The Heart Forger (The Bone Witch #2)(106)
The savul was still alive, still breathing despite its mortal injuries as the litter carrying the emperor arrived. With them was everyone else: Zoya and Shadi, Likh and Khalad, and the elder Heartforger. The old man was stooped and exhausted, though the fire was back in his eyes. Khalad supported him, with Likh on the other side. Zoya and Shadi looked just as tired. Princess Inessa walked beside Fox instead of behind the emperor, as should have been customary of all noble Daanorian wives. The silver fox pin she wore on her collar glinted in the morning light. Fox said little, though the pain from his proximity to the savul had not faded.
We had borne away the dead and the dying. The Odalian army had not recovered from the sinkhole Kalen had opened beneath them, and from their stunned expressions and their incredulity, I surmised that most of them had fallen victim to compulsion, though which Faceless was responsible still remained a mystery. The Odalian army was, in fact, not quite the Odalian army after all.
“Hired stooges,” Kalen muttered angrily. “I wondered why I saw no familiar faces among them, why their uniforms were out of order. Bandits and thieves, for the most part. Their leaders were paid handsomely to wave the Odalian flag and march in beat, but no one can tell me their purchaser. We are still hunting for Baoyi and the others.”
“A quick scry into their minds tells me nothing, though I would say Usij is the likely culprit. Holsrath would have sent the army itself.” I still had one last task to accomplish. The Faceless’s body had still been warm to the touch when it had been carted away to be thrown into a nearby ditch for the crows to feast on.
I had drawn out my knife but paused. The logical part of me knew that the savul should die. And yet…
“Do you want me to do it?” Kalen asked quietly.
I shook my head and turned to Fox, still watching me with that same unshakable gaze. “Here’s your revenge,” I told him.
He shook his head. “You avenged me the instant Usij died. This is just another one of his victims.” His eyes searched mine. You don’t want to kill it. But you must, Tea.
Had this been Kion, I might have found another way. But this was Daanorian territory, and the kingdom bayed for blood.
After a moment, I took Kalen’s sword and presented it wordlessly to Shifang. He understood well enough. It was not every day that an emperor could claim a daeva kill, even on a technicality. But he dismissed my paltry weapon and summoned an underling to bring him the sword he so favored, littered with ornate jewels but with no sharpness to speak of. The savul would not die quickly from its blow.
The emperor raised his hand, his sword glittering in the light, while I quietly wove my Raising. “Die,” I whispered softly as Shifang struck, and the savul complied before his blade landed. A faint cheer rose among the soldiers.
“Take this carcass and dispose of it,” the emperor ordered. Tansoong scuttled forward, issuing more commands of his own, and the soldiers converged around the fallen beast, uncertain where to start.
The deed done, the smile faded from the emperor’s face, and he turned toward his wife. Inessa remained standing apart from him, as regal as any queen could be, and I could see the Empress Alyx in her stern face.
“You have brought many things to my kingdom,” the emperor added soberly. “The good and the terrible.”
Inessa inclined her head. “Perhaps our marriage has been looked on with disfavor from the gods.”
“Perhaps that is so.” But yearning lingered in the man’s voice. “Perhaps…perhaps it is still possible—”
Inessa shook her head. “You knew long before today that we are not compatible.”
The emperor’s gaze strayed toward Fox, contempt and anger now evident. “I can make things difficult for the people of Kion,” he said, falling back on threats when honeyed words would no longer work.
I was done with all the intrigue, and the Dark swirled in my blood, enough to desire to offend. “And I can make things difficult for His Majesty.” I glided forward, and the emperor shrunk back, his fear palpable. I hid my smile. Was I no longer the small harmless thing he described at our first meeting? “I am the keeper of the dragon. Harm one hair on your queen’s head, harm any of us here…and we will wreak havoc upon your land until your own citizens shall beat their chest and rue the day you assumed your throne.”
Perhaps that went too far, as I was not in the mood to be cordial. But it had the desired effect; Shifang did not need a heartsglass for me to smell his fright, as sharp and as sweet as the breeze around us.
“What the Dark asha means,” Zoya countered, as soft as syrup where I was as rough as granite, “is that the Faceless’s plans to sow discord will succeed if we are divided against them. We must stand united, Your Majesty, but we must do so by means other than marriage.”
The emperor bowed his head, scowling, but nodded. “That is true. My people…have not looked on this betrothal with favor. But Inessa and I are already wedded.”
“We are not, Your Majesty,” Inessa interrupted. “A binding stipulation of an emperor’s bride is that she must come to her husband’s bed pure and untouched. I…cannot fulfill such a requirement.”
To have Inessa declare this before her husband, much less in front of an audience, was positively scandalous. The emperor drew away from her in horror, her audience gasped, and I hid a grin.