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Twenty-Four

T he dragon blew out another breath, and frost covered Terror’s feathers. I stared. The ice was so delicate that it appeared as though each feather had been carved by some master artisan.

Terror’s chest rose and fell, his head moving as he shook himself. The dragon blew out another breath, the cold painful on my fingers, but I couldn’t let go, couldn’t risk that somehow I was necessary, I was needed to keep this magic going.

Terror squawked, shifting his body until he was standing on my hands, his claws digging painfully into my chilled fingers. He squawked again, walking awkwardly until he stood on my forearm, the silk of my sleeves only slight protection from his claws.

The dragon came close, nuzzling the bird, and Terror rubbed his head against the dragon’s massive snout. When the dragon pulled back, I could see a streak of blood on his nose that immediately froze, flaking away when the dragon snuffled.

Carefully, I checked Terror, my fingers cold and trembling. I flexed them, trying to regain dexterity but only finding pain as sensation slowly came back.

The only evidence of Terror’s wound I could find was the white streak of frost on his feathers. As I squeezed one between my fingers, trying to rub away the ice, I realized it wasn’t ice anymore; the feathers themselves had turned white.

It showed where the wound had once been—a long, straight line on Terror’s back and front where he had been stabbed and pinned by a dagger. Now, I could not even find a hint of a scar.

Annoyed, Terror turned his head and pecked at my hand.

“I am so sorry. This is all my fault. I should have never involved you.” I spoke rapidly, my words piling on top of each other. Terror turned his head, cocking it. He squawked again. “I know. I know that you are smart. But I should have warned you.”

Terror shook his head, as though dislodging an errant leaf, and pecked at my wrist. He squawked again.

Frowning, I leaned forward. Was he purposefully ignoring me? Was the bird not speaking to me like my sister Eona? would when I angered her?

The bird screeched again, two voices answering him in the windowsill. I looked over. Ratcatcher and Dawn both sat there, swooping into the room as soon as they saw him, circling and then landing on the couch.

The birds spoke to each other, their clicks and trills rapid-fire. Finally, Terror turned to me, pecking my wrist hard. His sharp beak pinched my skin, and a drop of blood welled up. He had been saying something to me, and I had not understood.

I froze, as though the dragon had frozen my body, as though my pink fingers had turned black with frostbite, the rest of my flesh dying under my frozen skin.

I struggled to breathe even as I saw Tallu cross the room, uncovering dishes some of the servants had left behind and offering choice bowls of nuts and fruits to the birds. They leapt on them, Terror leaving my arm and landing next to his fellows.

I could not understand a word they were saying.

I raised my hand to my head, finding a trail of dried blood coming from my ear that I hadn’t noticed in the chaos.

“Airón?” Tallu was frowning at me. “Are you all right?”

“Did you hear them saying they wanted food?” I demanded. Perhaps my powers had been passed on to him as his ability to see the dead blood mages had passed to me.

“No.” Tallu shook his head, frowning. “I just assumed, as that is what they always want.”

“I cannot understand them.” I swallowed. “I cannot hear them. I cannot animal speak.”

Tallu shoved aside the table, jostling the birds who squawked at us unhappily. He landed on his knees in front of me, his hands cradling my face. “What?”

“Commander Fimo must have achieved his end results, even if I interrupted him in the middle of it with a knife to the chest.” I managed a macabre smile, looking over at the spot where I had killed him. I hadn’t wanted to believe it was possible. I hadn’t wanted to even think it could happen.

“What?” Tallu gasped. “No. You were only out of my sight for a second. Five seconds and then you had him. You had killed him. He didn’t have enough time to even use his electro magic.”

I blinked, realizing that was why Tallu had not demanded I see a doctor. Why Tallu had not forced me into Jafopo’s ministrations and his questionable skull-cutting.

“It was enough time, I suppose. He was fast, which is something I hope only his victims had to say and not his lovers.” I managed something that felt like a smile, even as I could see from Tallu’s expression it didn’t come close.

“We will see the doctor.” Tallu pushed to his feet, his warm hands on my legs the only thing holding me in the moment, the only thing keeping me from screaming until I had no voice left.

“And tell him what?” I demanded. “That your consort has lost his ability to practice illegal magic? Does he have a pill or a salve that can help me with that?”

