by Rin Chupeco
“You knew you had no choice—”
“But I gave in so easily, without putting up a fight. When you said you were staying…” I swallowed, my eyes straying to the floor. Tonight was a night for confessions. Perhaps my brother’s resolve was influencing me through our bond, giving me more backbone to do the same.
“The thought of you in Odalia, alone, scared me so much that I did what I’d sworn I’d never do. I shouldn’t have forced you to come. It was cowardly of me, even if I thought I had the best intentions.”
“Cowardice has never been one of your vices, Tea. You killed a man for me. I wouldn’t have asked that of anyone.”
I had to smile, still not meeting his gaze. “What I did to you felt worse. That doesn’t say much about me.”
“Did you know what I thought the day you made me the offer to share heartsglass? When you said you’d do anything I wanted?”
“Are you going to throw that in my face again?”
“I couldn’t accept your offer. The last thing I wanted was to force you to kiss me.”
My stare flew to his, disbelieving.
“I’ve been in love with you,” he said quietly, “since we fought the azi by the lake.”
It sounded like an accusation as much as it was a confession, but for a man like Kalen, maybe they were one and the same. His words worked the way runes did, kicking up a whirlwind of emotions around me: trepidation, shock, happiness.
He loves me. But he looked so unguarded and open, like he was preparing himself for a rejection he knew was coming, and I wanted to weep and laugh all at once. I wished he could see himself the way I saw him: strength and familiarity and warmth in a dark cloak, brown eyes as steady and as comforting as the dawn. He loves me. “You never said anything.”
“Your life was problematic enough without involving me in it.” He sounded gruff. “And I thought your affections were engaged elsewhere.”
“They’re not. Not like this.”
“Tea.” His voice was so soft and low, I almost couldn’t make out his words. “Are you still in love with Kance?”
“Why?” I had to hear him say it so there wouldn’t be any more now we’re almost even’s and you bumbass’s between us.
“Because if you are in love with him and if he stops being an idiot about it, then I can protect you both without any regrets.”
“And if I’m not?”
“Are you, Tea?”
I wet my dry lips. “No.”
There was no time for anything else but Kalen’s mouth descending on mine, his hands cupping my face, his lips and tongue going straight to my head like wine. I matched him kiss for dizzying kiss, giving back every thought and word and heart, happier than I had ever known. I felt the flicker of Heartshare still around us, a rune I’d offered and forgotten, not wanting to dissolve even this meager connection.
It didn’t matter who saw; there was only me and Kalen underneath the moonlight and the wind spinning around us.
“I can’t court you the way Kance would have,” he said much later, still adorably unsure despite all we’d shared between us. “I have no head for poetry and no patience for rituals. I can’t worship you with words or song; I never know the right ones to sing.”
“I don’t need worship.”
“Yes, you do. With my hands.” His arms tightened around me. “With my mouth.” His lips pressed against the side of my jaw, kissed me again before I could protest that he was wrong because he’d always had the right words. Then he slid down to his knees.
“Kalen,” I panted, as he pushed the hem of my dress to one side, high enough to reveal my leg. “Kalen, what are you—”
He pressed his mouth against the scar on my thigh, that ugly, jagged line of raised flesh that deserved no affection, least of all from him. The azi was my weapon, but it had also killed fellow Deathseekers and injured his friends.
“Kalen.” The words came out as a sob. “Please.”
“With my heart,” he murmured against my bare skin. “You better be damn sure, Tea. The last thing I want to be is a consolation prize. But if you want this, then to hell with Kance and everyone else because then you’re mine.” His eyes darkened. “And I’m yours.”
“I have never been so sure of anything in my life.” It was my turn to take the initiative, grabbing him by his shirt and tugging him up to me. It felt so wonderful and strange to know you are your own person but begin to understand how you could also belong wholeheartedly to someone else. “Show me how to worship you.”
Tea!
