The Emperor's Mirror

by Emily Holloway

  “I’ll go get the carriage ready,” Owain asked, not bothering to see to Emory’s bleeding hand.

  “Not to bother,” Emory said. “I’ll build us a Gate.”

  “I hate Gating,” Owain muttered, but he didn’t argue.

  “All right, then.” Emory lifted Brannon and put him over one shoulder with ease, ignoring Brannon’s fists pounding on his back. “You get the chest. My hands are full.”

  * * *

  // “I know that this displeases you,” the Emperor said, his voice slow and patient. “It doesn’t please me either, to send my son away. But if there is a possibility of war, then it is essential that my wife and my heir be safe.”

  “I can’t protect them if I can’t be near them,” the dragon argued, pacing back and forth the length of the Emperor’s chambers, his bare feet making little noise against the marble floors.

  “I understand that the boy is precious to you,” the Emperor said. “He’s precious to me as well. He’s my son, my only son and my heir. I do not wish you to suffer, but I cannot have him in harm’s way. They will be adequately guarded and well hidden.”

  “This isn’t about what I want,” the dragon said. “I’m supposed to protect the Emperor and the Heir, because gods forbid, should something happen to you and I can’t get to him in time – ”

  The Emperor gave the dragon a long, carefully studied look. “This cannot be the first Heir who has ever been sent away in a dangerous time,” he said.

  There was a pause. “No,” the dragon admitted, staring out the window and into his courtyard, which was empty except for a few birds perched on the edge of the koi pond. “And I hated it then, too.”

  The Emperor sighed. “I’m merely saying that your attachment to my son has far more to it than just duty. He’ll be fine. He’ll be with some of the best mages and warriors in the world. He’ll be well hidden. I wouldn’t do this if I thought it would hurt them. My wife and my children are the most important things in the world to me. Trust me.”

  The dragon sighed and looked down, giving in. He couldn’t not. When commanded by the Emperor, the dragon had no choice but to obey.

  “You and I will fight this war,” the Emperor said, “to get them home safely and soon. All right?”

  The dragon nodded.

  “Now go on. I’ve said my farewells – they’re waiting for you.”

  “All right.” The dragon turned and left his chambers, heading out to the gates of the palace. There was a royal carriage train there, surrounding by guards. He smiled slightly, recognizing it for the decoy that it was, and skirted around it to a much smaller, plain set of carriages off to the side of the road.

  “Dragon!” the prince burst out of the carriage and latched onto him. “Tell them to not make me go!”

  The dragon picked up the prince; at ten years old he was still easy to carry. “I can’t do that,” he said. “This was your father’s decision.”

  “I don’t want to go,” the prince whined. “I hate being far away from you.”

  “You’ve never been far away from me, little prince.”

  “Well, I’m going to hate it!”

  The dragon couldn’t help but chuckle. “It’s not like you’ll never see me again,” he said. “The Emperor and I will take care of this as quickly as we can, and then you’ll be home safe and sound. Don’t give your mother or your sister any trouble, all right?”

  “Not too much,” the prince agreed.

  “All right, not too much.”

  The prince wrapped his arms around the dragon’s neck, clinging with surprising strength. “You still have the dragon I made you, right?”

  “Of course I do. He’ll keep me company until you get back.”

  “All right. I’ll miss you.” The prince let go and wiped his eyes, trying to look brave.

  “I’ll miss you, too. But you’ll be all right. You’re going on an adventure.”

  “I know,” the prince said with a sigh. They said their farewells, and he allowed himself to be coaxed into the carriage. The dragon stood on the side of the road and watched it drive out of view, vanishing onto the busy city streets. //

  * * *

  Tallis yawned and stretched as he sat up in bed, frowning. He thought that he had dreamed, and that the dream had been unpleasant, although he was unsure of what it had been about. The events were already fading. He shrugged it off and got out of bed, dressing quickly and going downstairs for a quick breakfast.

