by Devin Madson
“As hateful and hurtful as it is,” she went on when I didn’t answer, “there are a lot of reasons not to give up on the world, and especially not the part you can play in shaping it, because whatever everyone likes to tell you, you can. So gather that gods-damned pride of yours, whatever its rooted in, and be the empress I need you to be, all right?”
Once more into Koi Castle. I had thought myself dead the first time only to walk free. The second had been a suicide mission. Perhaps this third time my luck would run out.
If Empress Hana shared my fear, she showed no sign of it, nor any sign of interest in the castle that had once been hers. This castle where she had lived, where her son had died, where her life had crumbled around her.
The entrance hall possessed all its old, silent grandeur. The empress’s mourning drapes had been torn from the windows along with all sign of the Ts’ai dragon, but though voices echoed from other parts of the castle, just here it was possible to believe time unwound, that beyond the great doors Empress Hana still sat upon the Crimson Throne. But it was I who moved the empress’s feet now, following our escort into one of the castle’s large arterial passages.
Away from the central chambers the castle buzzed with activity. Open doors allowed glimpses of off-duty soldiers eating and drinking and dicing amid Kisian finery, while other rooms were full of sleeping mats and murmuring voices. A few owned Kisian lilts, but most were the deep rumble of Chiltaen men.
We were led up some stairs and along another passage, whispers following in our wake. Knots of ambling soldiers stopped to stare, but the empress in her hieromonk-skin just acknowledged each of their pious bows with a nod and a tap of pale fingers to the mask around her neck.
Our destination was a room high in the castle, a spacious room with an adjoining balcony and all the trappings required for grand-scale entertainments. No such entertainment seemed to be planned, however, for although the remnants of a meal graced the long, low table, it had been pushed up against one wall to make space for a carpet of maps and papers. A tall man wearing a Chiltaen uniform bent over them, his brow furrowed. Behind him, a lattice screen shielded the papers from the worst of the rain, but it did nothing to keep out the breeze. Every gentle gust rustled the paper floor, lifting all corners not weighed down by a smattering of stones and bowls and vases.
The man looked up as we entered. “Ah! Your Holiness, we feared you lost at Mei’lian.” His gaze flicked to me but his hard-lined face showed no surprise.
“Not lost, as you see, Commander,” the empress said, drawing the hieromonk’s body up tall. Her gaze swept to the other side of the room, and she added, “No joyous reunion, my son?”
I flinched. Sitting upon a cushion in the far corner, seemingly absorbed in prayer, was Leo—the exact same Leo I had first arrived here with weeks ago, whose head I had severed. The very Leo who had seemed able to look inside my head, lifting a hand to me now in silent acknowledgement.
The young man did not move from beside the brazier. A dozen of them encircled the room, their hot coals combating the chill of the insidious breeze.
“It is pleasant to see you, of course, Father,” he said. “But I knew you were not dead so did not fear.”
“We have had quite a number of pilgrims arrive to see Dom Villius since he joined us,” the commander said, shooting something of a wary look at the hieromonk. “It seems word of his death in Mei’lian has spread and people wish to be blessed by the Reborn One. We hear the Levanti emperor is claiming he still has Leo, alive, so it is good to have him here setting those rumours to rest.”
The commander’s gaze flicked my way again. I was no empress, but even Cassandra Marius was not used to going so long without being the centre of attention in any room. I hoped Empress Hana was too deep in her appropriation of the hieromonk to notice how little interest her presence had garnered.
“Have you dined, Holiness?” the commander said, continuing to ignore my existence. “I can send for more food.”
Empress Hana hesitated, no doubt wondering if dead bodies could eat.
“No, I ate on the road, Commander,” she said. “We must talk without delay.”
The empress walked her hieromonk-skin into the room, inviting me to join her. Commander Aulus lifted his brows. “Empress Hana,” he said coolly. “I must admit I am surprised to see you back with us.”
“Surprised and pleased, I hope, Commander,” the hieromonk said. “Because if we don’t do something about the rogue Levanti that Andrus let loose we are going to lose more than just a good chunk of our army.”
“We are well defended here, Your Holiness. You did not see the army camped outside the gates?”
