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Twenty-Three

K acha arrived at midnight, the door of the emperor’s quarters still open, the servants dismissed, and only Asahi and Sagam in attendance. I paced back and forth in Tallu’s quarters until he grabbed hold of my arm.

“I will not let anything happen to you. I will not let him touch you.” Tallu’s eyes were intense, a fierce promise that shivered through my insides. I could almost believe him when he said that.

“You need to be careful yourself. If he was the one who killed your father, I don’t think he’ll hesitate to kill you.” I let my eyes linger on Tallu’s face. He was beautiful. Impossibly so, each feature perfectly formed, his skin gleaming and luminous in the moonlight.

“Let him try,” Tallu said.

Impulsively, I grabbed his face between my hands and kissed him so fiercely that it left both of us breathless.

We were on the precipice. Once we took down General Kacha, there was no turning back.

If he fell, the other generals would gain power, which meant that our work was only going to get harder if we let them entrench. Kacha, then Bemishu, then the rest.

Once we did this, we could not possibly turn back any more than a falling man could reach once more for the cliff and find himself back at the edge of it.

There were footsteps in the hallway, and Tallu licked his lips once before turning, walking out, and closing the bedroom door behind him.

Silently, I walked to the door, pressing my ear against it, but all I could hear were muffled voices: Tallu’s recognizable and Kacha’s rising and falling as he spoke emphatically.

Then they were both quiet, and I slunk to the bed, sliding under the covers and evening my breathing. The door opened.

“I have drugged him. We cannot kill him.” Tallu’s voice was hard, and I recognized it from the first day we had met, from the first moment I had seen him. He had once threatened the entire Northern Kingdom in that voice. I tried not to flinch.

“Of course, Your Imperial Majesty. We wouldn’t dream of it.

But the technique that General Maki has brought us has given us much more flexibility.

We have no need of killing when we have the ability to simply remove his magic.

” Kacha sounded convincing, but I heard the thrill of pleasure underneath his words.

He had plans for me, had dreamed of unnumbered ways to hurt me.

“Tell me how it is accomplished, and I will perform the task myself.” Tallu’s voice was firm, but the Bemishu twins were not the only ones we had underestimated.

“Your Imperial Majesty, you are under his spell; you must see how you cannot be the one to remove his magic yourself.” Kacha’s voice went hard. “Restrain him.”

Footsteps pounded down the hallway, and I heard blades crashing together, shouts and a gurgled reply. I opened my eyes and saw Asahi and Sagam both in the doorway, fighting off imperial soldiers.

“This is treason,” Tallu yelled at Kacha, stepping between the general and me.

Kacha shook his head, the smirk on his face blooming. “Your Imperial Majesty, you are mistaken. This man has clouded your mind with his foreign magic. You will soon realize that I am only here for your protection.”

“Touch him and we will see who survives the encounter.” Tallu’s voice was steel, and I shivered. This was the man I had planned to kill?

Reaching under the blankets, I wrapped my hand around the blade hidden there, grabbing it, but the length of it caught, and I took a second too long to draw it.

“You forget, Emperor Tallu, I have no electro magic myself. It is not I who needs to touch him.” Hands grabbed me from the other side of the bed, and I lost my grip on the wolf’s claw under the sheets. I drew back my fist, slamming it into soft flesh.

Blinking, I got my first good look at my opponent as he pulled me off the bed, landing on top of me. His legs on either side of my chest, both hands framing my face.

Commander Fimo grinned down at me, and my breath caught from his weight and from the knowledge of what was going to happen.

Electricity sparked through my brain. There was pain, and then there was nothing, my consciousness falling away as though I had dropped into a snowdrift so deep I could not see the surface.

In the darkness, a heartbeat pulsed loudly.

The world around me was a living thing that I could feel in my bones.

Slowly, I began to see shapes in the dark, standing in an enormous spiral.

Men and elves and goblins and dwarves stood in a long line, their eyes unseeing, their mouths open in a song my ears couldn’t hear.

I walked along the line, and the people became animals—horses and oxen, rabbits and foxes, all the creatures from the animalia.

Until I reached the center of the spiral and found a sleeping dragon.

Unlike the ice dragon cocooned in Tallu’s secret room, the dragon in the center of the spiral was not made from ice fractals.

