Chapter 20
Twenty
A sahi bent, but before he could lift me into his arms like I was some fainting maiden from a long-ago tale, I struggled to stand. My knee almost gave out again, and Asahi wrapped my arm over his shoulders, keeping me upright.
We stumbled past the table of gifts, and I had a brief, brilliant thought. Letting my knee give out, I crashed into the table, sending gifts flying. The Dogs reacted to the noise, and I used the single moment of distraction to grab what I was after.
The diamond blade that Lady Dalimu had gifted us fit neatly up my sleeve. It was an assassin’s blade, and what did that say about Lady Dalimu and her intentions toward the emperor?
Asahi turned back to me, carefully lifting me back to standing. He didn’t ask if I was fine.
From this angle, I could see the barest sliver of his skin behind his mask, just the side of his face, nothing to give me a hint of his expression. Well. Either he was annoyed at being treated like a pack horse, or he wasn’t, and either way, I didn’t have the strength to fight anymore.
Tallu strode through the palace, Sagam and one of his other Dogs loping behind him. Even through my swimming vision, I saw guards slinking from shadow to shadow, seemingly appearing through the walls. I must have hit my head harder than I thought.
We reached a door, and Tallu pressed his hand into it, the spark of electricity waking the secret lock that looked like a maze. The round mechanism spun open, and he strode through into darkness. Asahi led me behind him, Sagam taking the rear.
Walking down a narrow staircase, we exited into the tunnels underneath the palace. No one spoke, and my mind spun with too many possibilities. Tallu had wanted me to show off to Kacha. Why?
He’d been furious at how far Kacha and his men had taken it, and he’d saved me. That roar of his voice as he protected me. I couldn’t think; I couldn’t accept what it meant that the man I had to kill cared about me that much.
Tallu led us up a narrow, spiral staircase. When we stepped out, we were in a building I recognized, although the last time I’d been carried in, I had been unconscious.
I remembered my first day in the Imperium, when Velethuil had pointed out the emperor’s private quarters. He had said servants locked them every evening from the inside. Once they closed, it was impossible to open them until dawn.
We continued up a larger staircase, the spiral leading us to the third floor. Servants waited inside the thick metal door at the top. As soon as we walked through, Tallu said, “Close the doors.”
The servants exchanged a look behind his back but hurried to obey. The doors were massive, large enough to fit an Ariphadi elephant with all of its supplies inside. It took two servants per side to shut the double doors.
Once they closed in the middle, there was a cracking sound, and gearwork creaked into motion. I had never seen inside any of the southern machines. Even on our trip south, soldiers had kept Eona? and me away from the workings of the ship.
Now, I watched as gears turned, teeth moving into position, metal creaking together as a series of bolts slid into place. Nothing could get through this door. The Ariphadi tribes could send all of their elephants to tear the door from its hinges and the building would collapse before the door gave way.
“How does it open?” I asked Asahi.
“Tomorrow morning, at the appointed hour.” Asahi indicated a ticking cog in the corner of the door. “Or if Emperor Tallu uses his magic.”
My leg trembled. One soldier must have gotten in a better hit than I thought. I could feel the muscle jumping in pain. Tallu continued down the hall, and Asahi moved to follow, dragging me with him.
Tallu paused in front of a doorway, looking inside before turning to Asahi. “Have the servants clean him up. Then I want him in my bedroom.”
He spun, his robe floating in the air for a moment before it settled, and then he disappeared down another hallway. The pause let me get my feet underneath myself, and when Asahi tried to drag me into the room, I said, “I can clean myself.”
“Can you?” Asahi challenged. He sounded furious, and I couldn’t see his eyes with his face turned away from me, but I knew he was more than angry . Something was eating at him.
“What is it? Did my desperate fight dishonor me? Or you?” I pushed myself up, steadier, and glared at him.
