Page 83 of Empire's Curse

Daiyu traced the scales along the dragon carving closest to her and cleared her throat. “I’m terribly sorry for interrupting both of your time,” she said with a broad smile that she hoped conveyed friendliness and openness. “My name is Yin Daiyu, and you both are … Princess Biyu and Princess Liqin, correct?”

Biyu bobbed her head shyly, her wide-eyed gaze flicking between Daiyu and Nikator before she tuckedher chin inward and stared at her cat intently. Liqin pasted a strained smile and pointedly ignored Nikator.

“A pleasure to meet you,” Liqin said. “My sister and I have heard about you. Congratulations.”

“Ah, thank you.” Daiyu wasn’t sure what the cheers was for—the fact that she had somehow been chosen by the emperor, would marry him, or was about to be the wife of the most powerful man in the empire? While at the same time straddling the anxiety, fear, and responsibilities that came with such a position?

She shifted on her seat and laced her hands together to keep from fidgeting. She needed to come across as a well-put-together lady, not someone who had no idea what she was doing. The more confident she appeared, the more likely these two would open up to her. Or so she hoped.

“I actually wanted to talk to you both about something related to the royal selection.” She kept her voice level and watched the two of them carefully. “Ever since I was chosen, I’ve actually been targeted twice. Once by a poisoning, and the second time by a kidnapping. Both of these eventsmaybe linked. I was wondering if either of you know anything about them?”

Liqin’s brows pulled together in worry. “Oh. I had heard about the kidnapping—which I’m so very sorry to hear about. But I didn’t know someone also tried to poison you. That sounds awful. I’m glad to see that you’re doing fine.”

“Thank you.” Daiyu glanced at Biyu, who simply watched her below long lashes. “I’m doing much better now, but I would appreciate any insight into who could have done such a thing.”

“We don’t know anything, unfortunately,” Liqin continued. “We’re rather cut off from society, actually, so we don’t really know what goes on throughout the palace or the empire. It’s been that way for a few years now … But if we come across any information, we’d be happy to let you know. Right, Biyu?”

Biyu jumped in her seat, turning between Liqin and then Daiyu. She shrank in her seat. “Ah, yes. I’m sorry.”

Was she being tense because she knew something or because Nikator was close by? Daiyu wasn’t sure, and by the way Nikator was glaring at her, she was even less unsure. If she had to judge the situation on its own, she’d assume the princesses were telling the truth and had no part in this. After all, what did they gain from pushing her down the ladder? Only a noblewoman interested in the emperor would want to keep her from Muyang. And these two women were very clearly terrified of the emperor. But the way Biyu was actingwassuspicious.

“Do you know of any noble lady who would want to hurt me?”

Liqin laughed softly but stiffened when Nikator shot her a look. “Pretty much every noble lady who’s single?” She straightened in her seat, her smile twitching. “I’m … really sorry that we’re not very helpful.”

Daiyu opened her mouth to speak, when something out of the corner of her eye grabbed her attention. It was a blur of color among the trees and when she turned her head, she caught sight of light blue clothes. Nikator sprang forward, grasped the edge of the table and shot something from his hand at the trees. Daiyu barely had time to blink—to breathe—before he lunged over the table and threw another blade at the assailant.

She scrambled back in her seat and one of the princesses screamed. The two guards swarmed them, shoving the princesses to the ground and holding their spears in front of them protectively. Everything happened so fast that all Daiyu could do was kneel behind one of the chairs, her wild gaze sweeping over the gardens.

What just happened?

Nikator grunted and rose up from a few feet away by a copse of cherry blossom trees. He frowned down at the light-blue-clad individual and cast a narrowed, suspicious scowl at the princesses. “Seems like we had some company.”

“A spy?” Daiyu hoisted herself up on shaky legs with the help of the chair and inched closer to Nikator.

“No.” Nikator leaned down and pulled something from the crumpled person on the ground. He raised it up for her to see—it was a short knife with a circular design with a bolt of lightning running through it on the hilt. “An assassin.”

“A wha—” Daiyu’s words died away on her lips when she came to stand beside Nikator. She grasped the rough tree bark for support when her legs wobbled further. The man was twisted into an unnatural position, a dagger buried in his forehead and slick blood coating his face in a vermillion mask. Her stomach twisted and she quickly looked away. It was the last thing she had expected—for the man to be dead and to come across the corpse so easily. “Well, Nikator, it appears like you’re a good marksman,” she somehow managed to say through the queasiness. “What, um, makes you think he’s an assassin?”

“This.” He handed her the knife that had been on the man. “This symbol belongs to Lei Sheng, one of the most infamous and largest known assassination group in the empire.”

“Ah.” She felt even more lightheaded with that new piece of information. She turned the knife over and ran a finger over the embossed design on the leathered hilt. Her reflection from the blade appeared calm, but she felt anything but that. “An assassin? Wonderful.”

“If you ever had any doubts that someone was targeting you,” Nikator said, frowning down at the corpse dressed like a servant, “then this should definitely resolve them.”

So someone most definitely was after her, and by the looks of it, they weren’t planning on stopping until she was dead.

Daiyu pacedin her room for the hundredth time that week. Feiyu was casually sitting on her couch, ankles crossed and propped on her tea table, and an open scroll in his hands he was reading from. Nikator sat across from him, sharpening his daggers against one another. It was becoming more commonplacefor the two of them to be in her room like this, doing their own thing while she lost herself in her thoughts.

“Feiyu, are you sure no one is after my family?” She spun around to face the mage, who wore a sapphire dragon mask today with snarling teeth at the mouth.

He didn’t even bother looking up from the scroll. “I checked in on them earlier today. Nothing amiss.”

“And the protection spell is still intact?”

“Like I said earlier, yes.”

She chewed on her lower lip and continued pacing again. “Someone is after me.”

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