“Well, for your own sake, you must’ve tried to salvage what you could for your business. Scribbled something down off the top of your head, maybe. That’s what I would do. Or—no, wait. The courier service you used. They’ll have the exact addresses of where your clients wanted the goods delivered. Which one was it?”
Eridu swallowed. Khine’s grin grew wider. “You know she’s not going to want to leave you alone unless you give us something. Her husband’s on his way to—”
“Lamang,” Agos warned.
“—kill her son with the help of those mages. Do you really want to stand between that?”
Eridu shook his head.
“So talk!” I rarely heard Khine raise his voice. In that instant, I caught a flash of the rage he liked to say he kept in check.
“Hatzhi and Sons. They’ve got an office by the Eanhe.”
“Good man. Start running,” I suggested.
Eridu carefully extracted his legs around my daggers. Without another word, he fled down the street. He didn’t get very far before Agos bore down on him and cut him from the back. “Stop!” I screamed, but it was too late. The man tumbled forward, his back spread out like an untied robe. Agos walked up to him.
“What are you doing?” I hissed, grabbing his arm.
Agos mouth was a thin line. “Lamang gave him too much information.”
Khine’s face had gone sheet-white. “I was only feeding him enough to get him to speak,” he murmured. On the ground, Eridu groaned. Khine dropped to his knees beside the merchant, his fingers curled over the wound. I think he was trying to figure out how to help, but he didn’t know where to start—there was blood everywhere.
“He’s already dead,” Agos commented. “Let me finish the job. Unless you want to leave him out here to bleed out.”
“I’ll do it,” Khine whispered. He held out his hand. “Get me a dagger.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“I can do it faster.”
“Killing is killing,” Agos spat.
“To a fucking butcher, maybe,” Khine said. His voice was cold rage, now.
I pulled out a dagger from the bench and pressed it into his palm. He wrapped his fingers around the hilt, holding it more firmly than I thought he would. Khine bent over the groaning man, placing his hands on both sides of Eridu’s cheeks. “An-albaht guide you on the road,” he said before stabbing the side of the man’s neck. He hit the artery on the first try; blood squirted down his arms, splattering on the ground. Eridu’s body fell limp.
“They’ll think he’s just another victim of this,” Agos said. “But we have to get out of here before we’re seen.”
“I didn’t know participating in a massacre was part of the plan,” Khine growled.
“If you’re going to insist on tagging along with us, then you better learn to keep your mouth shut,” Agos barked.
“Enough, Agos,” I broke in. “We have other things to worry about.”
Agos sheathed his sword. “Perhaps we should return to Han Lo Bahn’s while everything settles down. We can go to the courier later.”
Khine was still looking at Eridu’s prone form. “You knew him,” I said.
His face flickered. “He was a patient of mine a few times when I was still a student with Tashi Reng Hzi. A rash he picked up from the whorehouse, and then a broken hip bone. I don’t think he remembered me from back then.”
“Good riddance,” Agos sniffed.
Khine looked up, staring back at Agos long enough that I thought he would hit him. Instead, he pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and draped it over the dead man’s head. “Gods, Tali,” he murmured, his voice dropping down to its familiar softness. “Rivers of blood, everywhere you walk. Now do you understand?”
He said nothing more, but the accusation was enough to make my ears ring.
Chapter Three
Where The Shadows Lie
I could hear Khine’s breathing as we walked, loud enough that I started to measure the rise and fall with every step. Rivers of blood. I could already guess what history books would say after this. I landed in Anzhao City and heads flew. What else did they expect from Jin-Sayeng’s Bitch Queen? Once upon a time, I might’ve been able to manage a smirk at the thought, even carry it with pride. Now I could only feel exhaustion, a candle burnt at both ends.
