Two nights later, Gen and the others were invited to attend a small dinner in the Imperial Douji's suite.
K'non practically pushed Gen onto a richly upholstered settee that sat next to her nephew's chair, formally introducing the two men in a rush of oddly nervous chatter before she left them to greet Shaw, Kai, and Gadget. Jiro, resplendent in his uniform, stood quietly off to the side, and out of the corner of his eye Gen noticed the old man's gaze flicking back and forth between him and K'zen.
Gen shifted, trying unsuccessfully to find a more comfortable spot while he took in his luxurious, unnervingly familiar settings.
Every chair in K'zen's sitting-room was filled, and a small feast was laid on a dining table that had been set up in the corner of the room. A fire crackled in the fireplace, and light from dozens of flickering candles danced on the walls and ceiling.
Gen wondered if this was the first time the room had truly fulfilled its purpose. He glanced over at his host, who seemed just as uncomfortable as he felt.
K'zen certainly looked better than when Gen had first seen him, although his face was still pinched with fatigue. It was his first day of being fully dressed and out of his bed, and he sat somewhat stiffly in the chair next to Gen's, rolling his eyes when K'non insisted on draping a coverlet over his legs.
"I think she just keeps me around so she has someone to dress up," K'zen said to Gen as soon as the Empress was out of earshot. He tugged at the high collar of his brocade jacket, and then he eyed Gen's silk tunic and pants. "I see she got to you, too."
"Yeah," Gen said. He ran his fingers over the smooth, gleaming fabric of his jacket sleeve. "Not really my style—I'm used to woven pants and a plain shirt."
"How different we are, even though we are the same." K'zen reached over and took Gen's hand in his. "Your hands show years of hard, honest work," he said, brushing his thumb over a scar on one of Gen's knuckles. He then turned their hands over, revealing smooth, unmarked fingers with neatly manicured nails. "Mine reflect years of wealth, privilege and… boredom." K'zen released Gen's hand, and then his gaze met Gen's. "Thank you for what you did, and I'm sorry about everything that happened to you—and Komou. I remember meeting Komou when I was younger," he said. "I had been very ill, and he saved my life. And now, he saved me again, through you."
Gen was saved from replying by Gadget, who arrived bearing food. "Here, Gen, I fixed you up a plate." Gadget handed him a food-laden dish. "They have all kinds of good food over there. I don't think I've eaten this much fresh food in my life!" He held out another plate to K'zen. "The Empress asked me to bring this to you, Lord K'zen."
"Thank you," K'zen said. He eyed the plate with distaste. "Ugh. I don't think I could eat even half of this. Here, take some of those rolls—but don't let my aunt see you do it."
Gadget grinned as he leaned forward and plucked a couple of meat rolls off the plate, and then he sat down next to Gen. Gadget wore new clothes too, and Gen was amused to see that Gadget didn't like the formal clothes any more than he did. While Gen ate, he appreciated the warmth of Gadget's thigh pressing against his.
"It's really freaky how you two look just alike," Gadget said. "Well, except for your hair. Hey, Gen, do you think Lord K'zen has the same memories as you?"
"Memories?" K'zen looked at Gen.
Gen described some of the things he recalled about the palace.
K'zen nodded. "I remember hiding from Jiro behind those columns, it was great fun. He would get so flustered when he couldn't find me, and then Aunt would wag her finger at me and say—"
"'Now look what you've done, you've made Jiro have a conniption,'" Gen finished, mimicking the Empress' tone.
K'zen stared at him for a moment. "Yes, that's exactly what she said. I used to feed the fish in the pond, too. Hmmm, let's see what else… I used to run off sometimes and climb this one big tree, and I would sit on one of its branches and read for hours."
Gen blinked at him. "When my chores were done," he said.
"Yes—" K'zen stopped and looked at Gen. "But… I never had any chores."
"Gadget, go get Kai's datapad, and ask him to bring up the image of the tree he had on the screens in his data room." Gen said.
Gadget looked at him questioningly, but he complied, and a minute later he handed Kai's datapad to Gen.
Gen showed it to K'zen. "Is this the tree?"
"Yes."
"Kai told me this tree was from Komou's childhood home," Gen said. "I remember it, too—as well as other memories that were Komou's, and not mine."
K'zen's lips thinned to a grim line as he studied the photo. "Aunt," he said, raising his voice to be heard above the chatter in the room, "I have a question for you." When he had K'non's attention he asked, "What did Komou and Uko do to heal me years ago, when I was so sick?"
The Empress sat on a sofa next to K'zen's chair. "They created a clone of you, my darling, and they used it to save your life."
Gen frowned. Something about her explanation didn't add up.
