Chapter 2 #2
“Servants worry about where their next pay packet will come from, if Emperor Tallu loses support of the entire Imperium. They have already heard that General Saxu marches on the Lakeshore Palace and they know it means the capital has fallen.” Irad?o reached down, picking Na? back up.
“Do you think any of them will do anything about it?” I pulled on a robe. My unbraided hair fell down my back, and I pulled it free, settling it over my shoulder.
Irad?o stepped closer, nudging me down onto her abandoned stool. She brushed through my hair again, choosing a different oil to keep the strands pliable. Then she began the complicated braids that, in the north, would mark me as a blooded warrior.
Her fingers were soothing and the tug on my scalp familiar.
Braiding was usually done by a lover or close family member, although in the north Irad?o and I had been too close to competitors to trust each other with such an intimacy.
Mother had been training Irad?o to take her place as ruler of the northern clans.
So our cousin had always felt distant to me and Eona? because we had known our fate was set.
We would die, and Irad?o would get to rule over a Northern Kingdom not bound by the Imperium’s greed.
I had not asked what she felt to lose her position to my sister, the returning princess who should have died and lived instead.
“I don’t think anyone here has the courage to act against Emperor Tallu,” Irad?o said, the long pause between question and answer saying more than it should.
“They fear him too much. That much, at least, is genuine, in this country of men and women who talk out of the corners of their lips as though to say a lie with enough belief makes it true. But it is too much for me to take on the task of monitoring it myself.”
She tied off one of the braids and started another, her fingers quick with the work. I stared at the pale tiles in the room, shipped from the other side of the Imperium, just so the emperor’s household could bathe in the manner they were accustomed to.
“You think the Kennelmaster must be replaced.” I watched a drop of water trail down the white tile, the condensation picking up speed as it went.
“Emperor Tallu only has three Dogs, and the man who runs them might die at any moment. The Kennelmaster must choose a successor and train him. If Tallu wants to survive, he needs to rebuild the Kennel.” Irad?o tugged my head backward as she tied off the next braid, starting a third.
“The Kennelmaster might turn on Tallu if the emperor insists on him giving up his position.” I glanced at the door, but I hadn’t heard a single sound since the maid left.
“And if he does?” Irad?o stopped braiding, and I turned to glance over my shoulder. She was looking down at the strands of hair in her hand, and I turned back, flushing at her accusation.
What good was I as an assassin if I didn’t take care of Tallu’s enemies before they could take action against him?
“It’s more complicated than that. The Dogs won’t trust me if…” Even I didn’t dare voice what Irad?o had suggested with a raised brow.
“Then force the issue. Whether the Dogs trust you or not is pointless if there are none left in the Kennel.” Irad?o tugged on my hair and started on the last braid. She finished it quickly and then began plaiting the four braids together.
I closed my eyes, wishing that I was anywhere else, wishing that Eona? was there with me; her manipulations were more subtle than Irad?o’s. “I will consider how to approach Emperor Tallu.”
Irad?o breathed out a sharp breath that was almost like a snort. “Oh, I’m sure you will.”
“What? Isn’t that the point of marrying the emperor? To use our times between the sheets to my benefit?” I let my fingers trail over the soft lining of the robe, imagining Tallu in his own bath.
“Oh, yes, your benefit,” Irad?o said. “I’m sure that’s the only reason you’re bedding him. The benefits.”
The accusation stung, partially because I knew what she was saying was true. I had fallen for the man I was sent to kill. She might think me a fool, but I knew Tallu’s heart in a way that no one else did, no one else could.
She flicked my ear. “Done.”
I stood, moving over to the mirror on the other side of the room. I ran a hand over the braids, feeling something in my chest tighten, knotting so tight I could barely breathe with it sitting under my lungs.
The servants in Turtle House had tried to approximate northern braids.
Homisu, the man hired to replace Piivu, had come the closest, his efforts yielding a passable single plait, but none of them had the ability to do the complicated styles that told as much of a story as southern stitching on jackets.
Irad?o had given me the hairstyle of a blooded warrior, married, and the pride of his clan. Despite her censure, she had given me something I hadn’t been sure of since my wedding night: the reassurance that I was doing the right thing.
