The Wolf of Oren-yaro (Annals of the Bitch Queen Book 1)

by K. S. Villoso

  “How much would you trust Anya Kaz?” I asked, as a way to distract myself from the myriad of confusing thoughts.

  “Depends on the circumstances,” Khine said. “Her own interests, along with Jiro’s, come first, and if yours align with that, then I don’t see a problem. They’re not idiots. But why are you with her? What happened to your uh—companion?” He hesitated at the last word.

  “He was a former guard.” I glanced around. The cramped, common room still looked exactly as when I had left it, and even the book I had been reading on that last morning was laid flat on top of the shelf, as if someone had placed it there after the events and forgotten about it. I also recognized the same blankets and pillows with the red floral embroidery that he had lent to me during my stay, folded in the exact same corner. And yet everything that had happened before Yuebek’s palace felt like a lifetime ago.

  “Former guard?” Khine asked, quirking an eyebrow.

  I felt a foolish smile creep on my face, like a dog seeking appeasement. “Guard,” I repeated. “We were also childhood friends. I suppose that makes a difference.” I took a deep breath and spotted Olliver near the kitchen. I called for him. He darted towards me, his tail a straight line, and got up to put his paws on my knee. He rubbed his face on my outstretched fingers, filling the room with his purring.

  “Don’t get too flattered,” Khine snorted. “He acts like everyone is a long-lost friend.” He picked the cat up and draped him over his shoulder. “I have to admit—I’m impressed that you could get Anya Kaz to listen to you like that. She wasn’t very happy when I gave her the slip back at that inn.”

  “She has incentive,” I said. “She’s been promised a hefty reward when I get home. If I get home.”

  “Remind her exactly how hefty, and you have her loyalty for life. The Blue Rok Haize haven’t exactly been doing well these days, what with merchants hiring expensive guards to get them through the roads and the scouts getting dangerously close to sniffing out her village. I haven’t seen Jiro Kaz since we saw him out on the road.” Olliver made a soft grumble, and he set him down again. The cat rushed back to my leg.

  Khine laughed. “What do you know? Maybe he does like you better.”

  “I may have overfed him when I was staying here.” I sat against the wall and Olliver immediately took the opportunity to curl on my lap. I sank my fingers into his rough coat.

  I felt Khine’s eyes on me. “Why are you here, Tali?” he asked.

  I smiled. Not Queen Talyien. I liked how he pretended to forget. I didn’t think I would’ve tolerated that sort of brazen informality from someone else I had known in as short amount of time as him. “I told you I’d come by.”

  “So you did.”

  “And my guards were getting on my nerves.”

  “Oh, so they’ve multiplied?”

  “They tend to. Queens, you know. Can’t even feed ourselves without issue.”

  “I’ve seen you eat. I can almost agree with that.”

  “That’s mean-spirited, Lamang.”

  “And the way you try to wash dishes…”

  I threw a spare cushion at him. Olliver, finding much to be amused by this, dug his claws into my pants and purred a little louder.

  Khine laughed. I had forgotten how much I missed his voice. The pressure from my arguments with Agos and Nor dissipated almost instantly. I could, I thought, listen to this voice forever.

  I petted Olliver. “Right after we parted this morning,” I said, returning to a more sombre tone. “Word got out from the docks. There’s an embargo on ships leaving for Jin-Sayeng.”

  From the look on his face, it was the first time he had heard the news. “Governor Zheshan’s orders?” he asked, taking the cushion to sit next to me.

  I nodded. “My guards are trying to get to the bottom of things.”

  “I highly doubt an embargo would stop the Jin-Sayeng fishermen from trying to get home.” He took a deep breath. “But this isn’t about trying to find a way home, is it?”

  “Since when did you learn how to read me?”

  “Since the day I first met you,” he said.

  “That’s disconcerting.”

  “Oh, I’ve been told that before. Disconcerting. Unsettling. Creepy.” He started petting Olliver. “So tell me what’s on your mind.”

