In the back, twenty women surround a large paper-and-silk white flower that opens to the sound of the band’s strings every few moments. The women dance around the flower in shades of pale blue and green, fans flitting and fluttering with their every movement like butterfly wings.
Sprinkled among the long tables laden with steaming-hot food and sweets molded to look like flowers are all of the same men and women who first witnessed me several months prior when I fell from the ceiling swathed in a sheet of silk. Dressed in their fine lavish robes in colors bolder than the paint covering the thick wooden pillars dotted around the room, they look like paler images of the emperor and me up on stage. Although, the stark lack of anyone in white doesn’t escape my notice. He ensured that tonight I would stand out in the sea of bursting colors wherever I went.
It would all be beautiful under any other circumstance. I blink and the hand gripping my arm changes to Rayce, the man in the long blue robe standing next to me morphs from uncle to nephew, the scattered banners hanging proud from all the walls between each of the gigantic windows transform from the Delmarion silver and blue dragons to Zareen’s woven suns filled with interlocking lines. Elation floods my limbs, and suddenly my outfit doesn’t feel nearly as heavy with his hand clutching mine. The future shimmers with possibilities.
But I cannot stay in the world that might have been.
Screeching strings bring me back to the present and the emperor’s hard glare, like he is trying to remind me of my place, as he pulls me farther out onto the raised platform. I keep my eyes straight ahead, waiting for the opportunity to grab his sword, trying not to stumble from all the dragging layers of my robe.
Three sets of stairs lead up to the elevated ground we stand on, the steps in the middle double the width as the ones to each side. He stops in front of his large throne, the back of which is still taller than when he stands at his full height, and jerks me to a halt in front of a large red pillow on his left.
I clench my jaw, trying to keep my anger from bubbling over at having to sit at the feet of another man. The emperor may act more important than the Gardener, but in my eyes, they are equally worthless.
Marin stands just behind me in the shadows, next to the guard who shook my world. He gives no sign that my guess is right, exactly the same as the sea of other soldiers littering the room.
The emperor raises his hands up, signaling silence and a perfect view of my target. Shifting just slightly forward, I inch closer to the sword. My life has always been measured in inches, this goal is no different. Without the wall between us to muffle his voice, I hear every word of his bile, working to keep my face blank.
“Tonight we celebrate not only the birth of a new season, but the ending of a plague among our land. The terrorists known as Zareen are no more.”
As if they had something prodding their backs to let them know it’s time, the two hundred people begin to politely clap, oblivious to the fact that the rebellion was their saving grace from this oppressor holding them hostage.
That’s what you think. In just a few minutes the rebellion will win.
Keeping my eye trained on the crowd, which is captivated by the emperor, I shift closer.
“This celebration is twofold then.” The emperor continues to drone on, not even realizing we are the two flowering bugs in his office. The second he puts me in the cage, I will kill him. “We are here to honor the Summer Goddess and praise the end of a pointless war. Now that our beloved country is no longer fighting amongst itself, we’re free to focus on our true enemy, Varsha, and teach those barbarians across the sands what true enlightenment looks like.”
The silver hilt gleams in the light, beckoning my hand closer. My fingers almost burn with the weight of it, my heart spinning wilder than the women twirling in the background.
“You may thank your grand leader for ushering in this age of a conquest and this young woman at my side for having the tiniest shred of good sense to finally assist in ending the rebellion. Though her assistance was minuscule, it brought the fighting to a peaceful end.”
All eyes turn my way as the emperor gestures toward me, and I grip the insides of my sleeves to keep still, praying that my intention isn’t written all over my face. The emperor turns toward me, his steel gaze almost swallowing me whole, and for a brief second, panic pumps through my body.
“Though this woman resembles any other Varshan heathen…” he continues, turning back to the crowd. The moment he does, I can breathe again, and I creep even closer. The fabric of my robe brushes his, but he doesn’t pay it any mind. “She is a very special Varshan, for the blood running through her veins gives her the right to claim the Varshan throne. Through years of diligence, we have managed to locate the lost Varshan princess.”
This time not even the emperor’s signal can hush the wave of whispers that shakes the crowd, and I freeze completely, a twitch away from my prize. Depsite the delicacy of my mission, I can’t fight the whispered chorus of voices repeating words I’ve kept locked inside: “lost,” “princess,” “Varsha,” and “war.” I keep my shoulders straight and hold my head high, playing my part so no one has to pay for my insolence.
“From henceforth, this girl will be known by her true name, Arianna Vasile, and addressed by her proper station.”
My stomach drops. There it is, the secret I’ve been holding onto since I crossed under the Blue Wall’s gates eight years prior. It’s the only thing that has kept me safe, but also made me a target.
My name, my family’s station reduced to whispers and a false claim over a home I barely remember. Father’s face comes into the front of my mind, the way his eyes would crinkle when he smiled at me full of pride. He would not be proud today.
“In order to quell the rebellion, she has agreed to grant Delmar all rights to her throne through her hand in marriage. Though it is not my wish to be wed to a Varshan, it’s my duty to accept this proposal and lead our grand armies through the sands so that we may finally unite the two kingdoms under one banner as it has been foretold.”
