Chapter 18
Eighteen
I gaped, my heart pounding but my hands still. You couldn’t throw a blade with trembling hands. You couldn’t loose an arrow if it wouldn’t stay steady.
“What is this, Emperor Tallu?” Carefully, I took out the egg, setting aside the box. I turned the egg in my hands. A small crack ran up the side, but other than that, it showed no damage from the rough treatment it had borne during the assassination attempt, the dip in the river, and the ride back to the palace.
I wasn’t sure how, but I could feel the egg alive. It thrummed under my fingers, warm to the touch.
“It is a gift of equal value to the one you’ve given me. Is that not enough?” Tallu asked, his eyes fixed on my face. I looked up, catching his gaze. His eyes traced over my face before glancing down at the egg I still cupped in my hands. When he looked back up at me, his lips were pressed flat, and everything in my stomach clenched.
Was this a test? Was this a warning? When we stepped out of this clearing, were the Emperor’s Dogs going to descend on me and slice my head from my neck?
Carefully, I put the egg in its bed again, slipping the box into my jacket. Tallu continued to watch me. Now. I needed to end him now. But I had no weapons. The ceremonial dagger I had been able to bring as a gift, but Nohe and the seamstress had dressed me, then walked me here, and I hadn’t had time to grab another blade.
Was there a rock I could use?
“It’s valuable to me. It’s more than enough.” I looked down at it, wondering what it meant . He thought I’d killed Rute, so he gave me a dragon ? I’d put his empire in danger, and he was giving me a gift of the creature whose death his whole imperial line was based on? The first emperor had only become an emperor by killing the One Dragon, and every emperor after had killed more until there were none left to kill. Except this one.
“Is there anything we need to say to finish the northern ceremony?” Tallu asked.
Everything in me felt tight. This was dangerous, but I wasn’t sure what else to do. Turning to the north, I bowed my head, hands open in offering. “Great northern bear, we thank you for all of your gifts. Take this gift and let our marriage blossom.” Though I spoke the words truly and with humility, I was aware that I was baring my neck before the man who now held my knife.
Then I stood, the nervousness in me unable to let me stay seated. “Emperor Tallu, your gift. What does it mean?”
I was nearly shouting the words, but Tallu didn’t react. “We should return. We will continue to receive gifts throughout the afternoon. Come.”
The order was sharp, a command that made me bristle with irritation.
When we walked through the forest again, I saw movement behind the trees. When I turned my head, figures were hiding behind the massive trunks. Likely the Emperor’s Dogs, except the color of their clothes was wrong, too red, too ragged.
As we stepped through the last line of trees, I readied myself, positioning my body defensively. This was where they were going to do it. This was where they were going to attack me, and I would…
The Emperor’s Dogs stood waiting at the doorway back into the palace, and I reached out, ready to grab one of them by the jacket, but no one attacked. Sagam turned his head, eyes narrowing at me in confusion rather than in threat.
Asahi muttered, “Are you returning to the dining room?”
Tallu was already inside, Sagam shadowing him. I followed behind, catching up quickly.
He hadn’t ordered his men to kill me. He had given me my dragon egg. He hadn’t asked about his leg and how it had magically healed in the forest. He had implied he knew about Rute and didn’t care; in fact, he saw it as a gift . Everything inside me felt tense, wound tight. How was I going to survive this? There was no possible way I could survive this. So I just had to live long enough to kill him tonight and trust that with all of the egos in the room, they would destroy the whole Imperium to put themselves on the throne.
As we entered the dining room again, everyone immediately stood and bowed low, fingers forming triangles above their heads. The Dogs took their positions as we retook our seats at the head of the room. The rest of the court took their seats, except for three people.
The older man rubbed his hands together nervously. His face was unpowdered, deferring to the preferences of the emperor, and his robe was slightly frayed at the corner, although the stitching had been redone recently. It declared him Lord Chaliko. He was one of the council members who had been banished to Tavornai.
A young man and woman followed behind him, their faces resembling his enough that I could mark them as his children. All three of them bowed, falling to their knees and pressing their foreheads to the ground.
