Eon: Dragoneye Reborn

I turned around. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her body.

'Then one day I found the beaded skirt my sister had laboured over for months, tucked away in our family's tent,' she continued. 'When I put it on, I felt complete. I remember thinking that it was just the thing to wear to the mudhoie while I pretended to make the special bread our mother baked for Midwinter Feast.' She smiled ruefully As you can imagine, beautiful beaded skirts and mud do not mix. My sister found me and dragged me back to our mother for a beating. Of course, my sister's righteous indignation was lost in the excitement when my mother and the other women saw me dressed in a skirt.'

'What did they do?'

'Instead of a beating, my mother sat me down beside her and slowed me how to mill the rice.

She always suspected I was a twin soul. She was just waiting for me to come to it myself. A wise woman, my mother. But I did not take on the life of a Contraire until much later. Until I was sure. It is an honoured position in my tribe.' She gave a small, bitter laugh. 'Not so honoured here.'

She moved in front of the mirror, surveying herself. 'I do not wear men's clothing because I am a woman in here,' she touched her head, 'and here,' she touched her heart. 'You are wrong when you say there is no power in being a woman. When I think of my mother and the women in my tribe, and even the hidden women in the harem, I know there are many types of power in this world.' She turned around to face me. 'I found power in accepting the truth of who I am. It may not be a truth that others can accept, but I cannot live any other way How would it be to live a lie every minute of your life? I don't think I could do it.'

I twisted the bracelets around my arm, avoiding her level gaze. I could tell her what it was like, in every fearful detail. But I could not see any power in womanhood. Only suffering.

'Why don't you…' I paused, wondering how to phrase it. How would a Moon Shadow phrase it? 'Why don't you get rid of the male parts?'

She looked away 'I don't need to be cut to know I am a woman. And the Emperor prizes me because I am both Sun and Moon. If I go to the cutters, then I will lose the very thing he values…' She hesitated then met my gaze. 'In truth, I am also afraid of the pain. I am afraid of dying.'

I nodded. I had heard that three in ten eunuchs died in terrible agony after the cutting, some lasting for over a week before the inability to piss or the swelling fever led them to their ancestors. Good odds if you were starving in a village and wanted work at the palace for the rest of your life. But I agreed with Lady Dela; they did not seem very good odds to me.

I pushed the bracelets back over my hands, the smooth metal dragging painfully at my skin.

Carefully, I placed each one back onto the table.

'I am sorry about all of this.' I motioned towards the jewellery. 'I did not come to go through your belongings. I came to ask you a favour.'

She straightened. 'What is it?'

'Do you know someone who can pick a lock?'

She didn't even blink. 'Of course.'

'You were a thief?' I asked, trying to absorb Ryko's words.

He nodded and paced across the private tearoom at the back of Lady Dela's house, his bulk making the small space seem even more cramped.

'It wasn't only thieving.' He cast a strained look at Lady Dela who was kneeling across from me at the low tea table. 'I did anything if the money was good enough.' He looked away.

Anything.'

The word fell flatly between us. Lady Dela shifted, biting her lower lip. It seemed she had not heard this before.

'Then how did you get from the islands to the palace?' I asked. A sudden intuition made me gasp. 'You're a Trang cattle-man!'

'No!' The denial was explosive.

'Lord Eon!' Lady Dela admonished at the same time. 'That is none of your business.'

Ryko held up his hand. 'It is all right.' He let out a long hissing breath. 'No, I was spared that dishonour. I was placed in the palace a year before that happened.'

Lady Dela tilted her head, a small frown creasing her painted forehead.

'Placed?' she asked and her soft tone was suddenly edged. 'What do you mean?'

Ryko stepped over to the door and pushed it slightly open, peering through the crack. 'Are we definitely alone, my lady?'

She nodded. 'I sent my maid to deliver a message.'

Me snapped the door shut and turned to us, his long islander eyes unblinking.

'Up until a few years ago, my life was thieving, fighting and drinking. Then one night, I met my match in a dock alley' He stared through us, remembering. 'There were two of them. One of them knifed me in the shoulder, the other in my belly. I could see the grey of my own guts.'

He laid his hand across the flat of his stomach and focused back on me, his smile wry 'It's never a good moment when you see your own innards. I thought it was the end.'

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lady Dela's fingers brush the cloth over her wound. She, too, must have thought it was the end when that knife had sliced across her heart.

'But it wasn't,' I said. To both of them.

Ryko nodded. 'My luck was with me that night. A fisherman took me into his house and nursed me back to health. He saved my life.' He paused, his face solemn. 'Such a thing creates a bond. A debt. So when I found out my fisherman friend was also leading a group resisting Sethon's control of the islands, I joined his cause. And when he needed someone to go into the palace, I saw a chance to repay my debt.'

' You're part of the islander Resistance?' Lady Dela said, her eyes narrowing. She looked down, smoothing her skirt. 'You hid it well.' Her voice was cold.

Ryko had hidden it very well. I thought of Master Tozay and the Trang boy from the docks.

There was no doubt both of them were involved in some way. How big was this Resistance?

Ryko licked his lips. 'Forgive me, my lady. I would have told you if I could. But my orders are to gather information about Sethon, and to get close to the Emperor to protect him. Not to recruit.'

I had to state the obvious. 'But you are guarding Lady Dela,' I said. 'With all respect to you, my lady' I bowed to her then turned back to Ryko, 'that's not very close to the Emperor.'

'True. But the wait has been worth it. I am now closer to the Emperor than I have ever been.'

'How?'

'You, my lord,' he said simply. 'You are the hope of the Resistance.'

The hope of the Resistance? The words seared me. More people relying on me. Relying on my power. It was too much. Too much. I would be crushed under all these needs.

'No!' I clambered to my feet. I had to get out of there.

'What do you mean, no?' Ryko blocked my way.

'I cannot hold the hopes of your Resistance.' I looked over at Lady Dela. 'Or yours.'

'My lord,' Ryko said, grasping my arm, his bruising grip holding me still, 'you may not like it or want it, but you have it. And unless you intend to join with Sethon and Ido, then you are bound to our struggle. The very fact that you have woken the Mirror Dragon makes you a threat to the High Lord. And you have already shown your allegiance to the Emperor.'

I pulled my arm out of his hold. This was not my struggle. I had to get away. Hide somewhere. But where? And what about my master and Rilla? What about Prince Kygo?

Their lives were bound as tightly to mine as I was to the fortunes of the Emperor.

'I do not want it,' I said, but it sounded feeble even to me. Everything Ryko had said was true.

And inescapable.

'I know you have more courage than that,' Ryko said.

I did not feel courageous. But I raised my chin and nodded. What else could I do? Even a cornered rabbit will fight with teeth and claws.

'Good man.' He clapped his hand against my shoulder, making me sway.

'If you have finished recruiting,' Lady Dela said snidely, 'maybe Lord Eon can tell us how he plans to steal back the folio.'