The Prince of Shadow Read Free

and the more because he had in that same moment learned to hope. “My mother?”
    Again Lleck-the-spirit shook his head, but his brow creased in some question. “Your mother, the queen, is not among the spirits of the dead,” he said. “She was taken in the raid that killed your father, but no report of her came to me after. They say that she ascended into heaven as a living being to beg the mercy of the gods on her country, but that her beauty so entranced the heavenly creatures that they would not let her depart again.
    â€œI think this is good storytelling, but bad history. If she has not crossed into a new life, she must be a prisoner still.”
    Llesho said nothing. He was far too old to cry about his dead, had never given his enemies that satisfaction even as a small child.
    â€œFind your brothers, Llesho,” the spirit pleaded with him. “Save Thebin. The land itself is dying, and the few of her people who remain are dying with her.” Sorrow ran from Lleck’s dead eyes, salt tears returning to the salty bay. “I would have stood at your side if I could. Now, I have only this to offer—” The spirit held out to him a pearl as big as a walnut and as black as Foreman Shen-shu’s eyes. “The pearl has magical properties of long life and various protections. Keep it with you, but use it only at most dire need.”
    At this, Llesho wondered if the spirit in front of him was not Lleck after all, but an imp sent to trick him into witchcraft. “A good trick,” he taunted the spirit, “but Lleck would know that I can’t possibly carry a pearl out of the bay—I have no place to hide it.” He gestured to his own naked body. “And Foreman Shen-shu will search the cavities of our bodies for stolen treasure with as much vigilance today as he does after every quarter shift in the pearl beds. As for swallowing a pearl that big, if it were possible to do so without choking to death, even Lord Chin-shi’s guards would notice a slave from the pearl bay searching through the privy trench!”
    â€œHave some trust, young prince.”
    The reminder of his former state from the lips of his teacher’s spirit raised tears that stung the corners of Llesho’s eyes, but he refused to shed them. He found little to trust in a world that had taken this last and only comfort from him. “How can I trust what you say, old man?” In the pain of his heartache, Llesho knew only to attack its source. “You said you would stay with me, and protect me. Now you are dead, and if we are truly having this conversation at all, I must be dying as well!”
    Lling and Hmishi had long since tugged on their chains and returned to the surface. Llesho knew he could have no air left in his lungs, could not breathe or speak underwater, and yet he did have air, was both breathing and speaking. Surely, he must be dead, or in that stage of drowning when the mind plays tricks on the body.
    â€œTrust,” the old man said, with tears glittering in his eyes. He put one ghostly hand on Llesho’s neck and with the other hand he held up the black pearl. Using thumb and forefinger, he squeezed the pearl until it was no larger than a tooth.
    â€œOpen,” he instructed, and when Llesho opened his mouth, Lleck popped the pearl into the empty socket where Llesho had lost a back tooth. “You should have that seen to one of these days,” he said, and then he disappeared, like a cloud dispersing in the water.
    Watching the cloud spin away in eddies of disturbed currents, Llesho’s mouth was suddenly filled with all the things he wanted to say to the old man, all the words of gratitude and love that he had taken for granted all the years of their captivity together.
    â€œCome back,” he cried, but only bubbles formed in the water around him, and he realized that his lungs were ready to burst, and that his fingers had gotten clumsy. Somewhere