I groaned. “Oh no.”
Kalen stilled immediately, questioning.
“No, not you.” I latched on to him again. I think I’m owed some privacy, Fox. You have the worst—
There’s an Odalian army at the gates of Santiang!
What?
There are ships on the horizon—at least fifty that I can see. War has come to Daanoris, and we’re right smack in the middle of it all over again!
“I’m done,” the Heartforger said wearily, leaning back. The five slivers of forged urvan lay on the table, glittering. “Here are the replicated souls of the Five Great Heroes.”
The Dark asha ran her hands through the urvan and then the heartsglass before enveloping the startled Heartforger in a hug. “You saved me, Khalad,” she whispered. “In the coming days and weeks, no matter what other people shall say about me, remember only this: you saved me, and you saved us all.”
The Heartforger smiled sadly and hugged her tighter. “Is there really no other way, Tea?”
“There is none.” She looked back at her lover, and the air changed. She no longer smiled, and her mouth grew pinched, like she was about to do something neither of them wanted. “Kalen, bring him in. Make sure the princess is not here to see—it will not be a pleasant memory to remember His Majesty by.”
25
It was an hour before the wedding. The tension and worry I knew the day would bring, coupled by Kalen’s kiss the night before, had made rest almost impossible. I was wide awake, adrenaline coursing through my body. Kalen and Fox kept a close watch on the approaching army; there was nothing else to do but wait and fort up in preparation of a siege.
A history of constant warfare had instilled discipline in the Daanorians—or perhaps they were used to following orders. The emperor called all officials to the throne room, us included, to give a long, sonorous speech that Shadi was quick to translate.
“Are you kidding me?” Fox was disbelieving. “He intends to push through with the wedding?!”
“He believes the Odalian army is here in protest of his engagement to Inessa,” Shadi said. “And by making their wedding official, there will no longer be grounds for Kance’s betrothal taking precedence. Let’s not dissuade him of that belief just yet.”
“This is insane,” my brother growled.
“Insanity or not, we are trapped,” Zoya muttered darkly. “An army outside and traitors within. Stuck between a rock and a hard place.” She frowned. “Still…I am certain we are overlooking something important.” She raised a hand. “Let me think. I’ll figure it out. I always do.”
Beside her, Shadi sighed.
• • •
“Baoyi can accuse Tansoong in public of his crimes,” Kalen said, “but we don’t have any evidence that can hold up to their judgment. There’s still Baoyi’s testimony, but his and Tansoong’s families have been rivals for generations. It would be easy to dismiss this as another play for power on Baoyi’s part.”
We were on top of the battlements, where we could see the docked ships and the Odalian army amassing. Kalen estimated that it would take another couple of hours for them to arrive at the gates, so Emperor Shifang had announced that the wedding would take place in half the time. I had to admire the emperor’s arrogance; he was so used to being the center of which all Daanoris revolv
ed that he assumed Odalia would follow suit.
“I hate this,” I groaned. “We’ve got the Odalian army chasing after us again, we can’t muster any proof against Tansoong, and we still haven’t found the forger!”
Kalen placed an arm around my shoulders, pulling me close. “Just another day in the life of an asha.”
“And of a Deathseeker.” I snuggled closer to him. “I love you.”
“Tea, you don’t need to say that just because I—”
I smacked him lightly on the side. “Shut up and let me finish.”
He laughed. “Go on.”
“I didn’t realize it until the day we left Odalia, when I compelled you. I didn’t know why your anger bothered me so much. I was terrified you would never forgive me, and it took me a lot longer to ferret out the real reason why.”
“I was angry,” he admitted. “But I was also angry at myself. I knew I had a duty to stay and protect Kance, even though I’d done a horrible mess of it at that point, but I also didn’t want to let you out of my sight.”
I remembered something else and started to laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“You. When Daisy made a pass at you back in Odalia and I intervened. I had no idea why you were acting so strangely.”