  “Governor Gon Zheshan gave this order,” I said. “So it’s reasonable to suggest that he could rescind it, right?”

  “I can’t really say. I don’t know much about politics.”

  “What do you know about relations between Anzhao City and Zorheng City?”

  He tightened his face. “What relations? There are none.”

  “I’m not surprised.” I fell silent for a few moments, and then I turned to him and found myself telling him about Zorheng City—Yuebek, Zhu’s death, and my escape. I left the part out about the ghosts, but I told him about the assassins, about finding that note and how I knew it was my husband’s handwriting even though it wasn’t signed.

  Khine never said a word during my story, even when I found myself choking through parts of it. When I finally stopped, he set the cat aside and took my hand. I stared down. It felt wrong to allow myself to take so much comfort from him, but I couldn’t help it. And anyway, I wasn’t sure if he would be offended or not if I pulled away immediately.

  “You can’t be sure it was him,” he was saying.

  I blinked back my tears. “Have you ever read someone’s letters so often that you know his brush strokes by heart?”

  “His? No. Her?” He gave a sad smile.

  “Then you know the sort of foolishness I’m talking about.”

  “I don’t know if I want to call it foolishness.”

  “It is. He knew I loved him.”

  “And why shouldn’t you love and trust this man, the one they’ve all wanted you to marry since birth? You said he had never lifted a hand against you. Has he always treated you fairly?”

  “Why shouldn’t he have? I would have never tolerated it otherwise. But no matter how you cover it up with words, our marriage is political, and politics—to our families—come first. He tricked me into going all the way out here and then tricked me into thinking Gon Zheshan has him imprisoned when it’s clear that he’s willingly working with him. Because he wants me dead. And I, like a fool…” I finally slid my hand from his and folded my arms over my knees. “I can’t even tell my guards. If word of this gets out, there will be civil war. The warlords will feel like they have to pick a side. Some will feign insult. It will be a bloodbath. Always at the edge of a bloodbath, the damned fools…” I closed my eyes. “I will not revive my father’s legacy. I cannot.”

  “I think,” Khine said gently, “that it’s no longer up to you. You can’t honestly think you can control everything your warlords and their lords do. Even now, it’s clear that they’re moving on their own, queen’s approval be damned. The fate of your nation is out of your hands.”

  “Such comfort,” I drawled.

  He smirked. “The truth, nothing more. You make it seem as if this whole thing hinged on you maintaining this marriage. You never considered the snakes around you? That perhaps you actually succeeded against all odds? How many betrothals fall apart within the year? Yet as much as your clans hated each other, you tried to make it work. You fulfilled your duties. You bore them an heir. Twenty-six years, you kept this thing at bay. Now that the inevitable unrest has arrived, why should you blame only yourself? What about the man who was supposed to shoulder half this burden?”

  I stared at the floor and didn’t reply.

  “I don’t know if you want a con artist’s opinion,” he said.

  “I’m not sure I can stop you from giving it.”

  “You know me too well.” He paused, as if mulling over his words. “The last time you spoke with Rayyel, you were set up. Regardless of who orchestrated the plans, the fact is, you were the mark and you were walking straight into a trap. You said you were supposed to meet elsewhere, and th
en things changed at the last minute, which led you to The Silver Goose, where your men were neatly disposed of with you none-the-wiser. In the meantime, you were at a meeting where the talk was going nowhere because it wasn’t supposed to—it was supposed to be a distraction until the assassins arrived, probably at a time when there were no other patrons in the restaurant.

  “So at no point were you in a position where you could discuss—freely discuss—things with Rayyel. You never found the opportunity to come to a resolution. In The Silver Goose, he was as much of a mark as you were. Perhaps he wants you dead. He didn’t before, or he’d have already knifed you in bed back home, or sent assassins at least once over the last five years. So only a recent thing made him want to kill you, and if you want to find out what and how you could maybe change his mind back so you can work together long enough to get your nation out of this mess, then you need to go to Gon Zheshan and talk to him when he least expects it, when he’s got no one else whispering in his ear.”

