Chapter 3
Three
E ona? went pale, and then, without a word, she strode back to the door. Sagam was on the other side, and he took in the situation with one glance.
“Lord Fuyii is done here,” she said. “He will join me as we travel north.”
Fuyii gaped. “No. I can be a help to you. Who else can you rely on here?”
“I will rely on my husband,” I said. “As one should.”
“Perhaps he could be kept somewhere he will not run into old friends. He’s expressed how embarrassed he is at his diminished station.” Eona?’s smile was sweet as she turned from Sagam to her former tutor. “I will see you when it’s time to leave, Lord Fuyii.”
Sagam entered the room and grabbed hold of Fuyii’s arm. He dragged him out, Fuyii protesting loudly. Eona? shut the door behind them.
“I will try to leave now,” she said. “We cannot risk what he will say now that he’s been denied.”
“Is he right?” I asked in Northern, turning over the implications in my mind. “I think he might be.”
“I don’t know. Emperor Tallu chose you . He did so purposefully. Nothing done here is without purpose.” Eona? paced back and forth. “Perhaps he has some other intention that isn’t war? Perhaps he just prefers men. There is that option.”
Even Eona? sounded doubtful. An emperor would have his choice of courtesans. Physical attraction wouldn’t play into his choice of a spouse.
Still, I couldn’t help but be grateful he was so attractive. If I was to seduce him so that I could find his vulnerable moments, the times when it would be easy to kill him, I was grateful he was so easy to look at.
I remembered again the feel of his finger on my skin and shivered.
“Before I go…” Eona? looked around the room and then stepped close to me. She tugged at the lacing along the back of her dress.
“Help me!” she hissed, and I pushed at her shoulder until she turned, my fingers tugging at the knots until they loosened enough for her to reach down her bodice. She reached into her undergarments and drew out a small satchel that she handed to me and a circular object wrapped in a fur pouch.
I took the purse first, opening it to see imperial coins. Mother had given me a similar gift before I left. Better to buy off servants with their own coins.
Tucking it into my waistband, I took the other object, carefully unwrapping it. It revealed an egg, covered in frozen veins that looked like the fractals of ice when frost first came in at the start of winter.
“What is this?” I whispered.
“You know exactly what it is,” Eona? said. “Don’t say it aloud. Hide it. Never let them see. Hold in your heart the same hope that I did: that it will hatch when the time is right.”
Before anyone could come into the room and see the egg, I tucked it into a pocket. I’d need to find somewhere for it. Somewhere safe, somewhere protected.
“Father found it out on the ice years ago. Mother gave it to me,” Eona? whispered. “With hope. And I now pass it to you.”
“Why not take it home?” I asked, my voice just as soft.
Eona? shook her head, trying to tug on her lacing. I took the ends of the cord from her and pulled them tight, tying them and tucking the ends in. We both stilled for a moment, and I couldn’t resist wrapping my arms around her, pulling her tight against me.
She pulled away just enough to turn, hugging tight. It was her grip that made it hard to breathe, that was all.
“You know what will happen if it hatches,” she whispered into my ear. “Either it can help you cause physical damage or…”
Or it could further destabilize the emperor’s rule. What would happen if a dragon appeared and chose someone else, someone not Emperor Tallu, as the true ruler? Even the implication of it could threaten his reign.
I nodded, unsure what else to say. Killing the emperor was one thing, but owning a dragon egg … The Imperium had razed the entire elven nation of Tavornai to kill off the water dragons. They had killed our ice dragons off fifty years earlier. A dragon hadn’t been seen anywhere on the continent in nearly thirty years.
“I’m going,” Eona? said. “I love you, Airón.”
“I love you.” I touched our foreheads together. Who would I be without her? I had trained for so long to be invisible, to be nothing so that I could hide in her shadow, strike because she was taking all the attention.
Eona? drew back first, walking to the door and raising her chin at the tilt of Sagam’s head in an unvoiced question.
“I’m leaving now. It is too painful to prolong the goodbye. Lord Fuyii and I will stay on the ship until it leaves.” She kept her voice so level that even I couldn’t hear the sadness in it.
“As you desire,” Sagam said. He bowed to her and me, lower than he had at first, and led her down a hall. I couldn’t watch her go.
Instead, I went back into the rooms, exploring them fully. They were all on the second floor of Turtle House, only the receiving room opening to the large porch that overlooked the courtyard. The small, enclosed garden had a pond in the center, a tree growing next to it and dropping yellow petals down onto the water.
