The Bone Shard Daughter (The Drowning Empire, #1)(73)

Mauga didn’t need a bed or a desk. Straw had been spread across the floor, likely in an attempt to contain the smell. A pile of blankets had been shoved into a corner next to a bowl of water and an empty bowl that smelled like raw meat left too long in the sun. I felt I was exploring an animal’s den, not a room.

When Mauga was done with his reports and Father has dismissed him, he’d return. I wasn’t sure what Mauga did at night. Sleep? Meditate? The thought of Mauga sitting in a meditation pose made me want to laugh. Exhaustion could make even the most solemn of occasions silly. I closed my eyes and breathed. I needed to focus.

There had to be a place to hide. I’d need to take him unawares.

What was I supposed to do – bury myself in the blankets?

It took me another moment before I realized: yes, that was exactly what I had to do. Feeling a little ill, I went to the blankets and picked one up between thumb and forefinger, my other hand still holding my sleeve to my nose.

It was covered in Mauga’s coarse, dark hair. I’d never thought I was squeamish, but then I’d not truly had the chance to test my stomach. Blood and flesh from the constructs was one thing; filth was another.

A scratching, scrabbling sound came from the door. Father must have dismissed Mauga early. I took a deep breath and then ducked beneath the blanket, leaving a corner tilted up so I could see out of it. Could a smell smother a person until they could no longer draw breath? I supposed I was about to find out. Mauga lumbered into the room, heaving out a sigh as he closed the door behind him with his great claws. He shuffled about, his path meandering, his sloth nose near to the ground.

He froze. Slowly, he lifted his head and sniffed the air.

I let the corner of the blanket fall, my palms sweaty. Could he smell me even through his own stink? I didn’t see how, but then, I was human, with a far less sensitive nose. I waited in the dark, my breath heating the pocket of air below the blanket. I could feel the moisture of my breath gathering on the cloth, making it damp. Retching would give me away, so I took in a breath and held it, listening carefully for any sounds.

Mauga must have deemed the room safe because I heard his claws scrape along the floor. He groaned a little as he settled into the blankets, and a small portion of his weight pressed me into the wall. A small portion of Mauga’s bear body was still a significant weight. The breath I’d held burst from my lips. This would be a fine way to die – crushed by my father’s bureaucratic construct, my face frozen into an expression of disgust.

If I moved my arm, he’d feel it. But I had to move if I was to reach into Mauga’s body and procure one of his shards. Mentally, I began to fortify myself. I wasn’t always able to reach into the constructs right away. I still failed a good two out of ten attempts. My wits were sharp but my skills were not yet as practiced as Father’s or Bayan’s. And I was tired, so tired that my bones ached. I’d have only the one chance. I took in a breath quietly and thought of how pleased Father would be when I finally showed him I was his daughter. I was the only one who could be his heir. I was a force to be reckoned with. I pulled my arm up.

Mauga shifted, feeling the movement beneath him. Before he could move away, I concentrated and plunged my hand into his body.

Or I tried.

My fingers met only coarse black fur. Not now. No. Not this time.

Mauga rose. “What? Who’s there?” he said. He always sounded like a person on the verge of falling asleep. But he could move quickly when he wanted to, and his claws were long and very sharp. He might kill me before even recognizing who I was.

My heartbeat galloping, I threw off the blanket. The breath of air I took in felt cold and fresh. “I am Lin,” I cried out, before he could lift his claws.

Mauga regarded me with his soft brown eyes. “You are not supposed to be here.” He lifted his claws regardless.

Horror clutched its fingers around my throat. I could run, but where would I run to? I’d committed to this as soon as I’d walked into his room. I’d known I might die. I pushed past the fear, let it slide away from me.

I held my breath, leaned forward and pushed my hand into Mauga’s body.

This time, it slid in. I watched, fascinated, as my fingers disappeared. Mauga’s claws halted in their descent; his eyes went glassy. I searched for a shard and found more than I could easily count. It was like reaching into the ocean to feel one of the posts at the dock and finding only barnacles beneath one’s fingertips instead of wood. I wasn’t sure where to begin.

The book on complex constructs with more than one shard had assumed three shards, maybe up to ten. Mauga contained at least a hundred. It was a lot of lives to drain for one construct. A hundred men could easily do the work that Mauga did – though I knew Father would not trust those hundred men. The book had said commands for obedience should be placed higher, closer to a construct’s brain. Less urgent commands could be placed lower, where they’d cede precedence to higher commands if they contradicted.

I grasped a shard higher up and pulled it free. I had to squint to see what was written on it.

Esun Shiyen lao – obey Shiyen always. The star identifier was engraved next to my father’s name.

Always was not a word I could easily convert. “Until” and “when” were obvious replacements, but neither word contained “lao” in it, nor were they shaped in such a way I could add a few strokes to change the meaning. I should have taken another shard from the bone shard room and dealt with any consequences later. Then I might have replaced a command instead of seeking to alter it. What else had my father written into the shards? I replaced the one I’d taken out and reached for another, lower down.