Archive of Our Own

It was not that Vou'a was not allowed to play dominoes; no one would deny the god. But usually, when he appeared outside the barbershop on a chair or stump that had not been there a moment earlier, he was content to sit aside and watch others play. When Tovo was playing, Vou'a would make a show of staying out of the line of sight of his tiles. Tovo in turn took care not to look at his husband while deciding what tiles to play.

Occasionally Vou'a's chair would appear right beside the table, just as everyone was about to draw their tiles for the next game. Then the pattern of play would change, and usually the stakes would be smaller. Wagers might be marked with tobby nuts or small white auger shells, which each player would generally find in their pocket or heaped at their elbow. The play went more slowly as everyone paid close heed to the conversation, or to the patterns of the tiles. The rukà looked for constellations in the dots, and the efà for numbers and colours of beads, and the fenà for intersections of knots.

Very rarely, a player would find they had none of the appropriate stakes. Usually some other item or need had already been mentioned in conversation, so they would know what to wager - advice, a few hours of labour, a lesson for a troubled child. Once an apprenticeship was won, and grew into a valued partnership. Once a fine vaha was lost to a player who had been invited to play with the elders for the first time, and the a'alà had difficulty swallowing the loss but honoured the wager even so. The next week, the young winner sailed that vaha through a storm and saved three lives; and the week after that, lost the vaha back to the a'alà once more.

So, when their game ended and Lousa Nevan was about to gather up her dominoes into a string pouch, but suddenly there was a god at her elbow spreading the tiles out again, she just raised an eyebrow at Tovo. He tipped his head toward the barbershop, a promise that he would leave her nice domino set to be collected later. She left the pouch on the table, waved at Tovo and his husband, and headed on her way.

Tovo reached into his bilum - since his grass skirt had no pockets - and pulled out a handful of yellow flower petals. He grunted. "Not even kisses?"

Vou'a laughed. "Maybe later."

So Tovo wagered petals, and lost them to his husband in quick succession for the first three rounds.

"I saw your boy a bit ago," said Vou'a.

Tovo wondered who that might be. Quite a few young men had spent a season or so with him, learning some portion of the wisdom it was his duty to pass on. But aside from his nephew Lazo who was only a few steps away, there was just one that Tovo would have thought of as 'his' boy. "Kip was here a few months ago," he recalled. But it had been years since Kip talked with him beyond the most casual conversation.

"Last week, on Lesuia. At the market there."

The market? Tovo blinked. "Did you sell him something?"

His husband cackled. "Still tending his fire, your boy. Hungry to prove himself."

That was not what Tovo had been hearing of Kip from everyone else. But then, he would not trust anyone else's judgment so well. "He went away," Tovo said carefully. "Always thought he would come back. Then he did, but not to stay." He did not say I thought he was letting the fire go out, since it wasn't really true, but he had wondered, from time to time.

"Just waiting to be asked the right questions," said the Son of Laughter. "Or he was, a week ago. Something else could have happened, since then."

"Strange stories from Lesuia," Tovo noted. "About the lunar eclipse. About a velio poet. They say the Moon came down to visit."

More kookaburra laughter. "Who would not want to visit our beautiful islands?"

"And Kip was there?" The rumour was that the Moon Lady had been focused on one particular guest, a stranger to the island. How would encountering the Moon Lady change Kip, even if - or especially if - he was just as hungry to prove himself as he had been in his youth? "What did she say to him?"

"Perhaps you should ask his friends."

Tovo looked up to see his great-nephew Quintus approaching the shop, with a pack of velioi in tow. Vou'a hunched his shoulders and turned the tiles face-down and stirred them before drawing for the next round.

"Great-uncle Tovo!" said Quintus, sounding surprised as if he had never encountered an elder waiting by the barbershop before. He did give a proper bow with his hands folded together, at least.

Tovo squinted at him. "Eh, what's that? Who are all these people?"

"This is Kip's lord, Uncle. The one he works for. He's come to talk to Uncle Lazo."

Tovo waved. "Lazo's busy with a customer." He eyed the tall, dark-skinned man robed in white and silver. Velio clothes had meaning, and it so happened he knew that one. "Kip's lord is a wizard?" He had heard something connecting Kip to that famous poet visiting Lesuia.

"Yes, Uncle. He's come to the Islands on vacation." Quintus didn't offer a name, and looked ashamed for it.

The wizard made a very slight bow in Tovo's direction. The guards on either side of him, armed with spears and impressive muscles, looked scandalized by the small gesture.

Tovo considered demanding a proper introduction or even challenging the wizard with the traditional questions. But then he realized who this lord - and the lord's guards - reminded him of. "You look familiar," he said bluntly. "Maybe I've seen your portrait." If he was right, there was one just inside the barbershop.

The lord's amber eyes crinkled in amusement. That was different. "Very possibly," he said in a fancy velio accent.

Tovo lounged back against the wall of the shop and let his knees part a little further on the bench. The guards looked more alarmed. "I met your uncle, a long time ago."

The amusement faded from the amber eyes.

"He came to the Wide Seas on progress, when he was a young man. Before he was too important to be bothered with such things."

