Page 14 of Shadow Throne King
“Your Imperial Majesty.” The steward of his quarters began, then paled and swallowed heavily when Tallu’s full attention swung to him. “I would not… I would not seek to change your decision, but in order to properly prepare for your journey and to ready the servants that will accompany you, we must have more time. On this short notice, we will not be able to?—”
“You misunderstand.” The steward flinched when Tallu interrupted him, clearly expecting those to be his last words. But Tallu continued, silkily. “JustPrince Airón and I will be going. We will be traveling, in secret, to the Lakeshore Palace. We will be two wandering merchants. We need nothing other than the supplies to maintain the ruse.”
“Your Imperial Majesty, it is not safe,” General Saxu said. “Let me at least send men with you. A small contingent led by Commander Rede. They can make sure you reach the Lakeshore Palace unharmed.”
“Are you suggesting I am not safe within my own empire? Or that I cannotkeepmyself safe in my own empire?” Tallu’s voice was slow and amused. “It has been some time, General Saxu, but you know my experience in war.”
“My men, then,” the Kennelmaster said. “If you won’t take soldiers. My men can show you how to blend in with your citizens. They can act as protection and guide.”
“As Boro did?” Tallu asked, mildly.
The Kennelmaster didn’t flinch, and I was impressed even as I seethed. “They can keep you safe, as they have promised to do. They have promised with their lives, Your Imperial Majesty.”
“They have,” Tallu agreed. “We will take a few Dogs with us. You will lead them.”
For a moment, the Kennelmaster looked as though he were going to argue, but in the end, he bowed, his fingers forming a triangle.
“I know that the other generals would see taking the capital as a way to win the war. Taking it and keeping it would give them an advantage that the others would have to acknowledge. We must keep our army here. We must not lose the palace or the capital. General Saxu, I rely on you to lead the army here in my absence,” Tallu said to the high general. Saxu bowed, fingers triangling over his forehead. Tallu turned to the stewards. “I leave you in charge of hiding our absence. We may be several weeks, and the longer we can maintain the illusion that Prince Airón and I are still in the palace, the safer everyone who resides in it will be. It is only with you that I trust this information. If it should leak, we all know who was in this room.”
Both the stewards bowed, as if Tallu’s words were an endorsement of their discretion rather than a threat of violent end.
Saxu finally straightened, and from the way his eyes searched my face, his jaw still clenched, I had the feeling the only reason he wasn’t speaking was that he had perhaps bitten his own tongue half off trying not to tell the emperor the wrongness of his decision.
“You will require more than four Dogs,” the Kennelmaster observed complacently; he was very sure of himself now that his Dogs had been chosen over Saxu’s soldiers. “Your father always traveled with twelve, sometimes sixteen.”
“We are not traveling in the imperial carriage. We will take as few as we can. Make sure Asahi and Sagam are among them. They have shown their loyalty and bravery.” Tallu fixed his gaze on the Kennelmaster and made the other man look away first.
The Dogs in the room shifted slightly in reaction to the confrontation between the man they’d sworn an oath to and the man who trained them. Among them, who was loyal to the Kennelmaster and who to Tallu?
“The King of the Shadow Throne seeks the imperial throne.” Tallu drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair, the light catching on his golden rings, casting brilliant sparks of reflected light onto the assembled men. “He will not have it.”
“Your Imperial Majesty,” General Saxu said carefully. “I fear you are walking into a trap of the Shadow King’s design.”
Saxu choked off everything else he wanted to say:he has drawn you to Krustau with the promise of a boy who might not even be House Atobe, a boy who might not even be alive. He has drawn you to your doom.
“Leave us,” Tallu said. He glanced sharply between the stewards and the Kennelmaster. “Have everything prepared. We leave in the morning. If there is even awhisperof my plans…”
The Kennelmaster nodded, a sharp glint of threat in his eyes. “I will make sure there is not, Your Imperial Majesty.”
He hustled the men out, and I glanced at the blood mage. The man sneered at me but followed behind. The Kennelmaster knew what power he was about to wield, with the emperor out of the palace and under the Kennelmaster’s protection alone.
They closed the door behind them, and the room grew painfully quiet. On my shoulder, the dragon woke, her small snout nuzzling behind my ear before she roused enough to fix her eyes on Saxu.
“Are you refusing your emperor?” Tallu’s question was mild, but Saxu straightened. His hand dropped to the hilt of hisblade, worn openly since the other generals’ betrayal. His fingers skimmed it before he pulled both hands behind his back, his eyes on Tallu. “You are the last general loyal to me. I trusted that meant you were better than any other. That you, without my support, could defeat any of the others who tried to win against you. Was I mistaken?”
Saxu stiffened, his jaw going so tight that he could have been chewing through the Krustau Mountains we were going to visit. Finally, he nodded jerkily. “You were not.”
Tallu observed him, his russet eyes running over Saxu. “I know you, Saxu. You say that you would like peace as much as war, but I can see the plans in your head. If Kacha were to attack today, you have five different stratagems for how to defeat him. You are a gamemaster whose opponents have finally joined him on the board. Why are you not willing to take them on?”
“You are my emperor, and I will do as you wish.” Saxu rolled his shoulders once, the crack of his joints loud, one shoulder still weak after Palinev’s assassination attempt. “You have also read me well. There is a part of me that wishes to see how I fare against Kacha and Bemishu, whose youth leads them to overconfidence.”
“Their disdain bothers you,” I said. If Saxu was to hold the line, we needed more than a mild unhappiness with the other men. “They see you as incompetent.”
Saxu smiled slightly, as though he could see my attempts at provocation, which were childish compared to the way the imperial court manipulated. “Perhaps. Kacha has long desired my position as high general, and it is not one I think him worthy of. Your Imperial Majesty, I may be hungry for a game of strategy with Bemishu and Kacha, but we cannot play without our emperor. You are not wrong. Krustau having Prince Hallu endangers your rule. But if you are gone, what will become of the Imperium then?”
The question was rhetorical, but there was a fierce steel under it. Tallu answered firmly. “I trust you to lead in my absence. Know that I will return. You might be in charge of the board, but I understand my position on it.”
Saxu bowed, forming a triangle with his fingers. “I trust in your judgment, Emperor Tallu. Must you leave so soon? If we have time, we might be able to find someone to double for you.”