“You dishonored no one. They dishonored themselves. Every single one of your blows could have killed a man if the blade had been sharp. They should have gone down. In an honorable fight, they would have ceded that you had won.” His voice turned even harder. “There was no honor for the Southern Imperium today.”
“Awww, Asahi, it almost sounds like you thought I did a good job,” I teased. “What do you think? Am I good enough to protect the emperor as one of his Dogs?”
Asahi tightened his grip around my waist and pulled me into the bathing room. A servant squeezed past to start the shower.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Asahi said. “You didn’t fight like you had anything to protect.”
I sat heavily on the nearby bench, allowing the servant to unlace my shoes. For a moment, I flashed back to the fight, realizing that Asahi was right. Yor?mu had always taught me to fight as though the important thing wasn’t protecting my own life but doing the most harm to others.
An assassin fought to kill, not to survive the attempt.
Asahi was watching me, and I hoped none of my feelings were on my face, even though all I could think was how right he was. How much it hurt to realize that even now, when I couldn’t die until my mission was finished, I would never see anyone I loved ever again.
The Imperium would fall, but I would fall along with it, and hopefully, Eona? could build something on the ashes.
I took off my shirt, hiding the blade in the folds of the fabric as I set it aside. They helped me with my pants, and soon enough, the servant had me in the shower, gently scrubbing all the sweat and blood from my skin. The hot water relaxed something in my back so that I could finally turn again without moving as though my entire torso was carved from wood.
When I got out, two servants were having a hushed conversation under Asahi’s glare.
“What is it?” I asked, taking the offered towel. My skin smelled fresh, slightly floral, and the hot water had made my vision spotty again. I shook my head.
“We don’t have any of your clothing here, Consort Airón,” one servant finally said. He bowed his head, eyes fixed on the stone floor.
I frowned at him. “What?”
“Turtle House was supposed to send a few of your outfits over this afternoon, but they didn’t, and now that the emperor’s quarters are closed, we cannot open the door again until morning.” The servant bowed, forming a triangle with his fingers and then adding the up-down motion that indicated a plea.
“One of the servants can’t just hop out for a shirt and pants?” I asked Asahi.
Glaring at the two servants, he crossed his arms. “This should have been dealt with days ago.”
“We had no idea Emperor Tallu would actually want him to stay the night,” the other servant whispered. Then, to my horror, he dropped to the ground, prostrating himself in front of me, pressing his head to the damp stone. “We deserve any consequences you see fit, Consort Airón.”
“Just…” I waved my hand, knowing as soon as they blanched that what was a casual gesture in the Northern Kingdom clearly meant something different here in the Southern Imperium. “I’m sure Emperor Tallu will let me borrow some of his spares.”
The servant on the floor flinched with his whole body, and the one still standing looked horrified, mouth open and eyes wide.
“Right. I’m not allowed to wear the emperor’s clothes? What is it? Some unspoken rule? You would have to burn them after his sacred cloth touched my filthy skin?” I held out my arms, the towel dipping dangerously. “You just scrubbed me. I think I’m fine.” Then, before I had to deal with any more of the rigid imperial nonsense, I sighed. “Just give me my old clothes.”
The servant in front of me gripped a spare towel, his knuckles going white, eyes going wide. “We couldn’t possibly?—”
“Is there a problem?” Sagam looked in from the hallway, his mask shadowy in the hall light.
“Apparently, the emperor can touch my skin, but I can’t wear one of his shirts.” I gestured at my nakedness. “Well, it is my wedding night. Maybe I won’t need anything until morning.”
Sagam blinked, and his eyes narrowed slightly. It looked like laughter, but it was impossible to tell under his mask. “Just a moment.”
He disappeared, and Asahi made an annoyed sound that was barely more than a breath of air. After a few awkward minutes, Sagam returned, offering over a matching set of shirt and pants. The gray would blend into shadow without being dark enough to stand out at night. “We keep spare Dogs’ clothing up here. Dress him quickly. The emperor does not like to be left waiting.”