“I did see it. But the army appears well encamped and not in a hurry to go anywhere.”
The commander’s brows rose in true surprise. “Go anywhere? Why must it go anywhere? We are here for Chiltae’s protection, although with Gideon encamped in Kogahaera it seems unlikely he’ll come after us until the snows melt. And even then he has southern Kisia to quell first.”
“That is very… wishful thinking, Commander. What does a barbarian care for borders? Tell me, if you were this Levanti leader, would you rather cross the Tzitzi River into southern Kisia and fight all their battalions for nothing but a rocky pass around the mountains, or take the ill-defined Chiltaen border in your easy stride and fight a severely reduced Chiltaen army for control of the Ribbon and all its trade routes? A Chiltaen army, moreover, that treated your people cruelly.” She lifted the dead man’s brows and I had to bite back a reminder that the hieromonk didn’t do such things. “Well, Commander? Which would you choose?”
“How are we to know what the barbarian wants or how he thinks, Holiness?”
“Because you are a smart man, and Gideon is a smart man. No mere barbarian tricks a whole Chiltaen army into getting itself slaughtered in the rabbit warren of a foreign city.”
A rustle of movement came from the corner as Leo rose from his cushion. The others might have all but forgotten his presence, but I had been unable to keep my eyes from darting his way, wondering at his purpose. If he knew me for Cassandra, why had he not yet said so? Was this Leo different? Had he lost the ability to read my thoughts when I slid a blade between his ribs?
“My father is right, Commander,” he said. “Gideon e’Torin may have appeared to be taking orders, but he was smart enough to deceive even Legate Andrus.” The young man approached carefully across the papers. “And my father.”
Once again the hieromonk lifted his brows. “And you, my son.”
“No, Father, but there are some sacrifices that must be made.” He stopped beside another brazier, standing as close to the smouldering coals as he could without burning his plain robe. Closer now I could see that his expression, if nothing else, was different to the Leo I remembered. My Leo had seemed younger, more carefree, but now his jaw was tense and sweat shone upon his brow. And though he smiled, his hands clenched to fists only to splay as far open as he could spread them and clench again as though in pain.
“I’m glad you are here to add your weight to mine, Father,” he went on, his tone falsely bright like shattered glass. “I have been trying to persuade Commander Aulus that we must prepare to march upon Kogahaera at once. If we let the Levanti regroup we will suffer for it.”
Commander Aulus stiffened. “The Nine think otherwise, that to engage the Levanti at this point would be dangerous. We are lucky to have even this many soldiers left.”
“Luck never has anything to do with it,” Leo said, and the empress looked from him to the commander, and I could imagine she was wondering, finally, if having come here was a bad idea.
Trying to regain some control over the conversation, Empress Hana said, “If we leave Gideon running loose, he will soon turn his eyes on Genava. From the Ribbon he could reforge ties with his homeland. We need to move now, Commander. Look at the gift I have brought you. Imagine the use Her Majesty can be. Just think,” she went on, spreading the hieromonk’s h
and in a broad, sweeping gesture. “Empress Hana riding ahead of our army, ensuring safe passage and rallying the broken fragments of northern Kisia to our cause.”
Leo looked down at the papers at his feet, and pointed at the large map held flat by four agate paperweights. “We could take the Willow Road while backup forces from Genava come through Tirin’s Gap.”
“Have you considered, Holiness,” Commander Aulus said, “it may not be that simple with that boy calling himself Emperor Kin’s son moving up from the south?”
“Emperor Kin’s son?” The hollow words came from the hieromonk’s lips and I willed my face not to move. The Dragon Empress would show no weakness.
“Yes,” the commander answered. “Emperor Kin, second of his name, he calls himself. No one seems to know exactly who he is but he must have the backing of the generals since he is marching on Mei’lian.”
“We have heard nothing of this.”
Commander Aulus jerked his head at Leo. “Dom Villius brought the news, Holiness, though with Empress Miko still alive there is every chance they will rally behind her instead.” He fixed his hard green eyes on me. “Really, Majesty, I find your imperial politics a little too complicated for my taste.”