“You are not suggesting we leave you like this?” Tallu was looking down at me now, and when I stared up at him, I saw the emperor again, as he had loomed above three military generals on their stomachs.

Even they—men who had been killing before Tallu had left the nursery—had bowed to this man, this man with his secret softness that he only could show to me. This man who wanted to end the endless war that had defined his people.

“And tell him that someone assaulted you with electro magic. He must know ways of fixing that.” Tallu’s voice was hard.

“The only cure for me is Miksha.” I rubbed my temples, unsure if the headache was from electro magic burning animal speak out of me or all of the evening’s excitement finally catching up with me.

I looked out the window. Sunrise was finally cresting the horizon. Tallu would have to see his court today and announce the charges against General Kacha, giving Kacha’s loyalists the opportunity to either scurry to new patrons or tie their own fate to the general’s.

“Then we head to the forest. We demand she heal you. We force them to see reason.” Tallu’s voice was hard, and he strode to the door, hand ready to open it.

I stood, reaching out and grabbing hold of his wrist. My life was worth exactly one fallen empire. Technically, my life had always been worth one dead emperor, but the goal was the same.

“Tallu, see reason. Until Miksha agrees, we cannot risk her life for mine. It is not fair. It is the opposite of what you have been working for.” I let my fingers linger on his wrist, my thumb finding its way under the cuff of his shirt and drawing a small circle against his skin.

“I do not care. They hurt you. They took something away from you. Because of me.” Tallu twisted his hand until our fingers were laced together, and then he brought my hand to his lips, kissing my fingertips, attentively moving up to press his lips to each individual knuckle.

“ You did not hurt me,” I said firmly, hearing what he meant underneath his words.

“It was not you who did this. I did this. I was careless. When I saw Kacha there, all I could think was that he was going to hurt you. I didn’t even pay attention to anything else in the room.

We will wait. If Miksha agrees to heal Velethuil, then we will ask her to heal me.

And if she does not, we will send Velethuil and Lady Dalimu north anyway and hope they make it to the border safely.

My mother has spies in the Blood Mountains; hopefully, one of them will take the pair to the Silver City.

” The warm orange of the dawn painted Tallu’s skin, the gleam of it shining as though he had been gilded just for me.

The rest of the court might see him as dangerous, as the man who had killed the previous emperor, as the man who had taken down his own heir and two military generals. They saw him as cold, unreadable, unpredictable.

It served our purpose well for them not to understand Tallu, but I couldn’t help wonder why they didn’t. He was so obvious to me. Everything about him now was precious.

I had lost my magic in service of his goal, and he was willing to throw away everything he had worked for, years of labor, at the chance that I might be healed.

I drew him to the bed, letting the curtains fall closed. Lying next to him, I stroked my fingers from his temple to his chin. “Sleep. For a short while.”

“I cannot. There is too much to do.” He closed his eyes, leaning against my hand.

“Sleep. I will wake you before the door opens.”

Tallu’s eyes opened, moving over my face before he nodded, closing his eyes.

Eventually, his breathing evened out, and based on the position of the sun, I knew we didn’t have much time. I slipped out of bed, approaching the ravens.

“I’m sorry. I don’t understand you. You will have to take care of yourselves for some time.”

Terror cocked his head at me, the white feathers marking him. I wondered if his personality had changed at all with his appearance. He pecked once at the empty bowl in front of him, and I walked over to the table, picking up another and presenting it to the three birds.

Then I turned to the dragon. Crouching, I sat cross-legged across from it. The dragon blinked at me sleepily, its eyes half-lidded.

“You healed Terror,” I said.

The dragon blew out a breath, the chilly air making goose bumps rise on my arm.

“I wish I could ask your name,” I said. “But I can’t. They used electro magic to take away my animal speak.”

And even before that, the dragon hadn’t tried to speak to me. It had to be intelligent enough to have speech, but was it because it was so young that it couldn’t speak? Or was there an even more terrible reason? Was it because it was the last of its kind, and there was no one to teach it words?

I tapped my temple where Fimo had shot pure electricity into my skull. “Can you heal me?”

The dragon blew out another breath, gently lifting its torso and putting its front paws on my shoulders. Its face was so close to mine that I could make out the individual hairs of its fur, the ice fractals of its skin beneath the sparse pelt.