"At a certain point, it becomes more convenient to travel incognito," the lord admitted, smoothing his silver robe.

Tovo laughed.

"I hope your meeting was not unpleasant," the lord offered.

"Ey. That was a man who only knew how to take. Didn't know how to accept a gift when it was offered freely. I showed him a thing or two he didn't know how to take." Tovo wiggled his hips.

"Uncle Tovo!" Quintus objected.

Tovo brushed that away. "You treat my Kip better than that?"

"I certainly try to," said the lord. "In fact, that is why I'm here, to try to smooth Kip's path."

Tovo tipped his head, waiting.

The lord waved to Quintus to explain whatever the problem was.

The captain fumbled for what to say. "Ah, that is... a few days ago, Kip was marked by magic."

"As a result of saving my life," said the lord. "Saving me from drowning, in fact."

Tovo winced. "His father drowned, when Kip was a boy."

"So he told me," said the lord. "I am grateful not to have met the same fate. And I regret that Kip may suffer for rescuing me. I managed to avert the more serious part of the curse, but the markings remain."

"Gold patches on his skin," Quintus put in. "On his hands and around his mouth."

"We fear these effects may arouse speculation. We were told that Lazo - or perhaps you, Sayo Tovo - might be able to head off any problems as a result."

Tovo considered this while Quintus was whispering something about the correct way to address him. It wasn't a bad idea. If the Mdangs pulled close around Kip, no one else would dare to say a bad word. "Why didn't he come here himself?"

"I told him to spend the day with his mother," said the lord with a soft smile. "But in any case, I don't think it would occur to him to ask for help with this. He was prepared to accept a much steeper cost for aiding me, and he might consider damage to his reputation a minor matter. I don't."

Tovo nodded, starting to think of strategies. They could likely get the support of the Waleas, and Kip had friends among the Kindraa, Nevan, and Poye families. But it really would be better if Kip answered the challenge himself.

And then Vou'a turned to face the velioi. "What about the mark he gave you?"

The lord looked at Tovo's friend, and his eyes went wide and golden.

Vou'a stood and approached the lord. No one else moved. The birds had fallen silent. Vou'a poked a finger against the lord's chest, over his robes. "You bear the signs of the Moon Lady's rejected offer on your shoulders, and her broken chain upon your wrist. But Kip's promise shines bright over your heart. What did you give him in return?"

"Another mark," the lord said bitterly. But then he softened. "Not a curse mark, but a promise of protection."

"And so you come here to find out how to protect him." Vou'a turned to look at Tovo. Everyone else was still, silent, unblinking. "Throw him a party, to seal the promise. And to celebrate his promotion."

Tovo looked at the lord. "Promotion?"

"I plan to make him my Lord Chancellor."

Vou'a cackled and patted the lord on the cheek, untroubled by his jerk backwards. "You take good care of Tovo's boy, then. And tell him to wear the efela I gave him." Then he stepped back.

Quintus jumped. The guards shouted and pointed their spears at the person who had just touched their untouchable lord.

The lord raised his hand, and the guard who was beginning to lunge thrust his spear against an invisible wall.

Vou'a collected his flower petals, gave Tovo a lingering wet kiss, and walked away, still laughing.

"My lord!" gasped the guard who had nearly dropped his spear. "Are you all right? What was that?"

"A local deity, I believe." He looked at Tovo. "A trickster god?"

Quintus choked.

"Son of Laughter. God of caves and mysteries. Raiser of islands," Tovo said, touching his swollen lower lip.

"You do have the most astonishing taste, Sayo Tanà. I can see where Kip gets his fearlessness." The lord shook his head in wonder and then turned to his guards. "Are you all right, Varro? Did you hurt your wrist?"

"My lord, what -"

"I thought it best to prevent you from giving insult. I doubt you could have scratched him in any case."

The other guard spoke. "But what did he do to you, my lord? One moment he was sitting, and then he was standing right in front of you! Did he touch you?"

"He gave me some advice, that was all. I am not even discomposed, as I was by the Moon Lady."

Quintus started. "I heard a rumour about that. It was you she came for?"

Tovo raised an eyebrow at the lord. "You're still here."

"I persuaded her to let me stay." The lord frowned. "But it was her gifts that led to the, ah, consequences Kip is facing now. I gather from what your friend said, you'll be able to help?"

Tovo nodded and turned to where Lazo was standing astonished in the doorway of the barbershop. "We're going to throw a feast for Kip." He considered. "Might have to lend him some finery."

Kip was deeply frustrated by the time he escaped his mother's house. He had tried in the past to explain his job - to explain that the lord he worked for was, in fact, the Emperor - but his attempts had always been misunderstood as some form of joke or misdirection, or he had been interrupted with the news of some relative's marriage or new baby or new boat. He hadn't pushed hard, then. Perhaps he should have pushed, but one or two scolds for boasting had gone a long way to persuading him to keep quiet.

