"Or?"
Azul's smile widened.
"Or you can run."
She gestured down the wall, toward a distant staircase that led to the city below.
"If you go now, you can disappear into the crowd.There will be no guards.The path is clear.You can vanish, find your way to the countryside, and live out whatever years remain to you in freedom.Or you can gather power, come back here, and take the throne."
The crowd's roar was deafening.
The Dowager stared at her."Why would you do this?Why help me escape?"
Azul rose, looking down at her with an expression that held no malice or triumph; it was simply empty, as if it was beneath her to feel anything at all towards the woman.
"Because you have played well, Imperial Grandmother."She bowed—a formal bow, the bow of a granddaughter to her elder."You have schemed and manipulated and fought for your family with every weapon at your disposal.Of the forty-three wives your husband had and the fifty-seven children.You and your adopted son were the only survivors.I respect that.And so I offer you this: freedom.A chance to leave the board before the game claims you."
She turned to go.
"It's not a trap," she added over her shoulder."I have no reason to trap you.If you want to run, run.If you want to stay, stay.The choice is yours."
And she walked away, leaving the Dowager alone on the wall, staring at the blood-soaked platform below and the open path above.
The Dowager ran.
She was old, and her legs were weak, and the stairs nearly defeated her.But fear was a powerful motivator, and she had seen what happened to those who crossed this particular devil.
She reached the bottom, gasping, and plunged into the city's back streets.Away from the square, away from the palace, away from everything that had been her life for sixty years.
Freedom.She could taste it.She could almost believe it.
Behind her, on the palace wall, Azul stopped to watch the woman’s figure disappear.
In her mind, a voice spoke.
Can I eat her?
Azul's lips curved as she stifled a laugh.
"A Divine King must be nutritious for you," she murmured."Go ahead."
The cell was dark, damp, and cold enough to seep into a man's bones and stay there.Chukwuemeka sat on the rough stone floor, his back against the wall, his eyes fixed on nothing.He had been here for days now—how many, he could no longer count—waiting for a death that had not yet come.
The Ugoeze's execution had been announced an hour ago.He heard the guards talking, their voices carrying through the stone as if they wanted him to hear.
Where had he gone wrong?There was no way for Somadina to realise he was a double agent, surely?He made sure Kamsi could not make him King, keeping him placated until the end
But someone had tipped him off, and now it would be his turn to take a knee before the executioner.
The door opened.
Chukwuemeka looked up, shock befalling his face as he saw her.
Chidinma stood in the doorway, her robes a deep blue.
They exchanged a glance, one belonging to father and daughter.His only biological daughter out of the three he raised, the only one who loved him, the only one he failed.
She stepped into the cell.
