FOURTEEN
Mother couldn’t look happier or sadder. Diamond came close, and she pulled herself out of Father’s hands, starting to run, long arms raised high even before she reached her son.
Sobbing, gasping, every fatigue showed in her face. She hadn’t slept for two moments since the night before last, and her features were worn and thrilled and sick with worry, and they were beautiful. The best arms in the world grabbed hold of his shoulders, shaking him. “Why didn’t you stay home?” she asked.
Her voice was furious, but she smiled as she berated him.
She took hold of his broken arm, asking, “Does it hurt?”
“No,” he began.
But she interrupted, asking, “Do you know what kind of risk you took, coming out of your room, looking for us?”
Diamond smiled at her smile.
“But I found you,” he pointed out.
She hugged him and wept, burying her face in the crook of his neck.
Father stopped short. The Master stood beside him, and they glanced at one another, saying nothing.
Elata and Seldom eased past the two men.
“Stay here,” Nissim warned.
Seldom stopped, but Elata took one more step.
“It caught you,” Seldom said.
Elata reached back, poking Seldom with a finger.
Then the Archon arrived, flanked by two bodyguards wearing pistols. A grim, important sneer defined his face as he walked past Diamond and past the two papio. Speaking to King was the first task—angry and quiet words, almost inaudible, were delivered in one breath—and King did nothing. He remained motionless. Then the human grabbed one of the spikes and tried to shake his son, and King still did nothing, standing rigid, never moving, resembling a statue carved from some bright golden species of coral.
Exhausted by their trials, the old papio continued on.
The little doctor had just emerged from the trees, standing in the distance, dancing on nervous feet.
The Archon turned, walking back toward Diamond.
“I have a confession,” he said with that singsong voice. “I never imagined you’d travel this far or fast on your own. My sense of these things was that you wouldn’t find the courage to come out of that room until afternoon.”
“You unlocked the door,” Diamond said.
“An assistant did.” The man clucked his tongue. “No, you aren’t as timid as promised. And who would have guessed that you’d find a butcher with time and the inclination to help an orphan?”
“What does ‘orphan’ mean?” asked Diamond.
“It’s a boy who has been cast aside,” the Archon said. “By Fate or design, his parents have been lost forever.”
Mother straightened her back. “He is not an orphan, sir.”
“He is and King is.” The Archon was close enough to touch her and Diamond, and one of his hands rose, as if considering doing just that. But then it dropped again, and he said, “Madam, you were the boy’s guardian. But to my mind, the dead Creators were solely responsible for this child. They built this miracle when they built the world, but there wasn’t any place for him. Until now. His immortal body floated beside the sun, which is the beginning of all life, and a corona ingested him but could never make him into a meal.”
“What is this?” the Master asked. “I don’t know that legend.”
Diamond took a step backward, and then another.
The Archon offered him a wink. “There’s no way to know how long you floated inside that awful gut, waiting to be found. Waiting for the Fates to place where you needed to be. But I credit Happenstance and the other Fates for everything. For King, for you. For every blessing, including making such an enormous journey on your first day in the world.”
Then with his reaching hand, Archon motioned to King, and the statue turned into an armored boy again, coming forward to stand beside his foster father.
“I’ve heard rumors,” the Archon continued. “Tales about other children being cast from the belly of that enormous beast. I’m not a fool, my boy. What happens once can always happen again, and I know when a man is being blessed, and I am not a soul who ignores opportunities.”
Kneeling, he waved his hand.
“Come here, Diamond.”
Diamond didn’t obey and he didn’t retreat.
Something was a little bit funny, and the Archon let himself laugh. Then he winked again, saying, “Ask your parents. Ask them what the average person would think, if something as strange as you were put into their grasp.”
Father shook his head and sighed, and Mother stared at the ground.
“If any other ruler came upon creatures as different as you are, creatures with no obvious place in the world . . . then that important person would be entirely within his rights to call you abominations. You’d be judged threats against the norms of good society and what is permitted. If your friend the butcher were honest, he would have warned you: the average Archon would wish you dead. Yes, yes, yes. He and his citizens would sleep well knowing that an infestation of monsters had been destroyed—monsters that shouldn’t have been alive in the first place. Your great fortune, my boy . . . what you must appreciate first and always . . . is that in some ways I am as unique as you are. In the realm of Archons, I am one of a kind. No one else has both the power and wisdom to treat you and your brethren with the proper respect.”
Again, the Archon said, “Come here.”
And again, Diamond did nothing.
His stubbornness wasn’t humorous anymore. The Archon rose and motioned to King, and King grabbed Diamond beneath the arms, carrying him where he had to be.
To the Archon, King said, “He’s carrying a knife.”
“But he won’t hurt me,” the Archon said. “Nobody needs to be injured. I’m sure everyone has learned that lesson by now. And as long as you behave, these other people won’t suffer in the slightest.”
Diamond looked at his parents first, and then he glanced at Elata and Seldom, and Master Nissim too.
Every face was scared.
“What happens now?” Diamond asked.
“First, naturally, we return to the Ruler of the Wind, and as my guest, you enjoy a quick flight to the District of Districts. King should tell you about his grand home. Frankly, it’s a wonderful place for children who never break. You’ll have a hundred rooms to explore and the best tutors, and as time passes, we’ll all come to appreciate your significance, your potentials.”
Again, Diamond looked at his mother, his father.
“Merit and Haddi are allowed to reclaim their lives,” said the Archon, anticipating the question. “If they really want what’s best for you, they’ll keep the secrets and abide as they did before you arrived. I won’t even prosecute the corona slayer for stealing what never belonged to him.”
“Me,” Diamond said.
“Coronas are public property. You don’t belong to this man, and it’s only taken a thousand days to bring you back to where you should be.”
Master Nissim made an angry sound.
The Archon looked at him. “Yes?”
“That’s a narrow interpretation of law,” said the Master.
The Archon’s smile was stern, sharp. “An assistant of mine was hamstrung today. The criminal responsible deserves five thousand days in the penitence house, locked inside our tiniest cell, with nothing to read and no one to listen to his educated wind. I suspect that sentence would destroy the man. But I don’t want to throw anyone into such miserable circumstances. So I’m cultivating a gracious, charitable mood. I’ll interpret those laws so that Diamond’s friend remains free for now, and for as long as there is cooperation.”
Diamond said nothing.
“Walk,” the Archon insisted.
Diamond found a slow, even pace, and the humans formed a tidy line that marched up the wooded hillside. The old papio were out of sight. The doctor was in the lead, looking backwards as much as he looked ahead. The rest of the papio were waiting over the crest of the hill. Where the ground was still falling, they stood in two neat lines, watching the odd parade pass between. King was worth close study and a few comments, but it was the slayer’s son who was fascinating. One and then another papio chopped at a leg, describing the miracle about the foot that rejoined the body and healed, and they spoke to him in their language and with guttural human words.