The Bone Shard Daughter (The Drowning Empire, #1)(124)

But I hadn’t had much choice.

I shifted on my chair, my pen poised over paper as I deliberated what I should say. I didn’t have the benefit of Ilith’s network anymore. I had no idea what was happening beyond Imperial, and that ignorance could kill me. I needed to ask the governors how their islands fared while seeming like I already knew.

And after the awakening of the mural, I needed to ask: what other Alanga artifacts had awakened? Had there been any other signs? I needed to study those books in the library, to gather defenses. I didn’t know the Sukais’ secret for defeating the Alanga. That had died with the Emperor. But somewhere in the library, among all of Shiyen’s experiments, there had to be clues. Next to me, Jovis lay stretched on the couch, his companion curled at his feet, alert and watching.

I’d had the servants and the physician tend to both the smuggler and his beast. I’d watched with fascination as his wounds and his companion’s had healed more quickly than I’d thought possible. And then I’d noticed mine and Thrana’s doing the same. I had so many questions, ones it seemed he might be able to answer.

“Is this what you do for all criminals who turn themselves in? I would have turned myself in much earlier had I known.”

I dropped the pen and twisted in my chair.

Jovis had opened his eyes and was watching me. He lifted a weak hand. “You should work on your posters. There’s something about ‘Any persons harboring this individual will be hanged’ that seems rather threatening.” His companion crept to his face and sniffed his cheeks. Jovis squinted and waved him off. “Are you checking to see if you can eat me yet, Mephi? Regrettably, I am not dead.”

I studied him as he scratched his beast’s cheeks. I think he knew I was watching him, but he kept his gaze low, let me look. Despite the songs, he seemed unremarkable. A little taller than average, with a rangy build and sun-darkened skin. A light spray of freckles ran across his nose, disappearing into the thick, curly hair at his cheekbones. There was Poyer blood in him, I’d have sworn it. As he rubbed his companion’s undamaged ear, I saw the tattoo on his wrist – the mark of an Imperial navigator. I’d expected someone grand, with shoulders like mountains and arms thick as pillars. He looked too thin, too plain, too tired to be a hero. Yet he’d defeated scores of soldiers if the songs were to be believed.

I wasn’t sure what to believe.

But when I’d exited the palace doors, I’d seen one of my father’s constructs dead at the base of the steps. I’d not seen its kind before. Its unnatural height, its four arms and the scattered blades had given me pause. Jovis must have killed it. I supposed I should be glad that he had, for if it had been responsive to my father’s call, and had made its way inside – I wasn’t sure if I’d have had the strength to defeat it, even with Bing Tai at my side.

“What do you plan to do with me?” he said, still not looking at me. He stroked the top of Mephi’s head. “Your father would have had me hanged. Publicly, of course. No use putting up such a fuss about an errant smuggler if you’re not going to follow through and show everyone that you will.”

“I’m not planning on hanging you.” I should have held that back, should have made him guess, but I was too tired for games. “I want to know everything you know about your companion – Mephi.”

“Mephisolou is his full name,” he said. “Mephi is his nickname.”

“A grand name,” I said. “Mephi trilled a happy response. “I believe Thrana is the same sort of creature. Where did you find him?”

“He was in the water by Deerhead Island when it sank.” Something seemed to fall away from him as he spoke, as though he’d drawn back a curtain I hadn’t realized was there. He told me how he’d plucked Mephi from the water, how he hadn’t wanted him at first, how he’d let him go. And then miraculously Mephi had come back. Little by little, he’d become more than just an animal, but a companion he couldn’t see himself being parted from.

Thrana lay on the ground and rested her head in my lap. “I found Thrana in my father’s laboratory. I think he experimented on her.” I didn’t mention the other body I’d found growing in there. I’d left it, unsure whether removing it from the pool would wake it up. A matter to be dealt with at a later time. I stroked the bare skin of Thrana’s neck, gently running my fingers over the wounds the physician had stitched shut.

“She’ll need you to help her get better,” Jovis said.

Our eyes met. I felt an odd rapport with this man who’d shown up inside my palace. “Stay here,” I said impulsively. “My rule has just begun. I need help. I want to stop the Tithing Festivals, and I need to find a way to change things, to make them better. Pardoning you would be a symbolic beginning.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Your father wanted me dead, and you want me to work for you?”

No matter what we’d shared, I could never confess that I was not my father’s daughter. I was something so, so different. I watched his face as I spoke. “My father lived in fear – of the Alanga, of his governors, of the very people he claimed to protect. He hid himself away and conducted experiments, and let everything fall apart around him. I loved him, but he could not love me. Whatever you might think of me, of my station, I am not my father. I do not fear the people. I am Lin Sukai and I will remake this Empire.”