I lost seven sisters to marriage, Min Ja Ray-spoke, and then she added aloud: “I will not lose one more to something as immaterial as distance.”

CHAPTER 20

Ji Huan of Moreyao and Uriyah of Blessid Valley took longer to adjust to my new memories than Min Ja and Da Seo, but to my relief and surprise, neither of them left in disgust.

“So you really just stabbed Emperor Ekundayo?” Ji Huan asked for the fifth time as I helped him fly a pelican-shaped kite in the palace gardens. “Just stabbed him right there in the open? Was it hard? Bet it was messy. With loads of blood.”

“You saw what happened,” I told him, squirming uncomfortably. “I showed you the memory.”

“Yes, but . . .” The young king nearly lost his grip on the kite strings, eager brown eyes fixed on my face. After I had shared my unaltered memories, Ji Huan’s shyness around me had evolved into morbid admiration. “It all happened so fast. Could you show me again? Maybe that fight on the palace roof too—when you made Anointed Honor Thaddace kill Emperor Olugbade, and the High Priestess fell but Woo In saved her. Then that part when you flew through the sky, and arrows flew everywhere and—”

“No. Ji Huan, those memories weren’t fun for me! You felt how much pain I was in. Why would you want to relive that?”

The boy looked sheepish. “I forgot about that part. I’m sorry, Lady Empress.”

“It’s all right.” I sighed, melting at his dejected expression and ruffling his hair. “And we’re friends now. Call me Tarisai.”

“Sorry, Tarisai.” He paused. “It’s just—I’ve never gotten to do anything. At least, not go on adventures, like you. My uncles won’t let me go anywhere.” He shuffled his silk-slippered feet and cast a furtive look at two men with flowing robes and long, gray beards: the Lord Regents of Moreyao. They sat a short distance away, sipping tea on a blanket, and occasionally casting dour looks at me and Ji Huan.

“They won’t even let me fly a kite without supervision,” Ji Huan grumbled. “And I can’t have friends they don’t approve of. They’re probably trying to read our lips right now.”

I frowned in sympathy. “I used to live in a place like that.”

“Bhekina House?”

“Yes.” I still wasn’t used to how much Ji Huan and the other rulers knew about me. My memories weren’t my own anymore. My whole life, or copies of it, floated freely in other people’s minds, free to be shaped to their prejudices.

“Even at the Children’s Palace, eyes were always watching you,” he said. “I know what that’s like.”

I took in his round innocent features, my former anxiety mirrored there. “Ji Huan, if you join my council, I’ll never control whom you talk to, you know. There won’t be any tests. No judging. All we have to do is be there for each other. Plus, thanks to Ray-speaking . . .” I tapped his head and winked at him. “We can talk anytime you like. And no one can read our lips.”