Descendant of the Crane(48)

When he spoke next, it was to her right side. “Imagine summoning the dew of a thousand tomorrow mornings.”

Comprehension dawned. “You’d be moving the air into a future state.”

And with the future air came the future dew.

Dew. Water. This was how Kendi’a planned on getting the water it so desperately lacked: through the slave labor of sooths.

Hesina didn’t know what to think or feel. She imagined it was like learning, as a relic emperor, that the elixir of immortality could be derived from the blood of humans instead of cranes. A horrible but painfully obvious revelation.

“Yes.” The prince circled back to face her. Hesina fought to keep her surprise hidden, but his lips drew back as if he detected it all the same. “Your old emperors kept this knowledge of how the magic worked to themselves. Your eleven saviors too.”

The Eleven. Her head churned, frothing with memories of old lessons and histories, of the miracles that’d occurred shortly after the Eleven’s ascension. The sudden recession of water levels. The calming of torrential rains. Blessings from the heavens, One and Two claimed. Signs that they’d been anointed to rule. But what was the line between miracles and magic? Where did heaven-ordained end and sooth-made begin?

“So, Queen of Yan, do you find the conditions to your liking?”

Just as the Crown Prince intended, the extra information muddled Hesina’s brain. For a split second, she couldn’t remember what the conditions were.

Salt. Sooths.

A trade.

It didn’t matter what the prince threw at her. Hesina already knew her answer. Once the trial was over and stability returned to the realm, she would reject the word of the Tenets. She would fight to create a kingdom for sooths and non-sooths. Before then, she would not forsake them to a life in chains.

“I’m afraid you’re mistaken,” she said. “We have no sooths.”

“My sources say the remnants live in hiding.”

Concede, Caiyan would have advised, and approach from a new direction. “If I give them to you, what will you do? Make them slaves?”

“You should not care.”

The prince was right. Hesina shouldn’t care. If she were truly a Yan queen, she’d agree to this trade in an instant. Salt for sooths—an exchange that cost them nothing.

Righteousness never fails. “The Tenets forbid Yan from involving itself in any part of the slave trade.” But the words didn’t sound nearly as convincing from Hesina as they did from Xia Zhong.

The prince’s smile turned scathing. “You think you are better? You are wrong. You are no better. You killed them. I make use of them because I see their value.” His gaze narrowed. “Is there something wrong with the terms?”

Trying and failing wasn’t a method. The longer this went on, the more she stimulated the Crown Prince’s suspicion. How could she reject the conditions without revealing her true heart?

Slow down, Little Bird. Her father’s voice came to her as Hesina scrambled to think. If you want to understand a person, peer at his heart through the window of his prejudices and assumptions.

Her mind stilled.

The prince had nothing to gain by divulging his plans of enslaving the sooths. He’d only done so because he believed Hesina was like any other Yan, that she would rather kill the sooths than copy his idea.

These were his assumptions. This was his heart. Now he would be in for a little shock, for Hesina would use them against him and offer the last reason he expected.

“As a matter of fact, there is something wrong with the terms.”

“Oh?” The prince lifted his brow.

She lifted her chin. “They’re insulting.”

“Please, explain.”

“Think of it this way, Siahryn. You offer me fish and ask for a boat in exchange. Eventually, we’ll run out of fish, but you? You have the means of getting all the fish you desire.” Hesina took up pacing as she spoke, trying to fill the tent with her presence. “Who knows how many resources a kingdom stands to gain from using sooths?” She spun on her heel. “The uncharted potential! You must take me for a fool if you think I can hand them over.”

The prince regarded her strangely, as if she were prey that had suddenly erupted claws and fangs. “You cannot use them. Your people would denounce you.”

Improvising, Hesina closed in and placed a hand on his chest. “Do you want the truth of me, Siahryn? My heart is not that of my people’s. They might be good. They might be righteous. But I will resort to whatever means necessary to get the things I want. If it’s salt I want to make, I’ll use the sooths. If it’s villages I want to demolish, I’ll use the sooths. And if they refuse to do my bidding, I’ll put them in chains myself.”

She relished how his heartbeat quickened under her palm. He started to move away, but Hesina lifted her hand first. She was an actress. With a costume, a mask, and a mouthful of lies, she was powerful.

And now, it was time to make her exit. She turned for the tent flaps. “Should you continue terrorizing our borderland territories, you’ll find I have no qualms about using the sooths against you either. But Yan honors generosity. Desist from your raids and agree to resume trade, and I won’t abuse the knowledge you’ve shared today.”

Her guards sprung to attention when she emerged into the daylight, but Hesina didn’t give the signal that something had gone awry. If the Crown Prince believed she could and would harness the sooths’ powers if pushed, then perhaps she’d successfully repaired trade and diverted war. They could end this negotiation peacefully.