The Emperor's Arrow

by Lauren DM Smith

  With that in mind, she strode towards the walkway and the route back to the candidates’ hall.

  Chapter 16: Distractions

  Evony watched her arrow strike the upper part of the circle placed over her target’s heart and cursed inwardly. That was the fifth shot she’d muddled, and the way things had gone, it wouldn’t be her last. She took a deep breath and exhaled, trying to calm herself, focusing back on her body and its stance.

  But the thought of her body brought back memories of the night prior and the torrid dreams that had followed. She could feel her pulse speed up and her body tighten, desire starting its familiar beat between her legs. Rather than being sated from their contact last night, her whole body seemed determined to have more and was making that fact clear to her.

  Her breath hitched as she released the arrow and this one thudded into place just to the side of the right eye mark of her target. Evony glowered at her miss and stalked towards the target to retrieve her arrows.

  “Are you alright, Evony brightness?” asked one of the soldiers, Bovrik, Evony thought his name was.

  She nodded, feeling her cheeks heat up a bit as she came to stop in front of her target. “I’m a little tired today.”

  “Never seen you miss so much before. Did you not sleep at all last night? You’ve got some shadows under your eyes,” his friend Coridan added.

  Evony reached up to touch her undereye, then dropped her hands and began yanking out the arrows instead. “I didn’t get much sleep to begin with and I had some dreams that...” She trailed off, not about to discuss her dreams with anyone.

  “Ah, I’ve had that problem,” Bovrik said. “Nightmares always strike at the worst time.”

  “You’d have fewer nightmares if you laid off that mead of yours,” Coridan retorted. “Anything that sweet is liable to rot your mind as well as your stomach.”

  “You’re just mad that you can’t hold your liquor, you—” Bovrik broke off with a guilty look at Evony.

  She chuckled. There really wasn’t much he could say that would offend her. “Don’t mind me. If you heard the way my aunts speak, you wouldn’t hesitate.”

  “It’s not right, brightness,” Coridon said. “You’re still a noble, much as you act like the rest of us.”

  Evony snorted. “I’m Amazzi. We don’t go in for that sort of thing. We’re warriors first, everything else second.”

  The men shrugged and she repressed a sigh and headed back to her shooting position. There was no point arguing. The soldiers were odd in what they considered appropriate for her and what they didn’t. Spitting, swearing at their weapons and clumsy hands, and hitting each other was fine. Using sexual language, not calling her brightness, and being rude to her were all against their made-up rules. Not that the latter had happened often. The first she’d dealt with herself. The second...she wasn’t sure what the others had said to him, but he hadn’t turned up to another practice.

  Evony shook herself, trying to get rid of all the distracting thoughts and feelings. This was her practice time. She needed to keep in top condition, especially if more assassins showed up. Inhaling and exhaling slowly a few times, Evony focused everything on her stance and what she was doing now, rather than what had happened.

  Her first two shots hit well, but her third hit perfectly and she allowed herself a smile as she pulled another arrow out of her quiver. The next three flew as her third had and she finally felt a bit better about her practice. As she paused briefly before nocking her seventh, she glanced over and realized that everyone else around her had frozen, all facing the same direction.

  Evony followed their gaze and finally noticed Galen, leaning against the fence, face turned in her direction.

  She flushed but held up a hand in acknowledgement, then hurried over to yank out her arrows. Only then did she jog over to Galen. She had no idea what he wanted and wasn’t about to waste arrows or block an entire target because of it.

  “Morning,” she said when she reached him, noting with approval the four guards who hovered a few passus away.

  He inclined his head. “Good morning.”

  Evony struggled to meet his stare for a second, her body reminding her of what he’d done to her. She forced herself to look him in the eyes, telling herself she was being silly. They were still the same people they’d been yesterday so there was no reason she should be acting differently. “I’m surprised you’re up this early.”

  Galen frowned slightly before his face smoothed back out. “I am always awake at this time though most often I am busy with work. I admit I was curious to see your morning practices. Balint has described them and your prowess to me in great detail, though he was correct that the reality is quite different. You are very skilled, probably the best I have seen with a bow.”

  That made her whole face pink. “Thank you,” she said, gaze dropping to the ground for a moment as she tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “But I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed with me if you were to see the best of the Amazzi. I am among the most skilled in our clan, but by no means the best. And there are those in other clans even better than Aunt Cahira.”

  That got her the upwards quirked lip smile she was getting used to. “I will have to visit Silvinsula some time to verify this. I have always heard of the Amazzi strength of arms, but I feel witnessing it in person will be a different experience entirely.”

  She smiled back. “We would be honoured to have you visit. I think you’d like Silvinsula. Though you would be made much of, both for being Adnuhom and because we almost never seen men outside of our clans.”

  A faint air of a smirk came across his lips. “I do not believe that would be much of a hardship.”

  Evony chuckled. “You obviously don’t know Amazzi well.”

  “I know you. Better than most,” he added with a sidelong look that made her blush.

