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Sixteen

“ D id any of his experiments take place in Forsaith?” I asked, thinking of the last request for supplies.

“Not that I can see.” Hipati began paging through documents again, and I turned to the next page, skimming it before turning to another letter.

I froze.

General Bemishu,

We thank you for the bodies. You are the first of our comrades to understand the importance of freshness as well as quantity. The speed at which your convoy arrived was critical to the success of my experiments.

I believe I am extremely close to perfecting the art, and I look forward to showing it to you at our next meeting.

However, I must complain about the rerouting of three food shipments. I understand your request for discretion, and I will not ask why, but I must insist that this next one does not go ‘missing.’

My men grow restless, and they are not used to surviving without, as your own men are.

If the shipment soon arriving from the capital also reroutes itself to Forsaith, I will have to follow it and discover what in the former nation has your attention.

Yours,

General Maki

“Bemishu was sending them to Forsaith.” I held out the letter, and Tallu took it from me.

“Forsaith is far from the Ariphadeus.” Tallu frowned, considering the letter. He turned to Hipati. “Were there any military activities in Forsaith that you took note of?”

“Not recently,” Hipati said, going to her notes. “But there are boxes and boxes of materials that I still have to go through.”

I looked out the window, where the night had gone as dark as the ravens still sitting on the windowsill. “Thank you, Hipati. That will be all for tonight.”

The scribe stood, her eyes catching on each pile of paperwork, her expression unhappy.

“It will still be here in the morning.” I caught myself before I made the shooing gesture that was so rude in the Imperium. “Sagam, make sure she gets out of the emperor’s quarters safely. And lock up behind her, if you would.”

I glanced at the other Emperor’s Dogs, expecting to see Asahi, but the guard was missing. Had his father called for him again? I needed to find out what had happened since we’d had dinner with the generals, and I had let slip my chance when he’d escorted me to the training ground this morning.

Shaking my head, I looked significantly at Tallu. He dismissed everyone else, closing the door behind them. The bolts slid into place quickly, immediately locking because of the hour.

“What was going on in Forsaith?” I squinted at the letter. “What is still going on in Forsaith?”

Tallu shook his head. “It is too far away for us to go visit ourselves.”

“Maybe we don’t have to. Lady Dalimu lives there.” I straightened some of the papers. “I’m sure if you were willing to extend her stay beyond the approved month, she would be willing to inform us of anything she had noticed.”

Tallu looked over at Lerolian. “Has anyone else mentioned anything about Forsaith? Or has General Bemishu spoken to the other generals about any projects?”

“No…” Lerolian frowned. “General Bemishu has not been staying in the palace. The other generals speak on it, saying he is overly familiar with his men if he is unwilling to leave them alone somewhere as safe as the Imperial Capital.”

“We should visit where he is staying.” I leaned back on the couch, stretching, every bone in my spine cracking. “The Sunrise Estate?”

“It’s a training ground. Technically, it belongs to our house, but we lease it back to the military in exchange for service.” Tallu looked away from the papers on the table. “I should have done this all myself as soon as I saw that they were keeping secrets from me.”

“You’ve only been emperor a few months,” I said.

“It was enough time to do this,” Tallu said. “You’ve been here only weeks, and we are already on the edge of taking down most of the generals.”

“But if you’d done it yourself, then you wouldn’t have ended up with such an attractive spouse.” I grinned, stretching again to show off my figure.

“And he’s so humble, too,” Lerolian said. “Just look at him. In a moment, he’s going to give you an itemized list of all his many attractions.”

“I would say that my arms are my best features. Followed closely by my face.” I held out one arm and then swept my hand toward my mouth.

Tallu looked down, a warm blush spreading over his cheeks. I decided to take mercy on him.

“I heard some gossip that Lady Dalimu has been speaking with one of my servants.” I looked between Lerolian and Tallu, somehow shy about revealing that the information had come from the ravens.

“Is there any reason she would be? Leaving aside the possibility that she was trying to enjoy carnal pleasure from someone younger than the Minister of Medicine?”

Tallu slowly shook his head. “Which servant? Nohe?”

“No, a boy named Piivu. The one Rute was torturing.” I frowned up at the ceiling, my eyes tracing over the delicate carvings along the edge of it. Dragons chased foxes and wolves, and one ensnared a deer.

