Page 10

ROYO

TOWN OF CETIL, YUSAN

B ells chime, and it had better not be a fucking water invasion.

Fallador and Gambria turn toward the sound.

They’ve been chattering in Gayan, which I can’t understand for shit.

Occasionally, Mikail translates, but mostly he spins the scepter and stares off at nothing. His eyes look, but they don’t see.

The bells stop after a minute, so at least it’s not a war. Not today, anyhow. But it’s not a holy day, either—there aren’t any during monsoon season because of the old thought that the gods can’t see us during the rains. So what was that?

“Aeri and Sora are still in the orchard?” I ask.

Mikail shakes his head. “No. Sora needed some air, and Aeri went to find her.”

Ten fucking Hells. He left the girls alone. Again. Nobody learns a thing.

I slam my fist on the picnic table. “And you said nothing?”

“She needed some space,” Mikail says. “It’s a safe town. I grew up here.”

It doesn’t sound like he gives a shit. Maybe there is no such thing as team to Mikail.

I get up too fast and slam my thigh into the wood. It’ll bruise, but I don’t care that it smarts. I have to find them.

I stomp off the stone patio, hoping nobody got kidnapped again.

My heart thuds, my neck flushes, and I curl my hands into fists. The only thing that keeps me from breaking into a run is that Sora is no fool. She wouldn’t just wander. But why’d she leave? Why did she need space from Mikail in the first place?

I’ve just made it around the charred house when I see them—Sora and Aeri walking up the path. Relief makes me exhale, and then anger squeezes my chest.

“You can’t just leave like that!” I yell.

My words hang in the air. It wasn’t what I meant to say, and my voice is louder and harsher than I wanted it to be.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” Sora says.

There’s something real off about her, but I don’t know what. I was yelling at Aeri, though, not her. I hate it—the worry and now relief. I hate that she has control over me.

“Well, you did.” I shove my hands in my pockets. “There were a bunch of bells.”

Aeri nods. “We heard them, too—it’s why we came back. We were in the town square, and the crier said, ‘The king is dead! Long live the king.’”

Fucking what? “What?”

I gesture for them to follow me because the others will want to hear this.

King Joon is dead? So that means he didn’t survive Mikail flooding the harbor.

Either he drowned or he was killed by the Khitanese army.

Either way, that’s gotta be good news. It was half of what we needed to do: kill the king.

Now, we have to replace him with somebody better.

We get back to the patio, and Aeri repeats what she said.

Fallador’s mouth opens, Gambria’s eyes shift, but Mikail remains staring at nothing. I thought they’d be cheering, celebrating, but it looks like a funeral pyre here.

“The town crier said Joon is dead?” Mikail asks.

“Yes,” Sora says.

She won’t look at Mikail. I don’t know what happened when they were in the orchard before, but they’re both acting weird.

“I don’t get it.” I look from face to face in the group. “This is what we wanted. We were supposed to kill him. It’s good that he’s dead, right?”

The Baejkins are now all dead except for Quilimar, but she wasn’t really Baejkin. It’s a good thing, so why does everybody look more upset?

“ If he’s dead.” Mikail suddenly stops spinning the scepter. “Someone has usurped the throne of Yusan and wants everyone to believe he’s dead.”

I wipe sweat from my forehead. What am I missing? “But you flooded the harbor while the three realms were fighting. Maybe all the rulers are dead.”

“I mean, we can hope,” Mikail says. But he looks real skeptical. “The crown makes Joon’s death unlikely.”

“Who took the throne?” Aeri asks.

Nobody says a word.

“If it’s a king, it’s not Queen Quilimar,” Sora says. “I doubt it’s the priest king of Wei. Yusan would be in chaos if we were suddenly under Weian rule, so it has to be someone Yusanian.”

“Seok, the eastern count?” Fallador asks, looking only at Mikail.

Sora’s back goes rigid. Seok’s the guy who owns her—Tiyung’s father. Hate like I’ve never seen before fills her eyes.

Ten Hells, she’s terrifying.

“If he’s alive,” Mikail says. “Or Rune, the western count.”

“What do we do?” Gambria asks.

“We go to Rahway.” Mikail taps the stick on the ground, having decided.

Everyone stares at him. Even Sora.

I shake my head like there’s water in my ear. “Rahway? The city way the fuck out in western Yusan that it took us weeks to get to?”

Pirates, the isle, traveling with Aeri. All of that flashes through my mind. Holding her while she shivered, looking at her in that robe.

No, I don’t need these thoughts right now.

“That one,” Mikail says. “I’ve been thinking about it since yesterday.

We need soldiers more than anything else.

Now, we also need a place where we can wait while we see if Joon is actually dead and figure out who sits on the throne.

We’re in danger for the sole reason that the king is not someone we put there.

Then add the relics.” He points between himself and Aeri.