I know that I made for a poor queen. If nothing else, the last few months here in Anzhao had taught me that. I didn’t know how to respond to situations as befitting a queen like Arro had warned me so often. Which was something that didn’t used to bother me when I was younger—I was convinced that I was upholding my father’s name, damn those who thought otherwise. Even after Rayyel left, I could pretend that it was all on him, or the Ikessars, or Chiha Baraji—that I was following my father’s path with every ounce of my being. But as time went on, the crown grew heavier, Thanh grew older, and…
My son’s resemblance to Yeshin is remarkable. Which is odd when you consider that I only knew Yeshin as an old man, and Thanh was still so very little—black hair instead of faded wisps of grey, smooth skin in place of wrinkled flesh, bright eyes that had yet to see a broken world wherever he turned. But it meant I couldn’t look at him without seeing a glimpse of my father, which always brought with it a mess of conflicting emotions. This boy that looked like Yeshin was heir to the Dragonthrone. The Ikessars never said a word about it, but I could feel the gazes turn to him whenever he toddled through the halls, as if they were measuring how much of him was falcon and how much was wolf.
Every time their judging eyes fell on him, I felt the urge to shield him from them and tell them to go to hell. It didn’t matter what he was—he was my son. These laws, these tenets, these words, I wanted to strip them off of him and throw them into the nearest fire. “You will not be governed by the same shackles that brought me here,” I wanted to tell Thanh. “When you’re Dragonlord, you will rule as you see fit.”
I kept my silence, of course. He wouldn’t have understood—he was still a child, and the things he cared for had nothing to do with clans or laws or kingdoms. But though the Ikessars accused me of indulging the boy, I knew that I could never foist so heavy a burden on him as my father had on me. To me, he was just a child. He was just my son. And I needed Rayyel to see that, even if it came at the risk of confronting the truth. Why did it matter? If I should not be blamed for my father’s sins, my son should not be punished for mine.
“What’s this?” Agos called out. I noticed smoke curling from the rooftops on the street ahead, black tendrils shooting to the sky.
“Gods damn them all,” Khine whispered. He stopped in front of a store. The door was in splinters, the decorative jars smashed, and the curtains ripped to shreds. He turned to me with a grimace. “Jien Hatzhi’s shopfront. I don’t think there’s anyone in there, but...”
“Should they be open this time of the day?”
He nodded.
“Then someone got here first.” I frowned. “This is ridiculous. The day we get this close to Rayyel and suddenly all of this happens? It’s too much of a coincidence.”
“Someone doesn’t want you to find him,” Agos said. “Maybe you should listen.”
“This isn’t like last time.”
Agos crossed his arms. “Isn’t it? I told you we needed to get home.”
“This is Thanh’s life we’re talking about here,” I murmured.
“So what will you do once you find that man?” Agos asked. “Beg him to stop? You tried that already. Ask him to return things to the way they were? Even after everything he’s done to you and Thanh…”
“Prince Thanh,” I reminded him. “And we can’t get home, not with that embargo still in place.”
“We could try to find passage elsewhere.”
“While Rai’s trail grows cold, and we might be left stranded anyway. No, Agos. This isn’t like last time. The man threatened my son. The man who was supposed to love and protect us threatened to kill my son. Do you think I�
��m going to let that bastard free to go after that? He has to answer for this.”
“So if push comes to shove, you won’t stop me, then?” he asked, nostrils flaring. “You won’t hesitate to give the order?”
“Agos—we have to find him first.”
He looked away with a snort. In that same instance, I caught sight of a familiar figuring sauntering towards us from the bridge.
Lo Bahn was not an overly huge man, but it was difficult to describe him as anything but substantial. Equal amounts of fat and muscle covered his tattooed body, and when he walked, you couldn’t help but pay attention. He kept his thick beard neatly trimmed, a sharp contrast to the rest of his rough appearance. “What the hell are you doing, Lamang?” he barked. “I don’t pay you to run around with her in the middle of the day. Look at this godsforsaken neighbourhood.”
He glanced at the trail of blood in the river with the sort of distasteful look you would give a dead rat before turning to me. “And you. What the fuck did you do this time?”
“I didn’t—” I began.
“It was me, Lo Bahn,” Khine said. “I killed someone. Eridu.”
