Page 54

ROYO

ROSE PALACE, GAYA

A fter baths, we sit down to a big dinner spread, ready to eat like these servants didn’t just try to poison Mikail. A few bells ago.

I run a hand down my face. I feel like I’ve gone mad, but I sit in a chair next to Aeri.

Sora tastes and smells every plate and goblet.

She’s almost done when I realize the other poisoner isn’t here.

It’s only the five of us. I look around, but no one else seems concerned that the girl is gone.

Mikail sits on the throne at the end of the table, and then there’s me and Aeri, and Sora and Ty across from us.

I want to ask where Hana went, but she upset Sora so bad that I decide not to bring it up.

Aeri looks over at me with mischief in her eyes.

She walks her fingers over to my thigh under the table, and I remember flashes of getting into the bath with her a couple of bells ago.

She called me in like something was wrong, but instead of being in trouble, she was trouble, standing there, naked in the clawfoot tub.

And how was I supposed to resist that? She hooked her finger at me, and I took off my clothes and got in with her.

Her body was slippery against mine as she straddled me.

I shift in my chair. Not the time for these thoughts.

It almost feels wrong, having this happiness when our friends are so sad. But I don’t move her hand from my leg. We’ve struggled for this. I’ll hold on to what little joy I can. I place my hand over hers, and we mesh our fingers together.

Tiyung sips his wine and looks from me to Aeri. He smiles into his goblet. The guy is a hopeless romantic. I’m glad he’s back with us.

I’ll be honest. I thought Tiyung was just a useless nobleman at first, but he’s got more grit than I realized.

He has to in order to have made it out of Idle Prison in one piece.

He broke down in tears when he talked about Mikail’s father dying for him, and even I got a lump in my throat.

Mikail’s father knew what he was doing and died to protect him.

That says more about both men than I ever could.

Mikail has been handling all of this suspiciously well, but everything rolls off him.

Until it doesn’t.

Sora stares at him. She has a way of seeing through people’s bullshit.

“Are you all right?” she asks.

Mikail is leaning back with the top two buttons of his shirt undone, but once she speaks, he sits upright. “Leave us, all of you.”

The servants all bow, and Mikail eyes them exiting the dining hall.

“This time tomorrow, all of our enemies will be in Tamneki,” he says.

“What do we do?” Aeri asks.

Mikail taps the massive black table. “I’ve been pondering just that. I think we send an emissary to Joon, offering an alliance.”

I shake my head. I couldn’t have heard him right, and he is speaking real low, so maybe I didn’t. But everyone else pauses, too.

“To King Joon?” I repeat. “The guy who threatened to torture and kill us all like a month ago? Or is there another Joon I haven’t met yet?”

Mikail sighs. “A usurper sits on his throne. Joon will need alliances beyond Wei. I was his spymaster, Aeri is his daughter, and Seok put the bounty on us. He could believe we want to align with him over the count.”

“And what are we actually doing?” Sora asks.

“We’re arranging a meeting so I can take the Flaming Sword of the Dragon Lord.”

The table goes silent. I grip my goblet, glad it’s metal, not glass, because I would’ve cracked it.

Ten fucking Hells, we’re stealing shit again? This never goes well, but I guess we have to get it right once? I pinch the bridge of my nose. My scar hurts.

Mikail downs another glass of water. “I see no one loves this idea.”

“Why do you need the sword?” Sora asks.

Yeah, why risk getting outsmarted by King Joon again? We have the palace. We have three relics. Let him and Seok fight it out and destroy each other. It’s not worth jumping in.

“In order to free the island, I need more power than the Water Scepter,” Mikail says. “With the Flaming Sword, I could use fire to protect Gaya, and with two relics, who knows what I’d be capable of? You’ve seen what Aeri can do. I need the same multiplication.”

I lift my eyebrows. He doesn’t need the sword. He wants it. But he can’t see the difference because his ambition is in the way.

This is going to end well.

“But the cost.” Aeri shakes her head. She hasn’t frozen in time lately, but she also hasn’t used the relics since Rahway.

“Let me worry about that,” he says with a wave of his hand.

Nobody at this table is worried about old age.

But I want a future. One with Aeri and the rest of them.

With Mikail as king, we could have that.

We could live comfortably here in the sunshine where it doesn’t even monsoon.

None of us had a family until now—not as adults.

And I don’t wanna lose it. But it’s really hard keeping someone alive who doesn’t give a shit about dying.

“Let’s say you get this meeting,” I begin. “What’s going to stop King Joon from killing you and Aeri to make himself the Dragon Lord?”

Mikail’s face falls. Everyone gets quiet.

Sora and Tiyung turn to Mikail. He and Aeri are powerful, but they don’t have the Immortal Crown.