“I was stunned.”
“I thought I was doing you a good turn. But when you kissed me on the cheek…maybe I was a little jealous you weren’t being as rude to her as you usually are to me.”
“I didn’t want to be the only one out of sorts.” He kissed me now. “We’re supposed to be on watch,” he said brusquely but didn’t move away. “Are you sure Inessa intends to go through with this wedding?”
“I think she has something up her sleeve. Zoya too. She went down to the city again this morning.”
“Zoya with a plan makes me nervous. What is she up to?”
“I don’t know. She asked me if I’d told anyone beyond our group about any specifics of the sleeping sickness. I’m pretty sure no one did.”
“Odd. She asked me the same question.” He looked back at the army. “They know we have the azi on our side, that the army has no chance. Why come all the way here?”
I had no answer to that either.
• • •
It was a solemn affair, and no one but the emperor looked happy. Baoyi and Tansoong stood on either side of the aisle and traded dirty looks when they thought he wasn’t looking. Zoya and even Shadi seemed unnaturally nervous. Likh was staring at the ceiling, his mouth moving soundlessly as beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. Kalen glanced occasionally at me and then out the window. Fox’s placid exterior bespoke an inner turmoil: disbelief that the marriage was taking place, worry about the growing army outside, and anger that he was doing nothing to stop either.
We can call this off, you know, I told him.
I promised her, came the grim response. I told her I’d trust her, and I will.
Daanorian wedding ceremonies were not a lengthy affair. All that was needed to cement the marriage was for the emperor to take his intended bride by the hand and declare to all those watching that she was officially his wife. And as Inessa walked serenely down the aisle, courtiers strewing roses in the path before her, she never once wavered. As she passed us, I saw her eyes stray toward Fox, and her heartsglass bloomed a rosy-red glow before she deliberately turned away.
We watched as Emperor Shifang took her hand, turned toward us, and in a remarkably brief speech, no doubt ushered along by the situation outside, officially proclaimed her his wife. On cue, the court fell to their knees, and at Zoya’s quick gesture, we followed suit. Fox was seething with grief and rage entwined.
Cries rose up from outside. The army had reached the gates. Battle was about to begin.
Emperor Shifang gave a curt order. “Send word that the Princess of Kion is now the Empress of Daanoris,” Shadi translated for us. “Prepare the troops. As soon as I give the word, we shall attack.”
Zoya stepped forward, speaking in Daanorian. “A moment, Your Majesty.”
A few courtiers gasped, and the emperor scowled. He turned to ignore her, but Inessa shook her hand free from her husband’s and stepped back.
“What is the meaning of this insolence?” Tansoong demanded.
“We have reason to believe that there is a traitor in our midst and that it is one of your own advisers, Emperor Shifang. This traitor bespelled your army and summoned the savul.”
“And who might that be?” demanded the emperor.
Zoya raised her hand. It swept past Tansoong and pointed unerringly at Baoyi. “Him.”
I was astonished. From Kalen’s and Fox’s expression, I wasn’t the only one.
“Lady Zoya?” Baoyi looked as stunned as I was. “I beg your pardon?”
“You poisoned Princess Yansheo under the guise of an Odalian duke. For your help, Usij promised you lordship over Santiang and most of Daanoris. It was you who secreted those seeking stones within the emperor’s army in the hopes it would distract our Dark asha long enough for her to be killed by the savul. You have betrayed Emperor Shifang and you have allied yourself with the Faceless.”
The man lifted his hands. “Emperor Shifang,” he beseeched. “I have served you faithfully for years. I am innocent of these accusations. Surely you do not believe these lies?”
“Let us not get ahead of ourselves, Baoyi.” I didn’t like Tansoong, but he was a master politician, quick to take advantage when the tide turned in his favor. The advisor said, “I have been keeping a close eye on you for many months, and I have many reasons to suspect that what they say could be true.”