“Emperor Tallu, Consort Airón. We are grateful for the invitation to the festivities. We offer the greatest gift we could find to celebrate your union.” Lord Chaliko sat back and gestured with his hand. The woman stood, reaching into her pocket and taking out a small wooden box. She took a step forward, then hesitated, looking over Tallu’s shoulder at the Dogs standing behind us.
I smiled at them, friendly. My heart was pounding in my chest. A dragon egg . Tallu had given me the dragon egg back. He hadn’t asked once about how his leg had magically healed.
I fixed my eyes on Chaliko’s daughter. Holding out my hand, I said, “Approach.”
She stepped forward, offering the box with a low bow. I took it from her, opening it to reveal a gnarled root on a velvet cloth.
Frowning, I took it out, turning it in my hand. I looked at Tallu, but his expression was unmoved, as blank as a statue.
He’d given me my dragon egg.
“What—” I swallowed, wrenching my attention back to the woman and trying again. “—what is it?”
“The elves of Tavornai worship the elder trees. When the Imperium conquered Tavornai, the elves said none of the trees survived the fires. However, in Your Imperial Majesty’s grace, you allowed us to live among them, and we gained their trust. This is a root from the last surviving elder tree.” Lord Chaliko straightened his shoulders, pushing up from his kneeling position to stand. “As a show of loyalty, the Chaliko family would happily sacrifice all of our lives to burn that last tree.”
Carefully, I placed the knotted root back into the box. “You must have sacrificed greatly to even bring us evidence of the tree’s existence.”
“Yes. Two of my sons died in the attempt.” Lord Chaliko bowed, and I could see a glimmer in the corner of his eyes. Two children dead, and he was willing to sacrifice the rest to return to the Imperium.
“This is a great gift indeed.” I put the box to the side.
Tallu finally looked over, his eyes fixed on Lord Chaliko. “The Imperium accepts your gift.”
Somehow, the formal phrase, which Tallu had already uttered twenty times that morning, sounded like a threat coming from his lips. Chaliko took the words like a physical blow, stepping backward. His son caught his shoulder, nudging him back into a bow, and then all three returned to their table, heads low.
Tallu had returned my dragon egg. A dragon egg that could end his reign.
The Minister of Medicine, Dr. Jafopo, approached, a young woman standing at his shoulder. She wore the colors of another house, the house of one of the banished council members. On her jacket, her title was stitched Lady Dalimu , although it was crossed with a dark line, indicating that she was a widow.
“Your Imperial Majesty, Consort Airón. The Dalimu family offers our blessings on your marriage. Please accept this small token of our gratitude.” She bowed again, holding out a long wooden box and stepping forward to offer it.
I accepted the box, opening the lid to reveal a dagger made entirely of diamond. When I held it up to the light, rainbows glimmered on the blade. Tallu didn’t move his head, glancing at it out of the corner of his eyes.
“It is beautiful. Where did you acquire it?” I asked, curious. The Chaliko family had gotten their root from the elder tree with blood and sacrifice. From what I had learned through gossip, the Dalimu patriarch had been executed, their family stripped of everything of value and sent to live in the wilds of what had once been Forsaith. All that was left there was burned wreckage, an entire country reduced to ash.
“My family owed the Dalimus a debt. We were happy to repay it in the form of a wedding gift,” Dr. Jafopo said. He looked between us, then bowed formally, fingers shaped into a triangle above his forehead. The Dalimu matriarch did the same.
“The Imperium accepts your gift,” Tallu said.
“Thank you, Emperor Tallu.” Lady Dalimu bowed again, backing away. When she returned to her table, I saw she only had two women with her.
The Dalimus had been severely punished for the patriarch’s decision to steal the taxes collected in his role of governor of the conquered portions of Ristorium and use them for himself rather than turn them over to the emperor. When the peasants had complained at being worked to death to feed his greed, he’d slaughtered them.
