Veil of Sighs

Chapter One

"I'm here, Father."

Luken shook the white veil, praying the scent of whiskey would not travel beyond the confines of the carriage that rattled toward the capital. He folded back the corner, as if tucking the stain up into the veil's virgin silk would erase all evidence of shame. Luken leaned forward and, with a cautious gesture, raised the veil to his father's face. Gloved hands snatched the silk from his fingers, red-rimmed eyes rolling to fix on his son's face.

"You're the one," the words sloshed into one another, "that needs to look good."

Nerves snapped taut in Luken's core. He'd been trying not to think of the day ahead, but as the carriage crested the hill, a vista of the city swept out before them, as inevitable as the future carried in the blood of a noble-born man. Today, Luken, Second Son of the House of the Pear Blossom, entered the Peacock Court, and became a courtesan.

Silhouetted by the flames of dawn, the soaring domes and towers of the Palace pierced a rose-stained sky. The city sprawled beneath like a dark sea, sweeping into the horizon.

O-Han, the capital of Kanai. The capital of the world.

When Luken looked back, his father was sound asleep, slumped against the side of the carriage. Crescents of his eyes, like slivers of glass, peeked from half-closed lids, red lips parted.

Luken shook his head, but repressed a sigh in case his father was not fully asleep. Hard enough to deal with the man drunk, but if he flew into one of his rages at Court, Luken's career would be over before it began. Impressing the Arbiters today meant the difference between the gilded freedom of the Court, and a life of endless boyhood dependent on his mother's estate long past the fifteenth year when boys were sent to Court.

Tian inched closer to their slumbering father, and slipped the bottle from between his gloved fingers.

"Tian." Her eyes, merry and dark, shot up at Luken's whisper.

"What? I'm helping." She threw her head back, drained the dregs of the bottle, and tossed the empty glass through the window, to land gleaming amid the peonies that cloaked the hill. "See? Less for him to drink."

"Wonderful." Luken's stomach dropped with the carriage as it sloped from the hill and into the shadow of the city wall. His fingers twitched at his ando, teasing the courtesan's garb in and out of perfection as they reached the gate. The tight band of the gold brocade irlan tied across his chest, clinging robes like a silken sheath wrapping around his legs, the sharply slanted joh beneath his feet, and the heavy outer robes of his ando with their long, weighty, sleeves, all conspired to keep his movements modestly restricted. "You'd think he'd lay off a bit, considering today's the day."

Tian gave him a grim smile. "He's been getting worse. I don't think he's been sober since we left the E-Kara region."

"You don't suppose," Luken drew a shallow breath, stifled by the tight irlan that tied the ando across his chest, "he's doing this on purpose?"

Tian cocked her head to the side. "You think he wants us to do poorly?"

"If he wanted me to do well he would have prepared me for the Court. Most lords make their son's first andos." Luken lifted the long, deep sleeve of his pale blue ando. "Mother bough me this at the last moment, else I'd be walking naked into Court."

"Well we are meant to make a first impression." Tian's lips twitched into a crooked grin. "But I don't think he's doing it on purpose. This means too much to him. Our income is his income now. He just can't help himself."

We'll be rid of him soon enough, Luken thought the words he dared not speak. They didn't know why their father had chosen to escort them to the Palace, but by the time the day was over, they'd be on their own.