Page 60 of Shadow Throne King

“I love my husband,” I said. And it should have been a lie, it should have been false, but it was the truest thing I could ever utter, so I repeated it for Tallu. “I love my husband. Enough that I have even followed him here to a man who threatens my life. What do your laws of hospitality say about that?”

My words weren’t careful, but I could already feel welts rising on my skin, Tallu’s electrified anger leaching into my body.

“They would say I have not harmed you, unless words are enough to wound your soft northern skin?” Inor finally lifted his head. “Are they?”

“My skin is much thicker than your pettiness. We have come in response to your messages. You asked to speak to the Emperor of the Southern Imperium.” I squeezed Tallu’s hand and felt no burn of electricity, so I gently released him, stepping back just slightly.

Tallu stared at me, as though I were the king on the throne. I made a small bow, the way one might to an equal, tilting my head toward the Shadow King. Tallu’s eyes narrowed, and he raised his chin.

I clasped both hands behind my back, fisting the injured one.

“I received your messages. And here is mine in return: you may not have the imperial throne. I willnotyield it, and I see no proof that my brother still lives.” Tallu’s lips pulled back in a sneer.

“He sees no proof his brother lives.” Inor chuckled, the sound echoing impossibly loud in the chamber. Then his head twitched, and he looked to the side, saying again, intensely, as though some invisible person at his elbow hadn’t heard him. “He seesno proofthat Prince Hallu is alive. Noproof.”

I frowned, not sure if this was a typical way for Krustavians to behave or if King Inor was uncertain about what the words meant in Imperial. As though to answer, I heard Lerolian’s voice. If he were living, I would have said he was out of breath.

“You know, I never thought I would regret not speaking Krustavian. The dwarves here—they laugh and joke, and I cannot tell if the brittleness I see is in their nature or if there is something wrong and they are too scared to voice it.” Lerolian stepped closer to the Shadow King, and Inor didn’t even glance at him.

“Will you provide me proof that my brother lives?” Tallu asked.

Lerolian stepped back, away from the king, and I risked a glance at him, trying to make it seem as though I was looking at Tallu. Lerolian shook his head, shrugging. “We haven’tseenthe prince, but I will go see if any of the other monks speak any Krustavian.”

Then he was gone, fading into the darkness, and Inor said a few sharp words in Krustavian, the guttural language starting inthe back of his throat and rolling off his tongue. He shook his head again, straightening in his glowing throne.

“Do you know why they call me the Shadow King?” he asked.

Tallu’s jaw was clenched, and I knew whatever was going to come out of his mouth was not going to help keep our heads on our shoulders. So I looked around, pointedly raising a hand.

“Because your entire kingdom is in shadow?” I shrugged when both Tallu and Inor turned to me. “We had to travel through too many shadowed caves to get here? Have you considered some lanterns? The Imperium has electric lights I’m sure they’d part with.”

“Because this”—Inor raised his hand, slapping his palm down hard on the arm of his throne. An echo boomed through the room, shaking the air. I could feel it inside my chest—“was a gift from the One Dragon to the first of the fire dragons. This was a gift of shadow.” Slowly, the brilliance faded from the throne. It darkened to the black rock that accented the Lakeshore Palace. “If I will it, this rock consumes all light, absorbing it. Nothing escapes, just as nothing escapes from the mountains of Krustauunless I will it.”

Inor’s face twitched, and he looked to the side. Behind us, Asahi’s voice whispered in my mind, “We will not escape the mountains of Krustau. This fool has brought us here for our death.”

As though he could hear Asahi, Inor said, “You fool. You have brought them here for their death.”

“We are under the banner of hospitality,” Tallu said sharply. He was angry but had lost the intensity from earlier. I was no longer afraid he would break the truce himself.

Inor blinked, frowning at Tallu. “Of course you are. And while you are here, no harm will come to you unless you bring it upon yourself.”

“All this talk of not escaping the mountains of Krustau is making me wonder what Krustau considers safe and honorable.” I waved a hand. “Unless there’s some other reason you’re bringing up your throne?”

“This is not just a throne. This is a connection to every king who came before me and every shadow in the caverns.” Inor pointed upward at one of the glowing gemstones in the ceiling above, and the light from it seeped downward, moving like smoke through the air until it was absorbed into the arm of the throne. “Do you understand now?”

I gaped, looking upward at where the gemstone sat empty. Lerolian’s voice cut through the darkness, and he said, “Tallu, I think you should hear this.”

There was another monk with him, one I vaguely recognized as friendly, if slightly silly. He preferred to bring gossip about what court lady had stolen her style from another and who had slept with whose preferred prostitute.

His smile now was just as vacant. “They do speak about?—”

The monk’s eyes widened in horror. For a second, he gasped. The pull of the throne dragged at his body until it was swept away, as though on an invisible tide. His mouth opened in a scream that disappeared when his body was absorbed by the throne.

King Inor smirked, pointing at the space where the monk had been. “Those lights around you. Those voices. I can take anything I want from you.”

For a moment, the whole room was still, and then both Tallu and Lerolian shouted at once, their voices rising into infuriated roars.

“Howdareyou?” Tallu yelled.