As far as I could tell, it wasn’t the slaughtering of civilians that the Imperium had a problem with. No, Tallu’s father, Emperor Millu, had taken issue with stealing from the Imperium—stealing from him .
I watched as Jafopo passed behind the Dalimu matriarch. It wasn’t my imagination that his hand trailed over her shoulder before he returned to his seat. Ah. I hadn’t spent so many winters cooped up in the Silver City, watching as couples broke up and reformed in different combinations to not see when someone was showing interest in someone else.
By my guess, in a few weeks, the Minister of Medicine was going to request permission to bring back Lady Dalimu as his wife. Interesting.
The rest of the afternoon passed much the same, various parties providing gifts and promises of fidelity, small hints of the true loyalties and alliances in Tallu’s court. As lunch was cleared away, the servants preparing to bring out dinner, General Kacha stood, clapping his hands twice. “Emperor Tallu, Prince Airón, the other generals and I have prepared a different sort of gift for you.”
He gestured, and servants quickly opened double doors in the back of the room. Tallu’s expression remained the same, unmoved, but I was sure I saw a slight tightening in the corners of his eyes. He wasn’t happy.
“Allow us to present it, Your Imperial Majesty.” General Kacha’s expression was joyful, and I glanced across the room to where General Saxu slowly stood, hands clasped behind his back. He looked at Tallu, nodding his head down slightly.
Finally, Tallu stood, resting his fingertips on the table as he pushed himself up. His sleeve brushed mine, and my skin heated as though he was drawing the pad of his finger up my arm.
When Tallu looked down at me, I met his gaze, trying not to blink, not to give anything away. I wasn’t sure if I imagined the hint of a smile in his eyes before he offered his arm again, parallel to the floor. Slowly, I took it, letting him guide me.
“We will see this gift.”
Tallu and I walked into the second room. It was a large, open space. I wasn’t sure what it was usually used for, but everything aside from a tall chair that looked like a throne had been moved away.
Slowly, Tallu crossed the floor, taking a seat on the throne. Sagam and one of the other Dogs positioned themselves behind him, and I awkwardly stood next to him.
Once the rest of the guests had entered the room, General Kacha clapped his hands twice, and the marching feet approached. A military unit stomped in through an exterior door, moving in unison. The wedding guests fluttered out of the way, clearing an enormous space for them in the center of the room.
When the entire military unit was standing in the room, facing Tallu, they stilled, standing ready.
“We thought to provide Your Imperial Majesty with a show of his forces,” General Kacha said. “After all, based on the work of his Dogs, he might not know what true imperial men are capable of.”
After a prolonged pause that left most of the wedding guests shifting in anxiety, Tallu nodded his head. “Proceed.”
General Kacha clapped once, and the men leapt into action. Five took spears from behind their backs, twirling them in the air before thrusting them at five unarmed soldiers. The spears were strange, lacking the heft of the imperial style.
Most imperial weapons were made from metal that could potentially conduct electricity. These spears were made of something lighter, and when the first soldier thrust his out, it extended to three times its length, nearly impaling his opponent.
Nearly . Because then he missed. With his weapon fully extended, it was easy for his opponent to slip up under his guard and lay him out flat with a neat twist of his feet. Once the soldier with the spear was on his back, he tapped out, indicating he yielded. The other four were just as quickly dispatched, the spears that extended and contracted as needed proved useless against the hand-to-hand style of combat of the Imperium.
I tilted my head as the men all rose, bowing to Tallu before stepping out of the center of the room. These weren’t imperial weapons. Why was this a wedding present?
Five more men approached, each holding a long blade in their hands. They bowed to Tallu before turning. Only in profile did I realize what the weapons were.
The hilts of their blades were made with heavy stone, the metal shining as though freshly polished. I had to clench my jaw to keep it from dropping open at Kacha’s arrogance.
These were the weapons used to attack us at the Dragon Temple. These were the same blades that had killed three of the Emperor’s Dogs.
Krustavian weapons were designed for men whose bones were made from the stone they carved out of their mountains. They said the citizens of Krustau were so short so they could heft a mountain on their back; if they were any taller, the peaks would crack open the heavens.
