Page 8 of Empire's Curse

“I’ll …” She pursed her lips together. “I’ll figure something out. The first thing is to find my sister.”

He nodded slowly. “And then?”

“I just told you.” Daiyu gave him a look. “I’ll figure something out. Perhaps I’ll sneak out in the gardens?—”

“The guards will find you and execute you if you do that.”

“Then the clothes bin?—”

“And what of the laundresses?” He scoffed. “Once again, the guards will be alerted and you’ll be executed.”

“Then …” She waved her hands. “Perhaps we’ll escape through a window?—”

“The guards would see you and”—he made a scythe-like motion over his neck—“you guessed it, execute you.”

Her eyebrows pulled together and her voice rose in desperation. “Then perhaps we’ll leave when the servants retire for the night!”

The masked mage chuckled. “The servants, dear,livehere.”

Daiyu chewed on her lower lip. Truthfully, she didn’t think she’d even get this far. Her plan had many, many holes, and having him point out the obvious was frustrating, albeit embarrassingtoo. She paced the room, her thin sandals feeling cold against the polished floors.

“Then maybe I can bribe a guard?”

This time, he laughed loudly. “Bribea guard? With what money? Miss, are you wealthy?”

“Well, no.” She reached for the handful of coins in her pouch and held it up for him to see. “But I’m sure this will … help?”

She sighed, her hopes suddenly dashing away. She didn’t have enough money to bribe the guards. She could see that. And there was nothing else she had that was worth anything.

“You came all this way to the palacewithouta plan?” The mage chuckled again, and this time it crawled under her flushed skin.

Daiyu shoved the coins back in her pouch under her sleeve and gave him a pointed look. “No need to be rude and laugh at me.”

“Apologies.” His chest shook even as he said that. “But what will you do, miss?”

An idea struck her as she stared at the man. “Well, there is one thing I can do.”

“What is it?”

“You warped me in here, so …” She smiled hesitantly at him. “I’d forever be grateful if you could also warp us out.”

The man crossed his arms over his chest. “Ah. There it is, but, miss, that doesn’t sound like a request.”

“Would you please warp me and my sister out of this palace?”

“What would I gain from this?” His tone shifted from playful mischievousness to tense and grim. He placed a gentle hand on the windowsill and peered at the sprawling city before turning to her, the wind tousling his long, inky hair. “I’m a powerful mage, a wealthy man, and a loyal subordinate to His Majesty. What could you possibly have that I would want?”

Words failed her and she suddenly felt small in that room. In her raggedy robes, with her near-empty purse of coins, standing inthe perfumed room of the palace. What did she have that she could offer a mage?

It was true that coming here was naïve, but a part of her had believed that her hard work, that her stubbornness would somehow pay off—that she would figure something out. But now that she was here, it all felt … utterly naïve.

Daiyu swallowed and lifted her gaze to meet the mage’s. “What is it that you want?” she asked slowly.

“You tell me. What is it that you have?”

“I have a long life ahead of me.” She placed a hand on her chest. “Take some years off my life. All mages want to live forever, don’t they? Then surely?—”

The man burst into laughter. For a moment, Daiyu only stared at him in shock and then embarrassment.

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