Chapter 10
Ten
Tallu’s words were like an explosion, setting every servant into motion, a complicated dance that bore him from the entryway to the emperor’s quarters further inside. I followed him, watching as he was efficiently stripped and led to the bath in the back of his quarters.
His bare flesh was exposed, the long, dangerous line of his tattooed dragon shifting down his arm, and all the servants reacted as though his nakedness was a normal thing.
He didn’t even look at me, no glance over his shoulder, and this was how he fit back into his role as emperor.
I was no longer his partner, but his consort, an owned item, ready to be dismissed or summoned when he desired.
As he was led around a corner to the promised bath, I caught the slightest glance, his eyes catching hold of mine for just a moment, long enough to reassure me.
No. We might be play-acting at the same roles Millu and Koque had occupied, but that was all it was.
Tallu’s heart beat with my name the same way mine did with his.
Then Tallu was gone. I took a step forward, but Quuri made a swift gesture that caught my attention.
With polite motions, she led me out of Tallu’s quarters and down the hall.
We passed Krustavian words carved above the lintels, which were made of a dark, shining stone I didn’t recognize, before Quuri finally opened a door on the far side of the building.
“These are the empress’s rooms,” Quuri said. Everything else remained unspoken, the implicit understanding that I was subject to the emperor’s whims, that I had no ownership of his time to match his control over mine.
When I walked in, I wasn’t surprised to see that they were smaller and more ornately decorated than Tallu’s quarters.
The empress had lived in luxury at the Mountainside Palace, and the evidence there showed that her taste had been exquisite. It was no surprise to me that the same applied here.
The doors opened into a sitting room, couches and chairs arrayed gracefully, large tapestries hanging on the walls to cover the Krustavian embellishments. A balcony looked out over the gardens.
“Would you like to bathe first or rest?” Quuri asked. “You must be tired from the road, Your Highness.”
I breathed in the flower-scented air, thinking of the last time I had been in a bath, the intimacy that Tallu and I had shared, which hadn’t gone quite as far as either one of us wanted.
“I’ll bathe,” I said. Quuri looked sharply at the servants, and two broke off, hurrying to the back, where I heard the splash of water against rocks.
“Is this how Empress Koque left it?” I asked.
I began circling the room, noting that despite the decorations, there was no hint of the former mistress here.
No papers or books left behind, no trinkets tied specifically to the empress.
Other than the distinct fingerprint of her style, it was clear that Koque had been expunged.
“All of the belongings she brought with her were sent back to the Mountainside Palace,” Quuri said.
I nodded, my eyes skimming over the room again.
I looked through a pair of wide-open doors and saw a massive bed that took up nearly the entire room.
When I entered it, it smelled clean, as though the linens were changed frequently enough that any lingering perfume from the empress had disappeared.
It was so different from how she had been treated at the Mountainside Palace. There, the servants had maintained her rooms with such loving devotion that I could almost believe she would return at any moment.
Here, where she had actually died—or not, if we believed the King of the Shadow Throne—it was as though the servants wanted to erase her, as though they were eager to turn her into merely the woman who had occasionally occupied the rooms.
“Your Highness,” Quuri said. “The bath is ready.”
I looked over, roused from my thoughts by her tone.
She was watching one of the servants, a bath maid by the uniform she wore.
I nodded, turning to follow the woman before a hint of movement caught my eye.
Na? stood in the doorway, back in the form of a dragon, her gaze roaming over the room.
I shook my head, annoyed at myself for having forgotten her.
Quuri stared, and a gasp echoed around the room as every servant saw their first dragon.
“This is the dragon that chose Emperor Tallu,” I said, although it seemed unnecessary. Who else could this dragon be?
“Should we… That is… What does the dragon require?” Quuri finally managed to finish her sentence but couldn’t break her gaze away from Na?.
The dragon carefully picked her way into the room.
She was about the size of a large dog, and her tail swished back and forth, the small spikes at the end threatening a nearby table, although no one rushed to chastise her for it.