“Your corrupt oligarchy is much easier to understand, is it?” I said, enjoying the chance to voice my distaste in the empress’s biting tone. “All those merchant houses and slippery bribes.”
“Corrupt?”
The hieromonk lifted his hand, and I hoped no one else thought the movement looked jerky and stiff. “Let it go, Commander. We are attempting to save Chiltae from destruction, not start another war with Kisia.”
The commander snorted. “And you really think the empress will help us with that?” He looked to me with a sneer. “Or are you hoping we will rid Kisia of the Levanti and then retreat back over our border, Your Majesty? Or perhaps…” He stepped closer. “You think that by the time we succeed in getting rid of the Levanti, we will be weak enough for your northern allies to wipe us out. Perhaps you have not heard that Grace Bahain and many others from the east have fully allied themselves with this Emperor Gideon.”
In the corner of my vision the empress stiffened in her hieromonk-skin and I was glad the commander was looking at me. He smirked. “Ah, Your Majesty, I’m afraid you’re just going to have to accept no one is going to fight for you. Your empire is broken beyond repair.”
Finally moving from beside the brazier, Leo came forward. “It seems the Nine’s belief in the power and strength of the church has waned substantially,” he said, folding his arms tight across his chest as though to keep in the warmth.
“Losing almost the whole army will do that,” Commander Aulus said. “I respect your positions, Your Holinesses, but I take my orders from the Nine and my orders are not to move from here and not to engage. You may, of course, travel back to Genava and discuss it with them yourselves. Take Empress Hana with you; she may be a valuable bargaining tool if her daughter decides to fight on.”
The hieromonk sucked a deep breath as Empress Hana prepared to argue, but Leo moved first. “I’m afraid I don’t have time for this, Commander,” he said.
“Time for—?” Commander Aulus staggered back as Leo punched a knife into his gut. Once. Twice. A third time, his lip curled into an ugly sneer as the commander pressed his hands to the gushing wounds.
“Don’t worry, Commander,” Leo said, as the man slumped to his knees. “At least you weren’t killed by a pair of whores.”
Still attempting words, the man slid sideways and lay gasping at the edge of his paperwork floor. Leo stepped over him with a benign smile. “Give me your hands, Cassandra,” he said, gesturing to my bound wrists with his bloody knife. “We can’t go around tying up empresses. What will everyone think? Besides,” he added, grabbing my arm and slitting the leather ties with which the empress had bound me, “I get the feeling you’re about to have to pull Her Majesty out of my father’s really quite revolting corpse.”
The commander lay twitching upon the floor, his blood creeping toward his papers as he fought a slow death. Leo pulled aside the mask around the hieromonk’s throat to better survey the damage. There was no mistaking the deep, bloodless slit. No matter how well Empress Hana had covered it with paint, the skin still curled out and away from the cut as the upper layer dried and tightened, and no one with an injury that deep should still be walking. Or talking. Or steadfastly refusing to bleed.
“Rough work,” he said, and let the mask drop back into place. “Pull her back.”
Neither of us moved. The words sounded calm, but something in the way Leo stood and spoke suggested the hulking threat of a wounded animal that could snap at any moment.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to take the blame for his death,” he said, pointing at the commander’s body, his eyes now staring vacant and glassy. “But don’t worry, it’s all for a good cause. You want the Levanti out of Kisia? I am the only one who can do that and I will, but first, where is the box?”
“Box? What box?” the empress snarled through dead lips.
Leo laughed. “What box? Really?” He peered into the hieromonk’s face, perhaps hoping to read an answer in its painted features. Then he laughed again, the sound far more chilling. “Well, what do you know, it looks like Father finally learned. He peppered his idiocy with flashes of brilliance right to the very end.”
Torvash’s box. The hieromonk had heard Leo was in Koi and stopped to hide it, but—
Leo spun. “Ah, Cassandra. You know where the box is?” He gripped my throat. “Think of it as atonement for taking my life.”
He flashed a smile as I scrabbled at his tightening fingers. “Come on, show me. Show me everything,” he said, his eyes widening to mesmerising pools. “Where is the box?”