This time he had been determined to make it plain. His mother had asked about the marks on his face, and he had explained carefully that there were magical taboos against touching the Emperor. But he had needed to touch his lord in order to save him from drowning. Everyone had understood the part about the drowning rescue, with exclamations of concern for both Kip and his lord. But then they asked again why he had the gold marks, unable to make some critical connection.

He had actually said, "My lord is the Last Emperor, Emperor Artorin," and Mama and Aunt Oura and Vinyë had exchanged confused glances as if there was something else they had expected him to say, and he was not following the script.

So he had asked after Vinyë's job, and heard about the special concert her symphony had played just a few nights ago, and said he was sorry to have missed it. He had asked about Mama's health, and Aunt Oura's monograph, and Zemius' book, and little Dora's toy collection. And he had left as soon as he politely could, not before they stuffed him with food.

He was tempted to go back to the Dolphin, to see if he could find Tor and spend some time with him. This was the last day they would be permitted to touch each other, before the taboos re-asserted themselves at midnight. Since after all he was only a temporary concubine. He blinked back a surprising flood of lustful images that came to mind at that thought. But he had been told - ordered in the Imperial Voice, in fact - to spend the day with his family and friends. So he headed for Uncle Lazo's shop instead, encountering four other relatives along the way who all wanted to exclaim over his surprising choice of cosmetics.

The barbershop was closed, in the middle of the day. There wasn't even anyone idling outside playing dominoes. Cliopher stood tapping a count of days against his thigh, trying to think if there was some festival he had forgotten about, but he couldn't recall anything significant. So he went around the side and up the stairs and knocked on the kitchen door.

Aunt Onaya greeted him with a hug and a kiss, exclaimed over his face ("Does it hurt? Oh good, I'm so relieved. Will it wear off?") but would only say vaguely of Lazo, "Oh, he and Tovo have some project they're working on."

"Buru Tovo is in town?" Kip's heart twinged. He really should talk to the old man properly, some time. He could have used some of Tovo's gentle advice. But if he couldn't make his mother and sister understand his position, he didn't suppose he would have much better luck with his great-uncle, who was very hard of hearing these days.

"I'm sure they'll be happy to see you later, dear," Aunt Onaya told him.

But I won't be here later, Kip thought. He thanked his aunt, accepted a pastry, and left.

He was threading through the narrow pathways between businesses along the Saloa lagoon when someone called, "Kip!"

He turned, expecting another cousin to give an opinion on his 'lipstick' and hoping at best that it might be someone he could ask about what Lazo was working on. But instead he found his old friends Toucan and Ghilly smiling at him. "Kip, you're here again. Is this your third holiday in a year? But we missed you on the last one - we had to hear about it from Bertie!" Ghilly hugged him.

"Yes, my lord has been very generous. He's in town as well, in fact. It's his vacation."

Ghilly's eyes widened dramatically. "Oh, do we get to meet your lord at last?! You've been so secretive, not telling us his name..."

"I work for the Emperor," he said as plainly as he could, knowing what was coming next.

Toucan nudged him playfully. "Yes, we've heard that one before. It's a convenient excuse. Doesn't everyone in the Palace work for the Emperor? But what about your own lord?"

A group of people jostled past on the walkway, and Ghilly exclaimed, "Oh, let's go somewhere we can sit down and have a moment of peace! We haven't had a proper talk in ages, Kip, even though you were here earlier in the year."

So they went to his cousin Erno's cafe, where Kip sipped blissfully at a long black. It was only when Erno asked about Kip's face that he realized Toucan and Ghilly hadn't commented on it at all. He did catch Ghilly looking at his hands a time or two, but when she spoke to him she always looked him in the eyes.

He had thought they would return to pressing him about his lord, and not accepting the truth when he said it, but instead they spoke comfortably about their daughter's studies, Cora's latest project, Bertie's retirement, their own plans in that direction.

"What about you, Kip, will you be retiring soon?" Ghilly asked earnestly.

He smiled. "I'm five years behind you, remember."

Toucan laughed. "Is that a promise? Can we expect you to show up in five years with a—I don’t know, what do they give long-standing civil servants in Solaara?”

"Isn't it a watch?" Erno asked, dropping off a fresh round and collecting their empties.

"Surely Kip's moved past the watch level," Ghilly protested. "He must have earned at least a clock."

Toucan shook his head. "He works for the Emperor, you know! An orrery would be more appropriate."

"Or a sundial," Ghilly said, as they all laughed. "Can we really start making plans for five years from now, Kip?"

He shook his head, smiling. "It may be a bit longer than five years, but I have begun to... consider the matter." He sobered, remembering the conversation he had had - was it only two nights ago? - with his Radiancy.

I will need to ennoble you, his Radiancy had said, and offered to make him Duke of Ikiano. And Cliopher had thought then that execution might be easier to explain to his family.

Now he was even more acutely aware of how difficult they found it to accept his current position, much less a Chancellorship, as his Radiancy had eventually settled upon.

Kip shook himself back to the present, back to his friends. "I will have a great deal of work to do before reaching that point, but yes. It does seem to be a possibility for the future.

"Well, that sounds like cause for celebration!" Toucan said, rubbing his hands together. "As it happens, we've been invited to a party on Itulokia Beach this evening. We're meeting Bertie there, will you come?"

