A Crown for Cold Silver

by Alex Marshall

  “I know you’ve felt it, Sullen, I know it.”

  “Well… maybe. Yeah.”

  “Anyway, when it was done, and the spirit king slain, we went back to the Autumn Palace, and everything after that was just so… dull. And not just dull like it’d been before, but poisonously so. I was depressed for weeks after, and not just from the lecture I got from my first dad on the boat ride back to Hwabun. I think he would have been happier if it’d eaten me than he was to have me come back in to the festivities the way I did. He said I was an embarrassment, and when I asked if it was embarrassing that my other dad was one of Zosia’s Villains for all those years he said yes, that was embarrassing, too. What’s embarrassing about buying your life back from Death herself, with your own sword?”

  “Hmmmm,” said Sullen, giving it his full consideration. “Nothing, to my mind.”

  “Nor mine! So it was inevitable, really, that I’d decide to do what I did, even without Fennec whispering in my ear. I see now he had his own motivations for counseling me on such a course, but I’m still glad he did. Choi wouldn’t even talk to me about it, as in, at all. When I first brought it up she said, ‘I swore an oath to serve your martial needs, and will do so until I die. Do not ask me to advise on other matters, but be sure you always consider all possibilities, and do not be swayed by any heart but your own.’ That doesn’t sound like much, but I’ve never heard her say so much in one go, or so clearly, either before or since. I even wrote it down right away, because I knew I’d forget it otherwise, and forced myself to memorize it, because that’s some serious, sutra-level wisdom, isn’t it?”

  “It is,” said Sullen thoughtfully, as though he were still digesting the words.

  “But yeah, I never expected Choi to come along so easily. And while Keun-ju balked at first, once I persuaded him it was the only way for us to be together he came around. I thought. It’s not too long a sail from Hwabun to the Temple of Pentacles, and from there a few seconds to any Arm of the Star, if you know how to use the Gates, so it should have been easy to leave before anyone knew we were gone.”

  “So how does it work?” Sullen asked. It took a lot to freak out a wildborn, but freaked out the man definitely looked. “The first time you invited me here you told me about going through, but… but I can’t even think about that without feeling sick.”

  “Obviously it wouldn’t have worked if I’d just tried to strut through on my own,” said Ji-hyeon. “Who knows where I would’ve ended up, probably some obscure hell I’ve never even heard of. But long before he came to Hwabun, Fennec did some work for Hoartrap in exchange for the secret of the Gates. Now he can step into any Gate, and after a few paces come out any other, and bring along anyone he wants. As for how it works, I don’t have the slightest damn notion, it was all Fennec’s doing… and I don’t think he’s quite the expert he claimed to be, either, all things considered. What’s really weird, though, is nothing happened to Choi—my hair turned white, Fennec’s hands changed, but Choi’s still Choi. Then again, she had white hair and horns and fangs to begin with…”

  “Hmmmm,” said Sullen. It was less a contemplative sound and more the noise of a dog displeased at being roused from a doze.

  “Anyway, the Gate was where we were headed when Keun-ju pulled that shit I told you about,” said Ji-hyeon. “I’ve kept telling myself it was a coincidence, that he didn’t deceive us… But from inception, we all agreed that if something happened and we couldn’t all go together, then whoever was left behind would send a coded message to a certain Linkensterne merchant who owes my second father a great boon. We’re coming up on a year since I left, and Keun-ju’s sent nothing… so maybe it’s about time I made myself accept the truth about him, don’t you think?”

  “The truth,” said Sullen, pursing his lips as Ji-hyeon rose. She used the pretext of fetching a blanket to sit down beside him when she returned. She’d thought it warm across from him, but here, with their knees brushing as she settled onto a cushion and pulled the unnecessary blanket around her shoulders, it was downright smoldering. “How do you know the truth of Keun-ju?”

  This hadn’t been what Ji-hyeon expected him to latch onto; surely Don’t you think I should get over my ex? was a more intriguing question for him to consider? Unless she had totally misread his surreptitious glances and shy smiles… “I told you, he was late meeting us at the boat, despite how many times we went over the plan, and then… then when he did come down to the dock, all smiles, every other guard on Hwabun was sneaking just behind him. If Choi hadn’t spotted them we never would have launched in time; as it was, Keun-ju barely missed the boat when he jumped after us!”

