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“ T his is how the Imperium will conquer the Northern Kingdom.” Tallu, fourth Emperor of the Southern Imperium, finally looked back at me, his russet eyes catching mine. “And I cannot stop it by myself.”

Not even a full day wed, and all I had was a body that ached from combat rather than lovemaking, a diamond blade that hadn’t found its home in my husband’s throat, and a headache from the questions buzzing around my skull.

“What?” I asked, my voice not even a breath, not even a question, just the barest hint of sound. “Husband? What?”

“Do you know why the Imperium hasn’t been able to conquer the rest of the continent?

” Tallu circled the table, his eyes fixed on me as he walked around the flying machine.

The model of the machine that Tallu had said would conquer the Northern Kingdom, where my mother ruled with my sister set to follow in her footsteps.

“A war is costly. Even the Imperium has limits.” I turned my attention back to the maquette ship. It floated in the air. Hesitantly, I ran my hand underneath it, but there were no invisible poles holding it up.

“No.” Tallu turned away from me, walking over to a large map of the continent on the wall.

He pointed to the north. “Your whales and sea serpents sank half the navy, so the Imperium looked at taking soldiers overland, but Dragon’s Rest Mountains blocked the way.

” Dragging his finger east, he pointed at the Mountains of Krustau.

“Their mountains protect the dwarves. If they took out the passes or started an avalanche, we would lose all our men. Unless they invite us, Mountain Thrown City cannot be reached by climbing up, and trying to go in through the caves without a dwarven guide is a death sentence. What lurks in the dark inside the mountains of Krustau is not something even the Imperium can face.” He pointed further north.

“The fairies of Ristorium are only safe as long as they stay in their floating islands.” He tapped the southern Ariphadeus desert.

“Even the Ariphadi goblin tribes are protected by their unforgiving desert alone.

“It is not a well-trained military or the cost of a war that saves the free countries from the Imperium. It is geography.” Tallu turned, pointing at the ship.

“This airship will solve that. It will take imperial soldiers to the last remaining strongholds of Ristorium. It will travel over Dragon’s Rest Mountains and the walls of ice that protect the Silver City.

It will take our men into the heart of Krustau without the loss of any life.

It will cross the Ariphadeus desert and allow our men—hydrated and well equipped—into the desert camps.

“With this ship, we will conquer the continent.” Tallu poked his finger at it, and the thing floated off the table, straight into me.

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked, a guttural reaction that left me breathless.

The Imperium was going to take over the world, leaving wreckage like Forsaith in its wake.

I had been barely old enough to stand when the ash from the burning forests and settlements had stained the sky.

Half a continent away, we had still seen the smoke.

I had no time; I had no way to stop it, not before one of the last free nations fell. Perhaps Velethuil would help me send the court into outright rebellion? What if I showed him this ship?

That was assuming that his patron, General Kacha, didn’t already know about it. That he hadn’t built it. Everything I had seen of him suggested that General Kacha would gleefully pilot the machine himself.

I clutched it in my hands, the wings crumpling under my tight grip. I could crush this maquette, but the real thing was beyond my touch.

“I am telling you this because I need your help.” Tallu’s voice stayed quiet, even as his tone rose sharply. “I am telling you because I cannot destroy this on my own, and I need to prevent the Imperium from killing another nation, from spilling more blood.”

“What?” I stared at him like I was the fish saved from a sea serpent’s mouth, only to realize I’d hopped right onto a fisherman’s dinner plate. “It is your empire. You are the Emperor of the Southern Imperium. Just tell them to stop! Why do you need my help?”

“This is being made by someone in the military or someone hired by the military. I found it with my father’s things, and I found references to the project in his correspondence.

But when I asked for updates about the imperial expansion, none of the generals mentioned it.

None.” Tallu approached me, and I stood firm, shoulders back as I looked up at him, glaring when he pulled the model free from my hands and smoothed out the crumpled wings with a gentle tug of his fingers.

“I need to prevent this project from coming to fruition. We must prevent the Imperium from succeeding. The empire must fall. But I cannot unravel the Imperium until I find out more about this project.”

