Hounds of the Princess

Chapter 10

Note: not only is Wink still in her uncomfortable situation, but there is some more violence and forced shapeshifting in this chapter.

They came into Menvar through the same streets Nefri had been carried out. This time, she could look around, and did.

The overwhelming impression was of merchants. Merchants selling rugs, merchants selling figs, garlic, fish, flatbread—Aeret stopped to buy some flatbread for breakfast, slathered too much hummus on his half, and offered the rest to Nefri and Wink. Wink gobbled hers like the dog she was, attracting some looks for the noises she made. "We have to do something about her," Nefri said.

Aeret looked sour—even more sour than his resting expression. "I don't know how to fix her. The only time I ever changed the shape of an animal, I killed it."

Nefri put her arm around Wink protectively. Wink butted her with her head. "Sorcerers go around doing things like this? I mean, it's . . ."

"Grotesque? Yes. It was an emergency." His flat tone implied that he wasn't going to talk about it further—maybe. Aeret always sounded like he was on the edge of insulting someone, and Nefri was consistently unsure whether he meant it or not. "There's the palace," Aeret went on. It was unmistakable, a white-walled structure rising above even the temples. "You look like yourself now; you should be able to get an audience with—the Emperor."

Nefri wondered what he had been planning to say. Jedeharas, perhaps? It was just barely possible that Aeret might call the Emperor by name, leaving off the title. After all, he wasn't calling her your Imperial Highness. After everything she'd been through, Nefri didn't have the heart to object. "What am I going to say about you?" she said. "And Wink?"

"Wink can be a servant. Me—tell them I had a dream. A dream of two snakes, one good and one evil, and the Imperial family caught in the battle between them. I saw you in danger, I saw—the Empress in danger—" He was quiet for a moment. "It even happens to be true."

Nefri absorbed this. "You're telling me that the gods sent you," she said. "To save me."

"To save Khemtesh, more likely. Have you thought about what the Empire would become under Sutayasekhar?"

"More Amunreyists," Nefri said.

Aeret blinked. "Amunreyists?"

"They were made slaves without a term, Aeret. Slaves forever, because some members of their strange little cult plotted against the High Priest. That's the sort of thing Thassio does, and Thassio taught Sek. And—I never really knew what it was to be a slave, because all the slaves in the palace are just a lower sort of servant, but one day of it—" Her voice was shaky. She felt like crying, just thinking about Werankh. Wink made an inquiring whine in her throat and head-butted Nefri again, worried. "I'm going to stop it," Nefri said. "When I'm queen, I'm going to free the Amunreyists—free everyone that I can. But if Sek rules, he's going to find more groups that he can call traitors, and enslave them, and use magic on them, and it would be—"

"The Empire," Aeret said softly, "would become more powerful than ever. And hated. Utterly despised throughout history, a byword for captivity and bondage. There are times when I think—"

"What?" Nefri said, when he didn't continue.

"A vision I had a long time ago. That's all."

"I am Princess Nefri-kes-neshmet, daughter of Hethareresi, and I require immediate audience with the Emperor. Take us to him at once."

It came out as a ringing declaration, confident and fearless. Nefri was glad. She didn't feel like that on the inside.