Page 44
TIYUNG
CITY OF TAMNEKI, YUSAN
I walk quickly through the rainy streets and over the canal bridges to reach the blue messenger house.
The Tamneki central messenger house is a marvel.
It is ten times larger than a standard shop with a parcel exchange, a two-story, glassed-in aviary, and dozens of workers devoted to emptying delivery canisters and sending birds on their way.
The eagles are fed hundreds of pounds of fresh meat a day, watered, and rested on a strict schedule.
Trained from when they can first fly, they are worth more than any of the humans who care for them and are treated better.
It’s still monsoon season, but this house never slows. People come in and out, lines forming to receive and send eagles. There’s also a large section to the side for cheaper land courier letters.
I shift my weight, tapping my foot on the marble floor as I wait for my turn at the eagle counter. I don’t know if my mother sent a message or if she won’t send anything until tonight or even tomorrow. She said to wait here, but surely she didn’t know I only have five bronze mun to my name.
But I have to hope.
“May I help you?” the young man asks from behind the counter. He has a brown mustache so thin, I’m not sure why he bothers.
“Are there any letters for Cressen of Pact?” I ask, giving the name of my grandfather.
I drum my fingers on the varnished wood counter as I wait.
I try to prepare myself for him to come back empty-handed.
To do this again and again until I hear from my mother.
I’ll need to figure out where to sleep and how to eat on very little money.
My empty stomach growls as my nails claw at the counter.
The truth is, I don’t know how to live that way.
The man returns after a few minutes with a red envelope for me.
He then starts counting out gold mun. For the first time in my life, I think about reaching forward and stealing money, but then I remember that messenger houses also forward mun when special tassels are attached to the canisters.
Bless my mother’s soul—she sent me not only a message but funds to see me through.
She is the cleverest person I know.
I crack the clay. The letter is written in my mother’s hand, but it is coded.
“Here you are, sir,” the man says. “Fifty gold mun.”
Giddiness makes me react too quickly, and I knock over the stack of coins.
They clang as they hit the wood, but the man neatly slides the fortune into a little burlap sack.
I slip the money into my pocket and give him my five bronze mun as a tip.
I should leave, but there may be instructions in the note.
I go to the ledge to decipher the code. Large wooden shelves line the walls under the windows.
My mother was my first tutor. She taught me simple coding for private messages, so I immediately recognize the numbers and signs. I take a pencil and paper and start deciphering it.
My son,
My heart rejoiced at seeing your face, but you come at a precarious time.
Your father has not recovered from finding your collar and ashes.
Joon still lives, and forces plot against us internally and abroad.
Please, if you love me, stay away from Qali.
Return to Gain now for your own protection.
Your father will not abdicate, and I cannot risk you in his schemes.
Remember that people with good hearts are but pawns in the games of god kings.
I love you always.
I stand still for a while as I try to process my mother’s words.
She is worried that I will be used by Seok or killed by his enemies, or both, and she wants me to seek safety.
She is warning me that my father is not in his right mind.
But I can’t return to Gain. Sora and the others could be anywhere, but they are not in Gain.
I shake my head. I’m in too deep with them to simply walk away.
After I burn my mother’s letter in the messenger house furnace, I meander aimlessly until I find myself in front of the Fountain Inn. I swallow a laugh. Of course I’d come to the place I spent the night with Sora. I cling to any memory of her, but especially this one.
Now that I’m here, though, it’s as good a place to stay as any. I walk up to the front desk.
“I’d like a room for the week,” I say.
The well-dressed man behind the counter writes in his book with a fountain pen. “Very well, sir. That will be one gold mun for a deluxe suite for six nights.”
It’s a fantastic sum of money for just a rented room, but I slip a coin out of the sack and pay the man.
“Thank you,” he says. “And now if you’d sign your name here for our records.”
I take the pen, but I hesitate. If enemies are gathering against my father, I shouldn’t use my real name or even my grandfather’s. I write down Duri of Gain. I’m sure he won’t mind.
The innkeeper nods at the name and then writes something else in the book.
He gestures with his arm out to the lobby. “If you would take a seat, sir, we’ll have the servants prepare your room. Once it is ready, we will escort you to room 306.”
I nod and then sit in one of the high-backed chairs that face the stairs. A flirtatious servant girl offers me a drink, and I accept a glass of red wine. She makes it clear that there is more on offer if I ask. I don’t ask.
I’ve just taken a sip of the fruity wine when there’s a sound I recognize—it’s like the chiming of bells.
