft, “I know we don’t always agree. And I know that you hate the gold caps, and I see now that going to their rallies was just a ruse. A trick.” He paused because it hurt to continue. It hurt that his own daughter would betray him so.
Elena said nothing, but she picked up the pod and closed it.
“Everything that I’ve built, everything that I do, is for you,” he said after a moment.The killing, the murders, the hunt for the Prophet.“To protect you, even if you don’t realize it yet. I created the gold caps so that when you are queen, they can support you. They can shield you from rebels who wish you and this kingdom harm.
“But what you did today, Elena, was not just foolish. It was destructive. We could have riots in our city, riots when theone thingwe need until you are crowned queen is peace. You’re going to a parade in the city for the Fire Festival, yes? What if there are rebels who take advantage of the falling out of the gold caps and begin protests for kingless governments? What then?”
She did not respond, and her silence knifed through him sharper than her betrayal. She was like her mother in so many ways. Their stubbornness, their anger.
His fingers curled under the lip of the stone bench. He wished Aahnah was here now. He wished it so hard that it hurt.
“I will do my best to clean up your mess. And you will do your best to uphold your duty as queen and denounce these reports as lies. False reports made by rebels to undermine Jangir. And then you will make a speech declaring your support of the gold caps. Maybe then all will not be lost.”
It was then that Elena laughed. Harsh, sudden, the sound ripping through her throat.
“Oh, Father, it is lost. It’s over.” She looked at him, and in her eyes, he saw his defiance, his tenacity. “Have you ever stopped to consider that you are wrong? That maybe, just maybe, the gold caps may not be the beacon of success you’ve imagined?
“They are greedy, senseless bullies who kill without consequence. And as for the riots, they’ve already begun. In the park. In the streets. Every time you try to smother a protestor, another will emerge. Every time one of your gold caps tries to scare someone into submission, someone else will grow brave enough to speak up.” She held up her hand, and he saw her reddened fingertips. “And every time you avoid teaching me how to hold fire, I only try harder.”
He wanted to take her hands then, to kiss the burns from her fingertips as he had kissed her wounds as a child. He wanted to tell her that the Phoenix was a vengeful god, and that fire was its cruel serpent. He wanted to tell her that he had made a mistake. While he had fooled everyone about his devotion to the Eternal Fire, he had misled her in the process. He had driven her further away than he had expected, and he could only blame himself for the distance between them.
He wanted to tell her, but he could not.
Her words cut deep, too deep, and his voice had deserted him.
“You told me that blind followers are useful in a time of war,” Elena said. “But how can a blind follower be loyal to you if you’reconstantlylying and manipulating him?”
She let the question hang in the air, floating between them as shadows grew in the courtyard, and the sun dipped below the palace wall.
He thought of Samson and Yassen, how despite their past, they had proven themselves to him; of Arish and Muftasa, who had seen his horrors and still stood beside him.
Elena sighed, a shiver running through her body. Her head dropped back toward her sharp shoulder blades, like a bird dipping its head between its wings. He wanted to hug her, to comfort her, but he fought that urge. What could he say now that would help?
“Have you ever considered what I wanted?” she said finally, and for a moment, her voice wobbled as her eyes searched his. “Have you ever asked?”
Answer, he willed himself.
“What is it that you want?” he said gruffly to mask the tremble in his own voice.
