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Fifteen

I stared at the creature. My chest tightened, my breath came faster, and something squeezed hard in my throat.

“I’m sorry,” Tallu said. “When I left it here this morning, it was the same as always. Perhaps the crack in the egg resulted in an infection or damaged it…”

His frown dragged at the corners of his eyes and pulled his mouth down. He looked up at me, hopeless in his discomfort.

“I know it was a gift to you from the north. I am sorry. It appears the Imperium killed it like it does all things.” He swallowed and looked away. “And I am the Imperium, so I killed it.”

“No.” I reached out, picking up the dragon. It was as small as a baby bird, barely filling my palm. Its fractal scales were pale white, like the first frost spreading over. The one wing that had spread open was nearly translucent, and I could see my own palm under it.

The tail finally tugged free of the egg, where it had stuck to the shell, revealing a pair of soft spikes at the very end. If it grew to full strength, I imagined they would harden, becoming a lethal weapon.

The dragon mewled. Tallu’s head snapped around, and both of us stared at the dragon. It did not move, but I felt its chest flutter in my palm.

“Ice,” I said. “It needs ice .”

Tallu pushed out of the room, opening the door to his room and yelling for ice.

I heard the echo of it in my ears and brought the dragon closer to my face, but its eyes were still shut, completely unmoving except for the soft rhythm of a heartbeat I felt in its chest. Its wing and tail hung limp, falling off my palm.

The heat of my hand might be harmful. Gently, I placed it back on the table, crouching so my face was level with the dragon, but it was as motionless as death. Still, this was an egg and a creature that had survived for decades, had survived when its mother and all of its kin had died.

“You will live,” I said. “You will live .”

The door clanged, and Tallu returned with a large bucket of ice, unevenly chipped to fit inside. He placed it on the floor, and I picked up the dragon again, delicately moving the chunks around to form a makeshift nest. My hand numbed, fingers becoming senseless by the time I was done.

I eased the dragon into the cold, and then, after a moment of hesitation, I placed a large chunk over the top of the small bowl I’d created from the rest of the ice like a lid over a pot on the stove. The dragon was barely visible through the ice, just a darker shape among the chunks.

Tallu knelt next to me. He picked up my hand, rubbing the pink flesh of my fingers until sensation returned in painful pricks.

I wanted to pull away, but his expression was so focused I let him continue massaging, even when my fingers no longer hurt, when my flesh was no longer discolored from the cold.

“How did you know what it needed?” Tallu asked, as though we already knew the dragon would survive, as though it was a given that I had saved it.

“Ice dragons are protected by their mothers, but they are born into the cold. My mother told stories of dragons’ nests carved into icebergs that float in the far northern sea, where it is too cold for even sea serpents and whales.

” I delicately moved aside the chunk of ice I’d used to cover the hatchling’s nest. Had it moved? Was it in a new position?

I placed the ice back on top. It would live. It had to live.

“My old tutor told stories about dragons.” Tallu settled back on his heels, looking up at the ceiling. “My family tried to wipe them out. They did wipe them out, and still people tell stories about them.”

I wrapped my arms around my knees, watching Tallu’s face. “What was it like, growing up, knowing you were going to be emperor?”

“Difficult.” Tallu’s face closed, eyes focused on the wall. “Should we look over the documents that Hipati provided?”

I tilted my head, nodding. It would have been nice to use the injury Commander Rede had given me as an excuse to avoid the work, but after the bath, any hint of a headache was gone.

I was still hesitant to leave the dragon and shifted the ice covering it just slightly so that it could wriggle free if it needed to. I was sure it had moved.

Standing, I followed Tallu back into the bedroom. Three boxes of documents sat on the table, and when I settled onto the couch and began taking papers out from one of them, Tallu grabbed my arm.

He was glaring at it, and I looked down.

The burn was looking worse. Straightening, he walked over to the bedside table, picking up the salve Dr. Jafopo had left behind.

I expected him to hand it to me, but instead, he opened it himself, scooping out a fingerful. He smeared it over the blistered flesh.

“I should kill him.” Tallu glared down at the wound, taking another dollop and rubbing it onto the flesh.

“Why? I wanted to lose.” When Tallu looked up sharply, I shot him a smirk. “You think I couldn’t win? I threw the match. You’re wrong.”