  The rice and thin soup that they were serving did little to assuage his hunger, and he considered going to Nuan Huo just for some real food. He decided to check quickly on Brannon before finding Sienna and heading into the city. Upon their arrival at the monastery the night before, it had been quite late. Tallis had decided against going down to the temple; since Brannon was not asleep in his bed, he had presumed that the warming spells were still in effect and the boy was asleep in his own room.

  He got there and was surprised to find the temple empty and dark. It looked as if there had been no morning services, which was startling to say the least. He wondered what could have happened to make canceling services necessary. “Brannon?” he called uneasily, and pushed aside the curtain.

  Brannon’s niche was empty. The light he had made the night before was still there, however, drifting forlornly out into the main temple as he watched. Tallis stared at it, feeling horror creep into his stomach. He forced himself to calm down. It was possible that Brannon had chosen to sleep in the monastery somewhere. Possible that he hadn’t remembered Sienna’s instructions about how to extinguish the light when he wanted to sleep. There were a lot of possibilities, so he forced himself to not panic.

  A brief search of the room, however, confused him. Brannon’s things were all there, except for the book he had bought him, and the koi. Those weren’t exactly things that someone would take if he were going to run away from home.

  Tallis left the temple and went up the stairs. He was informed by a stammering acolyte that the Elder was not in his chambers and could not be seen. “Where is he?” Tallis asked. He had already noted as he walked down the hallway that there were far fewer monks doing their chores than usual.

  “I d-d-d-don’t know . . .”

  “This is your honorable Elder,” Tallis said, but he tried to rein in his temper. The monk looked terrified. “You must know.”

  “He told us that he wasn’t available to see anyone today,” the monk said. “I don’t know why. Honestly, I don’t!”

  “I’m not asking to see him,” Tallis said. “I just want to know where he is.”

  The monk frowned. It looked for a moment like he might argue, but then he took a better look at Tallis and changed his mind. “He’s, uhm, outside, I think.”

  “Outside?” Tallis asked, startled again, and the acolyte nodded. Tallis reminded himself that it was too early in the morning to beat anyone to death. He turned on one heel and marched out the front gate of the monastery. He almost walked past Sienna, who was making an effort to go unseen, and jumped when he noticed her.

  “What’s going on?” she asked. “There have been monks out here in pairs all morning, beating the bushes. I thought maybe another chest had been stolen.”

  “There are still two in the temple. I haven’t searched the rest of the monastery. But I haven’t seen Brannon this morning and there were no morning services, and the things I got him were no longer in his room. Cubbyhole. Whatever.”

  “Oh dear,” Sienna said.

  “And now we’re off to find Elder Edrich, whom, I have been informed, is not to be disturbed today. I’ve been told he’s outside. Somewhere.”

  “This way,” Sienna said, heading off into the woods and beckoning over her shoulder. Tallis hastened to follow her. “I was watching him earlier,” Sienna said, “hoping I could figure out what was going on. But none of them have been talking. Whatever it is they’re looking for, this is the worst organized search in history. I’ve had trouble refraining from commentary.”<
br />
  “They had better not be looking for who I think they’re looking for,” Tallis remarked. It took only a few minutes to find the Elder, who was standing in a clearing and looking aggravated. Tallis smiled pleasantly, showing teeth. “Good morning.”

  Edrich jumped, and his eyes narrowed. “I’m not to be disturbed today. Whatever it is you need to do, just go ahead and do it.”

  “You already look pretty disturbed,” Tallis pointed out. “In fact, the entire monastery looks like it’s been stirred like a hornet’s nest. So, now that we’ve covered that, where’s Brannon?”

  “He’s probably in his room,” Edrich said. “Now, if you don’t mind, Warder Tallis, I’m very busy and – ”

  “Busy doing what?” Tallis interrupted.

  “It’s none of your affair.”

  “Brannon isn’t in his room,” Tallis said. “I could tell that morning services were canceled. Where is he?”

  “I said, it’s none of your affair.”