"This evening?" Cliopher had expected to spend the evening with his Radiancy - with Tor - although he had not been told to attend upon him until after dinner, which was a nebulous time. "I'm not sure if -"

"Oh, come with us just for a bit, and if it's boring we can leave early," Ghilly assured him, standing and tugging at his hand.

So Kip found himself being led along the boardwalk toward the Son, as the afternoon drew toward sunset.

"Oh! It looks like someone else is already having a party here," said Kip as they approached the beach. People were bustling on the sand, arranging chairs and stacking wood for a fire - two fires, in fact, bracketing an open space. He frowned.

"No, this is us," said Toucan mildly. "You're definitely invited."

"Is Bertie here?" Kip looked up to the top of the beach near the trees, where a number of chairs, the sort generally reserved for elderly family members, were being arranged in an arc.

"He said he had to fetch something for the party," Ghilly said. "Cora's coming too, so we'll have to watch she doesn't clash with Irela."

There were two taller chairs set slightly apart from the rest at the center of the arc, a common arrangement for a wedding celebration. Kip tried to think which relative had recently gotten married. In the afternoon sunlight, one of the chairs almost looked gilded.

No, he realized with a shock, it was gilded. Someone had brought the Emperor's chair from the town hall. Or perhaps from Princess Oriana's palace, just up the slope of the Son. Next to it stood a plainer chair with the back a bit lower, but the seat was at the same height. Suddenly the spacing between those two chairs and all the rest took on a different meaning. Was it for guards to maintain taboo distance?

The two chairs of honour did have flowers waiting upon them, appropriate for a newly-married couple. And certainly that was far more likely than that anyone was expecting to host an Emperor and -

- Someone they considered comparable to an Emperor in some way.

"Your cousin Quintus invited us," Ghilly said brightly. "But we suspect he was acting on behalf of someone else. Oh, there's your uncle!"

Kip saw his Uncle Lazo turning away from the nascent bonfire. Was this the 'project' he had been working on all day?

"Oh here you are, Kip!" Lazo exclaimed.

"What is this for?"

"A feast for you and your new fanoa."

Wait. "What?" Cliopher's head swam. How had Uncle Lazo known exactly what he wanted, what he had secretly desired for so long? And now it seemed so close to truth, but this was only a temporary situation. "You mean for my lord?" was all he could say in response.

But Lazo just nodded. "Your lord, then. He came to us and said you needed to gather people for some big announcement. Having to do with those magic marks on your face. Let's have a look at you, then."

Kip lifted his chin automatically for Lazo to see better. He studied them very somberly, without the knowing smirk that too many people had shown in their examinations, but other people were also coming close for a look.

"Sharing air, I heard? I see that." Lazo's circling gesture encompassed Kip's lips. "And your hands, that makes sense. And the back of your head."

"I know what it looks like," Kip said resignedly. He thought that actually getting to kiss Tor ought to make it easier to accept the rumours that were inevitably going to fly about the marks - both here in Gorjo City and back at the Palace of Stars. Yet he still felt insulted at the suggestion that he would have taken such a terrible risk for mere lust, or any cause less urgent than saving his Radiancy's life. But no one here knew that he had put the entire family at risk with his actions, or that the alternative had seemed to be his own execution.

And he couldn't say any of that to Lazo.

"It looks," said Lazo slowly and a bit loudly, "like you were trying desperately to save a cursed man from drowning. And almost shared in his curse too, from what I hear. But you were successful, and that's what really matters."

The watchers gave a murmur of approval and made a show of turning away.

"How did you hear all that?" Kip asked.

"Oh, Quintus came by the shop earlier, with your... lord. We're all glad to help you spread the news, get the story straight."

Kip gaped. "Is that what this party is for?"

"And your lord has some sort of announcement to make, I think," said Lazo.

"Would that be his name?" Toucan asked.

Cliopher thought dizzily of Tor's other name, the one he hadn't been entrusted with yet. But that wouldn't, surely, be a matter for a public announcement. Of course Lazo had to be referring to the fact that his Radiancy was actually the intended occupant of the gilded chair. And perhaps the Chancellorship. Would that be announced? It seemed as if this had all been planned, in the course of half a day, without Cliopher's knowledge.

"Or maybe something about you. Or the both of you?" Lazo continued brightly.

Cliopher's heart sank. There must have been some miscommunication somewhere. Whatever announcement was actually planned, the people being gathered here thought it was going to be something else instead. The chairs had been set out as if to honour a newly-married couple. Weddings in the Vangavaye-ve were often a private matter, a quiet heartfelt ceremony between two people with at most a few witnesses for the sake of legality. Wedding parties, on the other hand, could draw in huge gatherings of family and friends. And someone had believed that was what was happening here.

He opened his mouth to correct Lazo's misconception - to try to persuade him to tell everyone else who would show up here that it wasn't what they expected - but just then another figure appeared at his side.

"There you are, boy. About time you showed up."