Piivu had also been sleeping in Empress Koque’s quarters before he’d been given a room with the Turtle House servants. Had he been one of the empress’s servants?

I thumped my hand on the soft cushion, the velvet pillows making no sound.

Lady Dalimu was the empress’s sister. Perhaps they both missed her and were talking about that.

Or perhaps there was something darker there.

Were they both talking about the new emperor they believed had killed their beloved Koque?

I fisted my hand on the cushion. “Lady Dalimu was the empress’s sister. Was Piivu her servant?”

Turning my head on the cushion, I saw Tallu staring at Lerolian. The blood mage nodded.

“I’ll ask someone to keep an eye on him.

” He pulled his lips flat. “In all likelihood, he’s simply selling her information about you.

Many servants make more money selling secrets than the Imperium provides in their pay.

I can name seven or so of Tallu’s servants who sell information for as little as a pastry.

One even tells his barber everything about what Tallu’s feet smell like.

It’s highly likely that this boy is the same. ”

“Maybe.” I considered the birds at the window. They would have noticed the flash of coin being exchanged. “Either way, now we’re locked in here, and there’s little for us to do while we wait for more information.”

The words came out heavier than I intended, and Tallu looked at me with wide eyes. Lerolian coughed.

“I’ll go talk to the other monks.” Then he was gone, and the birds on the windowsill had closed their eyes, shoulders hunched as they slept.

“Should we go to sleep, too?” I looked over the bed, and Tallu’s eyes went dark. Standing, I pulled off my shirt and stepped out of my pants but didn’t reach for the sleep garments yet. Tallu swallowed, fully dressed. He reached for my arm again, turning it so he could see the lightning wound.

His fingers were fire on my skin, a burn I couldn’t help but enjoy.

“You say that you want to save me.” He ran his other hand up the underside of my arm, the pressure just enough that it didn’t tickle. “The things I have done make me not worth saving.”

I stopped him with my mouth, covering whatever horrors he wanted to share, letting my tongue sweep between his lips until he groaned, lifting me up so my legs wrapped around his hips.

He strode to the bed, laying me down on it and covering my body with his. “I would have killed him for touching you. You are mine. My assassin. My promise of death.” Before I could protest, he spoke again, the words making me shiver in anticipation. “My salvation.”

I stared at him, my breathing catching in my throat. I was no one’s salvation. I was an assassin, trained since birth. Everything about me was hard. Everything about me was ruinous.

Staring into Tallu’s eyes, I tried to argue, then realized the one inescapable fact: he believed the same thing about himself.

We were two men whose lives had been decided before we were born.

Two men who were chess pieces in a larger game that we had never agreed to play.

And somehow, we had found each other, and with that came hope.

“We can find our way out of this, together.”

Tallu started to shake his head, but I grabbed hold of his face, holding it still, forcing him to meet my eyes. “We can find our way out of this.”

Tallu stared at me, then lurched forward, smashing our mouths together. I heard murmuring from the windowsill, then the flutter of wings as the birds left. Tallu was above me, his body still clothed, his expression focused as he kissed down my neck, over my shoulder, down my arm.

He murmured against me, “perfect” and “beautiful.” I was neither of those things, my body littered with scars, the results of training as soon as I could hold a knife. When Tallu reached my cock, he swallowed it. His throat opened, and he gagged before pulling back and setting a relentless pace.

My hips jerked, and I fisted my hands in the bedsheets, moaning as I couldn’t help thrusting into his mouth, the slick sounds of our meeting making me even harder. I could feel everything tightening as he set a harsh pace. He was going to make me come. He was going to take me apart and enjoy it.

I threw my head back, then, unable to resist, tipped it back down and pushed myself up on an elbow to watch his dark hair as he bobbed above my cock.

His expression was focused, and his eyelashes were long on his cheeks, and then he moaned, the obscene sound causing my hips to jerk as I desperately tried to hold on.

But he was relentless, the slick feel of his mouth, the suck of it, pulling me toward a cliff. It was impossible to avoid, and when I came, it was the same sensation as diving into arctic waters, the anticipation making it better than I expected.

My whole body tensed before relaxing. I could barely move, though my flesh was shivering and jerking. With a long sigh, I fell back on the bed.