“Is he in on the plan?” I heard Shadi whisper to Zoya.
“Of course not. He’s talking out of his ass, but at least the emperor’s paying attention.”
“They’re going to hear you,” Khalad mumbled.
“It’s not like most of them understand me. And at this point, it’s too late to be offended.”
“My suspicions began when you arrived from Tresea last year with several pieces of what you claimed were jade stones,” Tansoong continued.
“I have always been a collector, Tansoong.”
“Collector my foot. I know what jade looks like, and those certainly weren’t precious gems. After Yansheo fell sick, I pored through many magical tomes from Kion, trying to find an antidote even if it went beyond our own laws. In my desperation to see the princess well again, I came upon many magical treatises written by asha. What you call jade looked like what the asha call ‘seeking stones.’”
“You’re getting blind in your old age, Tansoong,” Baoyi accused.
“Oh, I know my vision isn’t what it used to be,” the old man drawled, enjoying his time in the spotlight. “You spirited them out of the palace as quickly as you received them, but I had my spy steal one of your ‘jades’ to confirm my suspicions. After that, I had my men deliver it, along with an anonymous letter, to your old friend, Narel, at the shack he frequents in the city. He and I had never seen eye to eye, but I knew he wouldn’t let your friendship get in the way if you were up to something suspicious.”
The realization that Tansoong was telling the truth and Baoyi was our enemy all along triggered something in my brain. I remembered Baoyi’s quarters, the jade stones Khalad had arranged on the mantelpiece. The Heartforger had piled three of them on top of the other, a careful display of balance. I had seen that somewhere else in the palace…
Baoyi shifted uneasily. “That means nothing.”
“No, but it explains many other things.” Zoya spoke up again. “The men in your army who sought to attack you, Your Majesty, were influenced by these same seeking stones.”
“Then there is all the more reason to suspect you and your group, not me,” Baoyi protested. “I have no skills for magic, and of all of us here, you would be the most likely—”<
br />
“You talked about conducting a search for the princess’s heartsglass yesterday. How do you know what heartsglass looks like?”
“I have read texts of them, that they are red in color and shine like rubies. It is common enough knowledge.”
“What isn’t common knowledge was that this particular sleeping sickness turns their hearts gray. None of us told you about this particular detail, yet you told me you had ordered your soldiers to bring back any gray jewels they might find. How do you explain that?”
Sweat beaded on Baoyi’s forehead. “Narel told me.”
“The Heartforger explicitly stated in his letter that he told you nothing to spare you from worry. Once I realized that, I focused my attentions on you. The jade you like to display on your mantelpiece are very similar in shape and size to seeking stones. How easy would it be to smuggle them under the guise of unpolished gems? The forger also mentioned a recent visit, yet you denied he ever came. Either he was talking to an impersonator—highly doubtful, since it would be too risky to have two of you in the palace at once—or you lied because you didn’t want to be the last man to see him.” Zoya was in fighting form, her eyes glittering.
“A coincidence!”
“You talked about Shaoyun, Baoyi. A scarlet peacock, in your own words. The lovely Lady Likh mentioned finding a corpse in the city—a corpse with bits of red cloth still clinging to its body. Red is an unusual color for a typical Daanorian, who prefer their grays and browns. Shadi and I took the initiative to bring back his remains. I spent quite a long time piecing together the bits of cloth he wore, which contained a crest. We compared it with his family’s herald. Shall we have the Dark asha raise him to confirm to see what stories he could tell?”
“You—you—” Baoyi took a step toward her, his face livid.
“Now, Likh!” Zoya commanded.
Instantly, I felt the wards around us disappear, as Likh forced the spell to dissipate. Baoyi’s clerk dropped to his knees, a pained howl dribbling from his mouth as a sudden rush of magic filled me, too fast and too soon that I swore that my whole body was thrumming from the power alone, a desperate need to compel everyone I saw nearly overwhelming.