  “I’m only one person. Imagine a whole clan with the same upbringing but different personalities. All of us women except my father, brother, and cousin.”

  His lips pulled down. “I had heard that Amazzi were almost all women. Is there a reason to it?”

  Evony shrugged. “We just run heavily to girls, no idea why. It’s rare for a boy to be born, so my brother and cousin get fussed over a lot. Sometimes they like it, sometimes they don’t. Marnin mostly likes it, and when he doesn’t, he hides.”

  “And the girls take this as a challenge and search for him?”

  She chuckled. “You think like us Amazzi. That’s exactly what they do. But Marnin’s too good at hiding and he knows how they all think. They almost never catch him. Last time they only found him because he sneezed.”

  That got a real smile out of Galen, even though it only lasted for an instant. A light breeze whipped up and blew over them, raising goosebumps on Evony’s arms as the sweat on her back began to cool. She glanced back up at Galen, whose forehead wrinkled slightly for a second. “I apologize, but I have reports that I cannot leave any longer.”

  Evony smiled back. “I need to hit the baths myself. I’ll see you later,” she said.

  He nodded. “Yes, you will,” he replied, turning around and heading back towards the main building, his guards trailing behind him. She watched him go, admiring his form for a moment before hurrying towards the baths herself. She’d promised Admina she’d go for a walk with her if there weren’t any challenges today, and from the way Galen had acted, she doubted there were.

  * * *

  Evony fell into pace beside Admina, glad for the wind that still rushed across the palace, keeping the day from being oppressively hot, despite the brilliant sun overhead. Neither of them said anything until they were well away from their wing and on one of the walkways that led towards the central gardens. “I wonder what our next challenge will be,” Admina said, focusing on the pink and red flowers that filled
a stone pot at the centre of the courtyard to their left.

  “I don’t know, but I imagine it will be something completely different from everything else,” Evony replied. She bet Galen would be coming up with something clever, unexpected, and revealing in ways that neither she nor any of the other candidates would guess.

  She shifted to the side, just behind Admina, as they passed a group of men in deep blue tunics and breastplates. Evony studied them for a moment, thinking the one in the middle might have interested her middle sister, if she’d have even bothered to give him a second look. He might even have been able to keep up with her for a whole week before she exhausted him. She certainly exhausted almost everyone in the family with her endless energy.

  Admina kept her eyes down until they were well past the men. They continued on until they reached a walkway that ended into the colonnade that ran the front of the building that faced the training fields. Evony led the way down, waving at the two guards standing by the arched door into the building proper, recognizing them from the morning hand-to-hand drill she’d helped with the day prior. They offered her half salutes and smiles then returned to their statue-like on-duty faces.

  “You know a lot of soldiers,” Admina said, having watched the whole thing.

  Evony nodded. “I train with them in the mornings, and since they rotate their training sessions, I’ve ended up meeting a lot of them. Most of them are pretty nice. You could always come with me, if you wanted. I could give you some basic lessons.”

  Her friend twisted her hands into the skirt of her dress. “No, thank you. I...I don’t like the idea of fighting. I don’t want to hurt other people.”

  “Fair enough,” Evony replied, though she personally thought it was stupid not to at least be able to defend yourself. But it was Admina’s choice how to live her life and she wasn’t about to interfere.

  They turned around the corner of the building, finding another walkway that split two gardens to either side of it, buildings butting up against both of them. The heavy scent of lavender from one side mixed with the heady scent of jasmine from the other. It was like walking into a cloud of perfume, but with none of the stickiness Evony usually associated with the liquid her sisters, mother, and aunts used on rare occasions.

  Admina inhaled deeply, smiling. “I wish we could grow flowers like these at home.”

  “You can’t?”

  “Our province is too high and cold for a lot of the plants here. We do have a lot of really pretty ones, like bellflowers, asters, and orchids. I have a whole garden of gentians too. I really like the yellow ones.”

  Evony smiled. “We have fewer flowers on Silvinsula too. A lot of bluebells, anemone, globeflowers, pinks, and tulips. Balera has a whole garden set up so there’s always something blooming. I don’t know how she does it,” she said, shaking her head. “I kill every flower I try to grow. The only one that didn’t die was the flower I forgot about. Thing’s still alive, as if to mock me and my black thumb.”

  Admina giggled. “I thought you were good at everything.”

  She choked. “If you ever meet my family, don’t ever say that around them. They’ll laugh so hard they’ll make themselves sick and then tell you every story of me making mistakes they can think of. And there are far more than I really like to think about.”

  “They sound fun.”

  “They’re something,” Evony muttered darkly. She frowned as she noticed another group of soldiers, this a quartet, all in green tunics. She watched them head away from them, towards the corner of a building she could see through the gardens and walkway.

  She waited until they were out of sight before she looked at Admina. “What’s with all the soldiers?”

  “What soldiers?”

  “I’ve seen two groups of soldiers in provincial colours in the last little while, and that’s more than I typically see in a day. The palace soldiers all wear black tunics.”

  “Ah. It must be closer to the midsummer festival than I thought.”

