Page 18 of Shadow Throne King
“If she recognizes you, if she says anything, then we no longer have the advantage of secrecy. If she says that you are the emperor’s consort, the people in this town will know that you are here.” The Kennelmaster’s words were heavy. I expected him to try to stop me, but instead, he was just explicitly laying out our options.
“And if the Northern consort of our beloved emperor is here, it wouldn’t be hard for them to assume the hooded man with me is His Imperial Majesty himself.” I twisted my lips, turning to Tallu, but he only shook his head.
“What do you hope to accomplish?” Tallu asked quietly. “Do you expect to save her?”
“I want to know what she’s doing here. At the palace, I could never tell if she and her sister were loyal to their father or General Kacha, or if they were loyal to neither. We are looking for information about General Kacha and General Bemishu.” I turned to the Kennelmaster, trying to keep my expressionneutral. “Unless, in the past day, your spies have discovered everything we didn’t know about the rebel generals yesterday?”
The Kennelmaster didn’t frown like I expected. Instead, he smirked slowly, eyes narrowed and lips tilted. We were two warriors in the opening moves of a bout, testing each other’s boundaries, seeing each other’s weaknesses.
“Even if I can’t save her from death, I want to speak with her.” I turned to the door. “I’m perfectly capable of walking myself if no one will take me.”
Asahi and Sagam exchanged a look, before Asahi nodded his head. He was still too pale, his lips nearly white, but the poison bite at his neck had faded to a pale red mark.
“This way.” With a glance at me, he touched the neck of his own jacket, and I pulled my hood up, shadowing my face.
I followed the two of them back into the main room, which had emptied out. The back door of the inn had been left open, the crowd’s jeers and shouts rising into a near roar.
Out behind the inn was a patch of lonely trees, the rest of what had once been a forest cleared for the town and the mining facilities. A rope had been strung over one of the branches, and Topi hung by her wrists from it. Her toes scraped the ground, and she was just barely able to keep herself steady.
The jeers of the crowd became clearer, calls tokill her already!andyou dare betray the promise!
A large man stood next to her, holding half of an iron pipe. He poked at her, sending her off-balance, and she grunted in pain as it put strain on her shoulders before she could get her toes under her again.
Bloodied and bruised, she no longer looked like the pretty, vacant girl she had pretended to be in the Imperial Palace. There was no façade anymore, and her sharp eyes could have sliced through the man’s neck, leaving nothing but a stump behind.
In the tree above her, I saw three ravens. Terror, recognizable because of the white patch of feathers, gave an amused croaking noise. He would get to eat his human liver today, or someone would pay the price.
“What’s going on here?” I asked a nearby man. I recognized him as the innkeeper, his beard long and his expression fixed grimly on Topi.
“This one came in a couple of days ago. Last night, she visited the overseer when he came to drink. He didn’t like the way she was talking. She spoke of breaking the promise.” The innkeeper shook his head, then glanced at us suspiciously. “Why are you interested?”
“We are House Vakuri.” I paused, as though he should recognize the name, and his eyes showed his ignorance and his reluctance to reveal it. “We do business directly with His Imperial Majesty, the first Dragon Chosen Emperor. And we know how much Emperor Tallu values information about the traitor generals who threaten the promise and the safety of the Imperium. His Imperial Majesty would pay greatly for any information she has.”
“Well, hopefully one of you is good at speaking with ghosts, because there won’t be much left of her when they’re done.” Even as the innkeeper issued his warning that the crowd could likely not be stopped, someone picked up a rock, jagged and broken. He pitched it hard, and it struck her forehead, snapping her head back, sending her spinning again.
When she was still, blood covered one side of her face. More in the crowd picked up things to throw, and this wasn’t going to be an easy death.
Then again, none of these people were trying for an assassination. They were trying for torture.
“Long live His Imperial Majesty!” I shouted.
Asahi reached out for me, his hand grabbing my elbow, but he was too late. I had already drawn the attention of the crowd. They turned, and I could feel the threat from Asahi and Sagam immediately. Neither drew their weapon, yet both would kill without mercy if any one of these people tried using their makeshift bludgeons on me.
“Who are you, stranger?” The man up in front—the overseer—asked.
“Merchants, passing through. We are taking supplies from the capital to sell. We are House Vakuri.” I paused again, giving them the impression that they should know who we were. When none of them responded, I gestured to the new stitching on the side of my jacket. Nohe’s handiwork was impeccable, and she had used expensive thread and fine stitching on a jacket that was clearly not new—a few loose threads here, a bit of wearing at the elbows and shoulders—exactly what a merchant with a new Imperial commission would wear.
The overseer frowned, but the Kennelmaster had said the cover was good. House Vakuri was the name used by several of his Dogs when they traveled the Imperium, looking for information and secrets.
“How much for her? Our sources in the capital say the emperor will pay for any who can give him good information about the traitors. And General Kacha’s bed warmer would be a prize I can’t pass up.” I grinned, looking at the innkeeper, as though he and I were in on the joke together. “My house patriarch would disown me if I missed the opportunity.”
“General Kacha’s bed warmer?” The overseer frowned, his eyes taking on a new light when he looked at Topi.
“Yes. I’ve been to enough parties at the capital that I recognize her. A courtesan favored by General Kacha. Lady Topi, if I’m not mistaken, even though it’s hard to recognize her without her paints and powders.” As I spoke, I made my waythrough the crowd, letting my words become truth, letting them believe every lie because of my confidence.
When I got to her, I grabbed hold of her chin, squeezing it between my thumb and forefinger. Her blood felt sticky and cold already.
Her eyes were half-lidded, but I could see a spark of recognition a second before she pinched her lips shut. Good. She understood that her only chance was to work with me.