Cliopher turned in surprise to find Buru Tovo at his elbow and bent numbly to touch foreheads with him. He hadn't seen the old man the last few times he came to visit, and he hadn't spoken to him properly in - oh, it must have been years. But he always felt a little ember of hope or excitement kindle in his chest when he saw the old Lorekeeper. Perhaps this time Buru Tovo would finally ask - would acknowledge -

"So, this is what the fuss is all about, ey?" Tovo was looking critically at Kip's face, and he caught hold of one hand to study it when Kip would have stepped away.

"Quintus told you how I, ah..." Kip wondered when the explanation would start to get easier with practice.

"Had to save your lord from drowning, I heard," said Tovo. "That's a good thing. Do they hurt?"

"No. Not now, and not when I got them."

"Another good thing. But what are you wearing, boy? That's not proper finery. Here, put this on."

Kip looked down to find his great-uncle was holding a grass skirt, apparently freshly woven in the Mdang patterns. The leaves were dyed, though, which was not something Buru Tovo would ordinarily bother with. Someone had chosen a combination of red and orange - fire colours - with a pale sky blue to offset them. The colours were soft, muted rather than saturated. Bright enough for a special occasion without being excessively flashy, Kip hoped.

That, strangely, implied that the colours had been chosen especially for Cliopher, which made no sense at all.

"Go on, then," Tovo urged, pushing the skirt towards him.

Kip looked around at the growing crowd.

"There's a spot over there if you're too fancy for us to see your naked backside now. And take off that shirt!"

Bewildered, Kip carried the skirt back behind the trees. This beach was used often enough for parties that a row of latrines had been plumbed in, with woven privacy screens between them. Kip pulled off his light linen trousers and wrapped the skirt around his waist, fingers finding the same knots Buru Tovo had taught him to make so many years ago. It was a perfect fit.

More reluctantly, he pulled off the cotton shirt he had been wearing. After the weeks at Navikiani, particularly the days spent swimming, his skin had lost the sallow cast of a Palace-bound bureaucrat. But it wasn't his tan that he was shy about. And the marks on his hands and face had already been on display to everyone he met. It was the final mark, in the center of his chest, that worried him. But there was nothing he could do about that. He would just have to face the stares.

He emerged from behind the latrines to find Rhodin loitering just around the corner, in casual clothes without a spear to hand.

"How did you find me here?" Cliopher gasped.

"We sent your friends to bring you," Rhodin said matter of factly. "Give me those, and you're to put this on as well." He passed Cliopher a cloth-wrapped packet in return for the shirt and trousers, which he folded neatly over his arm.

Cliopher pulled back the patterned cloth to find the necklace of amber cowries he had bought at the market on Lesuia. "This is - I can't -"

"His Radiancy says you're to wear it, and your great-uncle wants to see it." Rhodin gave him a thoughtful look. "And if you looked ready to object, I was to tell you..."

"Yes?"

"The whole retirement scheme is going to hang on your reputation."

Cliopher took a breath. "Right." If he couldn't stare down lascivious speculation from friends and relatives in Gorjo City, what was he going to do when he received the same thing from the Council of Princes? He unwrapped the efela and lifted it over his head, adjusting the loops carefully. If he spaced them just right, they might hide the sun-in-glory on his sternum.

Rhodin glanced at Cliopher's grass skirt. "Is that enough to satisfy -" A wave of his hand encompassed the beach and all the people on it. "Or do you need feathers? Paint, like Jiano had at the market day?"

"I don't know," Cliopher told him. "Nobody warned me about this. If it were a festival, or a... some other celebration, then yes. But paint can take hours to do properly."

Rhodin grinned. "Conju would have liked that. But he was busy enough today."

Cliopher's heart skipped a beat. "Is he -" Well, of course his Radiancy was going to attend, that was obvious from the gilded chair. "Is he here already?"

"Not yet."

As soon as they stepped onto the beach, Vinyë popped up and handed Cliopher a pair of woven shell-studded armbands with the greenery already threaded into them.

"Is someone waiting to ambush me with a headdress?" he asked her.

"No time to make one," she told him, "but there are flower crowns if you like!"

Of course, the wedding flowers waiting on the chairs. People seemed to have a lot of different ideas about what this party was actually about. He wondered how many of them would be disappointed by whatever it eventually turned into.

"You look magnificent, Kip!"

He turned around to find Toucan and Ghilly grinning at him. "You tricked me," he growled at them.

"Yes!" said Ghilly, winding her arm into his. "And didn't we do a good job of it?"

"Is Bertie even here?"

"Yes, he's bringing a -"

"Here he is." Toucan pointed down the beach toward the water.

"Well, who's this who comes out of the sunrise?" Ghilly asked rhetorically. "Or sunset, as the case may be."

Approaching from the direction of the descending sun was a strange group of small craft. Kip recognized the little single-hulled canoe that Bertie kept tucked along the side of his yacht for reaching islands where no dock reached deep enough. Bertie was paddling it in front, with (Kip thought) one of his teenaged sons behind. On the other side was the canoe that had ferried the Imperial party in pairs from Navikiani out to the Golden Pearl, with Quintus in front and -

"Is that Cora?" Ghilly asked, squinting. "I had a feeling she would be drawn into this."