  “Where is Brannon?” Tallis asked, each word slow and deliberate.

  The Elder swelled until it looked like he might burst. “If you hadn’t come in here and put all those stupid ideas in his head, we wouldn’t even be having this problem!” he yelled. “And when that stupid boy comes out from where he’s hiding, I’m going to box his ears into next week!”

  “Why would he be hiding?” Tallis demanded. “What did you do to upset him?”

  Edrich visibly calmed himself. “He is a foolish boy and gets upset about foolish things.”

  “What did you do to upset him?” Tallis repeated. “And how long has he been gone?”

  “I’m not going to stand here and be interrogated by – ”

  “Oh, this is a waste of time,” Sienna said impatiently. Edrich jumped as he saw her, and sputtered something about how she wasn’t supposed to be there anymore, but Sienna ignored him. She walked right up to him, muttered a few phrases underneath her breath, and slapped him across the face.

  “You know,” Tallis said, a bit of his humor returning, “you only have to touch people to perform the spell.”

  “I know,” Sienna said. “But he deserved a good smacking.”

  “Can’t argue that,” Tallis said. Edrich was looking a bit bewildered. The spell compelled people to speak the truth, but they didn’t have to do it with style or grace, so he would still have to deal with Edrich’s attitude. “Now,” Tallis said, “what did you do to upset him?”

  “It was a silly argument,” the Elder ground out. “About his book and the fish.”

  “What about his book and his fish?” Tallis asked, clearly wondering how someone could have an argument about these things.

  “They were inappropriate. I tried to confiscate them.”

  “What was inappropriate about them?” Tallis asked incredulously. “I read through the book! It’s geared for children several years younger than he is.”

  “There is no need for such worldly possessions here,” Edrich snapped back.

  “It was a book and a koi!” Tallis yelled. “Not a prostitute!”

  Sienna burst into laughter that she quickly smothered. She cleared her throat. “Elder, when did the boy go missing?”

  There was a pause, then, very grudgingly, “Yesterday evening.”

  Tallis’ eyes widened as the horror crept from his stomach into his chest. “Yesterday?” he asked. “Why didn’t you tell us when we came back from Nuan Huo?”

  “It was unnecessary,” the Elder said. “At that point we assumed he was hiding somewhere in the monastery.”

  “That’s not entirely unreasonable,” Sienna admitted. “But we still could have helped you look. I assume by now you have ascertained that he is not, in fact, anywhere in the monastery?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you thought that sending all your monks out here to beat bushes was an efficient plan?” Sienna asked, her voice acidic with contempt.

  “He’s a small boy,” Edrich said. “He can’t have gotten far.”

  “He’s had all night,” Tallis said. “Have you notified anyone?”

  There was a pause while Edrich clearly struggled against the spell. In the end, a strangled “no” escaped his lips.

  Tallis grabbed him by the front of the robes. “He’s precious enough to you that you won’t even give him a book from the outside world, but when he turns up missing, you don’t even notify anyone?” He gave the Elder a hard shake. “What is wrong with you?”

  “If they find out he’s gone I’ll lose my position here,” Edrich ground out. “I’d lose the monastery.”

  “Tallis,” Sienna said. “We’re wasting time with this idiot. We’ve got to find him.”

  “He can’t have gone far,” Edrich managed again.

  “You cretin!” Sienna turned on him. “There’s an unknown enemy on the loose looking for magical artifacts from the old religion, and you’re just not worried about a small boy who, according to you, is going to grow up to be the new Emperor? An unknown enemy that can Gate? He could be anywhere in the world by now! Once a Gate closes, there’s no way to tell where it went!”

  Edrich seemed shocked into silence by this.

  “Did you leave him in his room?” Tallis asked.

  “No. In the shrine on the second floor. But he must have gone back to his room for the book and the koi before he left.”

  “We’ll start there. Have fun beating bushes if you honestly think it’ll help.” Tallis let go of him and stalked back towards the temple.

