Chapter 34

Enila wasn't as far as Zarkin thought it'll be.

The city was built on a hill and, due to the exceptionally high wall surrounding it, gave the impression of an inaccessible fortress. After a week spent there, the boy felt almost like he had traveled to a completely unknown land. Residents were completely cut off from any news from outside other than that permitted by the governor who was a member of the Righteous Conspiracy. Zarkin wanted to see him, but couldn't

It so happened, however, that shortly after his arrival he had the opportunity to get to know another member of Conspiracy, named Raian. He didn't reveal that he is a Scribe, although he didn't try to hide that he knew more than the average traveler either.

They met in a rather peculiar way. Zarkin was informed by the owner of the house in which he rented the room that he should pay double or move out after a week's stay. Raian then offered to take him to the inn run by his parents. Zarkin agreed after prolonged persuasion, but with some caution.

Raian had just begun studying in the Righteous Conspiracy and was very curious about the world. Therefore, he spent almost all his free time talking to Zarkin. He did not mind language difficulties at all. Raian wasn't bad at strangers, he shared his knowledge like a young Scribe and was very jealous of his guest's travel opportunities. He even promised to take Zarkin to Yagn-Mao, but later he seemed to have forgotten it.

Zarkin's main task was to gather information about the upcoming war, which he intended to do when he became certain that a new friend already trusted him sufficiently. However, he didn't expect Raian would want to share information so quickly. He returned home and immediately knocked on the guest room.

"His Imperial Majesty Naimoor will take power soon. There will be many festivities in his honor, even here. Will you stay to see them?"

"Wasn't he crowned already?" Zarkin answered the question with a question.

The boy nodded, perplexed.

"His Imperial Highness will now gain full power. During the coronation, he only gets some of the rights, and then, after the soul of the old emperor enters the afterlife and lives in the house of the Huangjin dynasty, the ceremony ends."

"These rules are terribly strange," said Zarkin, "and what will he do after he is fully emperor?"

"Probably what he planned for long. He will make contact with At'insha. That's what masters said today.

"Ah," Zarkin tried to look indifferent as much as he could. "Will he conquer Sekania before to gain access to the sea?"

"How did you know?" Raian smiled brightly.

"How else will you get to At'insha? With the wind? Well, Galaspiael reportedly once had plans to create a machine that would allow a man to fly. Maybe the emperor could convince him to cooperate if he gave Kagolania a few nice cities."

"Who is Galaspiael?"

Zarkin began to tell him about Galaspiael, Jin-Si, and almost all his peers from Yagn-Sho with undisguised superiority. He mentioned the Forbidden Zone, an encounter with Gyeul, Astinia, and a few other places, still hiding the fact that he was from the Scribes' Association. Raian absorbed his words dreamily but did not interrupt even once.

"Have you ever met this ghost?"

"Fortunately not."

"I would like to live like you," he confessed, "and someday I will! I will also travel across the whole world! If you still want to, I can take you to school tomorrow, but you have to change your clothes. I will bring you a student robe."

"Suddenly you're not afraid to take me with you anymore?"

"I couldn't then," he wriggled. "I want to repay you for telling me so much.  You will see that Yagn-Mao is a beautiful place."

*

Early in the morning, they both slipped away, dressed in yellow robes with orange stitching. Zarkin refused to shave his head, so Raian told him to put on a hat.

Classes started a little later than at Yagn-Sho and lasted shorter. However, students always came as soon as possible to be able to repeat the material. Only those outside the city slept in the quarters, the rest could go home at night.

Yagn-Mao differed from Yagn-Sho mainly in how tightly it was closed. The youngest apprentices like Raian had only two rooms to study. The bedrooms were divided by five, maximum of ten people. The whole was planned to keep them on the smallest possible surface. It wasn't until later in their education that they gained privileges that allowed them to enter parts of the building intended for older students.

One master could look after a group of students, not just one. Future warriors, spies, and assassins were trained separately and were not taught to read or write. They could talk to students outside their group, but most of them preferred not to do this.

Zarkin could not tame his curiosity and began to ask Raian to try to enter the forbidden for first-year students part after classes, but he categorically refused to go with him. The boy managed to slip away alone when there was a small confusion with the attendance list.

He slipped to the section for older students without a problem. Someone left the key in the lock on the grille separating the corridor. That part of the building was contained rooms of older students, now empty because all of them went to classes.

Unfortunately, when Zarkin wanted to move further, he couldn't go to another part without a key. He thought he could wait for someone to open or if he could examine the students' section more thoroughly. He did not want to give up easily, since he dreamed of entering the most guarded part of the Conspiracy headquarters and learning its secrets, for a long time but he knew he shouldn't risk that much.

Zarkin's thoughts were suddenly disturbed by a cheerful conversation. Several student warriors just returned from the training, talking quite loudly about who had beaten whom. He didn't have time to hide before they got to where he stood.

"Hey, you!" The tallest boy saw him first and caught the attention of the whole group. "Shouldn't you be in class now?"

"I ..." Zarkin frantically wondered what he would come up with a lie. "I'm free now."

"I don't think you should be here anyway."

"You know, I thought that since I will be allowed to enter this part soon, I will visit it sometimes."

His response only caused malicious snorts.

"I can see that you are still fresh," said the shorter boy with a slightly lighter complexion. "If you want to go sightseeing, come with us. We usually don't take younger ones, but since you came here you need to have something more than regular Papyri."

"Who?"

"He's really fresh!" The Conspiracy boy smiled at colleagues. "You don't know? You are the Papyri. Those who are still in books and do not move any muscle at all. Where do you come from?

