Kara followed me out of the room, however, pacing me, a grave expression on his dark face. “My king, we’ll have to brace for counterattack. We have multiple confessions and other associated information that Salvio and his staff sent missives to Anure, alerting him to the situation here—including a final messenger bird that made it safely away at dawn announcing their defeat.”
No surprise there. In fact, we’d been extraordinarily lucky it hadn’t happened before this. And while luck played a larger role in our campaign than I cared to examine, it seemed unreasonable to believe no news had made it to the false emperor. Which made me think he either underestimated us or dissolved his fear in denial. “Let Anure attack.”
“You say that now because you welcome the opportunity to kill him. But we both know he won’t come in person. If he’s smart, he’ll bring the hammer of all his forces down on Keiost. He could destroy us in our own trap.”
“Good for us, Anure isn’t smart.” And he wasn’t. But he did possess an almost magical talent for victory. That would be the smartest thing to do, crush me and my armies before we grew any larger. Kara knew well that I’d trade all our advances for the opportunity to throttle Anure with my bare hands. Not an admirable quality in a king—and just another measure of how I didn’t deserve the title. King of Slaves. King of Nothing. No king at all. “How long do you think we have?” I asked.
Kara rubbed his stubbled chin. “A week at worst. Ten days at the outside.”
I nodded, my lips cracking with a sharp split as I smiled. Exactly what I’d thought. “Plenty of time.”
“For what?” Kara looked exasperated. “We’ve decimated the fortifications in taking the city. There won’t be enough time to rebuild the walls to the point that they can—”
“Kara.” I halted, gripping my friend’s arm to stop the flow of words. He commanded troops like no other, and he’d never failed to carry out a mission for me, but Kara sometimes didn’t look past the battle to see the war. “Plenty of time for us not to be here.”
I pointed in the direction of the sea meaningfully, not to be cryptic, but to save my words. I’d hoped the fall of Keiost—and the close ties between its imperial governor and Anure—would be sufficient to catch the false emperor’s attention. If he sent the bulk of his forces here, then we’d find him less defended when we slipped around them to Yekpehr to topple the throne. Fortunately Kara, like all my officers, knew me well enough that I didn’t have to waste words explaining all of that.
His eyes widened in understanding, and he nodded slowly. “We’ll meet this evening then—a conclave to plan the next direction.”
I agreed. I knew how I wanted it to go, but they’d all feel better for talking it out. Sondra came jogging up, grinning with a fierce delight that reminded me of her carefree smiles, back before. “I have word from Ambrose, Conrí!” she announced. “He asks you to attend him. It sounds like good news.”
Knowing Ambrose, he hadn’t put it so nicely, but Sondra did still fall back on court etiquette. We all had our cracks where the lords and ladies we’d been glimmered through the rough skin we’d acquired. I gestured for her to take me to the wizard.
No time to bathe and recuperate just yet. Hopefully Ambrose had determined that we’d satisfied the terms of his precious prophecy. It could be that claiming this Abiding Ring would require nothing more than plucking it from whatever niche in the tower it rested in, and we could move on to attacking Anure.
Another week, possibly two, and I could finally kill the tyrant and be done.
Forever.
7
“A craven enemy of the empire?” I echoed Leuthar, letting my voice tremble. Tertulyn handed me a scented silk, which I pressed to my septum, careful not to smear my makeup. While I appeared to recover from a near faint, I thought hard and fast on how to respond. So many possibilities and ramifications. I needed more information. “With armies capable of taking Keiost?” I waved a hand, laughing, and my ladies laughed with me. “I can’t imagine.”
“No armies, Your Highness,” Leuthar replied, a hint of impatience beneath his dulcet tones. The poor man, faced with such dithering frivolity. “Nothing so organized. They’re merely a small band of criminals, escaped slaves, not even worthy of being called men. They are more like former livestock gone feral. Still, they are desperate creatures. Against all probability they’ve taken temporary control of Keiost. Word is they plan to execute the imperial governor, along with all the helpless denizens of the city.”
Good riddance to Governor Salvio. He’d been unremittingly self-aggrandizing and ambitious. On top of his less-than-average intelligence, it had made him a cruel ruler who’d squandered Keiost’s meager remaining resources. My father had been great friends with old King Panos, and many times I’d heard him counsel Panos not to fight when Anure turned his acquisitive appetite on Keiost as a portal to her wealthier neighbors. Panos in turn had castigated my father for rolling over to the tyrant, for giving up without that fight.
In the end, Anure had defeated Keiost’s formidable navy and dethroned King Panos, sentencing him to slave labor for his temerity in resisting. My father …
Well, difficult to say whose fate had been worse.
No, I’d hardly mourn Salvio—I’d even thank these criminals for ridding the world of his blight—but for them to slaughter the innocent populace? Like feral dogs indeed. The dream image of the wolf, dragging its broken chains, nudged at the edge of my mind. I pushed it down to the depths, where it belonged. I needed to think, not feel. Conjuring images from nightmares wouldn’t help me protect Calanthe.
The news didn’t bode well for Tertulyn’s family in Keiost. It seemed a foregone conclusion we’d lost them, but I’d made her a promise to discover more. It wouldn’t be politic to ask after the former royal family, as the emperor’s official policy dictated that slaves were not people. A queen could not inquire about slaves any more than she’d ask about how the rats in the cellars had fared. Except to wonder if they carried disease, perhaps. I could only inquire tangentially.
“I greatly regret that Keiost has suffered such a devastating loss.” I made sure to sound as if I recited rehearsed polite phrases. “If you would, give Me word of the imperial governor’s wife and children.”
Leuthar paused, quickly changing his prepared reply. He hadn’t expected me to say that. “Your Highness, I regret that I do not know.”
In other words, no one had bothered to discover their fate. Tertulyn didn’t betray her reaction by the slightest twitch. Time enough for that in private. Perhaps my spies could find out if her family yet lived, and go from there. Prisoners, especially those of the unimportant female and juvenile variety, could often be discreetly smuggled out as servants. They had not been responsible for Salvio’s cruelty and deserved a chance to make or break by virtue of their own decisions, if I could manage it. Much there would depend on this army that held the city.
“Who are these ‘criminals,’ then?” I asked, fanning myself with the scented cloth, disguising my keen curiosity. “Escaped slaves, you say. Surely they are no match for trained imperial forces. From what prison did they escape?”