There were three rooms off of the main receiving room. One was the bedroom Nohe had shown us; a second was a small office with a writing desk and shelves of books and scrolls. The third room at first seemed to have no function. Its blank walls were marked only by pegs to hang things, and the floor was a soft mat that gave slightly as I walked across it.
A meditation room? One for prayer? Or for practicing martial arts? I had heard that the Ristorium air mages needed daily meditation and practice to maintain their abilities. If only my own meager powers could be so easily maintained.
A knock at the door made me turn. For a second, I hoped Eona? had reconsidered and was going to stay with me until Sagam had to pull her away with the same force he’d removed Lord Fuyii.
On the other side of the door was a man wearing a jacket thick with embroidery. I read the symbols quickly. The Minister of Peace, patriarch of Sotonam House.
He bowed in greeting but not low enough to be a sign of respect. “Prince Airón, greetings. I am Lord Sotonam, here at the request of Emperor Tallu to help ready you for your new position.”
I knew his voice. It was good to put a face to the man who’d tried to get information on me and Eona? from Lord Fuyii. Smiling, I bowed even less than him, and when I straightened, I saw the expression on his face turn furious.
“Lord Sotonam, a pleasure. What did you have in mind?”
“I’m sure after your long journey, you must be ready for a bath.” Sotonam’s face stretched into a smile. His skin was golden, but he’d powdered it with silver, creating an iridescent effect. “If you’ll come this way, I can lead you to the bathhouse. I’ve arranged for the emperor’s seamstress to meet us there.”
“Thank you for your thoughtfulness.” Thoughtfulness or obsequiousness. Lord Fuyii hadn’t trusted this man, and I didn’t either.
I needed to find a safe spot for my belongings—the cash, the egg and the weapons on my body were too precious to let anyone see, but if I told Sotonam to wait, he would know I had something to hide and would probably send someone to search my rooms.
He seemed like the sort who was overly inquisitive in the hopes that he could use every scrap of dirty laundry for blackmail as well as his own pleasures.
So, in the interests of keeping any secrets at all, I closed the door behind me and followed him.
“The emperor has been uniquely interested in you,” Lord Sotonam said as we walked down the hall, then down a set of stairs.
“Is that so?” I looked around, counting my steps, trying to understand the layout of Turtle House. We walked through two doors and were outside in a manicured garden different from the one I could see from the balcony in my room, a tree dotted with pink flowers shading a patch of grass and a small stone bench.
“Have you had some introduction to Emperor Tallu before now? Were you acquainted? Perhaps before his father died and he ascended?” Sotonam’s questions were so obvious I had to wonder how foolish he thought I was. It became immediately obvious why he thought I was an idiot. “Lord Fuyii said you were fond of writing. Perhaps you exchanged letters?”
“Lord Fuyii has a misunderstanding about my interest in correspondence,” I said. Had Fuyii actually spoken to Lord Sotonam before he left with Eona?? Or was he grasping for any explanation for the emperor’s decision? “Although I find a good romantic poem thrilling , the idea of detailing my days in writing is as entertaining as watching snow melt on the tundra.”
“We were told that the snow doesn’t melt in the far north.” Sotonam frowned.
“Exactly,” I said. “How did you become Minister of Peace? That seems a high-ranked position. Especially for a man with your history.”
Sotonam’s face went sour, lips pursing and cheeks paling. “It is. I showed extreme loyalty during the last war, and Emperor Millu rewarded that loyalty.”
“Did he.” I couldn’t even raise my voice at the end of the question, wondering which war the Imperium considered “the last war.” The one where they failed to take Ristorium and so sailed south to wipe Forsaith off the map?
Either way, the way he reacted showed me I’d hit true. The position of Minister of Peace was an insult in the Imperium. And whatever downfall Fuyii had made mention of in their conversation was still haunting Sotonam today. Which made me wonder why the emperor had chosen him instead of just asking a servant to lead me to the bathhouse.
That answered my own question. I guessed taking me to wash off the grime of travel was about as insulting a task as could be given to a minister of the Imperium.
Which meant later, when I needed it, he might be someone who I could use. Dissatisfaction was more useful than greed as a motivator, and Sotonam was as dissatisfied as a fish about to be cooked for dinner.