When her eyes opened, I could see the endless night sky.

The crest on her head was made of flame, and her feet grew roots into the ground.

Her tail fluttered, creating a tsunami that would destroy any city it crashed into.

And when she opened her mouth, I felt a wild yearning to know what she was about to say.

“Airón of the Silvereyes Clan. I am sorry for the task you must now commence.” I reached forward, desperate to touch the fur on her chest, hungering to know whether she was real.

She disappeared under my hand, and around her, the spiral began to wither. First, the animals faded, as though they were no more than ink on a page exposed too long to the sun. Then they began to disappear, turning to dust and floating away on an invisible breeze.

Screaming, I clawed at my own head, falling to my knees as something burned through my skull.

Lightning crossed in front of my eyes, so bright that I was afraid it would leave an impression on my vision for the rest of my life, that the bright streak of it was going to stay with me until I closed my eyes in death.

No .

I had trained too long and under much worse conditions. I would not go down like this.

I grabbed the blade I had secreted on my leg, my fist closing around the hilt. Then I swung it, smashing the pommel into my attacker’s throat.

Commander Fimo fell off me, and I blinked back into Tallu’s bedroom.

Without my vision, I hadn’t wanted to use the blade.

If I aimed wrong and it went straight into bone, then I might not have been able to draw it free.

But now that I could see Fimo, though my vision was still clouded by echoes of his lightning, I drew it back in and sliced it forward, directly between his rib cage, shoving it so deep that my hand came in contact with the imperial silk of his shirt.

He choked, coughing blood onto my face, but I didn’t let up, lunging forward so that I was on my knees in front of him, drawing my blade free and bringing it across his throat.

Blood pooled under his head, and I rolled off him, springing to my feet only to find Tallu screaming, General Kacha using his blade to block Tallu’s lightning.

I had expected General Kacha to be as lazy as his commanders, to be used to using others to guarantee his victory. I had expected that his battlefield skills had calcified and fractured under his age and indolence.

He proved me wrong. His eyes hard, he blocked Tallu’s lightning easily, coming close enough that his blade sliced open Tallu’s sleeve as Kacha positioned it, ready for the kill.

“No!” I screamed the word, throwing my dagger.

But it was not properly weighted to be thrown, so it hit him hilt-first. He glanced at me, and then Tallu was on him, lifting him off the ground in one hand, a ball of lightning crackling in the other.

He pressed the lightning against Kacha’s chest, and the man twitched, screaming in agony.

The noxious scent of burning flesh carried to me. Blood dripped from Kacha’s ears.

I circled around the bed. Part of me wanted to let Tallu finish his task. But if he did that, we would have no evidence.

I raised my hand, putting it on Tallu’s shoulder. He looked at me, the smell of lightning and blood thick in the air; it danced behind his eyes, and I swore I was looking at a god of storms.

His lips firmed, and he released Kacha, the last of Tallu’s lightning arcing to a nearby tapestry that caught fire.

On the ground, smoke rose from Kacha’s body, and he twitched in time to his uneven breathing. He did not attempt to speak; his eyes stared open blankly.

I wobbled unevenly, sitting on the bed.

The clash of swords in the hallway grew louder, shouts preceding a flood of men into the room.

Tensing, I picked up my small dagger where it had fallen on the floor, positioning myself in front of Tallu just as he tried to step in front of me, but none of the men were wearing Kacha’s military colors.

They all wore the orange yellow of palace guards.

Sagam and Asahi pushed their way through, bleeding. Sagam’s mask sat askew, nearly pulled off his face.

Beside me, Tallu straightened. “Take this man to prison. General Kacha has committed treason against the imperial throne.”

Four guards rushed forward, grabbing Kacha’s lax body by the limbs and dragging it out of the room. Tallu looked at Asahi and Sagam.

“One of you go with the general. He is not to see anyone until I speak with him again. No doctors, no members of court. Not even General Saxu may speak with him.” Tallu’s words were measured and imperial, but standing next to him, I could feel the tension in his body as he struggled to keep himself from trembling.

“I’ll go,” Sagam said, surely to spare his beloved the unwelcome sight of his own father in such a state.

“I’ll stay with Your Imperial Majesty,” Asahi said, crossing the room and positioning himself on Tallu’s other side.