Page 22 of A Monsoon Rising

—be leaving now.

Her gaze had happened to slide over the clock on the nightstand, only to zero back in on it with disbelief. Her delegation was supposed to set sail for Nenavar in two hours, and any minute now Jie would be wandering into her room to help her get ready. If Jie found the Lachis’ka missing from a bed that hadn’t been slept in at all, the day after a devastating attack …

Scrambling off Alaric’s mattress, Talasyn had never moved so fast in her life, but shealsohad never before been stopped from moving so fast, with Alaric lacing their fingers together as soon as her hand brushed against his.

“Where’re you going?” he mumbled into his pillow, eyes still shut. He ran his thumb over the back of her hand in a drowsy caress.

Was this her heart, this racing thing? Her cheeks turning warm, her stomach caught in free fall like a coracle mid-spin—could she still blame the vegetable roll from yesterday?

“Back to Nenavar,” Talasyn whispered. It somehow felt like the hardest thing she’d ever had to say. She extricated her hand from his as gently as she could. “I’ll—I’ll see you there?”

“All right.” His voice was small. Almost boyish. He sounded forlorn and resigned, and she had no idea whether he was dreaming or not. Whether he would remember this exchange upon waking. “See you.”

Talasyn padded quietly out of the room. She didn’t look back, afraid that what she’d find would make her want to stay.

CHAPTERNINE

“Emperor Alaric, forgive me, but I don’t understand.”

The unctuous, nasal tone sank barbs into the base of Alaric’s skull, threatening a headache far worse than any that his father’s lesson a few days ago could have inflicted. When he looked up from the map of the Continent’s former Sardovian territories that he and Kesathese High Command were poring over, he was frowning at the officer who had spoken.

“And what nuances of rice distribution aresoesoteric to you, Commodore Lisu?” he demanded.

Slender and pointy-faced, with spiked black hair and skin the color of hemlock wood and eyes like darkened amber, Lisu was the youngest member of High Command—a position he had achieved through a blend of sheer cunning and leveraging of his family’s influence.

In the past, Alaric’s sentiments toward Lisu had amounted to nothing more than fleeting contempt. Now that Alaric had ascended to the throne and was forced to work closely with the commodore on a regular basis, however, he was fairly certain that he loathed the man.

If the feeling was mutual, Lisu made no show of it, duckinghis head in a slight bow. “I merely wish clarification, Your Majesty, as to why we are distributing rice when we should be focusing on matters of national security. The insurgents—”

“—can be tracked down and dealt with at the same time that we feed our people,” Alaric countered. “One of the many advantages of having thousands of soldiers is that we are able to delegate tasks, Commodore. Not to mention that a starving populace will be more likely to side with these rebels.”

Lisu was unperturbed by Alaric’s reprimand, a vaguely conciliatory smile flashing across his thin lips. “While I defer to His Majesty’s judgment, of course, surely it is within the bounds of duty that I attempt to verify that such a judgment remains unclouded by … more recent allegiances.”

Alaric glanced around the table. The nine other members of High Command sat still, gazes lowered deferentially. He wondered which of them had connived with Lisu to test him like this. His eyes hardened as they darted to Commodore Mathire, who was a foregone conclusion; she had delivered the sariman to Gaheris behind Alaric’s back, and during the gala she’d had no scruples about amusing herself with that grand statement that shadow and light would work together, knowing full well that Gaheris and his Enchanters were scheming to take away Talasyn’s magic.

But Alaric couldn’t discountanyof the officers present. They all had their own ambitions, and he knew that they doubted his ability to lead Kesath into a new age. His choice of wife had only made matters worse.

He nearly gave a start when another officer spoke—to rush to Talasyn’s defense.

“Damn shame that your common sense has yet to catch up with that borderline treasonous tongue of yours!” General Vim barked at Commodore Lisu. “Or were you cowering in some little hidey-hole during the attack? Because therestof uswitnessed it, plain as day, when Empress Alunsina slaughtered the insurgents with her magic!”

Vim was a bumbling lout on his best day, but Alaric had never felt better disposed toward him than now. Especially when more than a few officers looked like they might actually agree with the general’s statement.

Alaric pressed his advantage. “The Night Empress is as bound by the terms of the marriage treaty as I am,” he told the room at large. “While she may have once fought for the Allfold, she gave that up when she reclaimed her birthright as the Nenavarene Lachis’ka, and I do believe that any lingering loyalty she might have had to them vanished when they tried to kill her. In addition, she swore before all of you that she would stand with me against my enemies, and it has been made abundantly clear to her what will happen to the Dominion should she renege on that vow. You may trust inhercommon sense, if nothing else.”

He felt uneasy discussing Talasyn so callously, as though she were a chess piece, but it did the trick and some officers nodded along, Vim the most eagerly. Lisu appeared somewhat incensed that he’d been made the butt of the joke, but Alaric simply considered that a bonus.

The Night Emperor steered his council back to the logistics of providing sacks of rice to the territories whose fields had been destroyed during the war, but it wasn’t long before he was once again interrupted. This time, the culprit was Nordaye, who timidly shuffled into the meeting chamber looking nothing short of terrified.

“I gave strict orders that I was not to be disturbed,” Alaric said coolly.

“Yes, Your Majesty. Apologies, Your Majesty.” There was a slight tremble in the aide’s voice, but he otherwise refrained from dissolving into a puddle of nerves. “However, youinstructed us to treat all messages from or pertaining to the Nenavar Dominion as first priority regardless of the circumstances. A messenger eagle has arrived, sir.”

Alaric left the room at a brisk pace, telling himself that he was simply in a hurry to get back to business. In a way, this was true, because he didn’t wish to give High Command the opportunity to gossip and scheme for a second longer than necessary, but he wasalsoeager to hear from Talasyn, who was the only person on Lir who could possibly be sending him letters via the Nenavarene messenger birds.

No, not eager … curious. Yes, that was it. He wascurious. He wondered what she could possibly want. That was all. Nothing more.

A few days ago, he’d woken up to find her gone, along with her retinue. Thanks to the valerian root, he had only the haziest recollections of her tending his wounds. But he’d been talkative; he remembered that much at least, how words slipped easily past his lips at each touch of her gentle hands. He was certain that he’d told her the reason for his father’s punishment at some point, before the night had fully blurred into oblivion.

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