Chapter 310: The Last Redford

Ophelia went on with her account, looking at the sky, tears in her eyes.

"I asked him why he was telling me now."

She ran her tongue over her lips.

"He told me because it was time I knew. And that if I had come home to hear the truth, I was going to hear all of it."

"They did a ritual," said Ophelia. "That same night. In the service yard, with the whole household around. I do not know what it was. I do not know what words they said or in what order."

Her voice went flatter.

"I know there was screaming. People screaming, not animals. And it smelled of blood. So much that it stuck in my mouth."

Kellar said nothing.

"They bathed me in something," said Ophelia. "It was warm and thick. They poured it over my head and it ran down my face to my feet. Then they laid me down."

She stopped a moment.

"The next day I woke up and I could see."

Kellar looked at her.

"And I heard a voice," said Ophelia. "Inside. Behind my eyes. It told me where to put my foot, what was on the left, whether someone was coming. It was the voice of the Bear God."

She turned to Kellar with her filmed eyes wide.

"He knew something was coming," said she. "No one kills twenty-four houses in one night and goes to bed easy. He knew the bill would come due. And if he did not give me the eyes that night, he was never going to give them to me."

Kellar dragged a hand across his mouth.

"Ophelia," said Kellar. "Do you believe the Bear God chose you, or that your father put you into something and the Bear God took it up after?"

Ophelia took her time.

"Both, master," said she. "And I will tell you why."

She straightened on the step.

"I do not pray so that the Bear God will love me. I pray so that he does not regret it."

Then she lowered it and reached for the staff with both hands, as though she needed to touch it to know it was still there. She pressed it to her breast.

"He will not tell me," said she, low. "But I know it. If one day the Bear God tires of me, he will take it all at once. The eyes, the voice, the place at your side. And he will not warn me."

Kellar looked at her.

"And that is why you pray so much?"

"That is why I pray so much, master," said Ophelia. "Because what he gave me, he can take away."

A tear fell and she did not wipe it.

"I watched my father come home with black hands and I kept the eyes," said she. "And he was left without hands. The Bear God did not ask me whether I would have preferred it the other way."

Kellar held his silence a while.

"Do you think it was that king of Kesh?" asked Kellar.

Ophelia took a while to answer.

"He is the only one with the power to destroy the Black Rhinoceros army," said she. "There are other generals. There is the white tiger army and the vermilion bird army. If the two of them joined, there would be no way to face them."

"And why did they not?"

"Because one alone is not enough," said Ophelia. "And because the king holds the key to both. He does not send them to fight each other, he sends them to watch each other."

Kellar nodded slowly.

"Besides, my father was at the castle," said she. "And he was never at the castle."

"Why was he there?"

"Because they summoned him with a letter I never wrote," said Ophelia.

Kellar straightened.

"A letter?"

"A letter in my hand," said she. "Saying I was bad, that I could not bear the college any longer, that he should come for me. He came, asked whether I was well, and the same day the tragedy happened."

Her jaw worked.

"I did not write that letter, master. And my hand is not easy to copy. I write with my left hand pressed to the line, because I cannot see. Anyone who has watched me write knows how to do it."

Kellar held his silence.

A false letter does not pull a general off a frontier. A letter that hurts him does.

"And does the letter still exist?" asked Kellar.

"No," said Ophelia. "They burned it with the rest."

"And did Aldous know how you write?"

Ophelia stayed quiet a second too long.

"Aldous watched me write hundreds of times," said she. "He made me write in front of him so he could laugh."

Kellar nodded.

"Then the king did not send to kill your father," said Kellar. "He sent to bring him in. And then he killed him with his guard down."

"That is what I believe, master."

"And the throne of Kesh is easy with that?"

"The throne of Kesh is easy with that," said Ophelia. "House Redford closed the Kelder pass. Now the pass is open and there is no one to charge toll."

Kellar came to the step and sat beside her.

"And you are the last Redford."

"I am the last Redford," said she. "And I am alive, and the king knows it, because the men who followed us came back and told him."

Kellar looked at the altar.

"They will come."

"They will come," said Ophelia. "Not this year. The pass is far and they are in no hurry. But they will come."

Kellar dragged his hands down his face.

"Good," said Kellar. "So we have two realms in the north, a dragon in the ash valley, beasts on every side, and now a king in the south who already knows where you are."

"Yes, master."

"And yours was the strongest army in the south and they erased it in one night."

Ophelia lowered her head.

"They erased it because my father came alone, master," said she. "Not because they were stronger."

Kellar looked at her.

"Say that again."

"If the black rhinoceros had been at the castle, they would not have got in," said Ophelia. "The men at the Kelder pass were not the army. They were the house garrison. Twelve men and an old captain."

Kellar looked at her a good while.

"And do the Black Rhinoceros Knights still exist?"

"They must," said Ophelia. "No one disarms an army like that. They must be on the eastern frontier, under another general, and that general owes me nothing."

Kellar came to his feet.

"When this settles," said Kellar, "we send someone south to find out who commands the black rhinoceros now."

"And if the new general has already sworn to the king?"

"Then we find out what he is paid," said Kellar. "Everyone has a price, Ophelia. You just taught me that yourself."