“Rune was on our side for the assassination. If Seok took the throne, Rune will align with us just to keep the southern count from taking over the realm. Conversely, if Rune slithered his way to Qali, we’ll find out quickly in his city, and then we might actually have an ally in Tamneki. ”

“What makes you think we can trust him?” Aeri asks. “He’s a nobleman like the others.”

“He also killed a dog for the spectacle,” Sora says.

Mikail shrugs. “A lack of other options. Plus, we don’t need trust—just self-serving alliances.”

All of a sudden, the memory of being in the King’s Arena plays in my mind. King Joon had survived Sora’s poison kiss, and Mikail was knocked out. I was struggling against palace guards, trying to save Aeri. A well-dressed man I thought was the western count came up to me.

“Was he a little taller than me, around the king’s age?” I ask. “Diamond collar on his chest?”

Mikail nods.

“He told me something weird in the arena,” I say.

Mikail raises his eyebrows. “What was that?”

“I was being held by the palace guards, and he said not to fight, to surrender now to fight another day.”

Fallador exchanges glances with Mikail. Sora blinks. Aeri tilts her head. Gambria continues to eye me like I’m a water buffalo wearing pants.

“He must’ve had a backup plan already in place,” Mikail says to no one.

“Maybe he owned the laoli,” Aeri says.

That warehouse in Oosant with all of those drugs had to belong to somebody rich. Maybe it was Rune’s. It was closest to his territory.

“I asked him why he was helping us when we were at dinner in Rahway,” Sora says. She speaks like the words taste bad.

“What did he say?” Aeri asks.

“He said: Isn’t it obvious? But I wasn’t following. He noticed and changed the subject.”

The hell does that mean?

“Perfect, it’s settled then.” Mikail stands and brushes dirt from his pants. “We’ll go to Rahway to find answers.”

Gambria and Fallador rise as well.

“Aren’t we all forgetting that it’s going to take weeks to get there from here?” I ask. “Even with a fleet carriage.”

“It won’t,” Mikail says. “We’ll go by sea.”

“Rahway is landlocked,” Aeri says.

Mikail shakes his head. “Not really. We can go around the coast of Yusan and then up the Tan River into Lake Garda. Rahway sits where the Sol meets the lake. We’ll be there in a couple of bells.”

“Mikail…” Fallador, Aeri, and Gambria all say his name at the same time. Nobody wants him to use the scepter.

He sighs and runs a hand through his wavy hair.

“I guarantee that by the end of monsoon season, every king’s guard, Khitanese, and Weian spy will be hunting us, if they aren’t already.

We need protection and answers—and we need them fast. We’re in a time of instability, but everyone is moving quickly.

The faster we get to Rahway, the quicker we have answers of our own, the better our chance of surviving. ”

I don’t know why we keep having to make such shit choices, but reluctantly, I nod.

We go down the path back to the town. The walk downhill is totally different than the feeling going up. Mikail and Sora have changed the most, but even Aeri seems different. She smiles, but there’s a hollowness to her.

Or maybe I’m just reading into things.

We stop at the market. The girls grab food, and I’m sure Aeri is going to look for dresses and makeup. I turn away to stop staring at her.

Dignity. I need some fucking dignity, but at least there’s a weapons table right in front of me.

I test the edges of a new battle-axe, and it’s razor sharp.

I’m about to haggle for it when I hear Fallador whispering with Mikail.

At first, I think they’re speaking in Gayan, but they’re not. I can understand them.

“I know that look,” Fallador says. “What’s troubling you?”

“I’m missing something again.” Mikail blows out a breath, obviously frustrated.

“About what?”

Yeah, what is it, and why didn’t he say it before?

I slide to my left to get closer, but I knock into a couple of swords. They clang into each other, but I catch the hilts before they drop. The wrinkled old merchant frowns at me, but he’s bargaining with someone else.

“Why the end of the monsoon season?” Mikail wonders. “As soon as I said it before, I thought about how Joon was very clear that we needed to return with the ring before the season ended. Why?”

Fallador pauses. “I doubt he wanted to leave your task open-ended.”

I move to the side of the stall where I’m still hidden, but I can see them. Mikail is stroking his chin, and Fallador stands just a step too close to him.

“He doesn’t act without a reason,” Mikail says. “It was a clue, but what?”

Fallador looks around. “Should we ask his daughter?”

“No, she—” Mikail begins.

“Are you going to buy that?” The same wrinkly old man stares at me. I realize I’ve lifted the axe to my shoulder.

“I’m thinking about it—seeing how it feels.”

With that, he quiets down, so I can listen again.

Mikail shakes his head. “…and don’t alert the others. It’s just something sticking in my mind.”

He walks away. Fallador reaches out for his hand, but he moved just a second too slow and Mikail was already out of reach.

Fucking great. More secrets. And I missed what he said about Aeri.

I’m going to need the axe.

I turn to the shopkeeper. “Yeah, I’ll take it at six silvers.”