Forest of Ruin by Kelley Armstrong Page B

day in this wagon together.”
    She smiled, but he didn’t seem to notice, too lost in his thoughts.
    â€œTell me about your mother,” she said.
    He shook his head. “It is not important.”
    â€œWhen we stop at her hiding place, there may be a chanceof escape. For all three of us. So allow me to distract you and clear your head. Tell me about her.”
    He was quiet for a moment. Then he said, “Have you met Maiko? Tyrus’s mother?”
    â€œNo. She was out of the city when I arrived and had not returned before we left.”
    â€œAh, then that’s why the emperor was also away.” He caught her look. “Yes, I’m well aware of Maiko’s fondness for pilgrimages and the emperor’s habit of vanishing when she’s gone. I remember, growing up, I used to listen to bards’ tales . . .” He paused at her raised brows. “Yes, I listened. Wild stories are not to my taste, but if others were singing them at parties and such, I had little choice.”
    â€œOf course.”
    â€œAs I was saying . . . I recall those tales often ending with the warrior marrying the lady, which I always found a very unsatisfying resolution. If they were truly in love, they would not marry. One married for duty. Love was something altogether different.”
    â€œYour parents were not in love.”
    â€œMy father married to produce heirs, as is common for a man of his stature. Unfortunately, as you well know, it did not work well. After three successive wives, he has only me. As you’ve rightly pointed out before, the problem almost certainly does not reside in the women. I’m quite certain he has not produced any children even through . . . ah . . .”
    â€œMistresses?”
    Moria had chosen the most delicate way of putting it, but from Gavril’s expression, she might as well have said something far more vulgar.
    â€œYes,” he said. “There were no children despite . . . outside dalliances. Which clearly would have affected his relationship with Emperor Tatsu, given his seemingly endless offspring.”
    â€œThe ability to father children is a mark of virility.”
    As Gavril squirmed, Moria resisted the urge to sigh with impatience. Truly, sexual relations were a fact of life, and this conversation only skirted the edges of the subject.
    She continued. “It added salt to the wound of his friend becoming emperor. But this does not concern your mother.”
    â€œIt does. In many ways. He married her because she was very beautiful. And very young. She was your age when they wed.”
    â€œWhat? That hasn’t been legal for—”
    â€œIt has always been legal if the girl’s parents consent. My mother was very young and . . .” Gavril pushed back his braids. “You may have heard my father say my mother lacks intelligence.”
    â€œHe made an unkind jab. I put no stock in it.”
    â€œMy mother is not a stupid woman. But she is very sheltered and she is not . . . I asked if you’d met Maiko. I think you would get on well. She does not have your sharp tongue or your impetuousness, but she is a strong woman, an independent thinker who does not bow to convention. My mother is not Maiko. She is not you or Ashyn. She grew up in a world where she was expected to be a powerful man’s wife. No other options were presented to her before or after she married my father.”
    â€œThat can be the way of things,” Moria said slowly. “At least she had you.”
    â€œNo, she did not. That, too, can be the way of things inthe warrior world, and my father adhered to the old customs. I was raised by a succession of caretakers, none permitted to stay long enough for me to form any maternal attachments, which are not fitting for a young warrior.”
    â€œNot even if they are to your actual mother ?”
    â€œParticularly then. When Tyrus would chatter about life with his mother, my father would