"At least she isn't in Bertie's boat," Toucan pointed out. "Don't borrow trouble, love."

"I don't have to," Ghilly grumbled under her breath.

Kip was still trying to make out what was being towed in between the two canoes. It was a double-hulled vaha, but in bad shape. One of the two masts was broken, and only tatters hung from the other mast, barely enough to show that it had been woven from leaves instead of cloth. "Oh! Is that -"

Toucan was watching him closely. "Quintus said, if someone would help him bring it from behind the toka warehouses, you'd have a story to tell about how it got there."

After a minute while they all stared at the three boats heading for the beach, Ghilly added, "He also said, if you were too shy he would tell the story for you."

"Oh!" Cliopher blinked rapidly.

The little vaha, once many hands had helped pull it to shore, proved to be in bad shape. There were barnacles and algae on the underside, water stains on the inside, wood half-rotted in places. But it was recognizably his.

"You went through typhoons in this?" Rhodin asked incredulously.

"It seemed larger at the time." Cliopher touched one of the carvings he had made on the prow, blurred from years of neglect. "Tui-tanata, I called her."

He looked up to see Buru Tovo heading his way, his eyes focused unerringly on the boat. Kip felt a stab of anxiety, but just then Vinyë called him from higher up the beach. "Mama's here!"

As guest of honour, he went to greet his mother, who had her lips tightly pressed together. "Why didn't you tell me about this? You might have invited me yourself."

"I didn't even know about it, Mama, it was set up as a surprise for me. Here, we have a chair set aside for you." He led her to the one next-nearest to the gilded chair, on the opposite side from its plainer companion.

Eidora was still grumbling about how Kip never did things properly when Conju appeared. He bowed over her hand, murmured a soothing greeting to her, and turned his attention to the gilded chair, using a cloth to wipe down the seat. This attracted little attention at first, but slowly conversations began to fall silent as people turned to look at Conju. And then turned to look where Conju was looking.

The sun was nearly touching the water now. The two big bonfires were just being lit. And descending the path from up the hill came Commander Omo in full impressive panoply including jewels and ostrich feathers and leopard kilt, all glowing golden in the sun. Behind him, four guards in the same uniform carried a litter they must have taken from the provincial palace. On the litter lounged his Radiancy, looking particularly regal in white silk that fairly glowed, with an overrobe of Imperial yellow, his fingers and toes and eyelids painted gold, and a golden circlet on his dark brow.

Ludvic paused where the path opened onto the sand of the beach. In the absence of a floor to thump and a door to fling open, he did an impressive whirling flourish with his spear that made the golden tip flash in the light, before planting it solidly on the sand. "His Serene and Radiant Holiness, the Sun-on-Earth, the Lord of Rising Stars, the Last Emperor of Astandalas and Lord of Zunidh!"

The people crowded on the beach went down into prostration as the litter approached them. Cliopher helped his mother out of her chair so that she could kneel. Zerafin, Oginu, Elish and Ato carried the litter to the open space just in front of the gilded chair, then knelt as one and lowered the platform to the exact height for his Radiancy to step off with no apparent effort. He stepped up to the gilded chair, turned around, and said "Rise," in a voice that spread all the way down to the water.

Everyone rose, watching in dead silence as Elish and Oginu carried the litter off while Zerafin and Ato took places on either side of his Radiancy. Ludvic stood directly behind the gilded chair.

"Cliopher."

"My lord."

"Will you present your companions, Cliopher? This lady must be your mother."

Cliopher smiled and went through the list of all his friends and relatives standing nearby, beginning with his mother. The first introductions included only the people who were standing nearest them, but by the time he had completed those, a few more had approached.

"Tanà Tovo and Tanà Lazo I have already met," his Radiancy said with smiles for each of them. "And this young man must be the one who has contemplated following you into the service?"

"Indeed, my lord. Vinyë's son, my nephew Gaudenius."

"And what is your ambition?"

Gaudy swallowed, bowed belatedly, then looked at Cliopher and straightened his shoulders. "I would enter into your service, Glorious One, and surpass even my uncle's position."

"It is a worthy ambition. Though perhaps we should tell you, as it appears he has not, that it would be difficult to surpass your uncle's position."

Gaudy gaped at him.

His Radiancy spoke in a clear, carrying voice. "The Secretary in Chief of the Private Offices of the Lords of State, the Hands of the Emperor, your beloved kinsman, came to our rescue five days ago when we were trapped underwater. At considerable risk to himself, as demonstrated by his visible scars, he shared his own breath to keep us alive, while also providing critical knowledge to release the trap that held us. This act of skill and bravery comes atop his many other excellences and achievements, for which the proper honours have long been delayed. We take this opportunity to bestow upon him the title of Lord Chancellor of Zunidh, which position he has fulfilled for many years without formal acknowledgment. Lord Mdang, you may come take your seat beside us."

"Now, your worship - ah - your Serene Holiness, take that flower crown off the top of Kip's chair." Aunt Oura stepped forward, pointing, and Ato tipped his spear to bar her path. "Yes, yes, calm down, young man, I'm not going to touch. But you can touch Kip, is that right, your Holiness?"

