The Girl King (The Girl King #1)(75)

If I leave, I can’t go to Yunis. And I won’t be there to help, and I’ll never be rid of this curse, this spirit, and I’ll never give Set an heir. But of course, she couldn’t begin to tell her mother all that. If her mother knew of the curse, what would she do? Min wasn’t sure, but she suspected it would not be helpful.

“I don’t want to leave Set.” Her words came out thin and petulant.

“That’s sweet of you, dear, but I worry the stress of all that’s happened is weighing on you. You do look so pale . . .” Her mother brushed the backs of her cold fingers down one of Min’s cheeks. “Some time away would be good for you, I’m certain of it.”

The thought of leaving Set sat like a stone in her gut. It was silly, she knew, given the other worries on her mind. How little attention he paid her. Would he even notice her absence?

I love him, she thought for the first time, and was pleased to find it felt right. What other words could explain the keening stretch of her heart, the thrumming want in the marrow of her bones? Her longing. Her loneliness. I love him, she repeated. Because she could. I love him.

Yes, but are you ready to serve him? Brother’s voice whispered in her ear.

“I can’t leave before Father is interred,” Min blurted, amazed at her own quickness. “That wouldn’t be proper.” She resisted the instinct to make it a question.

A flicker of something rippled over her mother’s still, self-possessed face. It was gone, quick as a bird, before Min could grasp it.

“Perhaps you’re right,” the empress sighed. “I will consider it further, but I think it will be for the best to send you away. Just for a time.”

No, no, you don’t understand! Min felt fury burn her throat like bile. Her mother would consider it? What of what she, Min, wanted? Wasn’t she the empress now, after all?

Lu would have fought. She would have shouted and swept the perfumes and hairpins and combs from atop the vanity. Perhaps broken the mirror had their mother persisted. She would have fought, and eventually, she would have won.

Min’s eyes flicked over to the chair where she’d hidden her mother’s pin. Stabbed that lily of agate and pearl into the softly upholstered underbelly. Her mother followed her gaze, but saw only a chair.

I can win, too, Min told herself. In my own way.





CHAPTER 23


Capture

“The little ones are worth the least,” Nok said, pointing at the coins arrayed in his palm. Lu followed his finger with her gaze and frowned skeptically.

“Half of them are the same size.”

He considered. “Similar. But not the same.”

“Didn’t you just say one of the bigger ones is worth less than the smaller ones, though?”

“Well, they’re worth less than these smaller silver ones, but not the smallest.” He struggled to keep his voice patient and calm, well under the dull hum of the small marketplace. Even in a tiny village like this, flashing any amount of money around was unwise.

They were standing in line waiting to purchase grain—the last item in Lu’s long list of supplies. Nok shifted uncomfortably under the heavy sack of woolens tossed over his shoulder. He’d removed the stitches from Lu’s arm in the morning and offered to carry their supplies to let her rest it.

“I want to order this time,” the princess informed him. “I’ll buy the grain.”

“You won’t even know how to pay!” he hissed.

“You can pay,” she shrugged, all casual generosity. “I’ll just order.”

“I don’t think that’s a good—”

“. . . The coronation was just last week, but already Emperor Set passed a new edict to expel the pink foreigners within a year.” The conversation of two old village men at the next stall overtook their argument; Lu turned sharply at the sound of her cousin’s name.

“Didn’t I tell you he would make a strong emperor?” the second man was smugly saying to the first. “Frankly, I think it’s time we Hana reclaimed power. From the stories my great-uncles used to tell me when I was a boy, things were better under our control.”

“Can we really consider this a coup for the Hana, though, I wonder?” said the first man, scratching under the red cap sitting snugly on his head. Nok watched with vague disgust as he pulled out a louse the size of an almond, then flicked it dispassionately into the street. “He’s an outsider coming in. How strong can his command over the court be?”

“They say now that the coronation’s done, Emperor Set is coming back up north to the front, to lead the war against Yunis,” the second man said. “If that’s not a show of strength, I don’t know what is.”

Nok looked sharply back at Lu, hoping to stop her before she did anything—

“Excuse me?” she demanded loudly.

—Stupid. Nok suppressed a groan. They were supposed to keep their heads down, mumbling and shuffling like bored peasants—attracting as little attention as possible. He fought to keep the rising despair and annoyance off his face.

“Did you say the new emperor declared war on Yunis?” Lu asked the two men.

They stared at her, gaping toothlessly.

“Why, yes,” the one with the red cap and the louse said at length. Then, he chuckled. “For that raid on the prison camp. You young people should pay more attention to the affairs of state.”