  “Yeah, but how do you know? I mean, what he was thinking? That he brought the guards on purpose?”

  The memory stank, and Ji-hyeon stole Sullen’s lukewarm bowl of ryefire to clear her nostrils with its hot scent. “You mean besides him shouting ‘stop, stop!’ just before he dove off the pier after us? Fennec saw him leaving my first father’s chambers that very morning, and in all the years he was in our house he had never set foot there before. Later that day he bathed me before afternoon prayers, and didn’t say a single word about what would have been quite the oddity, had it been unrelated. We shared everything, and the only reason he wouldn’t mention my first father calling him in for an audience would be if he had something to hide. I didn’t want to believe it, either, I still don’t…”

  “So don’t,” said Sullen, sounding like the words stung him but needing them out all the same. “I wouldn’t, unless I had to. And right now you don’t.”

  “What do you mean?” Ji-hyeon shivered, and, no doubt misreading it as arising from her being cold, Sullen slowly extended his arm over her back and gave her far shoulder an endearingly self-conscious squeeze. Oh, how she wanted him to keep his hand there, but he quickly retrieved the appendage and, obviously not quite sure what to do with it, flopped it in his lap.

  “It’s all Fennec’s word,” said Sullen. Mistaking her expression for confusion, he elaborated: “That Keun-ju was with your dad, your first dad, and that the merchant in wherever would deliver a message from Keun-ju, if he tried sending one. Last time we talked you said Keun-ju and Fennec didn’t like each other much, and clever as Fennec is, maybe he figured a way to bite Keun-ju without making it obvious… I’m not saying nothing, just, you know, thinking. You don’t seem like you trust Fennec as much as I’d expect you to trust someone who’s got as much pull as he does with your people… So yeah, if you don’t trust him altogether, I don’t trust him at all. Especially seeing how tight he is with Hoartrap.”

  Sullen clamped his mouth shut, perhaps remembering that Ji-hyeon herself took the sorcerer’s counsel. Perhaps he realized he’d just suggested the general’s closest advisor might have played her for a chump. Or perhaps he was just embarrassed at having spoken as much in a minute as he usually said all night. Whatever the cause, he no longer seemed able to look at her, let alone meet the stare she turned at him. Not being an imbecile, she had lost many a night’s sleep pondering that very question, but had always assumed it irrational, to put it kindly, and crazy fucking paranoid, to put it bluntly. That it was the first possibility an objective listener came to after hearing even a truncated version of events raised some sticky questions indeed.

  Even studiously inspecting the tent poles where Fellwing nested, Sullen must have sensed that Ji-hyeon was trembling all over, because his hand crept back across her shoulder. Quite without her meaning to, her back rose to meet his fingers, pressing firmly into his cautious touch. This time he kept his arm around her after offering a squeeze, gently kneading her shoulder. His arm pulled her hair a little, but whatever.

  “Are you a good judge of honesty?” asked Ji-hyeon, when she could bring herself to talk, her mind racing her thundering heart and coming out a nose ahead. “I’d like you to be here in any event, when I sit Fennec down for a talk. I want you to watch him, and if he doesn’t come clean at once tell me right then and there if you
think he’s lying.”

  Sullen’s hand stopped its slight prodding, his whole arm going rigid. He gulped, but still wouldn’t look at her. Afire with movement all at once, he stood, his fingers swimming upstream through her hair in a rush and then falling lamely at his side. “Let’s go find him, then. With a natural liar like him it won’t be easy, but together we can crack him. I know it.”

  “Wait,” said Ji-hyeon, grabbing his wrist and hoisting herself up, the blanket slipping off her shoulders. The blue-skirted, bell-shaped dress she wore around her tent suddenly felt constrictive despite its bagginess, and for a change she longed to be in her sexy, chafing armor instead of comfortable clothes. Even more confused about her feelings than she’d been when she mostly believed that Keun-ju had betrayed them, she did what she’d always done when at an impasse—charged straight ahead, hoping for the best. In this case, she blundered straight into a handsome Flintlander, still holding his limp wrist in one hand and sliding her other across his striped tunic, his muscles twitching under her touch and tightening up even more as she ran her hand over and down to his hip, until she could firmly turn him to face her. Ridiculously, he still wasn’t looking at her, his chin cocked up in the air and his eyes fixed on her dozing devil. Ji-hyeon gulped, scared all over again that she’d sussed things totally wrong… Nothing to do but ask, then. “Are you going to make me climb you like a tree to steal a kiss?”

