What you protect is what you rule.
I was tempted. After all, with my expertise and experience, how difficult would it be to arrange for a much less violent revolution in Jorat? Duke Kaen didn’t understand the Joratese the way I did. He didn’t understand how to sway their loyalty. I did—without dragons, without demons.
All those deaths would stop if I agreed to his plan. And not after I’d found a spear and killed a dragon. Not after I’d figured out how to defeat Relos Var. Immediately.
How many lives would I save if I pledged my loyalty to Duke Kaen? I could gain everything I desired. Kaen would have no reason to send Aeyan’arric after Joratese villages.1 If Kaen’s story about Morios proved true, I’d help save hundreds of thousands of lives by defeating him.
All I had to do was say yes.
Kaen said, “Would it be a betrayal, though? Is it not justice, when they wronged you first? Relos Var told me about your situation. Your Markreev didn’t protect you when he should have. He exploited his power over you to force you into an unworthy match. Your grandfather betrayed you by assuming you would submit to another man’s rule and by allowing his lamentably racist leanings to overcome his sense of your true value.”
“Yet those people didn’t frame me for witchcraft, kill me in a duel, kidnap me, and hold me against my will in another country.”
“If your enthusiasm to rescue someone who has done you wrong is proportional to the crime, we’ve made a fine start at convincing you Yor is worth saving.” He smiled, no doubt thinking himself hilarious.
“Oh?” I laughed, because I found it just the opposite. “And why does Yor need saving?”
“Because our land is dying,” Azhen Kaen said, all humor vanishing. “Quur has murdered it.”
* * *
The young wife who’d questioned me when I first arrived, Veixizhau, was waiting for me when I returned to the wives’ quarters. I couldn’t tell if she’d decided to impress or one-up me, but she wore a samite gown and a blinding diamond necklace.
I was distracted, thinking of honor and whether I placed more importance on my pride than my people. Wasn’t the whole reason I’d come here to gain Relos Var’s and Duke Kaen’s trust by whatever means necessary? So why did I balk at Kaen’s deal? I didn’t have to keep my promise to them, after all.
But I wanted to.
Oh, that was an ugly realization. I wanted someone better than Duke Xun to rule Jorat. I wanted the Markreev of Stavira to acknowledge my idorrá. I wanted—
“That took a long time,” Veixizhau said, interrupting my thoughts. If she intended to sound nice, she didn’t try hard.
“Did it? I lost track. Where is the kitchen? I’m starving.”
“Segra, go fetch our guest something from the kitchen, would you?”
“Yes, thank you,” I said. “No meat, please. I’ll take bread. Porridge if you have any.”
Segra, a young woman with large violet eyes, gave me an awkward, nervous smile before leaving.
Veixizhau offered me a chair. “Please, sit. Tell me all about your conversation. I so seldom have a chance to hear about what’s going on outside our halls.”
Her sweet tone made me pause. “The duke—sorry, the Hon—doesn’t give you any access to outside information?”
“Books. Old books. It’s nothing current.”
That drew another wife’s attention. “I rather like the books, mind you, but it’s not the same as fresh news.”
“Where’s Bikeinoh?” I looked around, but I didn’t see the Hon’s oldest wife.
“Gone off on some chore, I suppose. I don’t keep track. What did the Hon say?” Veixizhau leaned forward.
I realized she didn’t think we’d talked. She hoped to catch me out by forcing me to fabricate a conversation.
“He wants my help conquering Jorat,” I told her.
She blinked, surprised. “What?”
I sighed. I wasn’t in the mood. My temper had soured from talking to the duke, and given the way my lower back was aching, I was about to start my flow. I had no patience for a jealous wife who thought I’d made a play for her husband.
“Your husband wants me to help him conquer Jorat. We spoke about it at length.” I pulled out a different chair from the one Veixizhau offered and flopped into it. “Something about killing a dragon, which strikes me as a task a smart ruler would delegate to someone else. Oh, and he wants to use me to pressure my father into leaving Yor alone. Also lovely.”
I’d closed my eyes so I couldn’t see her expression, but she made a surprised sound. “Oh, my poor girl. I’m so sorry! Believe me, I know what it’s like to be taken from your family against your will.”
I raised my head, opened my eyes, and looked up at her. “Nothing about what you said sounds the least bit sincere. Except the part about being taken from your family.”
“You’ve misjudged me.” Her expression was innocence personified.
“I doubt that. I’m going to spell this out: I have no interest in your husband. I have no ambitions toward being the Hon’s seventy-third or however many wives he has plus one. If he forces himself on me, I will kill him or die trying.”
“You’re that dedicated to this wizard Relos Var? You must love him a great deal.”
I scoffed under my breath. “Hardly.”
She gave me an inscrutable look just as Segra returned with bland porridge, handing the bowl to Veixizhau. My heart sank as I smelled the stuff. Not porridge. Gruel. Gruel made from meat stock.
Veixizhau set the bowl on the table. I stared at the mess for a moment before I proceeded to eat it, anyway. It tasted weird, and I wondered what meat they’d used. Probably nothing I’d recognize. Or would want to.
I looked up at Veixizhau. “Well? Have I reassured you?”
She raised an eyebrow at me and smirked. “Yes, you have. Honestly, you’ve never even been with a man, have you?”
I paused. In Jorat, we placed no particular virtue on the idea of being “untouched,” but I knew that it wasn’t like that everywhere in the empire. I certainly didn’t like the glee in her eye. “I’m married.”
“Are you really, though? I don’t think that’s true.” She laughed. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell. Honestly, I’m delighted.”
I felt uneasy. “Why?”
“Unmarried women have a very … special … place among our people. You’re so rare and so valuable. And an unmarried woman who’s as gullible as you is like a shiny diamond.”
“What?” I looked down at the gruel. It didn’t seem sinister, but then the first wave of dizziness hit.
She was still smiling at me as I slid to the ground.
40: THE EMPEROR’S SON
Jorat Dominion, Quuros Empire. Three days since I was reminded of how glad I am Khaeriel’s on our side
“Virgins are ‘valuable’?” Kihrin’s expression darkened. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
Janel shrugged. “It’s not what you’re thinking.” She paused. “Assuming what you’re thinking is sexual.”