Page 95 of Empire's Curse

Vita tilted her head to the side. “Then why didn’t you?”

“What would I do here so early?” Daiyu threw open the shutters sealing her windows and breathed in the fresh sunlight and air streaming through the metal-latticed gaps. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and walked over to one of the many dressers against one side of her room. “I wanted to start my day, but nottooearly, you know?”

“I suppose I understand.” Vita was dressed in a long, flowy pale-blue dress with matching ribbons interlacing through her short, honey-colored hair.

“Really? You also get so nervous that you can’t sleep?”

“Yes. Of course.” She bobbed her head. “When I have an assignment I’m either excited or nervous about, I can’t sleep. I think about how I’ll carry it out, who I’ll kill, when I’ll do it. That sort of thing.”

“Ah.” Daiyu changed into a maroon dress and slipped on a pair of dark gold slippers. She had slowly become accustomed to the often daily, strange assignments of thePeccata. They lived in a different reality than she did; one where spying and disposing of enemies was normal. “But you haven’t been doing any of that since you became my guard, right? Do you miss it?”

“This is a nice change of pace,” she said with a slow nod.

“But it’s a bit boring, isn’t it?” Daiyu plopped down in front of her vanity and raked through her long hair with a wide-toothedcomb. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Even though she hadn’t slept, she was wide-eyed and alert, nothing about her features seeming to indicate her sleeplessness. It was probably the adrenaline giving her a boost of energy.

“It’s …slow.” She shrugged. “Should I call for your maids for your hair? Your breakfast should be on its way shortly.”

“Oh, sure.”

“After breakfast, I think you’ll be happy to hear that your family is here.”

Daiyu paused in untangling her hair and swiveled on the bench so quickly she almost fell off it. “Here? As in, in the palace?Myfamily?”

Vita smiled one of those rare smiles of hers and nodded. “Yes. They’ll be helping you prepare for the wedding.”

Without wasting any more time, Daiyu practically tossed the comb on her vanity table and waved at the door. “Well then, let’s get me ready so I can go see them.”

“Certainly, my lady.”

Daiyu didn’t rememberwhat she scarfed down for breakfast. The only thing on her mind was seeing her family again. Even though Vita had said she could see them early in the morning after she had eaten and gotten ready, it wasn’t until the afternoon that they were escorted into her room. Lanfen, Mother, and Grandmother greeted her like they hadn’t seen her in years. After several moments of crying and hugging, they finally began helping Daiyu prepare for the wedding.

Mother brushed her hair with a comb, her fingers deftly working through Daiyu’s hair. “His Majesty bought us a brand-new house not too far from the royal palace. You should see the place, Daiyu! It’s absolutelybeautiful. Stone arches, new, glossy roof tiles, and it even has agarden. A garden! Can you believe that? And I’m not talking about a vegetable garden like we haveback home, but a real garden toadmire,” she gushed with a toothy grin, nodding to Grandmother. “Isn’t that wild? I would have never thought our fortunes could turn around so quickly. We thought it was over once …”

Her words hung in the air for a moment and she paused in brushing Daiyu’s hair. Lanfen and Grandmother fell silent too as if they were also feeling the loss of the rice paddies. Even with all the luxuries Muyang could give them, Daiyu was sure there was a lingering sadness at the life they had built together and ultimately lost.

Daiyu clasped her hands together. “Since the rice paddies were destroyed?”

“Ah, well, yes.” Mother began combing her hair again and through the reflection in the mirror, Daiyu could make out the sadness in her eyes. “It’s wild to see that we’ve worked our whole lives and we’ve never been able to have something as nice as what His Majesty can offer us with a single wave of his hand. Our rice fields might be worthless, but it was our whole life.”

“I understand.” Daiyu turned around in her bench and took Mother’s wrinkled, sun-leathered hands into her own. “But now you won’t have to work so hard anymore. You can rest, finally, and everything will be taken care of. Isn’t that wonderful?”

Mother studied her face for a moment, her soft-brown eyes softening. “Yes, my dear.”

“When will you move into this new home of yours?”

“We’re thinking a month after the festival,” Lanfen added from her spot perched at the edge of Daiyu’s bed.

“Why so late? I’m sure you can move in immediately—” she began.

Mother clucked her tongue. “Yes, yes, but we’d like to give a proper goodbye to our home. To our village. To … everyone.”

“Well, I hope you know you can move in whenever you want to,” Daiyu said with a frown. Truthfully, the sooner they moved into their new home in the capital, the better it would be for them. They’d be more protected, more secure, and she’d be able tovisit them whenever she wanted to. She’d also have the peace of mind knowing they were close enough for her to go to in case anything happened to them.

“Now that we have all this good fortune,” Grandmother said, braiding her silver-laced hair with trembling fingers, “it would be good to give what we have left to some neighbors. Everyone has been so good to us, so we need to be good to them. We can’t just up and leave without showing our faces again. It wouldn’t be kind, Daiyu.”

“I understand, but I’d feel more assured having you all near me.”

“In due time, dear.” She smiled, and her wizened face creased even further. “Have patience, my dear.”

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