The servants clothed me in my fresh shirt and pants, demonstrating even more efficiency than Nohe and the seamstress. When they were done, I was clearly meant to follow the one already halfway through the door, but I paused, turning my back to everyone and making a show of going through my clothing. I used the movement to hide the dagger as I slid it up my sleeve. Then I turned around, frowning.
“Asahi, there was a box—a wedding gift from the emperor?” I knew he had it; I’d given it to him before my fight with Kacha’s soldiers.
Immediately, he took it from a pocket and handed it over.
“My apologies,” he said.
I tucked the box into my own pocket, ignoring the awkward silence. When I looked up, I saw Sagam and Asahi staring at each other, and I couldn’t see their eyes, but Sagam shook his head. He looked over when he saw me straighten. “This way.”
He led me down a long hall, and I looked into the rooms we passed: library, an office, even an indoor garden, the windows stretching from floor to ceiling so that the plants got as much sunlight as they could. Everything was expensive: the fixtures made from pure gold, the carpets made with such costly dyes that I had never even seen the colors.
As we walked, I turned back to Asahi. “What does it mean? That hand gesture.”
I repeated it, waving my hand from side to side. In the north, it was only a simple refusal, but from the way Asahi’s eyes moved, I could tell his expression was nearly disgust.
“It is a sign that someone is beneath you, that their existence is offensive. If you respond to someone with it, it is the greatest insult.” Asahi paused and then said, “I will inform the servants that you didn’t mean it.”
I blew out a long breath. “I would appreciate it. The last thing I want is sand in my food.”
“Trust me, the emperor’s personal servants can do a lot worse than sand in your food. Ask me how I broke my arm,” Sagam said from ahead. He turned, winking, and I wished I could see under his mask to see if the smirk matched the tilt of his eyes. He reminded me of friends from back home, and the homesickness hit me fiercely.
“In the north, during the darkest months of winter, the Silver City’s gates close, and it is impossible to leave the city.” I let my own lips twist into a smile. “Trust me, a few imperial servants have nothing on what my sister would get up to when I annoyed her during those dark months.”
Sagam snorted, and then his shoulders shook in a laugh. “I will say that Emperor Tallu gives them less leash than his predecessor.”
“You served Emperor Millu?” I tried to keep the question light.
“We both did,” Asahi answered. Something in his tone indicated that even for the stoic Asahi, he hadn’t enjoyed his service under Tallu’s father. There was another line for me to follow. What would happen if the Emperor’s Dogs turned against their master? Or their next master?
“Such a pity what happened to Emperor Millu,” I said finally. “And the young prince.”
“And the empress,” Sagam said quietly.
“We are here,” Asahi answered.
We stopped in front of a pair of massive metal doors that matched the ones at the front of the emperor’s quarters. I recognized it from nearly two weeks ago, the last time I’d been in the emperor’s quarters. The curtains were shut around the massive bed.
Tallu was nowhere in sight.
I hesitated, looking at the two Dogs, and all friendliness was gone from their expressions. I couldn’t see their faces, but their eyes were hard, and I remembered the chilly way that Tallu had looked down at me when he’d rescued me from the electro mage about to send lightning directly into my heart.
Well, he had ordered me cleaned. Perhaps he wanted to have fun with me before he killed me. The thought sat wrong, but I wasn’t sure why else they would look at me like that, why else even Sagam would lose all friendliness in an instant.
I looked between them, tensing again. I had done too much fighting today, and I wasn’t eager to fight two men who had been, if not friendly, at least not horrible to me.
“We leave you here,” Sagam said. Something in his tone was a warning: the emperor would be unattended here.
The Dogs would guard the entrances and exits, but the emperor would be alone in his room. My chest loosened, and I took a deep breath, enough to fill up my lungs.
I had been so anxious about trying to find a time when I could kill him that I had forgotten exactly why Eona? had trained for so many years, why she had put up with Lord Fuyii’s terrible mentorship.