  With wonderful, terrible slowness, he turned down to look her in the face. Devils below, he looked in fear of his life! “You… you don’t have to steal it. But… well, what if I’m right?”

  “Then we better be fast about this, just in case you are,” said Ji-hyeon, and stood on her tiptoes even as Sullen leaned down. He tasted of ryefire and stale smoke, and was as bad a kisser as she’d been before Keun-ju had taught her. She fucking loved it, her hands eagerly exploring his chest, wondering what would happen now that they’d shared a first kiss and were already working on a second, a third, a fourth, forgotten gods of the Sunken Kingdom, did he feel good under her fingers…

  And having the matter decided for her when a throat cleared at the entrance to her tent. She wheeled away from Sullen, barking a shin on the kaldi table, ready to bellow at Chevaleresse Sasamaso or one of the other guards for not announcing herself before barging in, when she saw Fennec himself standing there, holding the canvas flap open with a slightly shaky hand. He looked uncharacteristically nervous, his face flushed. “General, we need to speak, immediately, about—”

  “Oh yes, yes, we all need to speak, and immediately at that,” said Hoartrap, striding in past Fennec, whose eyes went wider at the old giant’s appearance. Behind her, Ji-hyeon heard Sullen crack his fingers, his warming shadow crossing her as he stepped over the kaldi table to have a clear path to the sorcerer who said, “I wondered if you’d run for the general or the hills when you got a good look at her, Fennec old boy, and there’s my answer.”

  “Riddles are never welcome in my tent, gentlemen,” said Ji-hyeon, giving each of them her best worst scowl. “What unholy horror do I have to thank for not one but both of you bursting in here in such a rude fashion? Unless the matter is grave indeed—”

  “Grave is certainly the word!” said Hoartrap, clearly overjoyed. “General Ji-hyeon Bong of the Cobalt Company, may I introduce you to the Raniputri emissaries who have been hot on our heels these many days.”

  Three hooded figures came striding into her tent like they’d been invited, and Ji-hyeon’s fists balled at the insult. She hadn’t even had time to pull on a vest over her simple dress, to say naught of actually changing into something more formal. Emissaries or emperors, Hoartrap and Fennec would have much to answer for once these foreigners were dealt with… but for now Ji-hyeon forced a pleased expression onto her face and, dipping low into a bow, greeted the emissaries in High Immaculate:

  “Welcome to my camp, honored guests. I am General Ji-hyeon Bong of the Cobalt Company, and would have your names in turn so that we might—”

  “Ji-hyeon!” The smallest of the hooded emissaries charged forward, crying her name, and Sullen darted between them, holding up a palm as if that were all it took to thwart an assassin. As it happened, the man did stop, throwing back his hood and veil to give Sullen a familiar glare as he said, “Ji-hyeon, it’s me!”

  “Keun-ju?” Keun-ju! Sullen tripped over the kaldi table in his haste to get out of the way, and as Ji-hyeon embraced her old lover she heard her new one curse under his breath as he hopped on one foot. Keun-ju pressed his lips to her cheek, hard, and then she felt a tear dribble off his lips and down her chin. It was really him…

  “This is just great,” said one of the other emissaries, and though it pained her, Ji-hyeon quickly stepped back from Keun-ju, looking to the two older women who had accompanied him. They both had their hoods back now, and although she couldn’t tell the speaker’s nationality, the other woman was obviously Raniputri. “You even went for the hair. Well, why not, if you’re taking everything else. By the six devils I bound, young’un, for an impostor you look perfect as a portrait.”

  “I am indebted to you for returning my Virtue Guard to me,” said Ji-hyeon through gritted teeth. “Impostor” was not a word that got easier on the ears. “Even if your manners leave something to be desired, Auntie. Who do I have the honor of offering my thanks?”

  “Ha!” The Raniputri belatedly put a mailed hand to her mouth. “Oh hells, this is too much.”

  “Ji-hyeon,” began Keun-ju, but the silver-haired emissary’s booming voice cut him off as she took a step forward:

  “Who am I? Girl, I’m the woman your fathers hired to take you home.”