"You said something about sightseeing ..." Zarkin suggested.

"Oh yes! We want to go to the masters' part. Do you know what this means or do I have to explain to you?"

"I guess," he grunted a little irritated. "Do you have a key?"

"We took it from our master yesterday evening. We, that is Zao, Bosu, Kai" he pointed out in turn "and Ceshi, that is me. So, are you going or are you scared?"

"Stupid question, of course, I want to go, that's why I'm here! Open!"

The boy squatted by the small lock, but after a moment of hesitation gave Zarkin the key.

"The walls are soaked in poison that senses human fear. If you go inside and your heart kicks you a little harder, the walls will know that you shouldn't be here and you will get lost forever in the underground maze. We prefer not to risk taking a coward."

"What nonsense!" Zarkin quickly opened the lock and went inside. "There is no such poison. It would be completely impractical, what if a master hurried up and entered the corridor after a little run? Would it drag him into the maze, too?

"I have never met such a brave Papirus." Bosu nodded approvingly. Let's go!

In the dark corridor, all the doors they encountered were closed. Zarkin did his best to make the boys believe that he was one of them. He answered the questions casually, trying to mimic Raian's Madegdalian accent.

He was angry that at such a moment there was a closed-door everywhere on the road, but at the same time, he was happy to be the only Scribe there. He was looking for something small that he could easily put in his pocket and take as a souvenir when suddenly someone strongly poked him.

"What do you have here?" Zao grabbed his knife and pulled it out. "Papyri must not have such, it is too big."

"Give it back!"

The boy shook his head and tried to stab Zarkin. He had no choice but to defend himself. He dodged and snatched his weapon back.

Only then did he realize that he had no chance. There were four of them, and he was one, all around the Righteous Conspiracy members they could easily call for help. Mei would no longer slip a stone into his hand at the critical moment. He was alone.

"I knew you' re not an ordinary student! You can fight. I don't know who is training you, but he will be interested in this information."

"Okay! You got me!" Zarkin stepped back and reached out in a conciliatory gesture. I used to be an apprentice but in a different profession. It wasn't here, I was training in other quarters," he added quickly "please don't tell anyone about it. I can shoot a bow well if you want I can show you some tricks."

The boys looked at each other and nodded.

"Let it be. Come to the courtyard tonight and don't be late, we'll be waiting for you. Maybe by that time, we can find at least one key to this door. I heard masters has a kitchen, two times bigger than ours!"

*

"Are you sure you want this?"

"I am."

Galaspiael stepped back in his chair and stood up slowly. He opened the chamber door from the and beckoned to the servant who was walking down the hall

"Please bring me a clean bandage."

"Did something happened your majesty?"

"Not yet, but it's better to be insured," he said evasively, "hurry up!"

He went back inside and took a small, flat bottle from the cabinet. He raised his head and looked around, his eyes fixed on the cabinet next to the bed.

"I have some spirit left from experiments with dynamite. Hand me the dagger, it's there," he pointed in an indefinite direction.

"What is the spirit for?" She asked worriedly. "As far as I know, you need to just cut the scar."

"Do not be afraid. I don't know how it works, but do it whenever you have to cut your skin. You can get sick from injury, but if you do it this way, it's practically impossible. After these words, he carefully wiped the blade with a soaked handkerchief. "We also have to wipe your arm."

Kalena winced when she smelled alcohol. Galaspiael thoroughly washed her arm and suddenly, to her surprise, he slid the dagger into her hand.

"It is ready. Now get to work!

"What? No, I can't!" She protested as if he urged her to profane some sanctity. "You should..."

He smiled and shook his head no.

"Am I your lord, Kalena?"

"Yes." She put the dagger down. "You are the king and..."

"No, wait," he paused and looked deep into her eyes. "Do you consider yourself my slave?"

"No..."

"You have been a free woman for a long time. You can decide about yourself and your body. You want to remove the mark, so do it."

She looked doubtfully at her shoulder. A lord burned stigma and only a lord should remove it. She heard it many times. Each slave treated this mark as a document that you could be ashamed of, you could want to cover, but you could not violate it in any way. She didn't know why it was like that, she just had it coded since childhood.

Slowly, very slowly she put the blade to her shoulder and pressed lightly. She immediately felt a burning pain. The dagger was very sharp. Clenching her eyelids, she cut a little deeper. The other scar turned out to be much more painful until her tears came to her eyes.

Kalena finished and looked at her work, from which pain still pulsed all over her hand. She had to wait for the wound to heal. The stigma was still visible but lost its status as a document. The pattern became indistinct, and nothing could be read from it.

"We could draw the symbol on the paper before," Galaspiael leaned forward. "It was very complicated, I don't know if I can do it now."

"Don't draw," she said.

"You used to be curious about your ancestry," he reminded, "this is the only thing that could lead you to any trace.

"It doesn't matter to me anymore," she paused and shrugged. "I'm from Kagolania now."

There was a long silence. Galaspiael bared his teeth in a smile.

"How can I not love you? You saved my life, " he added when she looked at him in surprise. "You could get anything you want as a reward. And you only chose to remove the stigma."

"Because I didn't know what to ask for," Zarkin advised me to ask for more money, but I think what I have is enough.

The servant with the bandage returned.

"Put on a handkerchief first," Galaspiael unrolled the white fabric and laughed. "Look, Kalena, it's enough to have all your arm and both legs covered."

He pretended. Kalena could already see when he played cheerful and calm. She wondered if other people could see that the king was not as happy as he was trying to play before them. From what she saw, however, they did not perceive his behavior as she did.