She had trained so that she could seduce Emperor Millu. Now, it was my job to seduce his son. Once I had done that, I would have access to the emperor whenever I needed it.
I thought about Tallu, his broad shoulders, the muscles I had seen exposed when the blood mage had healed him in the forest. He had scars from years of war, but more than that, he had the strength and power of a well-trained electro mage.
He had taken that handful of electricity meant to kill me and absorbed it as though it was nothing. Something shivered up my spine at the idea of having that much power focused on me, that much power pressed against my body.
“Thank you.” I nodded, then stepped into the room.
The two Dogs shut the doors, and I explored the room. History tomes written in every language on the continent filled the bookshelf. I even found a few northern scrolls.
The paper under my fingers had the dry feel of old parchment, and when I brushed a thumb across one letter, bits of ink came off on my fingertip.
Under my bare feet, thick rugs guarded against the chill of the stone floor. The lights glowed so brightly it might as well have been noon, and it was only when I glanced out the window that I could see the dark beyond, the lights from the city glowing in the distance.
“We have very few pieces from the Northern Kingdom,” Tallu said.
I startled, spinning to see him standing next to the bed. He had pulled aside a tapestry, revealing a secret door. I pointed at it.
“Doesn’t it defeat the purpose of having a locked room if you have a way in and out? An assassin could just as easily find it.” I carefully rolled the scroll, reattaching the fastening—a piece of whalebone carved into the head of a wolf.
“It’s a private room, not an exit.” Tallu let the wall hanging fall back, covering the door. He crossed the room, and I just barely stopped myself from backing up until my spine pressed against the wall of books. “I’ve been attempting to read this one, but I can’t make sense of it.”
“Well, it’s written in an old dialect,” I said. I looked up at him through my lashes. “And the script is from when Ristorium text influenced the northern written language. I would be happy to teach you if you are interested. Although I don’t know that you would be.”
“Learning new languages is always interesting for me.” Tallu leaned forward, and I smelled that sharp scent again—electricity and the salty tang of blood. His lips brushed my ear when he said, “Northern languages especially.”
“Oh?” I turned my head, realizing that put our lips barely an inch apart.
I knew what I had to do. I needed to press our lips together, seduce him. And part of me wanted to. I barely remembered what his plush lips tasted like. When I had him on his back in bed, was he as in control as he thought, or could I get him to give in to me?
What would he look like if I wrapped my mouth around his cock?
The diamond blade bit into my arm, and I pushed forward, my lips meeting his. He twitched, as though the move was unexpected, but then he was present and with me and grabbing my hair again, holding tight until I could feel the pricks of pain in my scalp.
I moaned, and he pushed his tongue into my mouth, sweeping aside any thought of resistance as he consumed me. His hand in my hair forced my head back, and he kissed down my neck, his hand splayed nearly the whole width of my back as he used one hand to pull and the other to bring me close.
My spine was a taut arch, a crescent of pleasure and pain, and I closed my eyes, rubbing against him wantonly. Moaning, I relaxed into him, and he seemed to take it as a cue, grabbing my thighs and hefting me up, lifting me until I wrapped my legs around his hips.
We crashed through the curtains around the bed, and I pushed back so Tallu could join me. The curtains slipped closed behind him, leaving us in darkness. He crawled forward, and I tried to rise up on my elbows, meet his mouth, but he pressed a hand to my chest, pushing me back down.
Then he leaned forward, licking and kissing at my neck, nipping at the sensitive flesh as his hand worked open the fastenings of my pants. When he finally got them open, my cock strained against the fabric, and he pushed his hand in rather than drawing it out. I yelped at the overstimulation, the pressure of his tight hand and the unforgiving fabric leaving me breathless and desperate.
“Tallu,” I moaned, and the darkness around us was absolute, as though we were the only two people in the world.
I reached up, caressing his face, running my thumb along his lips, and suddenly, I knew what I needed before I could finish the mission my mother had sent me on. I had no more excuses. Rute was dead, the hyenas were in the palace, ready to pick at the bones of the Imperium, and the time was now.