  I stared at Khine. “You think it’s going to be that easy?”

  “No,” he said, finally looking up with a smile. “But it’s a start. From what it sounds like, your lords already think you’ve abandoned your duties. I hardly think they’ll believe you if you told them that no, here I am everyone, silly me, it turns out I just missed my ship!”

  “I don’t sound like that.”

  “So you’re going to need Rayyel’s support.”

  “And you think Gon Zheshan is just going to let me walk in there and entertain me?”

  Khine smiled. “That’s where the con artist bit comes in.”

  I saw the glint in his eyes. “You’re suggesting a ruse.”

  “A grand one. They won’t see it coming. You’ll drop in on him unexpected. We don’t even need to get him out—we can just have him sign a letter for your council, figure out how to get it to Jin-Sayeng after. There must be a way.”

  I digested his words in silence. “I suppose it’s worth the risk. But…if we’re going through all that trouble, a letter alone won’t do it. You think my warlords like to read?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We get Rai out.” I chewed on my lip. “I don’t think he’ll want us to.”

  “You’re suggesting we take him by force?”

  “You said yourself I need to speak with him freely, as we are. That’s not going to happen when he’s surrounded by these people.”

  Khine scratched his cheek. “I suppose I can come up with something. Would be the first time I’ve had to make an entire man disappear, but I like challenges. Is he ah…heavy? This husband of yours?”

  “Agos can carry him,” I said.

  “Your guard didn’t seem to like me.”

  “Believe me, he likes Rayyel even less. You’ll be in great company.” I folded my hands together and got up. “It’s decided, then. A ruse. I haven’t even asked what you’re getting out of this.”

  “Helping a friend isn’t an answer?”

  I touched his cheek. The smirk on his face faded.

  “You haven’t lived in a world where that’s enough, have you?” he asked.

  I shook my head.