We followed a white stone walkway through the garden and past another building. Further down the path, I saw a lake with a bridge crossing it and a pavilion in the center.
Lord Sotonam offered no other explanation and turned so that we entered a large blue house next to the water. Inside, I was hit by a wall of steam and the scent of flowers and herbs.
Two women dressed in yellow approached, their expressions critical as they looked over Lord Sotonam and me. “It’s been too long, Minister. Where have you been?”
“On business,” he said curtly. He grimaced something resembling a smile when he looked at me. “Prince Airón needs to be cleaned.”
“Is this him?” One of the women turned to me, eyes wide. Her skin gleamed pale white like Lord Fuyii’s, while the other woman’s looked a few shades darker than the emperor’s. “Emperor Tallu’s betrothed?”
“The emperor wants him in our style quickly.” Lord Sotonam looked around. “Is anyone else here? Privacy would be appreciated.”
“No, they’re all attending court.” The lighter woman stepped past us, shutting the door and locking it. “Prince Airón, it is an honor to serve you.”
“I’m Nuti, and this is Tilo.” Nuti smiled wide, gesturing toward one of the open rooms. “This way, this way, we’ll get you cleaned up.”
I followed her into a small changing room that gleamed in pale white stone. At the women’s directions, I began to undress. Sitting on a low bench to unlace my boots, I shivered when the cold stone touched my bare feet.
I stood to take off my coat. The outer furs came off first, a layer of pelts that had been treated with animal fat to make them waterproof. Underneath that was another layer of sealskin leather, thin enough that it was more for comfort than protection.
The pants were the same. I shivered in the hot bathhouse, feeling naked. Carefully, I took a few things out from the pile of clothes. The dragon egg was wrapped in a rabbit fur pouch, and I set it next to me, along with a couple of tokens from home: a necklace from Eona?, a decorative blade from Father, and a strip of beaded leather Mother had made for me when I was sixteen. These I could claim were private property. There was no explanation for the blades sewn into the seams, the thin line of cord that could wrap around a man’s throat, the two vials of poison hidden in a pocket sewn shut.
“The furs and leathers need to be cleaned in a specific way,” I said finally. “They are a precious reminder of home. Can I have them kept safe and leave with them today?”
I reached into the coin purse, drawing out a pair of silver coins. “I would take it as a great favor.”
Tilo looked over at Nuti and palmed her coin quickly; Nuti hesitated but made hers disappear into one of her inner pockets. “Of course, Your Highness. Anything for the future consort.”
Tilo walked me over to a small stall and turned a knob. Suddenly, warm water was flowing out of the wall . I yelped, dancing back. Sotonam came to the door and said impatiently, “Get him cleaned!” When he saw me staring at him, he said, “Sometimes with servants, you must be severe. I’m sure you understand, Your Highness.”
“Have you ever seen a shower?” Nuti asked.
I had never seen anything like it, but it made sense. Somewhere deep in the building, I heard the groan of machinery, and I smelled something in the air that I had only begun to recognize in the carriage rides once we reached the Imperium. An electro mage was nearby, likely powering whatever pumped water from the lake into the pipes.
“In the north, they just use snow.” Sotonam sniffed. “You’ll need to do something about his hair.”
I reached up to touch my hair. In the Northern Kingdom, it was common for men to keep their hair cropped short on the sides. A long tail started on the top of the head; it was either braided by a lover or bound in a knot until marriage.
“It’s perfectly safe, Your Highness,” Nuti said. She took one of the cloths resting on the side of the tub and pantomimed washing herself with it. As I began to scrub myself down, I realized how filthy I truly was. Sweat and dirt had caked itself into my skin. The water was warm, and I closed my eyes, putting my face underneath the spigot and bowing my head, feeling it flow through my hair. Self-consciously, I took the leather tie out of my hair, then scrubbed my fingers through it.
At home, we washed in tubs, some of the clans having massive ones that could fit a half dozen people. I was used to lying in water warmed from the fire until it cooled. This was strange.
Nuti cleared her throat and then gestured to a small basin at the edge of the stream of water. She took out a handful of sand and scrubbed it over her arm, rinsing it under the spray.
I understood immediately. Sometimes, when on hunting trips, the men would rub themselves with snow to clean themselves. I took a handful and scrubbed it over my body, paying careful attention to the crevices of skin that hadn’t been cleaned since I had left home. The ship we’d been on had barely had enough clean water for washing our faces every other day.