"I can. You may address me as 'my lord.'"

"Of course, ah, my lord. Thank you. Now Kip, you have the crown from your lord's chair. So you place that one on his head, and he -"

"Ah, has this been purified?" Cliopher asked doubtfully, searching for Conju and finding him shaking his head no.

"It will not be a problem," said his Radiancy, lifting the other crown of flowers to sniff. "Truly. My sense of the taboos is particularly acute now. Go ahead." He did not, of course, dip his head for Cliopher to settle the flowers on top, but he did perhaps slouch just a little to make it easier.

"Good. Now, my lord, you place that one on Kip's head -"

"We're not actually married, Aunt Oura," Cliopher said through his teeth, but he held still for the flowers.

"That's not what the matching marks on your chests say, young man," she returned tartly, as if he were no older than Gaudy.

Kip looked down to see that the ranks of cowries had parted so that instead of covering the sun-in-glory mark on his chest, they now framed it. Then he looked at his Radiancy and realized that the white silk under-robe, like the Imperial yellow over-robe, was parted in the center to show a dark strip of skin with a very Mdang emblem of a flame in a shell right in the center.

"You didn't say it was from a curse!" Dora breathed, crawling into Kip's lap the better to see his hands. "It's pretty. Did the Moon Lady do that to you?"

"Indirectly."

"What does that mean?"

"The Moon Lady did something that caused my lord to be trapped underwater. I had to touch him in order to free him so that he wouldn't drown. Touching him caused the gold marks."

"Oh. Does it hurt?"

"No."

"Will it go away?"

"I don't think so."

She turned her head to look at his Radiancy. "If I touch you, will I turn gold?"

He restrained a flinch. "No."

Kip caught her hand in his even though she wasn't reaching out. "It isn't safe. We were underwater when I touched him."

"Oh. Is it like the statues in the temple? Someone tried to steal the statue from the Sea Temple, and he was all smoke afterward. It smelled like a pig roast."

"I hope not," said his Radiancy fervently.

"What kind of yellow is that?"

There was food, and drink. Cliopher accepted a laden plate and then looked over to see that Conju had come prepared this time, with appropriately purified plates and cups and utensils. With a wooden face, Conju held out a gilded teacup for someone to pour rum into, and then handed it to Cliopher to hand to his Radiancy.

"Kip!" Quintus bellowed. "Come tell us the story of your boat!"

Cliopher glanced at his Radiancy, who nodded, then rose to walk down the sand. "It's really a long story," he began.

"And we have a fire ready right here. Everyone wants to hear it!"

There was a chorus of affirmation.

"You didn't tell us this when you came home," Buru Tovo said into the silence.

"No."

"You didn't tell anyone."

"No."

"Why not?"

"I didn't want to boast. Grandmother was..." Kip rubbed at his eyes. "I don't know. It didn't seem to be part of the same world that all of you were living in. Everything I was so afraid of turned out not to be true - well, nearly everything - and you didn't need my help. It seemed like it was all... for nothing."

"Honneria says," Quintus began, his voice husky. Then he coughed and spoke more loudly. "My weather wizard, who was called to consult with the Lord Magus himself - that's the Emperor, you know - she's been saying for years that the first ship to get through to the Ring broke the wall of storms, but it was all the hundreds of unknown ships that tried the journey before that that weakened the wall enough for the first one to get through." He looked around. "Well, it turns out this little vaha was all of those ships - the ones that tried over and over, and the first one to get through!"

A roar of approval drowned out Kip's attempt to explain that Captain Figar's ship had really been the first.

"The fire dance," Buru Tovo said when it was quieter again.

"Yes."

"It's not a map."

"It's more than a map. It's a story. It's... the islands, and the sea, the directions and the stars, the currents and the winds and the birds and the fish... all of those are in there."

"And when is the last time you danced it?"

Kip swallowed. "My job in the Palace really doesn't allow -"

"Forgotten it all, have you?"

His spine stiffened. "No!"

"Show me then. The middle passage."

Cliopher looked around, at the people milling on the beach, at the fires which were still too lively for coals, at the sand humped by footprints. "The stars aren't right," he began.

"Practice, Kip. Nothing wrong with a bit of practice," Lazo put in. He began to hum.

Tovo planted his feet at an angle, right in the center between the two bonfires, braced his hands on his thighs, and grinned. "Think you can outdance an old man?"

In the teeth of that challenge, Kip had to face off with him. The greater fire dance was not designed for two people, but the mirror-image version used for teaching the steps would work well enough for practice, as long as they were at the wrong celebration in the wrong time and position anyway.

Lazo sang for them and kept the rhythm on his thighs while they started the middle passage - easy at first as they warmed up, but then growing to the most challenging section of the dance. Kip forgot a step here and there, but he had Tovo right before him as a reminder. Soon their breath was coming quick as they turned and leapt in unison. The occasional tremble in Tovo's legs was hardly noticeable; he still placed his feet with perfect precision. Then Kip charged forward several steps, the correct move for the dance itself but forgetting the mirror-image practice variation. He stopped inches before colliding with Buru Tovo, and they caught each other by the arms, laughing. Lazo stopped singing and brought them some guava juice while they caught their breath.

