Chapter 6
Lightning, in the distance, over San-Er. Thunder sweeps into the provinces soon thereafter. It’s startlingly precise each time. Unnatural.
Seiqi Weisanna brings her cellular phone to her ear, waiting for it to ring. She’s on duty to walk the perimeter, though she hasn’t been paying much attention. She counts—two, three, four—and on cue, the physician picks up.
“Seiqi,” he says, “you can keep calling on the hour, but that doesn’t mean I will have more news.”
“I’m only hoping to make it easier for you,” she replies. “How’s he doing?”
She’s refraining from stepping into the infirmary every hour, at least. Their war camp is small—merely three interconnected buildings, all of which were originally built to serve Eigi’s new security base.
Most of the base has been repurposed into barracks.
Only one room could be spared for an infirmary, where the injured from the coup are recuperating, including an unconscious Galipei.
Too cramped to visit. When Seiqi tried to poke her head in, she was waved away immediately, despite faking a headache.
This is a far cry from the Palace of Union.
The nobles taking refuge are making that very clear, bemoaning and lamenting nonstop about needing to share their rooms ten to one.
Though the camp can barely spare its facilities, August cannot deny the nobles if he has any intention of reclaiming the kingdom after Calla Tuoleimi’s coup.
He needs their aid to put himself back on the throne, their riches and their connections across the provinces, their hidden assets beyond what the Crescents will have cleared from the palace vaults.
“If Galipei Weisanna twitches even a finger, I will let you know,” the physician says. “Please return to your job and I will do mine.”
The line drops. Indeed, the other Weisannas would not be pleased to learn that Seiqi is hogging precious cell signal to perform these check-ins.
The other Weisannas wish to follow orders and win this war quickly, get themselves back into San-Er.
Meanwhile Seiqi has been pacing like a maniac, as though sheer will might force Galipei to wake up sooner.
If she does not fret about him, who will?
There are so many Weisannas and so many cousins, and all of them would rather him gone instead, because he has always been the crown prince’s favorite, because his absence means an opportunity to serve the new king.
It only seems fair that Seiqi elect herself his protector. She tucks the phone away. Another flash of lightning snaps over San-Er. As though the capital itself is jumping, the light of qi appearing over and over again.
“Shift change!” someone bellows from the main gate.
During these few days, the rain has become such a feature of perimeter patrol that Seiqi barely notices it anymore, but she knows the other Weisannas are sick of it. They hurry out of its mist as soon as they can, preferring the drills inside.
Seiqi steps through the closest door, and immediately swerves to avoid two women dressed in palace silks.
There will be more space at the camp shortly, once the nobles are shipped off, somewhere farther in the provinces away from the danger.
Clearing the nobles out will be good, but it’s still not their biggest problem.
His Majesty’s biggest problem is that they’re too close to the capital, and other Weisannas have been advising that the camp itself must move too.
Calla’s forces are going to attack. The Weisannas know it.
August Shenzhi knows it. He has guards rotating patrol on every part of the perimeter.
He has scouts stationed along the Apian Routes, as close as they can get to San-Er without being spotted by enemy insurgents from the capital.
All to have the earliest possible warning once battle encroaches.
Seiqi enters a room lined with blades and target boards, picking a lane she can position herself at for the hour.
As distracted as she’s been, it’s not as though she has to fear punishment.
In those earlier hours of the camp, August Shenzhi walked around dispensing instructions and stationing his forces where he wanted them.
Almost every Weisanna had fled the capital, and a significant portion of regular palace guards who could not stomach living under the Crescent Societies.
August tasked the regular palace guards to watch over the nobles, and the Weisannas to defend the camp.
He has been absent since then. When Seiqi caught a glimpse of him in his provisional war room earlier, he was throwing a vase at the wall, arguing with his sister.
Does he care that Galipei took the hit for him?
Maybe the squabble for the throne would have ended then and there if Galipei hadn’t.
Maybe all the Weisannas would happily be working for Calla in the palace.
They are sworn to protect the royal family.
Not a wily prince who holds tight to his every possession, including his claim on the throne.
Seiqi grimaces. Treasonous thought. A mortal thought, wanting ease, wanting a path easier to walk.
Their approach makes little sense. They have not fled and positioned themselves somewhere more favorable to August’s rule.
Yet August does not tell his closest guards exactly what they are waiting for, save the inevitable appearance from Calla Tuoleimi, wielding a weapon from the heavens.
Seiqi wasn’t present to witness it, but her other cousins talk.
Blood—so much blood. One blink, and the Weisannas’ throats were cut, their bodies falling.
Perhaps Galipei should count himself lucky that he was only hit with a strike of qi. It could have been infinitely worse.
Seiqi throws the first blade. There was no doubt that it would land dead center on the target. She was born a foot soldier on the front lines of defense, insusceptible to jumping, her eyes silver as a shield.
Another roll of thunder drums through the province.
This one, finally, echoes closer. Her second blade thuds.
She worries, despite herself, despite the confidence that August Shenzhi asserts by refusing to move.
His maps are dotted with pins; his boards circled and crossed.
This is a war that will be fought on a stage beyond what Seiqi can understand.
There is little she can do, save what her birth dictated. But still…
Galipei, she pleads silently. Let me help you.