With everyone calling her by Bexoi’s titles instead of her name, Anonoei was beginning to believe that she really was King Prayard’s consort, and not an interloper. It only became painful when she and Prayard were alone, because he always called her Bexoi, the name of her supplanter, the name of her murderer.

Eventually I’ll get used to that, too. Eventually I’ll stop wishing that Prayard could be with me now as he used to be—playful, tender, not so respectful. Doesn’t he ever miss the way we were together? Is he really happier being the man he is with her?

But not her, not anymore. Bexoi is me now.

So why does it feel as if he is being unfaithful to me by being with … me?

Give it time, Anonoei.

Or rather, give it time, Bexoi. Because the real difference will come when you stop thinking of yourself as Anonoei and really believe that you are Bexoi. Not the vile monster that she was, but the Bexoi of today.

Anonoei was sitting in the nursery, letting baby Jib suck his little brains out. Greedy child, far more than Eluik or Enopp, who both seemed so eager to be weaned. Though that was later, not at the start. Yet they grew impatient with the breast long before they had upper and lower teeth. Fitful, rooting for something better, but finding nothing else.

What would the boys have become, if I had been Prayard’s wife all along, if they had been raised as princes, as heirs? Their insatiable curiosity, their searching …

No. I’m thinking of them as if they were both the same, and they never were. Those months in prison, unable to see them. And then the way they were locked together—of course I thought of them as one boy, because only Enopp’s voice could be heard, only Enopp’s personality could be expressed.

And then, as if her thoughts of the boys had drawn them, there they were, standing near the window. Not a dream, not a wish—these were the real boys. Anonoei’s first thought was that Wad had gated them here. But no, they had learned how to move by themselves, when Danny North’s girlfriend—Pat?—had helped them separate.

She couldn’t converse with them here, in front of the women. They mustn’t even be noticed. Anonoei gated into one of the cul-de-sac rooms that Wad had shown her, accidental spaces created by the architects when interior rooms couldn’t be reconciled with exterior walls. In moments, the boys were with her, and now they were completely alone.

“Let me go back and dismiss the women before they notice that I’m gone,” said Anonoei.

“Glad to see you, too, Mother,” said Enopp.

“Mittlegard television has made you disrespectful,” said Anonoei.

“I think the word you’re searching for is ‘snotty,’” said Eluik. “And he’s always been that way.”