One
“We can do this,” I whispered to my sister. The guard’s eyes flicked to us, but he didn’t speak Northern, so he merely grimaced and dropped his hand to the hilt of his blade.
“Quiet,” hissed Lord Fuyii. He glared at me, smiling all teeth when the guard frowned at him.
Eonaî shot me an annoyed look, the blue of her eyes contrasting with the violet gown Lord Fuyii had insisted on. After all, the emperor’s betrothed couldn’t arrive in the Imperium wearing furs and leathers.
As her escort, I was still allowed mine, and now I wished I’d put on the offered imperial-style clothes. At least then, Eonaî wouldn’t be alone. With her hair pulled back, a golden pin fastening it in a small bun on top of her head, my twin looked foreign, like she was no longer the girl who had once dumped a bucket of mop water on my head.
“You look good,” I offered, louder. “Better than anyone else in the carriage.”
Lord Fuyii tutted again. “How many times do I need to warn you about your tongue, Airón? Be civilized. Speak Northern and Emperor Millu might cut out your tongue.”
Eonaî said nothing. They might not understand our language, but we couldn’t be foolish. Not this close to our goal, not when it was within our touch.
She was going to marry the emperor so that I could kill him.
And then, in all likelihood, we would both be killed, but that was a problem for after I had imperial blood on my hands. Eonaî finally relented.
“How much farther?” Eonaî’s Imperial was good, almost flawless, and Lord Fuyii hid his small smile behind his fan.
“We’re almost there,” the guard said, grudgingly adding, “Princess.”
Lord Fuyii said sharply, “You should be grateful His Imperial Majesty has even sent the carriage for you! It would be decent for the supplicant in the marriage to walk through the streets as it was done in the Dragon Chosen days. Despite my best work, you are still lacking.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Dear master, do you think you could manage the walk? It is very far from the docks to the Imperial Capital and even further to the Mountainside Palace. I’m sure you are grateful as well.”
“You dare—” Lord Fuyii raised his hand, his wide fan snapping shut in the same motion as he brought it down across my face.
He was panting, his pale skin flushed from the effort. Even the guard seemed startled, frowning at Lord Fuyii. The carriage drew to a stop, the creak of the mechanized wheels braking startlingly loud.
The door opened, and Lord Fuyii started to rise, but I moved faster, forcing him back into his seat, the narrow carriage only allowing one person to stand.
“Sister,” I murmured. Everything I wanted to say needed to remain unspoken. We had one chance to make an impression,to amaze the court and the emperor. To make her desirable to a man as old as our father.
Eonaî shot me a smirk. She drew her chin up, stepping out of the carriage with all the grace she had learned. The violet might not match her complexion or her eyes, but it made a statement, being only a shade lighter than the emperor’s colors. I gave Lord Fuyii another nudge and then followed after her.
The carriage had stopped outside one of the entrances to the Mountainside Palace. The three-story building spread wide, with windows spanning from the high ceiling to the ground and linked by bridges to another, taller building constructed from different colored stone. Rows and rows of people dressed in every shade of yellow bowed, the color marking them as palace servants of various ranks.
Lord Fuyii stumbled down from the carriage, his eyes wide at the sight. In the mid-morning light, the makeup he’d put on was even more obvious. The shimmery powder favored by the court had packed into his wrinkles, thickening there and emphasizing how much the alcohol and despair had aged him.
One of the servants near the carriage rose, her unpowdered skin gleaming. Her hair was pulled back in a practical version of Eonaî’s styling, and the yellow of her uniform was closer to a marigold color, marking her as senior staff, almost an official.
“Your Highnesses, my name is Nohe. I’m in charge of Turtle House, where dignitaries stay. If you will follow me, we’ve prepared refreshments for you to enjoy after your long journey.” Nohe gestured with one hand, bowing slightly to indicate the request in her words. Southerners spoke more with their bodies than we did, each motion its own phrase.
I glanced back at our carriage. “Our belongings?”
“We’ll have them taken directly to the guest quarters,” Nohe said. She gestured again, bowing slightly lower, and Eonaîfollowed her implicit instruction, not even looking back to see if we followed.
The building’s pillars were wide enough that three southern men could wrap their arms around one and never touch hands. The windows were decorated with gold, a pattern of water dragons chasing each other up and down the panes of glass.
“Excessive,” I muttered in Northern. “How many visiting dignitaries do they have now that they’ve conquered all their neighbors?”
At the doorway, the guard who had traveled with us from the docks bowed low and muttered something about honoring us and then turned, clearly ready to return to his unit. The first room we passed through was beautiful, even as it failed to live up to the exterior of the building. Nohe gestured us through another door into an even more exquisite room and then glided through it into a third room with walls decorated in gold and ivory.
As Lord Fuyii tried to follow us in, Nohe raised a hand. The motion was as clear as a shout in the imperial language of gesture and movement. Lord Fuyii pulled up short, his eyes narrowing.
“Lord Fuyii, your refreshments are here,” Nohe said, indicating the second room, then shut the sliding door. I raised an eyebrow at Eonaî.