After a few minutes, Nuti leaned forward, turning the spigot off. She didn’t offer a towel, instead holding out a thick robe. I put my arms in and grabbed the few things I had taken out of my clothes. I cradled them close, taking care to feel the dragon egg. It felt unharmed. Gesturing, Nuti led me down a short hall and into a room full of steam.
Inside, she gestured for me to hang the robe next to the door, then pointed to some stairs. It was as though the imperials had brought the lake into the room. The water was colored blues and greens, and the edges of the pool faded into darkness as though we were in a hidden cavern.
Lord Sotonam stood at the door, then shouted loudly at me, “Do not attempt to leave! I will be here when you are done!”
I wondered where he had gotten the impression that I was going to run. Instead, I took the steps carefully down, letting myself float in the water. I closed my eyes, something about the large tub so familiar. In winter, when the men returned from their hunts, sharing a soak was the only time my father and I seemed to spend together. I had always assumed that was because he was ashamed of me.
Mother had trained me for a worse sort of killing than my father committed. A dishonorable sort of killing—finding an opening when your victim wasn’t able to defend themselves. Assassination was the opposite of the honest hunting and warfare my father practiced.
It didn’t even have the dignity of a long hunt across the tundra where the elements and the challenge made you equal with your prey.
And my father had known of the boat. He had been there on that ship and seen what I had done, what my mother’s third wife, Yor?mu, had trained me to do.
I shook my head, my vision going spotty. I wasn’t at home, and I would never be home again. My father was not about to join me for a soak, Yor?mu wasn’t waiting outside to test my reflexes, Eona? wasn’t about to race me all the way to the stables to see which of us could saddle up a borealis wolf faster.
My body was nearly weightless in the water, and I took a deep breath of the steamy air. If I was going to play both parts, if I was going to be both Eona? and myself, I needed to decide on my approach. Her plan had been to seduce Emperor Millu, and she’d designed everything about herself around that goal, every choice of styling designed to appeal to him—from the face free of makeup to make her look younger to the way she moved, eyes down, looking up through her eyelashes.
Could I take the same approach with Emperor Tallu? No one would mistake me for a child. No one would mistake me for anything other than what I was: a northern prince trained to survive where only arctic animals should be able to thrive. He’d chosen me, so clearly, he didn’t want the subservient girl Eona? had been pretending to be.
I’d just have to seduce him the best I could. Seduce him. Get him to lower his guard around me. Kill him.
Easy.
Standing, I made my way out of the water, my skin jumping, trembling. For some reason, I was having trouble catching my breath, my heart pounding in my chest. Yor?mu would have called it battle nerves. That was all it was.
Through the door, I could hear the servants talking.
“Your sister married a northerner, didn’t she?” Tilo said.
“She married someone from Dragon’s Rest Mountains ,” Nuti huffed. “I’d hardly call him a northerner . He’s got imperial blood.”
“He might have imperial blood, but they all intermix up there. The question is, do all northerners have as nice a cock as the princeling?”
“Tilo, hush ,” Nuti hissed.
I put the robe back on, tucking my precious belongings carefully into the pockets, and opened the door. Nuti and Tilo both stood waiting, their expressions as mild as milk, neither showing any sign of what they’d been discussing. Lord Sotonam was nowhere to be seen.
“This way, Prince Airón,” Nuti said.
We walked through the rest of the bathing rooms, reaching a small set of stairs that led to a second floor. It was open, all of the shades lifted, completely exposed to the air. It also provided a view of the lake and the rest of the palace.
A small table sat low to the floor, cushions around it. On the table was a delicious spread of food: meats, dumplings, and small fried delicacies that I didn’t recognize. A platter of sliced vegetables was set to the side as a palate cleanser.
“Dinner, while we wait for the seamstresses to arrive.” Nuti approached, holding a series of delicate metal pins in her hands. “Your hair is too long to look truly imperial, no matter what Lord Sotonam wants. I’ll try my best, unless you’d like a haircut?”
Her tone was hopeful, but I shook my head, feeling the wet strands drag over my shoulders.
She held in a sigh, exhaling heavily through her nose. I held still as she selected a golden pin, a northern whale carved on the end in what I recognized immediately as whalebone. Rather than pulling my hair back into a tail, she twisted it in a complicated manner, managing to pin it in something resembling a knot on the back of my head.