  “What’s that?”

  Admina stared at her for a moment. “Oh, I guess you wouldn’t know.” Seeing Evony’s look, she ducked her head and explained. “Every midsummer there’s a great festival here. Every province sends their best warriors to compete against each other and the emperor’s champions. It’s a form of dominance the provinces play against each other and a form of getting position for the warriors and the provinces they represent.”

  “That doesn’t sound half bad,” Evony replied, thinking it might be fun to test herself against some of the empire’s best. She didn’t much care for the dominance. What use did any Amazzi have for power in a court she was likely to be the only one to visit unless they were called upon by Galen?

  “My brother’s always angry around this time of year. He’s always concerned with our warriors not being strong enough to bring him honour. I think a lot of our men are better than he thinks but...” Her gaze slid past Evony to rest on the flowers and she didn’t say anything for several moments. Then she looked up at Evony. “Will your family be coming?”

  “No. I didn’t even know about this festival until you told me about it. But I wonder how hard it would be to get into the archery competition.”

  “I don’t know, but I can’t say I’ve ever heard of women competing. Which I guess means your family never participates. I should have known that.”

  “Well, there’s a first time for everything,” Evony said, while inwardly she frowned. She’d have to ask Galen about it, but if they were barring women from competing, he was about to get a piece of her mind. Then again, it might just be a tradition that hadn’t been corrected or that no women ever wanted to participate. She hadn’t seen any other female warriors since she’d arrived after all.

  She realized that this was the first time she’d thought of Galen and not blushed. She was finally getting back to normal, acting like her usual self. And that, she felt, was the way it should be. Nothing had changed.

  Even if she did know what certain parts of his body felt like now...

  Ignoring the sudden reminder her body sent her about how much it liked Galen, Evony focused instead on Admina. It was silliness to be thinking of Galen all day. Absolute silliness. But she did hope he’d stop by during the afternoon or evening. Or better yet, come by for another moonlit...chat.

  Chapter 17: Hit

  Like he’d been listening to her thoughts, Evony found Galen waiting in the garden that her room faced. Two guards stood a few passus away from him, alert to everything. In front of him was Venita, leaning eagerly in towards him as she spoke while Paran held a little ways back, eyes on both of them until she caught sight of Evony and Admina. Her shift in position drew Galen’s attention and he followed her gaze to spot them approach.

  Evony slowed her steps as she came up to him, ignoring the blazing glare Venita turned on her. “Galen,” she said while beside her Admina bowed and whispered, “Your Imperial Majesty.”

  “Princeps Evony, Rector Admina,” he said, bowing his heads towards both of them, before his focus went to Evony. “I had wondered if I might borrow you for a time.”

  She shrugged. “I’m not doing anything.”

  “Perhaps I could be of use, Your Majesty,” Venita said, gliding up so she stood beside Evony, though with almost a full passus of space between them.

  Galen’s brow wrinkled faintly. “I am not certain you would have the necessary knowledge for this,” he replied. “I was interested in Evony’s perspective on our troop placements for the midsummer festival. I have discussed the matter with Balint but we both had the thought that a third perspective might prove useful. Do you have military experience, Primus Venita?”

  The other girl’s smile froze to death on her face, spots of colour appearing high on her cheeks. She bowed low, her voice barely kept even as she said, “I am afraid not, Your M
ajesty. My education covered how to be a proper lady, not...fighting.”

  He glanced at her for a second, studying her form then nodding. “Then I must express gratitude for the offer, but unfortunately, I require the knowledge of a warrior,” he said jerking his head towards the opposite wing of the building, gaze back on Evony. “If you will accompany me?”

  “Yes,” she said, pausing long enough to smile at Admina. “I’ll see you later.”

  Her friend ducked her head in acknowledgement then hurried towards the entrance to their wing. Evony didn’t blame her. She wouldn’t want to be left with Venita in the garden when the girl looked about ready to scream. Evony could feel the silver girl’s glare on her back as Evony followed Galen towards the path that led to his rooms, the two guards falling into step behind them, leaving enough space that they wouldn’t be able to overhear anything said quietly.

  She waited until they were out of sight of the other girls before she looked at Galen. “Admina told me about the midsummer festival. Are women allowed to compete?”

  Galen blinked then one side of his mouth twitched upwards. “I should have been aware that you would be interested. There are no rules against women competing, though traditionally it has always been men.”

  “Then I could enter the archery competition? I assume there is one.”

  “There is, but you would only be able to enter if this bride competition is complete. It could be seen as an attempt at self-promotion were you to be allowed to compete in front of everyone when the other candidates do not possess the skills to even challenge you. In all honesty, I have received enough complaints about this whole process that I do not wish to add to that sum if it is not necessary.”

  She nodded as she felt a twinge in her chest, her eyes prickling slightly. With everything else that had been happening, Evony had forgotten that her time at the palace was limited. Eventually she’d have to return to Silvinsula, with child, and Galen would stay. He would need to choose a proper empress for himself, which she wasn’t.