Within a few moves, the imperial soldiers holding the Krustavian blades were exhausted, their muscles trembling as they tried to heft the heavy weapons. Even Rute had held up better than them. Then again, he’d had adrenaline and panic on his side.
As soon as the armed soldiers dropped the tips of their weapons, their unarmed opponents were on them, attacking so quickly that there was no time for defense. When the last man fell, the soldiers turned and bowed to Tallu.
The next set of soldiers stepped onto the floor, holding in their hands the long, chained weapons of Ristorium. At the end was a thick, sharp blade that resembled an oversized arrowhead.
Yor?mu had a scar she claimed had come from one of the weapons. She said the air mages could make them fly on the air like leaves in the breeze, so swift they looked weightless. My eyes cut across the room to where Velethuil stared at the five men swinging his people’s weapons. His normally sweet smile had gone rancid.
The imperial soldiers used them with some success, swinging them with accuracy and grace, but it was not a leaf on the wind. It was nowhere near as fluid as I imagined it would be in Velethuil’s hands.
They were defeated as soon as the imperial soldiers got under their guard.
The soldiers using the dual blades of the Ariphadeans couldn’t maintain the coordination necessary to wield two blades at once and were defeated as soon as their distraction gave the opportunity.
The long, poled weapons that Forsaith had used were too ungainly in the space, and it was almost mocking how intensely the soldiers focused, as though exaggerating the difficulty of each weapon.
I knew it was coming, so I gave General Kacha no reaction when soldiers stepped onto the floor brandishing the blades common in the north—sharp enough to slice through the thick pelts of sea animals but short enough that they could be wielded easily in battle.
Only six days earlier, I’d nearly decapitated one of Rute’s servants with one.
The blade was called a wolf’s claw in the north, and it had been the second weapon I had learned to use. The ones wielding the blades bowed to us, and the unarmed imperial soldiers approached. My whole arm tensed as one of the men swung the blade wide, as though it was a longer imperial blade. These were not blades for reach; they were blades for drawing blood, and these men mocked the use of them.
When the charade was over and the men had bowed, General Kacha stood before us.
“We offer this show of imperial strength as our gift on your wedding, Emperor Tallu.” He bowed low, formally, his fingers in a triangle. “Even our unarmed men can defeat any warrior from any of the other nations, conquered or waiting to be embraced by the empire.”
Tallu made a soft sound. “Is that so?”
“You just saw it!” General Kacha straightened, his grin stretching his face. “And my men were not going easy. They trained for months on the weapons they presented. Although they had planned to use Krustau’s axes, we were pleased with the gift the blades offered us. It shows how true imperial soldiers fare against Krustavian weapons. Because it is not in our nature to use foreign weapons.”
There was something vicious in the words. Several vicious things. He was implying again that his soldiers were superior fighters to the Emperor’s Dogs, and he was also saying that he didn’t believe Tallu’s story about Rute’s disloyalty to the Imperium.
Tallu turned to me. “How was their use of the wolf’s claw?”
Tallu knew the name of our weapon, knew it with an intimate curl of his lips around the words, but I thought of long arctic nights. I thought of a boat on the ocean, its whole crew swallowed by monsters hungry for their corpses once I had finished the deed.
I thought about my mother, sending me off to the south, knowing that I would never, ever come home.
“A travesty,” I said. The words came out before I could bite them off, before I could tell a lie that would let General Kacha save face.
“And you think you can do better?” General Kacha said. “My men are the best trained in the world!”
“Are they?” Tallu said. “Then I’m sure you won’t mind a rematch. My husband can show them what a real northern warrior can accomplish. What do you think, Airón? Three on one? Is that fair?”
I swallowed, realizing that I’d been too worried about General Kacha and forgotten who had given me a dragon’s egg. Having his soldiers kill me at our wedding was much more of a statement than letting his Dogs murder me in the forest. “Of course, husband. That is fair.”
Three imperial soldiers against one of me. Totally fair.