I grip the armrests. I know that laugh. I’ve heard it several times over the last few weeks from Hana.
I turn in my chair and catch that brown hair that matches her eyes. What is she doing here?
And what did she do?
I grit my teeth and let my dagger fall down my sleeve into my hand. Then I shift so I can see her clearly. She’s on a settee, flirting with someone young, drunk, and overly important. He might be in the king’s guard, or his father has a high administrative position. I hold my breath and listen.
“You must have heard something.” She smiles, playfully pushing his shoulder. “I’d lie on fur blankets and be fed cherry water ice for the rest of my days if I had four million.” She opens her cloak and leans back dramatically, acting like a silly girl. He enjoys the show.
“We are flooded with leads, but none of them are real. Besides, the poster is very clear that the killers must be brought in alive for there to be a paid bounty.”
“I know one of them.” She looks around like she’s telling a secret. “One of the criminals.”
He raises his eyebrows while swirling coju. “You do?”
She takes a sip of water and then eagerly nods. “Mikail, the spymaster.”
“If you brought him in somehow, it would be a million mun for your pretty little wishes.” He inches his hand closer to her knee.
She exhales, drawing his eye to her breasts as she shifts away from him. “I wouldn’t even know where to start, though!”
“Last I heard, everyone is converging on Tamneki. But the four blades fled Rahway and certainly didn’t go to Oosant. They have the Water Scepter, so they could have gone anywhere—even Wei. But you shouldn’t get involved in our hunt. He’s a very dangerous man.”
The man’s tongue is far too loose, but my gaze is on Hana’s face. Something lights in her eyes. She has just figured out where they are. I’m certain of it.
“Would you excuse me? I’m feeling a bit drunk,” she says as she stands up.
He stumbles to his feet. “Of course, Tria. I’ll wait here.”
She smiles flirtatiously. Tria? So she’s assumed yet another name. Another disguise. Another lie.
I wait for her to get far down the hall before I follow. Instead of taking the turn for the bathroom, she slinks out the servant exit. I run down the hall and catch the door just before it closes. Then I grab her and slam her against the wall.
“Funny seeing you here,” I say with my blade to her throat.
Hana’s eyes tell a whole story. She’s surprised I’m alive, relieved, and now annoyed, but definitely not afraid. She struggles, and I pin her to the marble facade of the building. She’s five foot nine, but I have three inches and muscle on her. I’ve gained back my strength since escaping from Idle.
“You set me up,” I say.
“I did what I had to in order to help Sora. Kill me if you want. I wouldn’t do anything different.”
She stares into my eyes, her face all resolve, and then she shrugs.
“What do you mean to help Sora? Who were you working with?”
“Rune.”
“The western count?” I can feel the ridges in my forehead. “Why?”
“I needed help—a lot of it—when I escaped from your father. The nobleman I was supposed to kill brought me to Count Rune. He helped me get a position as an assassin and then as a spy in Qali. In return, I worked for him.”
“And you still do?”
She nods. “After we fled Idle Prison, and Sora and the others were sent to Khitan, I knew they’d need help.
Rune claimed he was working with someone in their group, and he said he could aid them.
He knew too much about their whereabouts, their plans, to be lying. I had no choice but to believe him.”
I shake my head as she talks in circles. “But what does any of this have to do with me?”
“You were the cost.”
My stomach bottoms out, and I loosen my grip on Hana. This whole time, she was probing me for information—not to help Sora but to give to Rune. That’s why she wanted to know everything about my father and his businesses. She was pretending to be my friend in order to pay Rune for his assistance.
“He never told me his end goal, but I figured you’d be kidnapped or killed on the Palatial Road.” She rights herself but doesn’t try to flee. “But look, I’m glad you’re alive, and I’m not working for him anymore. He doesn’t know where they are.”
Every word out of her mouth has been a lie. Heartfelt ones like these.
I gather an irritated breath. “That’s reassuring.”
Hana looks both ways before she speaks in a low voice. “I think I’ve figured out where they are. And together, we can help them. They need all the help they can get now.”
She must think I’m the biggest fool in the world.
She was willing to let me be taken hostage, tortured, or variously killed.
There’s no reason to believe her. In fact, I should probably use the blade in my hand because she’s only a liability.
But I’m not a cold-blooded killer like the others, and there had been that look on her face as she talked to the man in the lobby. She had figured it out.
“Where are they?” I ask.
She leans in and whispers in my ear. “I think they’re on Gaya.”
Table of Contents
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- Page 44 (Reading here)
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