Tallu’s hand stilled on my arm, and I wasn’t sure he even realized he was still holding it tightly. “What?”

“I’m an assassin. I am shadow . I need to be invisible .

You’re treating me like Eona?. They need to underestimate me so that when I strike, it’s unexpected.

” I watched his face, seeing the tension there melt as he realized I had a plan.

“I know that you want them to see me as a threat. But the best way I can protect you is if they don’t see me at all. ”

“I don’t need protecting.” Tallu’s words were sharp. “I have guards and an army for that.”

“I think you need protecting even from yourself.” I watched as Tallu’s eyes went wide.

He inhaled, his chest rising. His fingers tightened on my arm. When he looked away, pulling his hand from my skin, I felt the crackle of something sharp and electric in the air. I smelled that unique scent of Tallu: electricity and blood.

Giving him space, I looked at the papers that I had crumpled in my hands. “These aren’t just Bechi’s papers.”

Tallu took out his own handful. “These are some of the military documents as well.”

Fluidly, Tallu stood and opened the door to his quarters. It wasn’t late enough to be locked, but still no one had tried to interrupt us. “Bring me the scribe. Hipati.”

Sagam nodded, gesturing with one hand. Another of the Emperor’s Dogs peeled away from the wall, trotting down the hall. Tallu turned, sitting back down next to me. I was reading over the paperwork.

It was all requisition reports, and when I looked at the paper under it, it was the final bills. Frowning, I held the two sheets next to each other.

“Someone is overpaying for dried cattle meat,” I said.

Hipati entered the room, laden with two armfuls of papers, her own notepad buried underneath. She bowed, trying to speak around the stylus in her mouth.

Tallu’s face softened, and I hid my own laugh by biting my lip. Hastily, Hipati lowered herself to the ground, putting the paperwork into piles before pressing her forehead to the floor.

“I apologize, Emperor. I didn’t realize I was overstepping until it was too late. If you need to punish me?—”

“Explain to me how you organized this,” I said before Hipati could suggest flogging herself or writing out I will not look at private military paperwork ten thousand times.

“I heard from—” She paused, coughing, then said, “That is, my understanding is that you were looking to see where corruption might lie in the military. So my first step was matching up all requisitions with subsequent bills—quotes and any letters regarding prices, too, if I could find them.”

“And these boxes were ones you found where the bill didn’t match the requisition paperwork or the quote as the military understood it?” I asked.

“Yes.” Hipati let out a deep breath, relieved that I understood. “I’ve written notes down here…?”

Still kneeling on the ground, she looked between me and Tallu.

“Show them to me,” Tallu ordered.

As Hipati began going through her notes, pointing out where this general or that might have overpaid, and when, instead of an overpayment, a significant discount was given or there was the implication that payment had come from another source, I leaned back, considering the paperwork in my hand.

Tallu had been revealing the Emperor’s Council one by one, toppling them like game pieces. The military had to see the tide was turning against civilian oversight of their activities and acted like children let loose in the kitchen with no one to make sure they didn’t eat the entire dessert tray.

Shaking my head, I took another handful of papers, going through them. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Tallu’s expression growing increasingly dark.

“Most of these are fairly minor,” Hipati said finally. “If Your Imperial Majesty doesn’t wish to prosecute them, I’m sure simply showing the papers to those who provided goods and services would be enough that they would pay the Imperium back. Or provide free goods to make up the difference.”

“Most of these?” I asked sharply.

“I’m still going through all the paperwork,” Hipati said, shifting on her knees. She looked away, straightening the two piles of papers.

“What have you found?” Tallu asked.

When she looked up, her eyes were wide. She glanced to the door, but only the Emperor’s Dogs remained.

“Are we alone?” Tallu asked.

“Clear the hall,” Sagam called, sending servants scattering. Two other Dogs moved further away to make sure the rest of the rooms were free from listening ears.

“I would hate to speak ill of such venerated men due to my misunderstanding. But General Maki has requested four different convoys of the same materials.” With trembling hands, she pulled out four different letters. Tallu took them first, skimming them before offering them to me.

“These are all food and basic supplies.” I looked at Tallu. “General Maki operates south of the Blood Mountains, doesn’t he? He uses the rivers and ocean for his experiments. Is it possible they’ve just run through that much food?”