  “Tallis,” Sienna said. “Try to stay calm. He’s probably still in the area. It’s not likely that Emory picked him up. Emory doesn’t know him, or, as far as we know, know anything about him.”

  Tallis took a deep breath and got a hold of himself. “I know that. Let’s just find him and worry about my temper later.”

  * * *

  Chapter Thirteen

  Calessa had not meant to fall asleep, and was rather sure that her doing so had been the result of the paper spell Emory had put on her back. She rubbed her eyes and looked around groggily. The cell was now lit by a lantern in the corner, though it was quite dim. “Sleeping beauty joins us at last,” Emory’s voice said, amused.

  Calessa said something extremely rude, and was surprised when this was met by a childish giggle. Wondering if she was missing something important, she slowly sat up. Her body ached from sleeping on the cold stone floor, but the pain was forgotten when she saw the chest and the small boy sitting down next to it in the corner. She looked at the child, then at Emory, who was leaning against the door that led up into the temple. “Kidnapping children, now?”

  “I have a wide variety of talents,” Emory replied.

  “Undoubtedly,” Calessa said peevishly. She was not chained, so she was free to stretch and get a little more comfortable, though there was not much comfort to be had. She took a better look at the boy and noted the monk’s robes he was wearing; she came to the correct conclusions immediately. She also noticed that Emory’s hand was carefully bandaged. “So what now?”

  “My little friend here is going to help me get this chest open,” Emory said.

  Brannon folded his arms over his chest and said mulishly, “No ‘m not.”

  “We are, as you see,” Emory said to Calessa, “at an impasse. We have been doing this all night while you slept. I’m getting a trifle impatient.”

  “What do you want me to do?” Calessa asked. “Tell him to hurry it up?”

  Emory’s smile thinned slightly. He turned back to Brannon, who made a face and said, “I told you, I don’t know how I opened it. And now it won’t open anymore.” He put his hands out and tugged on the lid with all his might to demonstrate. “I don’t know how I did it but it’s not working now, so let me go.”

  “I think I know why it opened,” Emory said. “I’m starting to understand more of this little puzzle. Would you like to hear it?”

  “No,” Calessa and Brannon said in unison. Calessa smiled over at Brannon, who wri
nkled his nose at their captor.

  “It was actually hearing your name that led me to it,” Emory said.

  “Now he’s going to tell us anyway,” Calessa said, although she had to admit that she was intently interested in what Emory might say. She held out an arm to Brannon, and he crawled over to sit next to her.

  “You have a very Imperial name, Luan Qiang Yu,” Emory said. “You share the name with the last known Emperor.”

  “That’s great,” Brannon said. “Those monks named me; go complain to them. I don’t like to be called that anyway. It’s stupid, calling me a dead person’s name. Everyone just calls me Brannon anyway.”

  “I don’t feel the need to complain,” Emory said. “I find the name most apt. You are, after all, able to claim ownership to the Regalia. You are the only person who can open the chests. But now, since you don’t actually want to, they won’t open no matter how hard you try.”

  Brannon blinked. He muttered to Calessa, “Magic can do that?”

  She nodded at him, and turned her attention to Emory. “So were you planning to kidnap him the entire time?” she asked, smirking at him. “Or were you just going to pray the chests open yourself?”

  “I didn’t actually know about him,” Emory said. “I figured that whatever I triggered at the monastery that first night was some spell used to protect the chests, not the reaction of an actual person. I see that I was mistaken.” He glanced at the door. “Alas, I’m not one of those villains who feels the need to stand around and explain himself. I’ve got things to take care of. Luan Qiang Yu, if you could please continue to try to open the chest? I’d like you to keep something in mind.”

  “That you’re a giant booger?” Brannon retorted. “And don’t call me that.”

  Calessa let out a snort of laughter.

  “Remember this,” Emory said. “I swore an oath that I wouldn’t hurt you in order to make you open the chest. I said nothing about hurting you just because I felt like it.”

  He vanished up the stairs without another word.