The Bone Shard Daughter (The Drowning Empire, #1)(80)

When it was safely in my palm and outside Uphilia’s body, I took a moment to pry her jaw open. It was like levering open an oyster. Blood soaked my shirt and the wounds burned, but I adjusted my sash around the bite to stop the bleeding. I’d have to tend to it later.

Lamplight glowed from between the cracks in the floorboards of Uphilia’s den, and I held the shard over the light. I’d expected the same command I’d seen on Mauga’s shard: obey Shiyen always. But my father had different ideas for his Construct of Trade.

Esun Shiyen uvarn: nelusun 1, 2, 3.

Obey Shiyen unless: conditions 1, 2, 3. It took me a while to decipher the words. This was more complex than what I’d encountered inside Mauga. Uphilia had the option to disobey Father under certain conditions. The numbers would match reference shards within Uphilia’s body, though I wasn’t sure where I’d find them. They’d be marked with those same numbers.

I bled as I worked, each move sending a twinge of pain into my ribs and hip. Uphilia’s feathers tickled my cheeks each time I leaned in close. She didn’t stink like Mauga did. Hers was a light and almost sweet musky scent; she smelled less like a dog and more like hay. I checked each shard for a number in the corner. Commands flashed in the dim light from below:

~ Purchase boxes of caro nuts when: condition 9.

~ When tithes of tuna fall below twenty fish per year, report to Shiyen.

~ Gather reports on stolen goods from Tier Two constructs daily.

Finally, I found a shard engraved with a “1” in the upper left side. The engraved words on it were tiny; I had to squint and hold it just above the floorboards to make out the words:

~ If Shiyen does not have all the information Uphilia has, and Uphilia’s experience dictates a different decision for betterment of the Empire.

So my father trusted her enough, or at least trusted her sophisticated commands enough, to let her override him when she thought the occasion called for it. I replaced it, noted its location and searched for the next two.

They were located directly below the first, so I didn’t have to search far.

On “2”: if Shiyen’s decision will result in a total or partial collapse of the Empire’s economy. And on “3”: if Shiyen is asking for something that cannot be reasonably achieved.

I sat back on my heels, the last reference shard cradled in my palm. I couldn’t rewrite the shards the same way I had rewritten Mauga’s. I hadn’t done the cleanest job, and though he seemed to be behaving as normal, Uphilia was more complex. I couldn’t count on the same solution to work with her. I had to find another way.

This time, though, I’d brought more resources with me. I dug inside my sash pocket and brought out one of the shards from the storeroom. This might be an even easier and more elegant solution than with Mauga. I could add another condition to the topmost command. “If Lin asks Uphilia to obey her instead, Uphilia will thereafter obey Lin.” I couldn’t replace my father with myself in all Uphilia’s commands, but this would provide a stopgap measure until I could fully rewrite Uphilia’s shards.

I found the topmost command again and used the engraving tool to carve a “4” into the corner of it. And then I held the tool poised over the corner of my fresh, blank bone. I’d made certain, when I’d gone back to the storeroom, to choose an island far away from the inner Empire, one where I didn’t know the occupants and never could have met them. One where I might never know the occupants.

I’d avoided looking at the drawer where the blacksmith’s shard had once lain.

But the moment I pressed this tool into the bone, I was writing on the life of someone, no matter that they were half a world away. When I placed the shard into Uphilia’s body, the shard’s original owner might have a day where they felt a little unwell. The thought might cross their mind, but they wouldn’t know that their shard was in use. It wouldn’t be until they were older that their life would seem to flow more swiftly from their bones. They’d age faster, feel weaker. Eventually, they’d die years before their time, and Father would have to replace the old, dead bone inside Uphilia with a fresh one.

This is what I would do if I engraved the new reference into the bone. I would shorten someone’s life.

Several days ago, I might have done so without a second thought. But meeting Numeen’s family, getting to know his daughter Thrana – I knew however far away the person was whose skull this bone had been chiseled from, they were a person. A person with hopes, dreams and people who loved them.

Was there another way?

I went through the rest of the shards, sifting through the commands, searching for a pearl in the Endless Sea. All I found were grains of sand. I went through them again, desperate. The rain clinked against the tile roof above, a staccato accompaniment to the frantic beating of my heart.

The sky outside turned blue, and then gray. I couldn’t delay any longer. I’d come too far to make a different choice. Steeling myself, I engraved the command onto the bone. It felt like I was digging the end of the tool into my soul, scratching irreversible words into its surface.

But it was done.

I shifted Uphilia’s body beneath me so I could have better access to the reference shards. I’d need to shift them a little in order to fit this new one between them. But when I slid my hands under her ribs, I felt something across the backs of my hands – not the floorboards, or straw. She was lying on something hard and square. A book?