I had done more in less time.
That wasn’t true, but I was giving myself the sort of talk one needed to hear before going into battle. No one liked going into battle and hearing, “This is going to be the hardest thing you’ve ever done, and you’ve never done anything like it. So good luck.”
No, even in my own head, I needed to convince myself that I had done similar things before.
I put the rocks back away, setting everything as it had been, except for a handful of coins that I tucked into one of my pockets. If I was going to be bribing a guard to steal one of the Krustavian swords, I would need money.
Opening my door, I realized that my plan was shit. Because I had no way of bribing anyone, not with Asahi glaring at me, very, very aware of my every move.
“Are you feeling better, Your Highness?” His tone was mild.
I nodded. “Anxious. I would like to speak with General Saxu.”
Asahi frowned, which I could only tell because of the narrowing of his eyes. “Why?”
“Are youmysocial secretary now? I would like to speak with him. Where might he be found?” I blinked innocently at Asahi, knowing how it annoyed him. “Would he be in the military housing?”
Asahi nodded, and I walked through Turtle House, making him trail behind me. I could feel his displeasure, but I ignored it. I had work to do.
The military housing wasn’t that far from the Mountain Thrown buildings. As far as I could tell, only the top generals lived in the palace. The rest were housed in a base outside of the city.
The rooms in the palace were for housing the top generals and for planning military ventures. They were public-facing rooms, even as the military liked to pretend they owned them. The guards at the door didn’t wear yellow like palace guards but were instead dressed in their military uniforms, everything polished and new. This was not the armor they wore to battle.
The soldiers on duty reacted to my approach with wide, confused eyes, one turning to Asahi as though he was the one who would speak on my behalf.
“The prince would like to see General Saxu,” Asahi said, and only my week’s experience with him let me hear his displeasure at the whole venture.
“Of course, sir.” One of the soldiers bowed to Asahi, then lower to me, then straightened and fled back inside.
Shaking my head, I followed him inside, aware of how everyone stopped when they saw me. Fine. It was strange, but I was not about to wait outside like a dog expecting scraps from the evening meal.
General Saxu saw me immediately, meeting me in a large room with a table empty of anything on it. I could imagine maps and projections, piles of paperwork and little models indicating military forces.
But the imperial expansion was on hold, and all of that was gone for now.
“I would like to see one of the weapons wielded by the attackers.” I frowned at General Saxu, as though thinking very hard. “I wanted to see if there was any chance that it was actually a northern weapon. If my kingdom did launch an attack, I would like to know about it in order to warn my father that his rule isn’t as solid as he would believe.”
“Of course.” General Saxu nodded. “Would you like to see the bodies? We kept them in cold storage, although the smell is beginning to intensify. General Maki has made a request for them, but the emperor has held off until we know more.”
“Maybe. I still don’t believe they were northern. We do not mutilate our warriors in such a way.” I shook my head. “For now, the weapons should do.”
Saxu nodded, leading me down a long hallway and then two sets of stairs until we were in the bowels of the building. I understood immediately what Saxu meant about the smell: the scent of death lingered in the air. We passed closed door after closed door until Saxu turned, opening one of them.
Inside were rows of weapons. I had expected to see just the ones from the assassins in the Dragon Temple, but this was an expansive collection of weapons from the continent. Northern swords were propped up in a case, and the long chain weapon that air mages preferred hung from the ceiling. The double-bladed staffs that warriors from the Ariphadeus used sat in neat rows.
General Saxu opened a cabinet, revealing bloodied swords and spears. The blood and gore had gone a shade of brown and flaked off when he lifted one of the blades and offered it over to me. It was exactly the type of sword that I remembered from the attack, and the heft of it hit me immediately. The blade was so heavy that I never would have been able to wield it long enough to do real damage.
It was definitely Krustavian. Yorîmu had been very clear: the only way to win against a warrior from Krustau was to be more agile, faster than them. A single blow from a Krustavian blade could kill you if taken head-on. But the weight of their weapons forced them to sacrifice speed and flexibility. When they struck, there was no chance to change the direction of their blow, no way to correct if they needed to.
I ran my finger over the hilt, turning it to see the base. There was something that looked like a badger with Krustavian words around it carved into the very bottom of the hilt.
“Who was the first one who accused these men of being northerners?” I asked, suddenly very curious. They might have been dressed like northerners, but they didn’t look like us, not really. It would take a lot of alcohol to convince anyone that the soldiers we had fought were from the Northern Kingdom.
Moreover, anyone that held these weapons would have to recognize them as Krustavian, unless they were being purposely obtuse or lying.
“You ask because the weapons are obviously from Krustau,” General Saxu said.
“Yes,” I said bluntly. Eonaî would have been able to read him better, to know if he was on my side, and understood that whoever had made the accusation made it in bad faith. Whoever made the accusation knew these men were from Krustau but wanted everyone to say it was the Northern Kingdom until it became true. Until they were at war with the Northern Kingdom once again.
