Page 38 of Shadow Throne King

It has allowedus to continue our work on the reanimation experiments. There are many bodies here at the border, and mercenaries willing to provide fresh ones upon request.

We have discovered that, in this case, the less blunt the application of electricity, the more delicate we can be with our outcomes.

After that wasa list of his findings, and I was glad I had not eaten the noon meal yet because I found my stomach twisting.

There was a single bloodied handprint in the center of the desk, the only evidence of what might have happened to General Maki.

I stared down at it. “His left hand. That was the one he retained.”

“We should take his papers,” Tallu said, but his voice was unenthusiastic.

I looked around at the mass of them, then down at his desk. I picked up a small brown leather journal, flipping through it. It looked like a personal diary.

“We should burn it,” I corrected. “If Maki was as close to reanimation as he thought he was, and these results are accurate, we cannot let the knowledge continue to exist. Hopefully, this means Maki met his end. I’m happy to worry about whoever killed him. But if I also have to balance the idea that some other electro mage will stumble upon information here and figure out what Maki had discovered… Well, let’s just say I would prefer to worry about a creature that could tear the wall off a building than an army of electro magic necromancers.”

Tallu managed a small smile, and I matched him. He turned to Coyome. “Burn everything.”

Then he walked out, his cloak swirling behind him. I had to take a few jogging steps to catch up with him. By the time wereached the gate, curls of smoke were already rising from the buildings in the back.

The Kennelmaster observed, his eyes trailing up. He nodded. “Good idea.”

Tallu led the way back to the wagons, where Topi stood beside the one we’d been riding in. Her face was pale, grief etched in it as we watched the entire outpost go up in flames. When it became apparent that there would be nothing left, the drivers pulled the horses into motion, heading for the Lakeshore Palace.

I turned to the Kennelmaster. “There was no evidence where they had gone? The people who attacked Maki?”

He shook his head. “The Dogs tracked a trail of blood, but it only led further up the road we now travel. Then it disappeared. If they reached a crossroads, they could have gone in any direction.”

“Like, say, to Mountain Thrown City?” I asked. “Perhaps back to their master?”

The Kennelmaster nodded his chin in agreement. “Perhaps.”

“There was no body,” Topi said suddenly, the hysteria in her voice interrupting the calm that had overtaken us.

One of the Dogs grabbed his weapon, and across from him, Coyome did the same, but his eyes were on his fellow, not on the hysterical Topi. At a sharp look from the Kennelmaster, both men released their blades. The wagon went over a sharp bump, jostling all of us.

“Shecannotbe dead. There was no body,” Topi repeated, her voice even, her throat swallowing before she spoke again. “The king of Krustau would want anyone important, anyone who would give him leverage over the Imperium. If he has the young prince, he would also want General Maki and my sister—daughter of General Bemishu.”

I felt an ache of sympathy for her, a thorn in my heart as I missed Eonaî. “The Shadow King is smart. He would want the advantage of a general’s daughter.”

It wasn’t quite an agreement with her, but it was enough for her to hold on to, a single scrap of driftwood after a shipwreck. She looked at me with wide eyes and nodded rapidly.

We were silent the rest of the way to the Lakeshore Palace, each lost in our own thoughts. I closed my eyes, trying to claim some sleep, only to wake when I heard a cranky screech from atop the wagon.

“You would think they would know how to better maintain their travel arrangements! This is barbarism! Barbarism!”

My eyes snapped open, going up to where the shadow of a bird perched on top of the wagon. I held my breath.

But the voice faded to nothing, Terror’s next outburst nothing more than croaks and screeches. Dawn answered him in kind, and I felt myself slump back, the anger and hurt nearly swallowing me up.

I stared off into the middle distance, and then a small hand clutched mine, holding tight. When I glanced down, Naî was staring at me, frowning. She squeezed my hand, then pressed something into it. Ice.

I struggled not to pull away, not to reveal what she had done. She wrapped both hands around my palm, forcing me to hold it, forcing me to feel the burn of it on my skin.

Only it didn’t burn. I could feel it, the way you might hold your hand toward a blazing fire and feel the warmth without burning. Slowly, under my hand, the ice began to shift, my fingers reshaping it. It became a rabbit with long ears and a small, puffy tail: the only catch I could reliably make.

Naî’s hands were still tight around mine, and the ice changed again, turning into a lithe, sinuous sea serpent, the kind I knew growing up and that I’d seen imprisoned in the Imperium. Itmoved in my palm, and I blinked, staring blankly across the cart. She released my hand, and I kept it closed tightly around the squirming ice serpent, counting the seconds until it went still.

Naî’s shoulder bumped against mine, and I realized her implicit command. She wanted me to shape the ice by will, not whatever random thoughts skittered across my mind.