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“We do,” says Perl.

47

JEMEL

Jemel sits on the bed and waits. He feels sweet and strange. The pleasure he felt in this bed, only moments ago, still echoes in his body.

How could anything so sacred be a sin?

He stands and walks back to his desk. Upon it is piled the notes Elric took from his translations of the writings on Lyr.

His left hand still throbs from where Doroth had stabbed him. When he had lain abed while all his brothers went to battle a demon, he had turned over and over what he had learned, how much of recent history could have been manipulated by Ur-Durik. Had Ur-Durik whispered to Chancellor Vindar to make Selim Emperor? Had the demon made sure Markus Darek was exiled?

While he waits for Xan to return he thinks on it again and wonders if perhaps exiling Markus was the reason Ur-Durik had commanded Sarelik Darek to write in the book of the rules that luxoli was so great a crime.

A rule that had haunted Jemel’s life since he realised he desired such things.

A rule he had broken. Breaking that rule had changed everything. The first time, the tainted time in the library. And now, now he has Xan in his bed, giving him pleasure beyond anything he has dreamed of.

Some of Doroth’s words come back to him. He said the Five Fae Princes did not kill The King of the Earth. But when Jemel sorts through Elric's notes, he finds the place in his writing, it clearly says they did and used his blood to seal the vault.

So why is Doroth sure The King of the Earth isn’t dead? And hadn’t he said the King of the Earth became Zai? Which would mean the King of the Earth is Ur-Durik. Not some demon child hidden by its mother, but a great and powerful Bellator, perhaps the most powerful of them all. But Batreous did not know this. It is not written in the Books of Alios. Could Doroth have discovered this from Pershel? Is this the secret she knew, something she had confirmed when she read the words written on Lyr’s body?

But how did The King of the Earth survive and convince the Five Fae Princes that he was dead? Jemel looks up across the chamber to the mussed bed. He thinks of Xan, of the library, of Zai’s face becoming Atticul’s. And he sees it. It is so clear.

He needs to speak to Damon. But before he can, the door of his chamber opens.

And a Bride of Zai steps into the room. Jemel’s heart stutters. Of course he has never seen her, never seen more than her hands or her face behind that grill in the Chamber of the Immurite. To look upon her is a great sin.

But somehow, he seems to know her at first glance.

It takes him a moment to speak. He stares at the woman before he says, “Are you…?”

The Immurite nods. Jemel doesn’t even realise he is running to her until he is in her arms. She is thin, her body desperately frail. Her skin is pale and delicate as paper. But she smells like a home Jemel has never visited.

He lifts his head from her shoulder in time to see Xan stepping into the chamber, and closing the door.

“I’m sorry,” Jemel says. It comes out between sobs. “I am so sorry. I didn’t know. I didn’t know.”

“I know,” she says in her achingly familiar voice. “I wish I had told you sooner. But Doroth had twisted your mind so. By the time you were old enough to understand, I feared that knowledge would break you.”

“It did break me,” Jemel says, smiling as tears still fall. “But not completely.” He looks up at Xan, beckoning him closer. “Because of this man. This man is my lover. Xan of Pluma.”

“Xan of Pluma,” says the Immurite. She holds out a hand to him and Xan takes it and kisses her knuckles.

“I knew,” Jemel says to Xan in Plumian, “even when my world crumbled. I had you. Xan, I had you. Even if it took me too long to realise it.”

“No,” Xan says, “not too long. As long as you needed,” He kisses Jemel on the forehead.

Jemel looks past Xan to his mother. “How did you do this? How did you bring her here?”

“She came to your chambers. She was looking for you. So I fetched Heb from my ship to take care of her. Then I told Atticul they were a pair of pillow workers from Attar I had taken as my bedwarmers.”

Jemel’s mouth drops open. “My mother!”

“Baraboo,” Xan laughs. “I did not touch her.”

“And Atticul believed such a thing?”