Llanwyre Laish | 43
his palms.
The Emperor thoughtfully toys with a tassel on the pillow covered in the bird's blood. "Several a day, on days when I play the box all day."
"Where do you get them?" My voice rises sharply, a madman's voice.
He shrugs. "I started a new Cabinet. A Cabinet of Birds."
A silence falls then. I think of the village on the west side of the palace from which the Emperor must draw the Cabinet of Birds. Young men and women trained up in his service, vying for the favor of a minor clerk like me, catching birds for horrors they cannot comprehend.
The cook returns the bloodied music box on a silver platter. I ask for water and oil, and working together, my friend and I clean and reshape the music box, but we cannot tune it properly. The Emperor grows increasingly cross, sighing. Finally, he asks, "How much longer will this take?"
"Such delicate work takes time, your excellency. Perhaps you would like us to take on the burden while you sleep."
Our subservience pleases him. When he leaves, though, Eo grips my wrist. "How will we get it fixed? Putting the works inside the bird has bent the pins!"
I send one of the palace servants after Ons, who arrives tired and wary. What must he think of what he sees: a pillow covered with blood, a music box in parts, a glass tumbler full of red-colored water, my tunic bloodstained, feathers everywhere. I open my mouth to explain, but he cuts me off, raising his hand. "I don't want to know."
He steps forward and puts the mechanism right within the hour, then leaves to return to his own bed. I try to thank him, but his glowering silences me. I look at the floor, ashamed.
We try to put the little bird back together as we had intended, but the pieces have stretched and changed; we cannot fully repair it without a living bird. "Do you want one of His Majesty's birds brought in?" asks a servant. We both shake our heads violently.
Eo responds politely, "We assume His Majesty would want to be present for the