Page 45 of Shadow Throne King

“Well, we are only answering his most gracious invitation. Who could refuse such a diplomatic corpse?” But I couldn’t even make a joke of it, remembering again the last body we had received from Krustau, the strange creatures that had frightened even Naî.

“I do not think even in Krustau they would call his responsespolitic.” Tallu put another bite in his mouth, and I felt something else inside me loosen. He was eating. Despite needing a taster in his own palace, the lines around his eyes had softened.

Maybe he had been telling the truth: the food and the strain of our journey had been what made him ill.

“Politic, no,” I agreed. “But they certainly got his message across. Do you think?—”

“Your Imperial Majesty,” Coyome choked on the words, pink froth bubbling at his lips. “You must not eat another bite.”

Then, he collapsed forward, his body twitching, his mask falling loose from his face.

Eleven

The Dogs moved before Coyome’s body hit the floor. They surrounded Tallu, swords drawn, eyes everywhere.

I could no longer see Tallu through the crowd of them, although I could hear the Kennelmaster’s voice.

“No one leaves! Find every cook in the palace, every servant who touched a dish. Bring them here.” The Kennelmaster’s voice lowered, his deference just as much a show as Tallu’s chilly lack of response. “Your Imperial Majesty, let us take you to safety.”

The Dogs whisked Tallu from the room. Topi Bemishu had stumbled out of her chair, falling to her knees. Her wide eyes stared, unseeing, at Coyome.

Her lustrous skin had faded to gray, and she gasped, holding a hand to her mouth in horror. I thought she might be trying to say his name, but all that came out was a helpless whine, a desperate, pained, “No.”

I skimmed the room, and most of the servants looked just as shocked as Topi. Wide-eyed, all of them were realizing that they had survived the murder of the last emperor, and they were not about to survive the attempted assassination of the second.

The room seemed swarming with Dogs, even though I knew there could only be ten of them in the whole palace, and with four of them guarding Tallu, that left only six.

Coyome’s body twitched, more of the pink froth leaking from his nearly white lips. I took three steps and then crouched next to him. He had collapsed forward, and I pressed a hand to his back to see if he drew breath.

Through his thick armor, I couldn’t feel anything, so I carefully turned his body, leaving it on its side for a moment. His head lolled to the floor, more spit and foam leaking from his mouth, coating his mask.

Gently, I removed the mask that made him a Dog, setting it to the side. He was handsome, but I could already see his flesh beginning to swell, his cheeks and lips puffing up.

The poison was fast acting. He had only eaten the food a few minutes before, and it was so lethal that even a few bites would kill a man. It was flavorless. Coyome was too thorough of a taster to not have noticed a strange flavoring.

His body shook again, and I winced away from the blood that spilled out from between his lips. His eyes opened just enough that I could see his pupils so wide they took over the brown of his eyes.

Yes, he was still alive, and the only reason he wasn’t screaming in agony was because he was a Dog and not a man. It would be merciful for me to take out my dagger and pull it across his throat.

But I wasn’t merciful, and this poison hadn’t been intended for a Dog.

I brought my face as close to his as I dared. “Do you have any idea what it was?”

If we at least knew the food, if we at least had some idea where the poison had been introduced, that would give us a better idea of who might have done it.

Coyome began to tremble, unable to hold himself on his side, and he collapsed onto his back. I couldn’t tell if the shaking was because he was trying to say he didn’t know, or the poison had reached a part of him that no longer let him control his own movements.

He raised his hand and then lowered it, his finger trembling as he drew it across the floor. It looked as though he was trying to write a letter, but I couldn’t read it and puzzled through the marks he was trying to make.

Was he trying to write the word for “fish”? Or was that one of the vegetables I didn’t know the name of?

His hand stilled, and I looked at his face. His eyes were wide open now, glassy and unseeing.

“No!” Topi screamed and lurched forward, her dress trailing through the blood and vomit. She pounded on his shoulder. “You promised me! You promised me you would save my sister!”

I grabbed hold of Topi’s wrists, both of them fitting easily in my hands, and I dragged her off him.

“Topi,” I barked. “Stop.”