A stream of sunlight from one of the large windows highlighted a section of the marble floor, and she curled up in it, wrapping her tail around her and settling her head on her paws.
The gleam of one eye narrowed, just barely open.
She was pretending to sleep, even if the reality was that she was aware of everything going on.
“Food, I suppose. Otherwise, she’ll eat any nearby herd of cattle you have available.” My smile grew self-conscious as the servants all stared back at me in shock.
The echo of wonder in the room turned into murmurs of curiosity as the yellow-clad servants dropped their performance of formality, all too curious about the legendary creature now sleeping in my quarters.
Quuri managed a small nod. “Of course…”
She cleared her throat and looked at one of the other servants, directing her to bring meat from the kitchens. The bath maid stepped forward again, bowing and then gesturing with an open palm for me to follow her.
As I trailed her, I observed the rooms. Each was exquisite, and yet, they still held very little of Empress Koque in them. In the bath, the maid helped me out of my clothes, handing them over to another servant before leading me to the showers.
Just as in the Mountainside Palace, the showers were made of pure white stone. It had to have been imported from somewhere else in the Imperium—everything else in the palace seemed made of brown granite or dark black stone. But this was nearly as white as snow.
The maid stood nearby as I scrubbed my skin clean, digging deep into my hair with my fingertips. I finished washing, letting the water rinse the last of the sand from my skin.
When I turned, I half expected to see Tallu. It had been so long since I had had him out of my reach. We had been an eternity on the road together, and there, he was never more than an arm’s length away.
The bath maid was silent, her eyes fixed on the floor.
She had a thick robe in her hands, offering it over as I stepped out of the shower.
I put it on, letting her lead me through another door into a room steaming from hot water.
The bath was made from the same black stone I had noticed throughout the palace in accents and statues.
When I touched it, it was smooth, but it retained its heat like glass.
“What kind of stone is this?” I asked.
The servant dropped her eyes, gesturing with one palm again for me to enter the bath. Shrugging off the robe, I stepped in, my muscles shivering in appreciation at the heat.
I lounged in the bath, aware of quiet murmurs I could hear from the other room. When I cracked open my eyes, I saw the shadow of a Dog in the doorway.
“Simpleton. I should drown him right here to show him how careless he is.”
I didn’t startle at the cruelty I heard in Asahi’s voice.
I wanted to believe that it was only my own madness that made me hear things like that in his voice, but the part of me that was my mother’s son knew better.
But what could I do? Attack a third Dog, this time one who had never raised a hand against me?
I had no evidence, no proof. More than that, even if Asahi was thinking such cruel thoughts, his actions had been faultless. Even now, he was guarding me when I was without my own weapons.
I had no choice but to trust that whatever he was thinking, he was acting in my best interest. It hurt to know that that was what the man I’d considered a friend thought, but I had no right to his affection as well as his loyalty.
The knot that had tightened at the base of my spine since we had left the Mountainside Palace began to loosen, my muscles finally giving in to the relentless pleasure of the bath. I cracked open my eyes and asked, casually, “Were you a servant of Empress Koque?”
The bath maid blinked, turning her head as though shocked I was addressing her. Then, slowly, she bowed her head in a nod.
“Was she a good mistress?” I asked.
The bath maid froze, glancing to the door where Asahi lingered before dipping her chin again.
“That is what everyone reports,” I said. “It is a hard reputation to live up to. I hope I am as kind as she was known to be.”
Something in the bath maid’s expression relaxed, and I continued, trying to see where her weak point was, trying to determine when she would unbend herself enough to say even a single word to me.
“Were you close with her? It seems everyone who served her was. She was so well-liked that it makes it hard for me to imagine how anyone could want to hurt her, much less her beloved child.” I let my eyes slide closed again, listening as the servants in the other room continued to speak quietly as they carried out their duties.
The bath maid said nothing, and if she moved, it was as quietly as a Dog.
“Yes, she was so well-loved, so kind, I’ve not heard anyone say anything about her that would make me doubt her loyalty to Emperor Millu or the Imperium.” I kept my words a murmur.