“It can’t be a secret,” I said. “It’s a giant floating ship . No one could hide it. It’s not like they could dress it up with a tail and say it’s a horse.”

“And yet someone is,” Tallu said. “One of my generals is hiding this from me. Do you understand what that means?”

I stared at him, his expression so neutral he might as well be talking about which dish from our wedding dinner was my favorite.

“You think someone in your military is working against you,” I said. I put the puzzle pieces together, and it was the same as when I’d viewed the Mountainside Palace from above: seeing the whole picture for the first time.

Tallu looked away just long enough to draw a breath. “As long as the military stands, the Imperium cannot fall.”

“You keep saying that,” I said sharply. “Why? Why do you want your own people to suffer the same fate the Imperium has subjected the rest of the world to?”

“You know why the Imperium must be destroyed,” Tallu said. “You know because you’ve spent your whole life training to accomplish it.”

“The Imperium would have killed all in the north who stood against them. They would have destroyed the Silver City and left my people to die on the tundra,” I said.

“As they burned Forsaith and slaughtered the blood mages,” Tallu agreed. “Perhaps I want that to end for the same reason you do.”

“But it was your family who did it!” The accusation hung between us, loud in the small room. I was lucky the Dogs had no way into the room, not until Tallu opened the door or morning came.

“Yes,” Tallu said. He raised his chin, breathing deeply. “I am aware of every last sin my bloodline has committed, every atrocity, every genocide. You do not need to remind me that House Atobe is a curse on the continent.”

His face was so pale I thought he might pass out, and I lifted my hand, hesitating for only a breath before touching him. He looked down at where my fingers held his shoulder tight. Then, he spoke to my hand, his voice stilted.

“We must stop the airship. We must find the person behind it.”

“And when you find it, what are you going to do?” I dropped my hand.

He’d said he wanted to stop it. He’d said that he needed my help to stop it, but he had spoken around a reason to want the empire to fall.

He’d said “ Perhaps I want that to end for the same reason you do” which was not the same as saying he wanted it for the same reason I did.

And that he couldn’t answer the fundamental question “why” made it impossible for me to trust that this wasn’t some political machination I didn’t understand yet.

“Destroy all traces of existing ships,” Tallu said. “Destroy the designs and find out the designer and then stop them.”

“Destroy them, too?” I asked. I could imagine it, Tallu ordering his Dogs to kill someone for the crime of being brilliant.

Granted, being brilliant in a way that allowed the Imperium to conquer four nations but still being murdered for being too smart.

It didn’t bode well for my future, given my smart tongue and my inability to control it.

“There are other things that they could be building.” Tallu looked down, considering the airship in his hands. He put it gently back on the table, but the wing was so crumpled it no longer flew. He turned it over, tapping the bottom. “This is the only clue I have.”

I squinted, moving closer, trying to make out the words in Imperial carved on the bottom.

Version 3. Attempt 4. SZ

“SZ, is that the creator?” I asked.

“That’s what I assume.” Tallu looked down at me, his mouth opening. I stepped so close we were nearly touching. I had expected to be touched in a different way tonight. My wedding night.

Tallu continued to look down, and he ran his tongue along his bottom lip before closing his mouth.

Somehow, despite the fact that we had already had sex, I was curious about what Tallu would do with more time.

He hadn’t wanted to fuck me, but was that simply because he’d assumed I was close to killing him?

Or because we weren’t true allies yet?

What would he look like if I touched him the way I wanted to? Would he beg the emperor, who always looked so in control, who always looked as though nothing could touch him?

I cleared my throat, trying to remember that I didn’t trust him, trying to remember all the reasons I had not to believe him now. But I did trust him. Or at least as much as I could. I did believe him, even if he wasn’t telling me the whole truth.

“What pushed you to this point?” I hesitated. “Who taught you to hate the empire built from your blood?”

I raised my hand, my fingertips skimming just barely above his soft clothing. When I couldn’t stand the lack of contact for one moment more, I touched him, my palm pressed against his chest. Tallu inhaled sharply, and something flashed across his face, gone as soon as it was there.