Page 31 of Beyond the Shadowed Earth

They seized her arms, jerked her toward the gates, but she dug in her heels, resisting. Her eyes found Ileem’s. She gave him a swift nod, hoping he understood her meaning:Call him. Call Rudion.

“Your graces,wait!”

Domin ran through the gate, kicking up a cloud of dust. He clutched a sheaf of papers that made Eda’s heart stutter. They were affixed with the Imperial seal. “I have proof that Her Imperial Majesty is who she says she is,” Domin panted. “I have proof that Rescarin is lying.”

The soldiers relaxed their grip on her arms, and Eda shrugged them off. She approached the Barons, trying to remember to breathe, just breathe, forcing her face into an impenetrable mask. “Baron Domin,” she said. “Show your proof.”

Domin flicked his eyes to her, anxious as a rabbit, and nodded. He handed the sheaf of papers to Baron Dyar and Baron Lohnin, who immediately began to look them over.

Rescarin tried to snatch the papers away, but Lohnin held up one hand. “Is there something you’d rather we not see, Rescarin?”

That silenced him.

Eda waited, the hot wind curling round her ankles, while Dyar and Lohnin read. She knew what they were reading: she’d commissioned the forgeries herself, months ago.

After an agonizing few moments, Lohnin looked up with a frown. “What are you playing at, Rescarin? These are official documents: they chronicle the Empress’s birth, with a statement signed by the late Emperor himself asserting his paternity. According to this, the Emperor planned on announcing her as his daughter the moment she was brought to Eddenahr as a child. Rescarin,youforestalled him, claiming it was better for her if she didn’t know. Safer, to have a hidden heir, in case anything were to happen to his son. Which, as we all know, it did. Perhaps that was no accident?”

Every line of Rescarin’s body evinced his rage. “Surely you can see those documents are fakes.”

Domin turned on him, dark eyes flashing. “Then why did you steal them from the Empress? Why were they inyourchambers?

What were you going to do—burn them? Erase all proof of the Empress’s claims?”

Rescarin faced him square on. “I was going to prove they were forgeries, as more than a cursory glance would show.”

“Except that isn’t all that was found in your chambers.”

Eda looked at Ileem with surprise. He swept past her, his face a study of controlled, righteous anger. “You were also hiding this.” He drew something from an inner pocket in his robe, and held it up for all to see: a small glass vial that flashed in the sun.

Eda’s heart seized. She knew that vial: knew its shape and its emptiness, knew what it had once contained. She should have smashed it and buried the shards. She should have gotten rid of it long ago, but she hadn’t. She had kept it, in a little jewel case under her bed, a constant reminder of what she had done. How had Ileem found it? She hadn’t even told him about the poison until their ride to the well. She hadn’t even really admitted to using it herself.

And yet there it was, small and dark in his hand.

Ileem paced toward Rescarin. “The late Emperor was slowly poisoned for the duration of the last year of his life. You administered that poison, drop by drop, in his food, his wine. Didn’t you, Rescarin? And when an unexpected usurper surfaced, imposter heir Talia Dahl-Saida, you gave the Emperor the final, lethal dose, planning to put yourself forward as a replacement. But because the gods are just, Her Imperial Majesty was there before you. Your every action over the last year has been purposefully designed to undermine her: making a peace treaty with my people without her knowledge or consent; halting construction on the temple to make her look weak and foolish; sowing mistrust among your fellow Barons. But you made one vital mistake.” Ileem stopped so close to Rescarin their noses nearly touched. “You didn’t realize the god-marked servant of Rudion was coming.” Ileem jabbed the empty poison vial into Rescarin’s chest and let it fall to the dust. He ground it under his heel.

For a moment, Eda’s eyes were drawn to the city gates, where the shadow-god stood, his piercing gaze meeting hers. Words echoed suddenly in her ears, and she knew that, at long last, the god was speaking to her:Fulfill your vow. Honor your oath.

She opened her mouth to reply, but Tuer’s Shadow melted into dust motes swirling in the sunlight, and she was left to wonder if he’d been there at all.

“Your Imperial Majesty?”

She jumped, realizing Ileem was looking at her expectantly, realizing there was more to do. How long had she been staring after the god?

She drew a sharp breath, and turned to her Barons. “Perhaps Rescarin’s biggest sin is that he did not reduce Evalla’s army, as he swore to all of us he did. He’s swelled its ranks with mercenaries instead, planning not only to depose me, but to get rid of all of you as well. He planned to march on the city next week. He planned to execute you, one by one.” Eda had no idea if that last bit was true, but it had the desired effect.

Baron Lohnin drew his dagger and rushed at Rescarin, pinning him up against the wall beside the gate. “You traitorousbastard!”

“Lohnin, please,” said Eda calmly. “Justice will be meted out in due time. For now—” She met Rescarin’s eyes. “For now, take him away and throw him into the dungeon. We’ll figure out what to do with him later.”

Rescarin swore, batting Lohnin’s dagger aside and lunging at her.

But the very guard who had taken Eda off her horse seized him by either arm and dragged him away.

Eda crossed to where Domin stood, a little apart from the others. She gave him her most brilliant smile. “You are to be commended, Baron Domin, for bringing proof just when it was needed. My loyal subject. My most faithful servant.”

She wasn’t a fool. She knew Domin had been the one to steal those documents fromherand take them to Rescarin—which is why he knew how and where to find them again. She knew he had been playing at double-crossing her this whole time, and that he knew thatsheknew it. But that just gave her one more hold over him. “To reward you for your loyalty, I’m giving you the Governorship of Evalla in Rescarin’s stead. You command two provinces now, Domin.”

Fear sparked in Domin’s eyes. He understood she was telling him she owned him, that one more misstep and she wouldn’t hesitate to get rid of him.

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