The round of applause that breaks through the silence nearly makes me lose my meager lunch. If the emperor reaches the walls of Varsha, it will be one cruel man fighting another. Neither will care about the safety of their people, and when the Varshan king hears whispers of my name, all of his rage will be directed at me. Win, and I subject nations to the emperor’s cruelty. Lose, and the Varshan king will take my head. Either way, in that life, my fate is already sealed.
I won’t have it. Emperor Sun holds up his hands, signaling for the crowd’s silence. “But before this grand binding can occur and the healing of both kingdoms can begin, we must put to rest our turbulent past. As a display of this, I have arranged a symbol of the future we seek to create. Part a path down the middle for tonight’s first step toward our glorious purpose.”
My fingertips brush the sword’s hilt when the large double doors in the back of the room swing open with a bang. Startled whispers begin at the back as women struggle to move quickly in their large robes, and I pull my hand away before I’m caught. Though I’m at a good vantage point, I lean up on my tiptoes to see what people are scrambling to move for.
The shine of two helmets catches my eye first. They move at a gruelingly slow pace, making my heart seize and stretch out the minutes trying to figure out what the emperor might be up to.
And then he comes into view, shattering my entire world. Rayce.
They drag him along by his arms. His head slumps over onto his chest, too heavy to hold up, and he isn’t even attempting to walk. The bloodstained black shirt he wore earlier becomes more visible in the bright light, riddled with more holes than not. Each of those a stab wound. Apparently, the Borenite really did nothing to help him. All of Piper’s research proved correct. I don’t know why this realization shocks me so much.
Oren kneeling on that rickety wooden platform, barely cognizant and bleeding out from his own wound, flashes before my eyes. How Emperor Sun had held his head
up so he could slice through Oren’s neck. The sound of Rayce’s war cry ringing through my ears, shaking the entire sky.
They stop five feet in front of the raised platform, dropping Rayce to the ground. His head thwacking the polished floor echoes through the room, causing me to clench my teeth. The jolt seems to wake him up. His arms twitch at his sides like the art of coming back to life is painful.
“What’s this about?” I hiss.
The emperor turns to glance over his shoulder, his well-manicured beard accentuating his uninterested mouth.
“Your gift, princess. Be sure to thank me.” Returning his all-encompassing gaze to the room, he begins to speak in a loud voice. “Civil war sends a fracture down the very heart of the land it infests. The only way to mend the damage that has been wrought on our land is to abolish the problem. For those of you who do not recognize this man due to his less-than-becoming appearance, the one bowing before me now is the misguided and foolish leader of the rebellion, Rayce Sun.”
At least with the Gardener, I always could guess what he was up to. All I needed to do was think of the worst possible outcome and it was more than likely what the Gardener would choose. The emperor is an entirely different beast, cunning and keen.
“Today, we will begin our healing with a demonstration of what rebellion will look like if it should ever appear again within my borders.” Goose bumps crawl up my skin even though I’m completely covered from the top of my neck to the bottom of my feet. “For his crimes against the empire, I condemn Rayce Sun to death.”
He speaks the words, but they mean nothing to me. Just letters strung together to make syllables, except these are not the words people come back from. These are the ones that Rayce speaks with a weight too heavy to bear on his shoulders. The ones that drop grown men to their knees.
Traitor!
The emperor’s willingness to murder his own nephew is all the proof I need. The last shred of my sympathy wilts away, turning me to metal. Whatever happens, the man I love will not die tonight. As if Rayce can sense my gaze on him, he struggles to lift his head up. Our eyes meet, and I’m taken under by the future we should have had. His kind eyes, always a different shade of promise. Those large hands that send goose bumps down my arms every time they trail my skin. That have been covered in the blood of his enemies fighting to protect those he led and equally drenched by those he’d healed back to life.
Though we haven’t quite mastered the art of speaking without words, the message in his gaze is clear: don’t worry for me. Stay safe.
Not a chance.
He would fight for me, has reached into the night sky and plucked out the very stars for me. Now it’s my turn. Without thought, my hand darts out, wrapping around the cool leather of the emperor’s sword hilt. I rip it from his right side before he can even think about reacting. He swivels my way, his hand reaching out for a blade that is no longer there.
His sword is much heavier than my own, the mounds of my robe throwing me further off-balance, but I grip the handle in both hands and jam the tip of the blade into the emperor’s back.
“That was not our deal,” I say.
All around me, I hear shocked gasps. Whether it’s from the state of Rayce, the emperor’s words, or my swift betrayal, I’m unsure and I don’t care. Nor can I give any thought to the sound of swords being drawn at my own back. Marin’s voice rises above the others, telling the soldiers to think before they act, that all it would take is a little pressure on my part to end the emperor’s life. But that will only hold them at bay for so long.
“You should really think through your actions before you take them, girl.” The emperor spits out the last word like it’s a curse, but otherwise, his voice remains in complete control, as if he was the one with the sword to my back. “Do you really think you would survive the might of my forces should I turn them on you?”