“The Gasparian merchant with the garlic breath? I always did find the man offending, but whatever for?”
“Her affairs.”
“You’d kill for her, but not for me?” Lo Bahn looked amused.
“What do you know about all of this, Lo Bahn? We were led to believe it was done under Governor Qun’s orders. Something to do with the former Governor Zheshan’s disappearance,” Khine said.
“Right.” Lo Bahn’s eyes flickered. “I need to speak with the queen, Lamang.”
“You’re free to do that any time you want.”
“Without you.” He gave a sharp huff. I had heard my dogs make that sort of sound before.
Khine gave a grim smile. I think he wanted to refuse, but Lo Bahn had too much power over him. He seemed to drag his feet as he walked away, the sort of man who played at being a fool but despised the idea of authority. “Why do you keep him around?” I asked. “He clearly doesn’t like taking orders from you. I’m sure you’ll find more compliant henchmen.”
“Don’t let him hear this, but he’s the smartest man in Shang Azi and I need that right now more than ever. The insolence—I can have that beaten out of him if I want to. I’m still deciding.” Lo Bahn craned his head towards me. “Come,” he said. “There’s something I need you to see.”
Agos started forward. Lo Bahn snarled, holding a hand out. “She needs to come with me alone.”
“Lord Han, no offense, but…”
“You don’t trust me. Bah! As if that hasn’t been clear to me since you pumped me full of wine and pretended you slept with me. Lucky for you, my old woman’s coming back in a week’s time. I wouldn’t even mention how we met if I were you.” He snorted, as if not quite believing he had uttered such words.
I didn’t, either. “You, Lo Bahn? Scared of your own wife?”
“I’ve got my reasons,” he retorted. “Are you going to come with me or not?”
“Where to?”
“Just outside the walls.” He looked calm enough, but I noticed his whiskers twitch a little, as if trying to snort away a foul scent that persisted on clinging under his nose.
“If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not,” I said.
He sighed. “I was hoping you’d be more cooperative.” He clicked his tongue.
Agos lurched forward, but before he could draw his sword, four spears appeared around him, a guard in full uniform at the end of every one. He gritted his teeth. “Bastards.”
“Qun’s?” I asked. “Sleeping with the enemy now, Lo Bahn?”
“Qun’s not my type.”
“He had you tortured after what happened with Zheshan. Your fingernails haven’t even grown back.” I saw his fingers twitch in reflex, and his mouth twisted into a grimace. “They all warned me this was going to happen. They warned me, and I didn’t want to believe them. I thought we had a deal, but I guess deals are flexible for some.”
He looked almost embarrassed. Almost. I have since learned that those who betray you know exactly the sort of knife they’re plunging into your back, and though they might feel shame—they might even feel pity—nothing short of a better offer will stop them from twisting the blade. “I have to look out for my own. I have children too, Queen Talyien.”
“And I guess you don’t seem to care that what you’re doing is going to jeopardize mine.”
“No,” he agreed. “I don’t. But I’m giving you the courtesy of being honest about it.”
“Thank you for such a warm and unexpected compassion,” I growled.
He snorted and called for the guards to escort me.
~~~
Six months ago, a betrayal from Lo Bahn wouldn’t have stung.
That was before Zheshan’s untimely demise in front of us, before he had slid a blade into himself and bled all over Lo Bahn’s pristine wooden floor. It was the first time I saw fear in Lo Bahn’s eyes. A man like that, breaking his mask—the only thing more surprising would’ve been the sight of my own father shitting his pants. You don’t forget a thing like that easily.
Once we were able to shake ourselves out of our stupor, we rolled Zheshan’s body into the closet and wiped the floor before anyone else arrived. We left him there for over a day—there were too many people walking in and out of Lo Bahn’s house, and I had to leave early in the morning to meet with my husband by the harbour. Much later, Lo Bahn awakened me in the dead of the night to help him drag the stiff, blue body of the governor to his garden, where we buried him in an oversized jar. He insisted on no servants—we were the only ones who knew. I marvelled over how I could feel so much guilt over someone I didn’t kill.