  “Very well.” Khine took my wrist away. “You’re not going to like how this begins, anyway.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “To get this ruse started, we need a reason to see Governor Zheshan. A reason that he can’t possibly deny. And to do that, we need to speak with Han Lo Bahn.”

  ~~~

  Neither Ziori nor Tati, from the whorehouse, ever clarified exactly what being a lord of Shang Azi meant.

  Khine explained to me that a city as large as Anzhao meant that inevitably, certain neighbourhoods fall through the cracks. With very little restrictions, houses are built on top of each other, causing the streets to become dark and narrow and allowing crime to become rampant. The city watch abhorred sending out guards to such places, as they saw it as a waste of time and money. As a “favour” to city officials, certain enterprises would hire their own men to keep the peace. What these businesses actually enforced depended on the city official they were involved in and any number of things such as bribes, marriage arrangements, partnerships, or family ties, most of which had nothing whatsoever to do with the law.

  Such illicit activities were not unknown in Jin-Sayeng, especially in the west, but I think I had never expected that Anzhao City’s officials would openly acknowledge such people. Yet it seemed that they did: I noticed uniformed members of the city watch lounging around the steps leading to Lo Bahn’s house. The house itself was not as large as Deputy Qun’s mansion, but it seemed oddly out of place in that neighbourhood, sprouting up from between the cramped buildings and tight alleyways.

  The sight of the city watch made Anya visibly uncomfortable, although she didn’t say anything. Neither did Khine. I heard snippets of the men’s conversation and gathered that they were trading winnings from the gambling halls, as well as talking about their favourite whores and the various positions they liked to take them. I turned to my guards, both of whom didn’t try to hide the distaste on their faces.

  “To let the queen sink so low…” Agos murmured, directing his ire towards Nor.

  “We need to focus,” I said.

  “I don’t know if I can,” Agos grumbled. “Working with such men. I would’ve clouted my own soldiers for speaking like that around company. Perhaps I can understand if the others had to resort to it. The lords of the Sougen hires mercenaries. They do it in Kyo-orashi and Meiokara, too. But you are of the Oren-yaro. You have battle-honed soldiers, willing and ready to fight for you at any moment, and loyal…”

  “Remember,” Nor broke in. “It was Oren-yaro who betrayed us, too.”

  “Whoever the hell those men were, clearly they were not true Oren-yaro. You don’t just pick the queen’s personal guard from a dung heap. You must’ve missed something.”

  Nor rolled her eyes. “And where were you, in all this? Oh, that’s right…”

  “Please,” Khine broke in. “Most of these people probably can’t understand you, but they can tell you’re arguing, and that’s just going to make our case even harder.”

  “Don’t let me get started about this one,” Agos hissed. “The scum you’re surrounded with these days…”

  “Should I ask the queen to leave you outside?” Khine asked sweetly.

  “Maybe they can find bones for you to chew on,” Nor added.

  I struggled to keep a straight face and stepped ahead of them to greet what I thought had been a servant at first. It turned out to be Inzali. She bowed, her freckled face crumpling into a half-smile. “Lo Bahn is expecting you,” she said.

  I took her hands in mine. “It’s good to see you, Inzali. I’m sorry for what happened. I will do my best to fix it.”

  She blinked at me. “There is nothing to fix. What did Khine tell you?”

  “He said Lo Bahn took you hostage in payment for sheltering me.”

  Inzali smiled. “He jumped to that conclusion. My brother can be a bit—what’s that word?”

  “Stupid?” Khine offered.

  “Idiotic also works.” She led us into a large common room, where we were asked to remove our shoes. Servants came to whisk them away, and I found myself thinking that if this meeting went badly, I didn’t want to escape through a window and land on the street in my socks. Another set of servants came for our weapons.

  This time, I hesitated. “We don’t want trouble,” Inzali said. “And Lo Bahn has learned that you are more deadly with a blade than he has been led to believe.”

  “Do as they ask,” Khine murmured. “He will not betray us.”

  I unstrapped the dagger, and nodded at Nor and Agos, who bristled at the notion. “If worse comes to worst, you can always tear a leg off a table,” I suggested.

  Agos stared at me. He eventually took off his sword, nearly ripping it off his belt, and threw it across the floor so that a servant had to chase after it.

  We we
re led to the middle of the room. Cushions had already been set out, and trays of fruit: mangoes, rambutan, plums, lychees, sapodilla. More servants arrived, this time to pour wine. My guards refused them, but I drank enough for three. My nerves were beginning to fray.

  “You’re under Lo Bahn’s employ,” I observed as Inzali dismissed the servants.

  She nodded. “For less pay than what he would have hired me for, but then he wouldn’t have known my value otherwise. I also tutor his children. Why? Did my brother make you think he took me in as his whore?”

  “Clearly, your brother has problems in articulation,” Khine offered. He smiled at me. “It was ah—a confusing time. Inzali took care of everything. She always does.”

  “Well, not everything,” Inzali said.

  I wanted to ask what she meant by that, but then I heard a bell ring. I turned to see Lo Bahn descend from the staircase. The entire chamber fell silent.

  For all his bulk, Lo Bahn walked deliberately. This was a man who knew he wielded power and didn’t have to make any efforts to show it. I remembered Prince Yuebek, in comparison—hurling himself at his servants, demanding they do more, be more, to make his authority clear. Lo Bahn didn’t have to do any of these things. A cabinetmaker’s son, Khine had told me, not an emperor’s, yet he carried himself with more pride than Yuebek ever did. I had spent weeks in utter fear of the man, but seeing him now, I was more in awe than anything else. How could I be the one falling silent when he was the one entertaining a queen?

  “We meet again, Kora,” Lo Bahn said, his voice filling the room. Even his choice of words were deliberate. “Or shall I call you Queen Talyien, now? I can never really tell. Are you here to tell me to whisk you away to safety so you could lie to my face about my performance afterwards?”

  “A necessary deceit at the time,” I answered.

  He snorted, but a moment later, as if just remembering his manners, he bowed. “Perhaps I should be glad I was outwitted by a woman. I believe you would have my head now otherwise.”