“We’re not discussing that right now.” The memory of Dongsu burned to the ground flashes before me, the men, women, and children who had nothing to do with the war we are fighting. The emperor cannot be allowed to live. “We’re talking about how you’re going to let Rayce walk out of this room unscathed and disappear into the night.”
“Why would I let the insect who divided my people go?” He turns his shrewd gaze on me. “You would do well to remember it’s not just my nephew’s life you bargained for. If you keep this up, everyone you love will meet the same fate.”
I dig the tip of the blade deeper into the middle of his shoulder blades, cutting through the first layer of silk. “And you would do well to remember that the last time we were bargaining the only thing you got out of it was a book to the side of your head. You underestimated me once. Should you really do it again? If you kill their leader, you make him a martyr and they will never stop fighting, treaty or not. So I’ll say it nicely one more time. Let the shogun walk free.”
The quiet that has overtaken the room would almost be impressive if my entire world weren’t hanging on a fraying piece of thread.
“How about this instead, Flower? You can choose whether you’d like to kill me, or try to spare his life. You cannot have both.”
He flicks his wrist to the soldiers in front of us, without even a care that he is sentencing his own flesh and blood to die, and the one on the left turns on his heel, his sword held aloft above Rayce.
There isn’t time to think.
Shoving my stolen blade through the thick belted fabric around my waist, I jump off the platform, dropping the four layers of robes Marin painstakingly helped me put on like a butterfly shedding its cocoon. Landing on my feet, I rush forward. The whizzing sound of an arrow rushing by my head should shake me, but my goal is crystal clear. Women rush backward, their tight robes constraining their movement as they try to put as much distance between themselves and my target, creating a large circle of open space, a stage from which to launch my final act.
Diving the last few feet, I swing my sword up, shoving the soldier’s blade off its path to Rayce. He will not have another hole made in his body, not if I have anything to do with it.
I swing around while the offending soldier stumbles back and kick the other soldier right in the knee. Feel the satisfying crack of his bone giving under my cloth slipper and straighten as he falls. I swivel back around, glaring at the emperor.
“You will let him go!” My voice soars through the large room, bouncing off the high ceiling like thunder waves. If I have to bring every single one of these people to their knees tonight, then so be it.
The soldiers that escorted us here flow off the stage like water, taking the steps two at a time, including the one that tricked me into believing there would be hope. His sword drawn, he points it at me just like the rest. Behind me, I hear the gasps and screams from people, know that others must be coming to rush me.
I refuse to care. If my life stops here defending the one I love then it will have been a better life than I was living before. I couldn’t do anything to save Fern, I failed to save Oren, but I will give my last breath protecting Rayce.
The emperor regards me like a child throwing a temper tantrum. “No, I won’t, but many more will suffer for your insolence.”
The nearest soldier slams his sword into mine, my muscles quaking as our metal collides, and he tries to test my might. I push forward, the dragon’s black eyes on the emperor’s sword hilt pressing into my palm like they are judging me as harshly as its owner. A frustrated scream rips through my gritted teeth as I throw him back and go to swing at the next soldier in my way.
Except the moment I look at him, he rips off his helmet. Arlo.
He winks at me, and never before have I been so relieved to see those light brown eyes laughing, even through their tightness. He turns on his foot, attacking the Sun soldier next to him.
“Fancy meeting you here, princess,” he says. “Why don’t you do me a favor and get the shogun out of here?”
Relief floods through me as I swing out, warm blood splattering across my fa
ce. My loose hair flies in every direction, blocking my view, as I twist around to see what we’re looking at.
“Already working on that,” Rayce says. I nearly jump at his voice, looking down to see him struggle against the ropes binding his hands. “Although, I have to say, saving the rescue until the very last minute was a bold choice, my friend.”
Arlo slams his metal-covered arm into an incoming soldier. “You had to pay for doubting me somehow, right?”
“And you,” Rayce says, his eyes meeting mine. “Willing to risk your life for me, even after I told you not to.”
I duck down and slice through his bonds with the emperor’s own bloodied blade, freeing his wrists. “You know I’ve never been good at listening to orders.”
“No, and thank the gods for that.”
He gives me a lopsided grin, moving to touch the red welts on his skin. As he shifts, the hole in his shirt where he was cut so deeply moves with him, showing a patch of newly healed pink skin like my shoulder.
“Your wound, it’s healed!”
“It was so painful at first, I didn’t think I would survive it, but I started feeling better a short time after you were forced out of the cell.”
Despite the fact that we’re still in the middle of the throne room and more soldiers are flooding our way, I mirror his smile. His gaze holds mine captive, and my bones are so weary, I just want to curl up inside his arms and rest, but if we have any chance of surviving the night, we have to get out of here now.
Reaching out a shaking hand, I brush his dirt-smeared cheek with the back of my fingers. A blue haze flashes over his eyes, but I blink and the strange glow is gone.
“Here, I think you’ll do a little better with this. It’s far too heavy for my liking.”
War of the Wilted Page 28