Kai rose from his seat across the room. "But when Litou made his move against you, Gracious Lady, he did more than try to have Gen killed," Kai said. "Two laboratories with stasis chambers were destroyed right after Lord K'zen was poisoned. More than one clone was created, all those years ago."
The Empress hesitated, and then she replied, "Yes."
Gen sat forward in his chair. "How many? How many clones were in those stasis chambers?"
She gripped her bejeweled hands tightly in her lap. "Nineteen," she admitted. "We kept them in two separate locations, and with Uko's help, Litou's assassins found them and killed them all two weeks ago."
K'zen's plate slipped from his fingers and fell to the floor, and the crack of the breaking china echoed in the suddenly silent room.
"There were more?" K'zen stared at the Empress. "There were nineteen copies of me, being kept alive somewhere? For what purpose?"
"For backup," Kai said. "A living supply of blood and organs, should you need them. You do have some unique physiologies, Lord K'zen."
K'zen's violet eyes, so like Gen's own, widened in horror. "But they were people… like Gen, weren't they?" He turned to his aunt. "How could you do such a thing?"
"They weren't really 'alive,'" she said. "They were never conscious, and Uko swore they never felt anything at all."
"Uko," Gen sneered the name. "We all know how trustworthy his word is. Did Komou know about those other nineteen clones?"
"Yes," the Empress said. "But he didn't approve of what Uko had done, and he left my employ because of it."
At that moment, Gen felt a fierce pride for the man who had been his father.
"Aunt." K'zen gripped the carved wooden arms of his chair. "What number am I?"
K'non reached over to touch K'zen's arm. "K'zen, don't be silly—"
He jerked away from her. "Tell me. After all this, I deserve to know," he insisted.
He knows already. Gen's gaze shifted from the Douji to the Empress, whose eyes became shadowed with a great sorrow.
There was a long silence, and then the Empress finally spoke. "You are the eleventh."
Gadget and Shaw gasped, while Kai just nodded solemnly. Over in the corner of the room, Jiro stood quietly, his head bowed.
"Eleven?" K'zen stared at the Empress. "What happened to the other ten before me? When did the… 'real' one of us die?"
K'non rose from her seat and walked over to the fireplace. "Thirteen years ago, my nephew—my heir—became ill," she said, not looking at them. "Uko was my scientific advisor then, and when my nephew's condition worsened I asked for his help. After he determined that K'zen would not recover, Uko suggested cloning him; he had considerable experience in genetics, and he claimed to know a way to extract a person's memories and transfer them to someone else." Her fingers traced the smooth marble of the fireplace's mantel. "The first ten were… not successful."
She did not elaborate further.
When the silence grew to an uncomfortable length, Kai spoke up. "What changed? Lord K'zen is obviously a successful clone, as is Gen."
"I found out about Komou," K'non replied. "He was a brilliant geneticist, and he had been Uko's teacher and mentor. I brought him here to Tenkigh, and he worked with Uko in making a second attempt before my poor nephew died. You were the first, K'zen. You were healthy, stable and your memories transferred without a hitch—you were the first of Komou's "Gen Two."
"'Gen Two,'" Gen repeated.
"Wow," said Gadget, "that must be how Gen—"
Gen elbowed him. "Hush," he murmured.
The Empress looked over at them, and the corner of her mouth briefly curved in a smile.
"What number am I?" Gen forced the words past tight vocal cords.
"You would be… the thirty-first," K'non said. "I didn't know about you, Gen. After it was determined that Gen Two was a success, Uko wanted to create others as… backups, like Kai said. But Komou didn't approve of creating clones only to keep them in stasis, and the two had a falling-out. And because I was afraid that something might happen to my 'new' nephew, I sided with Uko. Komou left us then, and he settled on Kinzaan." She shook her head. "I've been buying his wine all these years, and have followed his successes, and I never realized what he had done. When I saw mentions of a son I assumed that he'd married, and that you were his natural child."
She walked over and knelt in front of Gen and K'zen, and she took both of their hands in hers. "I'm sorry," she said, and when she lifted her head her cheeks were streaked with tears. "It's just that I loved you so much—" she gripped K'zen's hand tight "—I still love you. You are my joy, K'zen, in all your grumpy, pissy glory, and I couldn't bear the thought of losing you."
"But you will lose me one day, because all men die," K'zen replied. "You shouldn't have tried to replace me with endless copies of myself." He raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. "But I thank you for your love, Aunt, and for this life. I will live it now with the same uncertainty as everyone else."
K'non nodded, and then she released their hands, kissed both of them, and rose to her feet. "Jiro!" she said, "Bring everyone a glass of sparkling wine; we need to toast to my nephew's return to health. And also," she said, accepting a glass, "I want to welcome my other nephew, Gen, to our family."