Page 59 of Betrothed to the Emperor

General Saxu was a good military leader. He had been in the north; he had been in the Blood Mountains. He had fought nearly every front that the Imperium had engaged in. He considered.

“General Kacha,” Saxu said. “Before we even got the full report.”

“The emperor thinks that General Kacha and Prince Rute have nothing to do with this.” That wasn’t quite true. Tallu had said he had no evidence, and he believed General Kacha would never use foreign soldiers.

But I was fishing, and I had put out bait. Saxu knew it, too, but part of him already believed that there was a strong chance Kacha or Rute was behind this. His own instincts made Saxu take the bait.

The trick to fishing was to lay out the line and make the bait appear as appealing as possible. Then you had to wait. I was never good at waiting. Yorîmu and my mother had both been appalled at how little patience I actually had.

“We found more weapons than this,” General Saxu said. “General Kacha asked for several in order to experiment on them and determine if they were truly from Krustau—as you suggested—or if they were disguised northern weapons. He suspects you are the one fooling the emperor.”

I almost laughed. Iwasfooling the emperor. I was playing a game of mirrors so complicated that I barely understood what I was doing anymore. I just knew that the only way was through. Frame Rute so Tallu would execute him. Kill Tallu. And then…

“I understand why he suspects me,” I said. “But I would never do anything to endanger the Northern Kingdom.”

“ThatI believe.” Saxu considered the weapon I still held. I offered it back to him, and he put it in the cupboard.

Now, I knew how to get to the weapons, but breaking in would be almost impossible. Perhaps I would have to wait until after my wedding to do it. I would need to time the guards’ shifts, and I would need to make sure that the weapons were in the same case by the time I came for them. I would have to have the wax ready, a heat source so that I could pour the wax, stamp it, and then replace the blade.

That was fine. Killing Rute after my marriage ceremony just meant Tallu and I would share a wedding night. I shivered, the idea sending a thrill of excitement up my spine.

What would Tallu do on our wedding night? Would he expect more than hands and mouths and skin? Would he expect to take all of me, to push inside me?

Saxu paused, still facing the weapons, his broad back to me. “I am a soldier of the Southern Imperium. I have been a soldier since I was a boy. I first served under Emperor Tallu’s grandfather, Emperor Rellu.”

Saxu had my full attention.

“Prince Rute also took one of the blades.” Saxu touched one of the hilts, his fingers lingering on the cool metal of the blade. “One of the soldiers who delivered them to General Kacha said he was there, and he tested the blade on a servant’s hand.”

“Prince Rute took one of the Krustavian blades?” I said, making sure I had heard correctly, even though it was impossible to ignore the image of Prince Rute and his cold,amused smile as he raised the blade and chopped off someone’s hand. “Why?”

Saxu likely could not answer what drove Rute to such cruelty, so instead, he answered the more obvious question. “Prince Rute has an affection for weaponry. He is a known collector.”

“And he wanted to collect a weapon that still has the blood of the emperor’s dead Dogs on it?” In the north, any weapons from fallen warriors would be carefully cleaned, then returned to their clan so that future warriors could use them and feel those who came before in the blade.

“He did.” Saxu’s shoulders went back. “The emperor might not believe that General Kacha and Prince Rute would be capable of such a thing, but I think you and I are highly aware of what men do for power.”

I nodded my head to General Saxu, making sure it wasn’t quite a bow. Turning, I headed out of the room.

As I walked back up the stairs, ignoring the glances of the imperial military officers I passed, I considered my options, which seemed as though they were growing fewer and fewer.

Saxu had given me an opening. There was one of the Krustavian blades that wasn’t under military lock and key. The blade that Rute had taken.

If I couldn’t find the blade, I could always plant the letters without the seal. Or I could wait until after the wedding, take my time and frame Rute properly by using one of the blades that Saxu had just shown me.

“You should be more careful.” Asahi’s severe voice interrupted my thoughts.

Blinking, I turned back to him. “What?”

“Emperor Tallu is different from his father. Emperor Millu didn’t mind when the court gossiped about him. Emperor Tallu prefers to keep his thoughts more closely held.” Asahi glared at me through his mask, and I could feel his displeasure.

“I was not gossiping”—mostly because what I had been saying was partially made up. It wasn’t that Talludidn’tbelieve Rute might be behind it; it was thelack of evidence—“I was checking to see if Saxu believed as I do, that Tallu’s enemies are closer than Krustau.”

Annoyed, I stomped on. Arealconsort would be more careful about how they spoke about the emperor. And when Tallu had told me his thoughts, therehadbeen an air of privacy to them, as though he wasn’t sure he could share them with anyone.

Iwouldn’tfeel any guilt about this. That was ridiculous.

We passed servants carrying luggage, the sweat on their brow showing it was not the first load. “The ex-emperor’s Council.”