Gold Horn gave a bitter laugh. "Tell it if you want. Once you're done, will my brother and mother no longer have to die?"
Xuanzang did not answer that.
He looked at Gold Horn, yet seemed to gaze through him, toward somewhere far, far away.
"Long, long ago."
His voice was slow and even, like flowing water washing over bluestone.
"There was a small kingdom in this world called Kapilavastu. Its people were known as the Shakya."
"The Shakya considered their bloodline noble. Later, one of their own became an enlightened one, whom the world revered as the Buddha, and they grew prouder still."
"The Buddha?"
Gold Horn raised his head. The crimson had yet to fade from his eyes, and his lips curled in mockery.
"This Buddha you're talking about-is he your master?"
Xuanzang ignored him and continued.
"Beside Kapilavastu stood a larger, stronger kingdom called Kosala. Kapilavastu was dependent on Kosala."
"King Prasenajit of Kosala wished to marry a Shakya princess, forming a marriage alliance between the two kingdoms."
"But the Shakya considered their bloodline noble. They felt that, powerful though he was, he was unworthy of their princess."
"They feared offending Kosala, yet were unwilling to marry off a true princess."
"So they chose a maidservant, passed her off as a princess, and sent her to marry him."
"Later, that maidservant bore a child."
"When the child was eight, he returned to Kapilavastu to learn archery, for the Shakya were skilled archers."
"But the young Shakya publicly humiliated him, calling him 'a lowborn bastard born of a maidservant.'"
"The child said nothing."
"But that single sentence planted a poisoned thorn in the boy's heart. He secretly swore that once he became king, he would destroy the Shakya."
"And so he finished learning archery and returned to Kosala."