The image of Lo Bahn holding out that shovel to me in the moonlight hovered between us like a shadow as he led me down the street and to a road cresting the outskirts of the city. A queen who dug her own graves was not a good omen, no matter how you looked at it. I wondered if Zheshan might’ve been the lucky one.
By now, a steady rain was beginning to fall, strong enough to flatten my hair as soon as I heard it dripping from the rooftops. I immediately regretted not taking a warmer cloak with me. Lo Bahn strode ahead without flinching, as if he was unaffected by the cold. It was not the first time that I felt cowed at the thought that a gambling lord could somehow act more noble than a queen.
We reached a slope by the end of the walls, at a low, crumbling portion unmanned by the city watch. Patches of grass grew through the cracked ground, interspersed with black soil. A man with a torch was waiting for us beside a headless statue of a rok haize. I recognized Ben Taey, one of Lo Bahn’s. He gave me a small nod of acknowledgement before accompanying us past the walls and out of the city.
We walked alongside the ditches for sometime before Ben Taey extinguished the torch into the running water, allowing the darkness to cover us. I opened my mouth, but Lo Bahn pressed a finger to his lips before pointing. I followed the gesture and saw a mass of shapes on top of a gorge, the black gap as ragged as the side of a dog’s jaw. I blinked. When my eyes adjusted, I saw a long line of soldiers along the rocky cliffs, their armour slick from the rain. They walked in pairs while holding a body between them. Once they reached the edge, they braced their legs and tossed the body over the boulders and dead brush.
“Remnants of the massacre,” I said in a low voice. I watched as another body tumbled with a spray of loose gravel, swirling into the blackness below.
“There are many Jinseins among the dead. You knew that, didn’t you?”
“I suspected as much.”
Lo Bahn sneered. “It has nothing to do with you, believe it or not, though it’s true that Acting Governor Qun has no reason to love you. He knew you were involved with the attack on the governor’s office. And you killed his wife, which he has chosen to take very personally. I’m not sure why—the woman was a hag. I’d have just gone and picked another. Plenty enoug
h healthy spinsters in Anzhao.”
“Let’s not speak of the dead that way.”
“Hag she was, and hag she will remain in my memories and the afterlife. She can haunt me if she wants. Of course, Qun always knew you were staying with me. He’s not an idiot.” Lo Bahn gestured at the bodies. “All of this—this is just a show. Your meddling has quite clearly been the best thing that’s happened to him in his life.”
“So what’s all this for, then?”
“A pretense at flushing you out, to make it seem like he’s doing something about Zheshan’s disappearance. Why not get rid of a few pesky Jins along with it? As for Qun, better for him if Zheshan remains missing. If word gets out that the man is confirmed dead, there’ll have to be a re-election immediately. But while Zheshan’s whereabouts remain unknown, he’s in a good position to maneuver things to his benefit, make sure that the vote falls to his favour when the inevitable re-election occurs. This purge—this is just the beginning of many. It’s Qun’s way of positioning himself right in the heart of Anzhao City’s politics.”
“It’s almost as if you admire his daring.”
Lo Bahn smiled. He liked it when you followed his train of thought—not many people did. “Look there, Queen Talyien,” he said, drawing my attention back to the mass grave.
I squinted against the rain, towards where body after body were grabbed by the limbs and swung into the open crevice without a care. I could see the gaping wounds where the soldiers had hacked at them, ripped flesh and bone. Merchants and shopkeepers and dishwashers—people of no importance to anyone but themselves and their families.
“You helped with this,” Lo Bahn murmured.
I bit back the inclination to disagree. “My son’s life is at stake.”
“Children,” Lo Bahn said, “are easy to make.” He sneered. “But I suppose you’re not that much different from me after all. Come. We’ve made him wait long enough.”
“I’m not just going to give myself up to him without a fight.”
Lo Bahn smiled. “I don’t blame you. I really don’t. He’s the type of two-faced snake that you wouldn’t want to ally yourself with.”
The Ikessar Falcon Page 4