But I needed something from him first, a balm to soothe my conscience, a way to make amends for the horrible way I’d just realized the sea serpents weren’t the Imperium to Tallu. The sea serpents were him .
“Tallu, take me,” I begged.
He stilled, then lowered his face to my neck, and I felt the delicate tickle of his eyelashes.
“I can’t,” he whispered. “Not yet. Not now.”
And then he pressed forward, yanking my pants down and pulling at his own until we were rubbing together, the soft velvet of his cock making something in me give in, give up.
I squeezed my eyes shut, every nerve alight. “Tallu.”
“Airón,” he whispered into my ear. “Airón, husband.”
He thrust desperately, and I yearned for his cock inside me. What would it feel like to have that much power pushing inside me, taking me apart from the inside out?
He bit at my shoulder, nipping at the flesh until I was alight with him. When his hand wrapped around me, I couldn’t feel anything but him, anything but his skin on mine, his flesh keeping me from rising to the heavens.
It was over too fast, and Tallu came hot, his come coating his hand, but he didn’t stop pumping us—my hard cock and his softening one. I came at the thought of him doing that, overstimulating himself so that I could find release, at the knowledge that he was turning his pleasure to pain so that I could finish.
He panted against my neck, but I didn’t shift away from the tickle of it. His body was lax.
Carefully, I drew out the blade from my sleeve, my hand finding the hilt. I had never wielded it, but I knew the shape intimately. Nudging him onto his back, I straddled his thighs and drew the blade up, waiting for him to realize what was happening, waiting for him to try to stop me. His hands were free— why wasn’t he going to stop me ?
One of the curtains had been kicked open during our lovemaking that it let in just a sliver of light. Enough that I could see his face, read the expression on it. It was blank and resigned.
“Is that blade for me?” he asked, repeating the question he’d asked earlier. And this time, I understood. I knew he meant it.
He wouldn’t resist me. He’d asked me in the forest if I was going to kill him, and he would have let me do it there, and now, he was willing to let me kill him with our come still on his fingers, with the scent of him clinging to me.
“Yes,” I said, forcing the word out.
I pressed the blade down, the tip of it slicing into his throat, a droplet of blood beading up. He watched me, his eyes empty, and I leaned forward, but I couldn’t press the blade any further down. I couldn’t force myself to finish.
I leaned back, pulling the blade away from his neck.
We lay there in the near darkness, breathing the same air, his eyes fixed on me. I could barely see him, but I thought something changed in his expression, as though I was watching hope bloom on his face.
Finally, I rolled off him, staring at him, my knees pulled up to my chest, arms tight over my shins.
“Why were you going to let me kill you?” I asked. “Why didn’t you stop me?” Then, because I still didn’t understand, “Why did you give me back my dragon egg ?”
“I have something to show you,” Tallu said, and he pushed himself up until he was sitting up, perpendicular to me. He pushed open the bed curtains and stepped out.
As he straightened his clothing, his hair fell over his forehead, and he looked… sad. Defeated. Then his lips tightened, and he turned to me, offering a hand.
I hesitated but reached out, letting my palm wrap around his. The contact sent a spark of pleasure down my spine, and it was impossible, but my cock twitched, wanting to get hard again, wanting, wanting, wanting.
Tallu tugged my hand and led me to the hidden door behind the tapestry. Inside the room were maps and diagrams, models of different war machines. Tallu released my hand, stepping toward the table in the center of the room where something that looked like a boat with wings hovered above the wooden surface.
He looked down at it. The boat floated in the air, and he raised one finger to nudge it, the whole thing tilting to keep itself upright. It was impossible. It was a flying ship. It flew .
“This is how the Imperium will conquer the Northern Kingdom.” He finally looked back at me, his russet eyes catching mine. “And I cannot stop it by myself.”
Airón and Tallu’s story continues in Emperor’s Wrath .