Ihadto remember that Tallu had killed a child and its mother for the simple act of threatening his position, for the simple fact of their being in line for the imperial throne. I had to keep that close and remember blood on the tundra and bodies hacked to pieces by the Imperium. I had to remember whale songs sung to missing mothers, whole pods destroyed by imperial ships.
Even if that seemed impossibly far from the man I knew, the man who’d called me a treasure.Focus, Airón. Focus on the goal and the Silver City’s survival.No matter how much that was starting to hurt.
Blinking, I finally found the empress’s bedroom. One of the shutters had been left open, so it was easier to see how EmpressKoque had left her quarters. Everything was neatly put away, everything had its place, but there was a bookshelf in the corner filled with well-worn tomes. A writing desk sat next to a window, the chair comfortable enough that it was clear the empress spent time there.
Despite the dust that covered the rest of the rooms, this room was clean. Was there some servant still in attendance? Loyal to her mistress even though that mistress was long dead?
There were no musical instruments I could see, nor any supplies for painting or drawing. So, the empress preferred the written word over any other sign of her good breeding.
Carefully, I slid open the writing desk, lifting the lid to reveal neat stacks of paper and pens with well-worn nibs. I skimmed a stack of paper on the side and realized the empress had been writing some sort of treatise on why her style of fashion was the best, and the fashion more common under the first emperor was inappropriate for today’s modern woman.
I began opening each drawer, checking the contents to find everything except the rocks I was looking for. Just when I was about to give up, I opened the last drawer, only to realize it was shorter than its companions. Frowning, I pulled it out all the way and found a secret compartment hidden behind it.
Using my fingernails, I pried it free and found inside the rocks I had been looking for. I took them out one by one, considering them. Why would the empress hide them? Her favor for them had been public knowledge.
I slipped them into a pouch at my waist, then reached in to see what else was in the empress’s secret hiding spot. There was a stack of folded letters next to the Krustavian stone, and I shoved it into my pouch. Whatever they contained, I likely needed more than dim moonlight to consider the full ramifications.
There was nothing else in the compartment, and I carefully closed it back up, sliding the drawer back into place and shutting the writing desk.
I looked around the room, but I hadn’t touched anything else, so I repositioned the chair and began to walk out into the hallway. I froze when I saw the candlelight.
Fifteen
Someone was coming up the stairs from the ground floor. They were being quiet, and the only reason I had any idea they were coming was the light they must have been holding. I knew they held a candle because the light flickered against the walls.
If they had been holding an electric lamp, it would have been a steady light, but the flicker meant they were holding a candle. That meant they weren’t an electro mage or didn’t have access to an electric light.
I slipped under a hall table. If it was a normal person, holding the candle at chest level like most people found comfortable, the light would cast shadows under the table. Unless they bent to check for me, they wouldn’t see me.
Keeping quiet, I thought about who might be coming. The Emperor’s Dogs were all electro mages, so they wouldn’t be carrying a candle. Who else was searching the empress’s quarters, and for what purpose?
They reached the top of the stairs, and for a moment, I barely breathed. Then they came into view, and I wasn’t breathing for another reason.
Piivu held the candle and walked straight for the empress’s bedroom. Was he here to filch things? Had I hired a thief?
The thought was at once amusing and also slightly horrifying. What if he was stealing things from me that would reveal my true purpose in the Imperium? Had he found my dragon’s egg and turned it over to Tallu? He turned into the bedroom, and, curious, I crept forward.
It was well past midnight, and he would start working in only a few hours. What was he doing here?
I had my answer as soon as I peeked into the doorway. Sleeping. He had curled up on the empress’s large bed, cradling her pillow. His eyes were shut, and he was already snoring.
I stayed for a moment longer, considering the familiar way he had moved around the room. So, he wasn’t sleeping at his quarters in the Mountain Thrown buildings but instead in the quarters of Empress Koque.
I didn’t have time. As carefully as I could, I made my way back up to the attic, creeping across the planks until I reached the window. Crawling out of it was harder than swinging inside, but I managed, getting up to the rooftop and then reversing course, making it back into my bedroom before anyone noticed I was missing.
I shoved the rocks and the letters into my own secret hideaway carved in the bottom of my mattress. Then, I took a cue from Piivu and fell into an exhausted sleep.
The next morning,after breakfast, I went through another few lessons with Nohe about the formulaic phrases I would need to say at my wedding, the correct way to bow, and the correct wayto accept all the gifts that we were going to be given. Then, I claimed I had a headache and needed privacy.
In my room, I pulled out everything. The rocks, the letters, the bags of coins I had left, and all of my weapons.
In the past week, I had made attempts at Krustavian forgery. I didn’t speak the dwarves’ language very well and couldn’t possibly write it, but I knew the shape of the letters and figured that a letter written in Imperial with a few Krustavian letters thrown in, as though the writer was confused about how to write in Imperial, was good enough.
The forgeries were fairly basic, acting as though Prince Rute had requested the price for an assault party and answering him with an outrageous sum. The second letter confirmed the date and time of arrival and implied that Prince Rute had helped with the border crossing from Krustau.
Now, I just needed one of the weapons that the Krustavian warriors had been wielding. Nohe had said they used it like a signet ring, meaning that when the letters were found, the military could match the seal to the hilt of the blade of a weapon they already had.
I groaned. I was running low on time. There were seven days… No, six. Six days until the wedding. Giving myself some leeway, that meant I had three days to plant the evidence and make sure it was found. Three days. Three days was doable, I assured myself.