They aren’t gods. There’s nothing that would guarantee that either one comes back alive from a meeting with King Joon, even if Aeri is his daughter.

And if Mikail goes alone, he’ll die, and King Joon will come after Aeri with all his might because she’ll be the last piece he needs.

“Can’t you just use the stick to pull Joon’s ship away from the fleet, kill him, and take the sword that way?” I ask.

“Well, when you put it that way…yes.” Mikail smiles.

I sit back, surprised he took my idea over his own. Aeri beams at me as she spoons marinated tofu onto her plate.

“So we’ll strike tomorrow, then, when the ships reach Tamneki?” Tiyung asks.

Mikail shakes his head. “There’s no rush.

Let Seok and Joon battle first. The war on Tamneki and the siege of Qali will take several weeks, or more likely months, and there will be massive casualties, weakening both sides.

Yusan will be too distracted to worry about Gaya.

We can wait until the battle for Tamneki is nearly over. ”

Ty shakes his head. “Those casualties are people, Mikail. Men trying to make a living as soldiers and innocent civilians—elders, women, and children, in the capital.”

Mikail slams his water glass down on the table with a loud thud. “Those ‘men trying to make a living’ raped, murdered, and pillaged this island—or their fathers and uncles did. You’ll forgive me if I don’t have sympathy for soldiers being killed when they signed up for murder.”

Oh shit.

Only Aeri is making a sound right now. She’s slurping down noodles without a care in the world.

Ty sighs. “Mikail, past atrocities, especially unconscionable ones, can always justify future acts. Your people did nothing wrong twenty years ago. Neither did the women and children in Tamneki today. Tonight, they will sleep in their beds, not knowing they will die tomorrow. But the gods have blessed you with a unique opportunity. You can break the cycle and end the violence before it begins.”

Sora blinks, turning like she’s just seeing him now. I haven’t heard anyone talk like this since…well, Tiyung when we were in Oosant. Even Aeri tilts her head. But she could just be looking at which dish to sample next.

“It’s a rather convenient stance to save your father,” Mikail says.

Tiyung runs his finger over the wineglass. “There’s no saving my father.”

Mikail leans on the table, staring down Ty.

Tiyung holds his gaze. The tension in here is thicker than egg custard, but the thing is, neither of them is wrong.

Terrible shit was done to this island, and letting Seok and Joon fight it out and weaken each other is the smart play.

But the reality is, it won’t be Seok and Joon.

It’ll be thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of innocent people dying if there’s a war.

“Everyone’s letting this good food get cold,” Aeri says, tossing down her chopsticks. They clatter onto the wooden table, and everybody stares at her.

“I mean…this is a pretty important conversation,” Mikail says, his eyes wide. She’s succeeded in weirding him out.

“It isn’t, though,” she says. “It’s a pointless theoretical debate. You’re both right, and you’re both wrong. You could argue this until sunrise, but there’s dinner on the table now.”

Her ring clangs on the table as she smacks her hand down.

Ty opens his mouth, and Mikail tilts his head, but no one says a word.

“I guess I’ll explain it.” Aeri’s all frustration as she stares at Mikail.

“You want—not need, want —the sword, and we can’t meet for a parley because Joon will kill us.

We aren’t safe as long as my father is alive, especially not with him having both of the other relics.

This isn’t new—we’ve known this since Quu Harbor.

He’ll always want to become the Dragon Lord.

So, we’ll take a crew of trusted men and attack his boat in the middle of the night.

We’ll pry off his crown and kill him when he least expects it—and that’ll be when he’s just arrived in Tamneki.

Not during a siege, when he knows he’s a target.

Then we’ll take the sword and the crown and come back to Gaya. There’s not a lot to discuss.”

Everyone sits silently, reasoning through what she said. Aeri didn’t grow up in the palace, but she speaks and thinks like a ruler.

She picks up her chopsticks. “Now, could someone please pass the squid? It looks really good.”

Ty shakes his head and then reaches out for the plate as Sora and Mikail continue to stare at Aeri.

“You’re the rightful queen of Yusan,” Sora says. Mikail nods.

“They can have it. I have all I need here.” Aeri gestures around the table.

Sora clutches her napkin in her fist. “But…”

“Sora, I promise Seok won’t be able to leave well enough alone,” Aeri says. “Men who love power always want more. He’ll come for the relics and the island, and then he’ll burn. I swear it.”

Apparently, that’s enough of a promise. Sora takes a breath, releases the napkin, and nods.

One corner of Mikail’s lips rises in a satisfied smirk. “To Queen Naerium.” He lifts his glass.

“And King Adoros Miat,” she says.

We all drink, and I can’t help the stomach-churning feeling that runs through me. They’ve never been closer to sitting on their thrones, but I just got a terrible sense that all of this is about to go to shit.