Page 54 of Shadow Throne King
We both lay down, and the bed shifted as something climbed up. Naî curled herself at our feet, a sliver of her eyes and her scales glimmering in the artificial dark of the bed curtains.
“Fool,” she said directly into my head.“Now you know better. Sleep.”
Her magic shivered over me like snow trailing down a mountain peak, and then sleep pulled me under.
I woketo movement and noise. The curtains were still drawn closed, and when I reached over, my hand encountered only rumpled sheets where Tallu had been sleeping.
I had been around Tallu long enough to recognize the pattern of servants speaking, their quiet subservience, the tone they used in front of His Imperial Majesty, Dragon Chosen Emperor Tallu. As they spoke, I could hear the rumble of Tallu’s voice, my body still waking up, not quite making sense of the words.
“There. Now you are awake. Do not speak.”Naî lifted her head, glaring at me.“You know what you did was foolish?”
I nodded, my head still throbbing slightly. I had been so desperate to have a moment alone with Tallu that I had continued on when my body had literally been screaming at me to stop.
“This is no game,”Naî said.“This will kill you if you are not careful. Pride alone is not the only reason that dragons kept this magic from humans. It is dangerous. Far more dangerous than speaking with animals.”
I nodded again. I understood, knowing that it had only been good sense that had kept me alive. If I had let it go on much longer, then I would have been beyond saving.
Seemingly satisfied, Naî stood, padding up over my legs and putting her two front paws on my shoulders. She blew a cold breath of frost over my face, the chill of it soothing my headache.
When my vision cleared and the ice had dripped away, I no longer had a headache. Naî pushed away, going back to the foot of the bed and curling around her own tail.
“Will His Highness be joining you?” one of the servants asked, his tone nervous.
Well, might as well make my presence known. I pushed open the curtain, sliding my legs over the edge of the bed. A servant appeared immediately with a pair of slippers.
“Yes, His Highness will be joining Emperor Tallu to visit the King of Krustau,” I said. I looked around the room, my eyes catching on Asahi. “I don’t suppose Nohe had enough foresight to pack more than one spare outfit?”
Asahi nodded his head. “I can take you to your rooms.”
It would be easier, but I hated putting any more distance between me and Tallu. Last night had been so intimate, the quiet for just the two of us. The cost of using the magic had been one thing, but seeing how Tallu had taken care of me afterward, fed me broth, watched me fall asleep…
Tallu was stripped down, completely naked, seemingly unaffected by the number of people in the room. His dragon tattoo flexed and moved when he turned to frown at Asahi, as though he also preemptively felt the loss of my presence.
“Bring his clothes here,” Tallu said. He didn’t look at me, didn’t ask what I wanted.
He wiped his expression clean almost as soon as it was there. Servants began with his undergarments, fixing the fall, straightening seams. Then they put on his pants, the long ties hanging loose until they had selected a shirt. It was strange to see him in the color green. Almost none of his outfits in the Mountainside Palace were that shade. Had he set it aside because his father had favored it so?
The servants that had been assigned to me arrived with clothes as Tallu’s were fastening his pants over his shirt, thelong strips of fabric narrowing his waist, giving him even more formality. The jacket matched the pants, green stitching along the collar so delicate that it looked like a series of vines crawling up his neck. I squinted; each of the leaves formed part of the words “House Atobe.”
It was much more decorative than his normal clothes, the style just slightly different in a way I wasn’t versed enough to name. Helping me into my own pants, one of the servants made the mistake of looking up, catching sight of Tallu.
He gasped, then looked down when I turned toward him. Biting his lip, he said quietly, “His Imperial Majesty resembles Emperor Millu a great deal.”
And there it was. Tallu was wearing his father’s clothes in the place his father had died. The tension on his face hid an unhappiness at the reality that as far as he could run, he was still in the shadow of his father.
One of the servants stepped behind Tallu, fanning out a long cloak. It had a high collar, stitched with gold, lined with delicate lacing that framed a pattern of gemstones down the front. The dark cloak he wore at the Mountainside Palace seemed austere in comparison.
In front of him, a servant held a golden crown on a black velvet pillow. Unlike the coronets and circlets that Tallu usually wore, this had high points, each topped with an oval ruby, the colors so pure that when the light caught them, it sent a sparkle of red throughout the room.
The servant gently placed it on Tallu’s head, and I had the sudden impression that he was bleeding, the red of the stones catching on his hands.
There was a mirror in the corner of the room, set up so that Tallu might observe himself being dressed, but he ignored it, staring out the window at the wide gardens beyond. A willowtree leaned over a pond, its leaves touching the still surface of the water.
“Your Highness?” one of the servants asked, his tone nervous. I looked over. He was a young man, his hair pulled back in the imperial style, but something in the shape of his ears spoke to a heritage in the Krustavian Mountains. He was still holding up two jackets for me to choose from. Both would match the pants, although one explicitly matched Tallu’s clothes, while the other was a neat contrast.
I chose the one that matched Tallu, letting them settle it over my shoulders, adjust the fall of it.
While Tallu’s jacket and pants were subtle green, the gold stitching accenting the fine color, my own was a pale white stitched with the same color green as Tallu’s outfit. Tallu’s servants were still fussing over him when my own stepped back, indicating they were done.