The Heart Forger (The Bone Witch #2)(108)

“You make it sound like the second’s harder than the first.”

“With Inessa, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

I looked away, suddenly self-conscious. The adrenaline was wearing off, my desire to wallow in the Dark diminishing somewhat in his presence. “And…us?”

Kalen bent down to kiss me in full view of everyone, ignoring the delighted gasps from Likh and the Well, finally! from Zoya. “We can be whatever we want us to be too.”

? ? ?

We had overstayed our welcome in Santiang. Though he had agreed to our conditions, Emperor Shifang was a sore loser. With Inessa, he was even more abrupt, so fully encased in his armor of hurt that his arrogance was even more unbearable. Shifang had formally declared the annulment before his courtiers and officials, and Zoya’s foresight ensured that the emperor had no time to present his bride to the citizens. Rumors that the wedding had been interrupted before it could be concluded were encouraged to spread.

“How was it to be the empress of Daanoris for a couple of hours?” Shadi asked Inessa lightly.

“Like a weight around my neck,” the princess admitted sourly. “Once we return to Kion, I would like to spend a few hours yelling at my mother.”

We had one other task to attend to. “Without Princess Yansheo’s heartsglass, we find ourselves facing the same predicament as Mykaela,” Shadi admitted.

“There’s one way to make sure.” Zoya looked at Tansoong. “Have you kept Shaoyun’s remains like I asked?”

The official nodded. “He will have a state funeral, given the circumstances.”

“I’m afraid he has one more duty to the kingdom. Bring his body here.”

Tansoong looked apprehensive. The emperor, no longer bothering to hide his curiosity, barked at him to hurry.

There was not much to retrieve of the unfortunate boy. His meager bones and the scarlet cloth instrumental in identifying him were brought before us, carefully wrapped in a small blanket.

I summoned Raising, and a small stampede broke out as officials and courtiers scrambled out of each other’s way, as far from the corpse as they could get. Emperor Shifang stood his ground, though he looked ready to join his subjects at any moment. The only Daanorian unmoved was Shaoyun himself. He studied his hands with a strange detachedness common in the newly risen and concentrated on me.

“You will not be inconvenienced long,” I told him, with Shadi translating between us, and the dead boy inclined his head in affirmation. “Was Baoyi responsible for Princess Yansheo’s collapse?”

“It was a foreigner,” came the grim reply. “An Odalian. He drew a strange red light from the princess’s chest, and she fell. But then he too shimmered and changed, and I saw it had been Baoyi’s servant all along.”

“Where is the pendant now?”

Slowly, the boy shook his head.

“The princess is ill. We need it to restore her health.”

He shook his head again, but the movement was strangely hesitant.

“Shaoyun.” This time it was Shifang who spoke. Even in death, the emperor held some sway over his subjects. The boy froze in recognition, limbs creaking as he began to kneel, almost from instinct.

“There is no need for that,” the emperor ordered. “This woman speaks the truth. If you care for Princess Yansheo, then where is the pendant?”

The boy’s lips moved. “I snatched it from him before he could work more foul magic. I ran, and they pursued me. The—the pendant filled me up.”

“What does that mean?” I asked Shadi, sure something was lost in the translation.

But the asha was just as puzzled. “I don’t understand it either.”

“The pendant filled me up,” Shaoyun repeated, “and the servant was furious. He…took control of my thoughts, but try as I might, I could not tell him what I had done with it. That was the last thing I remember before the pain. And then nothing.”

“That doesn’t make sense though,” Zoya muttered. “Where did the heartsglass go?”

Khalad was pale, stepping forward. “I am a Heartforger,” he told the corpse. “I don’t know if the title means anything to you, but I can heal the princess. You loved her, didn’t you?”

The corpse closed its eyes and sighed its regret.

“You protected her from one who wished her harm. And now he is dead, and she is safe—but you still possess what is needed to restore her to life. Will you help me?”

The slightest of nods was his answer. Khalad lifted his hand—and plunged it through Shaoyun’s chest. Slowly, he drew it back out—and in his hands was a luminous sphere made of brilliant red light that glittered back at us. “Thank you, Shaoyun,” he said sadly. “Rest easy, knowing that the princess is safe.”

A ghost of a smile appeared on the young Daanorian’s lips. I dissolved the spell, and the undead boy was once again rendered into nothing more than ashes and bones.

“How did you know?” Kalen asked his cousin.

“I didn’t. But few people remember that we use heartscase exactly for this purpose—to keep heartsglass at a fixed point. When you love someone enough, it’s almost instinctive to keep their heartsglass as close to your own heart as possible.” He looked down at the remains and sighed. “I haven’t been in this trade long, but I’m slowly realizing that when it comes to matters of the heart, nearly anything is possible.”