Stepping back, she tilted her head. “Well, no one in court is going to mistake you for an imperial, but it will do for now.”
I sat, my stomach rumbling as soon as I put the first vegetable in my mouth. Ravenously, I sampled everything before consuming the entire plate full of fried delicacies, each one bursting with a fatty meat that coated my tongue. Then, I moved on to the salted meats and finished on the crisp vegetables.
Footsteps mounted the stairs slowly, and when they reached the top, I saw three women loaded down with fabrics and silks. Lord Sotonam followed, eyes narrowed on me.
“I told you to fetch me when he was done,” he snapped at Nuti.
“I’m sorry, my lord.” She bowed low but without the triangle of fingers denoting respect. Her eyes cut to mine, and I realized she had been keeping him away while I bathed, giving me a break from him.
I looked at her again, seeing her this time as a potential ally. Anyone willing to risk Lord Sotonam’s wrath was someone I needed to be friends with.
The seamstresses were efficient, making me stand and take off my robe, taking my measurements with long, knotted strings. The eldest, a woman older than the midwife who had overseen our birth, shouted numbers to the youngest, who wrote them down on a scrap of paper. Lord Sotonam sat on one of the other cushions, frowning as he looked over what was left of my meal.
When they were done with measurements, the eldest seamstress walked over to the stock of fabrics, drawing out four or five jackets. Talking to each other in a shorthand I couldn’t understand even with my fluent Imperial, they decided on the colors best suited to me.
“Would you be wearing paint? Or just powders?” the seamstress asked me.
“He’ll have to paint himself, obviously. No one would mistake him for Imperial otherwise.” Lord Sotonam picked up one of the few remaining vegetables, making a face before eating it.
“I will not be painting my skin. Or applying powders.” When Lord Sotonam looked up sharply, opening his mouth, I bared my teeth in something like a smile. “No one will mistake me for anything but a northerner. I appreciate how much you care about whether I fit in with the court and your thoughtful advice, but I will be leaving my skin bare.”
Sotonam’s mouth shut. He frowned. “Well, if you’re willing to risk the court’s mockery, of course I will stand by you, Prince Airón.”
“In that case, we should use more muted fabrics so that his natural colors show more appealingly.” The seamstress picked out three jackets and helped me into one. “Yes, this one. We can send the others to his residence, and the custom ones should be available within a week.”
Bland grays, so matte and dull that I looked nearly like a wall. A wall that even the architect who had designed it didn’t care for. They found different shades of cloth, each more flat-looking than the last.
Even the Emperor’s Dogs had a texture to their grays to better match the shadows they hid in. This was simply flat.
The seamstress helped me back out of the jacket, then into the complicated undergarments the imperials wore. The first layer was underwear that fit snugly enough I barely saw the purpose of it. A pale gray shirt on top had the option of being snug or loose, and after a discussion, the seamstresses decided on snug, the lacing at the neck left partially undone to show off my collarbones. The shirt was tucked into a pair of darker pants that fit tight from the knee down, while the upper thigh fit more loosely. The waist wrapped tightly in a series of broad strips of cloth up past my navel that emphasized my flat stomach, the narrow line of my hips.
When I had everything on, she refastened the dull gray jacket, letting the front hang loose while the back was tied to the waist of the pants. I had seen Lord Fuyii fasten his own clothes often enough that it was familiar. Mother had even bought a set of women’s imperial wear for Eona? to practice with. It had been what Eona? had worn when presented to the court.
Lord Sotonam shook his head. When I turned to look at him, he smiled, the corners of his eyes showing only a vicious pleasure. “Such beautiful fabric for you. You look truly royal in it.”
Fast footsteps came up the stairs, and an out-of-breath messenger appeared at the top. His bronze skin was gleaming from sweat rather than powders.
The sunlight was fading quickly, electric lamps lighting the area where we all stood. The messenger panted, “The emperor wants to see Prince Airón.”
“Now?” Lord Sotonam started, straightening and looking at me, eyes calculating. Was I about to send him back to whatever banishment Lord Fuyii had implied he’d escaped from?
Slow footsteps mounted the stairs, so softly that I barely heard them, and Lord Sotonam clearly didn’t hear them at all. When the emperor appeared at the top of the stairs, four bodyguards standing around him, Lord Sotonam practically fell into a bow.
“Yes,” Emperor Tallu said. “Now.”