"You're right, Buru, I still can't keep up with you," Kip confessed.

Tovo poked him in the chest. "Practice. You make the time. Be ready the next time you come home."

"I will, Buru."

"Kip! Is that the efela I heard about - oh!" Mardo Walea bent close to study the cowries in the firelight.

"I bartered for it on Lesuia," he said self-consciously.

"What did you promise, to get that many sundrop cowries?" Mardo gasped. "How many are there?"

"Forty-nine. I..." Kip looked around at all the people listening closely. "I said I would bring home the hearth-fire of a new life for the world." He lifted a hand to the ranks of shells. "I wasn't certain I should wear it, if I haven't fulfilled the promise yet, but..."

"You wear it to show you're holding to that promise," Buru Tovo told him. "Stay focused, boy."

"Yes, Buru."

"Will you come show it to my grandfather, Kip? We might have something at the shop you need to see."

"Kip!" Zemius bustled into the open area before the chairs. "I wish I had known about this party earlier! I would have rescheduled my tutoring session. Is it true what they're saying? That a curse from the Moon Lady forced you to marry Fi-" He froze, eyes going wide.

"The Emperor," he said weakly, and fainted.

"So he really is the Emperor?" Vinyë hissed at him. "That isn't just a, a saying?"

"Yes, he's really the Emperor. Do you think the Imperial Guard would participate in an imposture?"

"No, of course they wouldn't, but... he's not... someone else?"

Cliopher looked from his sister in the chair next to him, to Toucan and Ghilly and Bertie all standing nearby with the same puzzled expressions on their faces. "Someone else?" He glanced over to his Radiancy, within arm's reach, who was speaking to Zemius on his other side and pretending he couldn't hear the confused conversation Cliopher was having.

"We had the impression that your lord was a particular person," said Ghilly in a low voice. She was apparently trying to imply something without saying it, but Cliopher had no idea what that was. "You mean he isn't?"

"Isn't who? I really don't know what you're talking about."

Vinyë leaned closer. "Well, he's the one that Jiano Delanis was talking about, isn't he? The one who played the harp so beautifully he called down the Moon, and then refused when she invited him to come away with her?"

"That's not exactly how - well, yes, I suppose it's close enough." It hadn't precisely been Tor's music that had called the Moon, but his prayer and, apparently, some former acquaintance that Cliopher hadn't quite been able to fathom just yet.

"And then the Moon tried to curse him to drown? That was what Quintus said," Ghilly put in eagerly.

The memory made Cliopher reached out blindly, finding Tor's hand just a few inches from his own and twining their fingers together. He saw Toucan register the motion, even as he felt the reinforcement of Tor's affection and his genuine interest in whatever Zemius was telling him. "Yes. That is true."

"So, then," Vinyë pressed, "isn't he actually Fitzroy Angursell?"

"What?" But it wasn't Cliopher's startlement at the absurd suggestion that stole all further thought from his mind; it was Tor's deep shock of recognition, then sudden wild delight, followed by a recoil of fear that made Cliopher turn his head to stare at his lord.

Who was staring back at him in shared realization. Then he burst into laughter and let go of Kip's hand. It was too late; Cliopher had already noted that the laughter was delight rather than mockery. He struggled to regain his composure.

Vinyë shoved back onto her chair in disappointment. "Well, all right, I suppose it is a bit ridiculous. Your man Rhodin tried to tell us it wasn't true. But it seemed to make so much sense, and he didn't give us anything else to replace it with!"

"You mustn't blame Ser Rhodin," his Radiancy told her, looking somewhat more Radiant than Serene at the moment. "Those were the orders I gave him, now rendered obsolete by circumstance."

Cliopher mustered his words. "Jiano... did not have the entire story. His wife Aya drew the wrong conclusion from the presence of so many of the Imperial Guard."

"I still don't understand why she thought we would take a political prisoner on vacation!" Conju huffed indignantly.

Vinyë sighed. "All right, I suppose you would know. But it was such a delightful story. I hope I will hear you play the harp some day, my lord." She saluted his Radiancy with her glass.

"Perhaps," his Radiancy murmured too low for anyone beyond Cliopher to hear, "it's time we should be going."

Somehow, it seemed, the party had provided something to fulfill the expectations of almost everyone. And they still got free with several hours to go before midnight.

Several hours when they could still touch each other, hands clasped as they walked through the city back to the Dolphin. Kip's simmering roil of confusion-bafflement-denial-delight-confusion was met steadily by Tor's - Fitzroy's? - gentle-happy-amusement-reassurance.

Their touch didn't convey the thoughts which were driving those circling emotions, as Kip repeatedly thought of clues he should have picked up on and hadn't - The harp! The Moon! Fourteen years of freedom! - and repeatedly scolded himself for being so thick. There was so much he wanted to ask!

But questions could wait. First, they had a few hours to do something else, before touch was an impossibility again. They could talk later.

Behind them, on the beach, the party continued.