  Ji-hyeon’s eyes flicked to Keun-ju’s sheepish expression—he had betrayed her after all! Strangely, neither Hoartrap nor Fennec made a move to stop the older woman’s advance, and the futility of it all sunk in. She’d been set up, and this was how it all ended. Well, not without a fight. Before she could deliver the first punch to Keun-ju’s stupid face, however, the woman said something else, something that pinned Ji-hyeon in place:

  “More than that, though, I’m you, you devildamned brat—or don’t you recognize me? I’m Cobalt Zosia, returned from the fucking grave.”

  From the far side of the tent where Sullen had retreated after tripping on the kaldi table, Ji-hyeon saw the man go totally still, his eyes wide as hers must be. It couldn’t be her, of course it couldn’t, of all the laws of mortals, gods, and even devils, there was no coming back from death… But looking into the woman’s cold cobalt eyes, Ji-hyeon believed her.

  CHAPTER

  11

  Zosia didn’t much think of herself as a proud person, but devils knew it felt good to shut down Kang-ho’s brat. The runaway looked the part, all right, severe bangs giving way to waterfalls of longer hair, her pretty young face framed in cobalt. Her Immaculate dress was plain, as much as those garments could be, so maybe all her success hadn’t gone to her head yet. Add to that her entertaining a hunky, white-haired Flintlander alone in her tent at this hour, and you had a girl after Zosia’s own heart.

  “It’s really her,” Keun-ju told the slack-mouthed girl. “I’m sure of it. She met your fathers on Hwabun, and, well, it’s a long story.”

  “Queen Zosia,” breathed Ji-hyeon, and, dropping to one knee, lowered her head. “I am honored to bow before you.”

  “General,” said Fennec, somewhat frantically. “There’s no need for all that, I’m sure. As our guest Zosia is owed hospitality, of course, but—”

  “Out, Captain,” said Ji-hyeon, looking up but staying on one knee. She had the ridiculous seriousness of the young and sincere etched on her fine features. “All of you, save the queen.”

  “Ji-hyeon…” Keun-ju said plaintively, and even knowing this girl for all of two minutes, Zosia could tell that was the wrong tack to take with her.

  “Everyone out. Now.”

  “General, let’s take a moment before deciding anything,” Fennec tried again, the old fox sly a
s ever. He hadn’t met Zosia’s eyes once since he’d seen her, Keun-ju, and Singh being led to the general’s tent by a dozen guards, the rest of the Raniputri waiting a few miles outside of camp. Instead, he’d swiveled on his heel and booked it back here, no doubt trying to get in a word with Ji-hyeon before they arrived. Hoartrap’s crazy ass had the decency to walk them in, making his usual absurd small talk, though she could tell even he was taken aback to see her alive and well.

  “Did I give an order or ask a question, Fennec?” demanded Ji-hyeon. “I’ll send word when I want you back here. For now, I wish to speak with the queen. Alone.”

  The sinewy Flintlander nearly tripped over his feet again in his haste to be gone; he was trying just as hard as Fennec not to look at Zosia. Weird—he was certainly too young for their paths ever to have crossed before, but then again her reputation certainly seemed to precede her everywhere she went. As he passed her, she noticed a familiar tattoo on his arm, and flashed him a smile.

  “Nice meeting you, too, Horned Wolf,” she said in the trading tongue of the Savannahs. “No relation of Maroto’s, are you?”

  “Sullen nephew,” he mumbled, and then was away into the night. What the hell was a sullen nephew? Maybe just some obscure Horned Wolf Tribe greeting or apology or something, though he looked enough like Maroto to be kinfolk.

  “So good to have you both back,” purred Hoartrap, but when he moved to pet Choplicker the devil whined and avoided him, hustling to a far corner of the spacious tent with his tail tucked. There wasn’t much to recommend about the crazy old wizard, but the fear he always put into Choplicker endeared Zosia to the man. Or so she tried to tell herself, anyway; if she were being real with herself, it unnerved her a bit. “We have so much to discuss, once you’re all caught up with our fearless general. It’s been too long, Zosia.”

  “Uh-huh,” said Zosia, knocking fists with Hoartrap and turning to Fennec as the old behemoth left the tent, Singh accompanying him out. “Hey, Fennec! It’s me! Your old friend! Happy to see you, too, fucker!”