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“The Mugenese weren’t the real enemy,” Daji murmured. “They never were. They were just poor puppets serving a mad emperor who started a war that he shouldn’t have. But who gave them those ideas? Who told them they could conquer the continent?”
Blue eyes. White sails.
“I warned you about everything. I told you this from the beginning. Those devils are going to destroy our world. The Hesperians have a singular vision for the future, and we’re not in it. You already know this. You must have realized it, now that you’ve seen what they’re like. I can see it in your eyes. You know they’re dangerous. You know you’ll need an ally.”
Questions formed on Rin’s tongue, too many to count, but she couldn’t summon the breath to speak them. Her vision was tunneling, turning black at the edges. All she could see was Daji’s pale face, dancing above her like the moon.
“Think about it,” Daji whispered, tracing her cool fingers over Rin’s cheek. “Figure out who you’re fighting for. And when you know, come find me.”
“Rin? Rin!” Venka’s face loomed over her. “Fucking hell. Can you hear me?”
Rin felt a great weight lifting off her back and shoulders. She lay flat, eyes open wide, sucking in great gulps of air.
“Hey.” Venka snapped her fingers in front of her. “What’s my name?”
Rin moaned. “Just help me up.”
“Close enough.” Venka wedged her arms under her stomach and helped Rin roll onto her side. Every tiny movement sent fresh spasms of pain rippling through her back. She collapsed into Venka’s arms, breathless with agony.
Venka’s hands moved over her skin, feeling for injuries. Rin felt her fingers pause on her back.
“Oh, that’s not good,” Venka murmured.
“What?”
“Uh. Can you breathe all right?”
“Ribs,” Rin gasped. “My—ow!”
Venka pulled her hands away from Rin. They were slippery with blood. “There’s a rod stuck under your skin.”
“I know,” Rin said through gritted teeth. “Get it out.” She reached back to try again to yank it out herself, but Venka grabbed her wrist before she could.
“You’ll lose too much blood if it comes out now.”
Rin knew that, but the thought of the rod digging deeper inside her was making her panic spiral. “But I’m—”
“Just breathe for a minute. All right? Can you do that for me? Just breathe.”
“How bad is it?” Kitay’s voice. Thank the gods.
“Several ribs broken. Don’t move, I’ll get a stretcher.” Venka set off at a run.
Kitay knelt down beside her. His voice dropped to a whisper. “What happened? Where’s the Empress?”
Rin swallowed. “She got away.”
“Obviously.” Kitay’s fingers tightened on her shoulder. “Did you let her go?”
“I . . . what?”
Kitay gave her a hard look. “Did you let her go?”
Had she?
She found that she couldn’t answer.
She could have killed Daji. She’d had plenty of opportunities to burn, strangle, stab, or choke the Empress before the beam fell. If she’d wanted to, she could have ended everything then and there.
Why hadn’t she?
Had the Vipress manipulated her into letting her go? Was Rin’s reluctance a product of her own thoughts or Daji’s hypnosis? She could not remember if she had chosen to let Daji escape, or if she had simply been outsmarted and defeated.
“I don’t know,” she whispered.
“You don’t know,” Kitay asked, “or you don’t want to tell me?”
“I thought it’d be so clear,” she said. Her head swam; her eyes fluttered closed. “I thought the choice was obvious. But now I really don’t know.”
“I think I understand,” Kitay said after a long pause. “But I’d keep that to yourself.”
Chapter 34
Rin jolted awake to the sound of gongs. She tried to spring out of bed, but the moment she lifted her head, a searing pain rippled through her back.
“Whoa.” Venka’s blurry face came into view. She put a hand on Rin’s shoulder and forced her back down. “Not so fast.”
“But the morning alarm,” Rin said. “I’m going to be late.”
Venka laughed. “To what? You’re off duty. We’re all off duty.”
Rin blinked. “What?”
“It’s over. We won. You can relax.”
After months of warfare, of sleeping and eating and waking on the same strict schedule, that statement was so incredible to Rin that for a moment the words themselves sounded like they’d been spoken in a different language.
“We’re finished?” she asked faintly.
“For now. But don’t be too disappointed, you’ll have plenty to do once you’re up and moving.” Venka cracked her knuckles. “Soon we’ll be running cleanup.”
Rin struggled to prop herself up on her elbows. The pain in her lower back pulsed along with her heartbeat. She clenched her teeth to stave it off. “What else is there? Update me.”
“Well, the Empire hasn’t exactly surrendered. They’re decapitated, but the strongest provinces—Tiger, Horse, and Snake—are still holding out.”
“But the Wolf Meat General’s dead,” Rin said. Venka already knew that—she’d seen it happen—but saying it out loud made her feel better.
“Yeah. We captured Tsolin alive, too. Jun made it out, though.” Venka picked up an apple from Rin’s bedside. She began paring it with rapid, sure movements, fingers moving so fast that Rin was amazed she didn’t peel her own skin off. “Somehow he swam out of the channel and got away—he’s well on his way back to Tiger Province now. Horse and Snake are loyal to him, and he’s a better strategist than Chang En was. They’ll put up a good fight. But the war should be over soon.”
“Why?”
Venka pointed out the window with her paring knife. “We have help.”
Rin shifted around in her bed to peer outside, clutching the windowsill for support. A seemingly infinite number of warships crowded the harbor. She tried to calculate how many Hesperian troops that entailed. Thousands? Tens of thousands?
She should have been relieved the civil war was as good as over. Instead, when she looked at those white sails, all she could feel was dread.
“Something wrong?” Venka asked.
Rin took a breath. “Just . . . disoriented a bit, I think.”
Venka handed the peeled apple to Rin. “Eat something.”
Rin wrapped her fingers around it with difficulty. It was amazing how hard the simple act of chewing was; how much it hurt her teeth, how it strained her jaw. Swallowing was agony. She couldn’t manage more than a few bites. She put the apple down. “What happened to the Militia deserters?”
“A couple tried to flee over the mountains, but their horses got scared when the dirigibles came,” Venka said. “Trampled them underfoot. Their bodies are still stuck in the mud. We’ll probably send a crew to get those horses back. How’s your . . . well, how’s everything feeling?”