“Keep watch,” I said. “I don’t know what the owls told you, but High General Saxu comes to us with a fraction of his men, plus the servants who survived a massacre. It would be easy for Kacha or Bemishu to arrange for one of their spies to have survived.”
“My birds are fine.” Irad?o glared at me. “It is you who spoiled yours and ruined them for good information.”
“Ruined them? They still come to me with intelligence.” I felt defensively protective of the birds.
“They come to you with lazy information, things they picked up while gathering other food.” Irad?o shook her head. “This is why you do better with wolves. A wolf with a fat belly doesn’t get lazy, it gets loyal. A bird who gets its fill of food grows complacent.”
“Don’t let Terror hear you say he’s complacent.” I watched myself smile in the mirror, more than aware we were both talking around the real issues that hung between us.
Irad?o might trust me in my judgment with Tallu, but a part of her would always see everyone here as a threat. Everyone here was a risk to the north, even when they were acting with the same goal we had.
“At least with three of them, there is some competition,” Irad?o said.
I shook my head. “So cruel to birds who don’t even like you now that their master is returned. What of the twins?”
“The Bemishu girls have been quiet. They leave their room only when called for. I cannot get a read on them, they seem aware that whatever they say will be overheard.” She shook her head. “I do not like the idea of letting the Kennelmaster have control of their training.”
I considered the alternatives. The twins, who had shown up a few days after we had returned to the Lakeshore Palace, had been nothing but obedient, even if I could see a hunger in their eyes for more.
“Do you think they’re a threat?” I asked.
“I don’t think that a sea serpent eats krill. They eat the fish that fill their stomachs on krill,” Irad?o said.
“Am I the krill?” I asked, my lips pulled down.
“With those two, would you want to be their prey?” Irad?o asked pointedly.
I considered. “No.”
“Then focus on what you should be worried about, rather than my opinion on your position in the natural order of the ocean.”
“Krill,” I muttered unhappily.
Irad?o followed me back into the main room where a pair of servants sprang apart at the sight of us.
One let her eyes drift back and forth between us, and I hid a wince.
To a fellow northerner, we might look like family, but in the south, we both simply looked like northerners.
Meaning, the emperor’s consort had been having an intimate conversation in a language they likely couldn’t speak, while he was naked, with a strange woman.
Neither said anything as they dressed me, and I considered what gossip must be flowing around the palace. Irad?o seemed unconcerned, settling on a couch and letting Na? curl in her lap when the dragon got tired of sulking in the bathroom.
“Has the emperor summoned the Krustavian King yet?” I asked in Imperial, when the silence began to wear on me.
“No, not yet,” Zolle, one of the servants, said. “He asked for you when you were bathed.”
There was an insult in her tone, something not even that subtle, as though a northerner could never truly be clean.
In her seat, Irad?o straightened, her eyes sharp as she examined the servant.
Zolle continued with the complicated knots at my waistband and then stood back, waiting for the other servant to finish with my boots before she took a jacket off the bed and presented it for my approval.
I nodded, watching her in the mirror. “I am so grateful that General Saxu was able to save some of the servants from the Mountainside Palace.”
Her fingers faltered for a moment, but she continued pulling the jacket straight, while the other servant bit her lip, tying the jacket to the waistband of my pants in the imperial manner.
“Some of the servants?” Zolle asked, her head bowed respectfully. I couldn’t catch her eyes in the mirror, and kept my gaze fixed on the top of her head.
“Yes. I hope it will lessen the workload of the servants assigned to me and Empress Koque. I know being split between the two of us, the duties might be too much to handle.”
“Oh, no, I assure you, it’s not, Your Highness.” Zolle finished her work and stepped back, bowing low, her fingers triangled.
I made a soft humming noise, neither agreeing nor arguing against her reassurance. When both servants stepped back, I dipped my head in appreciation before walking out into the hallway and heading for Tallu’s rooms. Irad?o fell into step beside me.
“They may not have ill will toward Emperor Tallu,” I murmured, “but I am not as reassured about their feelings toward me.”
“I will have the birds keep an eye on her.” Irad?o adjusted her grip on Na?, letting the dragon climb her shoulder. “They’ve grown more brazen.”