Before I could attempt a croaked answer, his grip loosened. A cry like a dying rock eagle tore up his throat and hot blood sprayed from his arm. Leo staggered back, gripping a blood-soaked sleeve, while Empress Hana stepped the hieromonk between us like a dead-meat shield.
“Fight all you want,” the young man jeered. “But the only way you’re getting out of here alive is by taking me to that box. Guards!” The empress lunged at him, but he darted away with a laugh, dripping a trail of blood over the paper floor. “Guards!”
The sliding doors slammed open.
Koi—impossible to get into, impossible to get out of, but I’d rather die trying than let him best me. So I kicked the nearest brazier and it fell, spilling smouldering coals over the matting and the commander’s maps. Two steps brought me to a second brazier, which I tipped as the papers started to burn. A lantern sat on the table and I snatched it up too. Opening its glass hatch, I threw it—flame and oil and all—in front of the stunned guards in the doorway.
“Hana!” I shouted, tipping a third brazier into the blaze. “We’re getting out of here! Come on!” She had pushed Leo back toward the balcony and I sped to open the lattice door, doubling the breeze darting in to swirl the growing smoke. “Come on, you idiot, let’s go!”
She advanced on Leo, heedless of his knife stabbing her borrowed body—gut, arm, hand—slashing and cutting her anywhere he could reach.
“Your Holiness?” one of the guards called through the thickening smoke. “Commander?”
Flames chased me onto the narrow balcony where I sucked cool, fresh air. Far below, the courtyard sat like a dark pool encircled by walls. The gates stood open and freedom lay beyond, but Koi had not been built with escape in mind. Its overhanging roofs curved out like wings, making climbing up next to impossible, but down… My knees tingled at the very thought.
“Come on,” I shouted as the empress burst onto the balcony, trailing smoke.
“You go first,” she growled, the hieromonk’s voice cracking. “I’ll keep him busy.” And she charged at Leo as he appeared, haloed in flames.
Working as fast as my stiff hands could manage, I untied the ornamental knot in my sash and passed its long tails between my legs, gat
hering the fabric into something close to pants. The cold breeze bit at my bare skin, but it was better than fire and sharp, pointy death, so I gripped the edge of the railing and pulled myself over. Arms already aching, I scrambled down the balcony’s ornamental frame, dropping onto the jutting roof of the balcony below with a jolt of pain my knees wouldn’t soon forget. Overhead, smoke poured from the castle like a raging dragon, while panicked cries filled the courtyard below. The great castle was on fire. Empress Hana was going to kill me.
I risked a look down and realised what I had taken for a third balcony beneath was just a collection of missing tiles on the curved roof below—far below. Too far for these knees. Even in my old body there would have been little chance of surviving without a broken ankle. Or worse.
“Shit,” I hissed.
Something hit the balcony roof overhead and I tightened my grip, pain shooting through my knuckles. Another thud. A short rumble, then a stone launched from the curved roof, soaring out into the rain-flecked darkness.
“Cassandra?” the empress shouted from above, the hieromonk’s voice drying out.
“I’m here!” I called as another bang hit the roof, this time shattering and spilling shards of tile. “What is that?”
“The mad little shit is throwing things at us! Where are you?”
Something else shattered on the roof, the sound reverberating with the buffeting of the wind. “I’m on the framework underneath. I’m not sure there’s a way down, at least not without breaking a leg or two!”
“Have you tried the balcony door?”
I hadn’t even thought of that, but rather than admit it, I just pulled myself back to the balcony level, shoulders aching.
“I’m coming down,” Hana shouted.
“I’m checking it, all right?” I snapped back, but she joined me even as I spoke, lowering one stiff leg over the railing followed by the other. Leaving me clinging to the outside of the balcony, she made for the door, but Leo, singed and smoke-stained, appeared like a demon in the aperture. “How lovely to see you again, Father,” he said, smiling as he stepped through the doorway. Hana lurched back, crushing my fingers against the railing. I let go without thinking, and as empty space yawned beneath me, I gripped the back of her robe. For a heart-stopping instant the flimsy fabric kept me from falling. Then my weight proved too much and with a rattling cry Hana overbalanced. In her hieromonk-skin she toppled over the railing, over me, and together we plummeted in a spinning flurry of white linen and rain.