She emitted the smallest hint of flame—just enough to make him feel the heat on his skin.
“Boom,” she said. “You’re dead now.”
Eriden’s mouth pressed into something that almost resembled a smile.
“How’s she doing?”
Rin twisted to look over her shoulder.
Vaisra and Nezha emerged on the deck. Eriden pulled himself to a sitting position.
“She’ll be ready,” he said.
“She’ll be ready?” Vaisra repeated.
“Give me a few days,” Rin said, panting. “Still figuring this out. But I’ll get there.”
“Good,” Vaisra said.
“You’re bleeding.” Nezha pointed to her thigh.
But she barely heard him. She was still looking at Vaisra, who was smiling more widely than she’d ever seen him. He looked pleased. Proud. And somehow, the jolt of satisfaction that gave her felt better than anything she’d smoked in months.
“You’ll accompany the Dragon Warlord into the Autumn Palace for the noon summit,” Eriden said. “Remember, you’ll be presented as a war criminal. Do not act like he is your ally. Make sure to look afraid.”
A dozen of Vaisra’s generals and advisers were in the stateroom, seated around an array of detailed maps of the palace. Rin sat on Vaisra’s right, sweating slightly from the constant attention. The entire plan centered on her, and she had no room to fail.
Eriden held up a pair of iron handcuffs. “You’ll be bound and muzzled. I’d get used to the feel of these.”
“That’s no good,” Rin said. “I can’t burn through metal.”
“They’re not completely metal.” Eriden slid the handcuffs across the table so that Rin could take a closer look. “The link in the middle is twine. It will burn through with minimal heat.”
She fiddled with the handcuffs. “And Daji won’t just have me killed? I mean—she’ll know what I’m there to do; she saw me try at Adlaga.”
“Oh, she’ll likely suspect us of treachery the moment we dock in Lusan. We’re not trying to ambush her. Daji likes to play with her food before she eats it. And she especially won’t want to get rid of you. You’re too interesting.”
“Daji never strikes first,” Vaisra said. “She’ll want to milk you for as much information as she can, so she’ll try to take you somewhere private to talk. Feign surprise at that. Then she’ll likely make an offer nearly as tempting as mine.”
“Which will be what?” Rin asked.
“Use your imagination. A place in her Imperial Guard. Free rein to scour the Empire of any remaining Federation troops. More glory and riches than you could possibly dream of. It’ll all be a lie, of course. Daji has kept her throne for two decades by eliminating people before they become problems. Should you take a position in her court, you will simply be the latest on her long list of political assassinations.”
“Or they’ll find your body in the sewers minutes after you say yes,” said Eriden.
Rin looked around the table. “Does no one else see the gaping flaw in this plan?”
“Pray tell,” Vaisra said.
“Why don’t I just kill her on sight? Before she opens her mouth? Why even take the risk of letting her talk?”
Vaisra and Eriden exchanged a glance. Eriden hesitated a moment, then spoke. “You, ah, won’t be able to.”
Rin blanched. “What does that mean?”
“We just went over this,” Vaisra said. “Once Daji sees you, she’ll know you’re there to kill her. And she’ll very strongly suspect my own intentions. The only way to get you into the Autumn Palace and close enough to attack without putting the rest of us in danger is if you’re sedated first.”
“Sedated,” Rin repeated.
“We’ll have to give you a dose of opium while Daji’s guards are watching,” Vaisra said. “Enough to pacify you for an hour or two. But Daji doesn’t know about your increased tolerance, which helps us. It’ll wear off sooner than she expects.”
Rin hated this plan. They were asking her to enter the Autumn Palace unarmed, high out of her mind, and completely unable to call the fire. But no matter how she turned it over in her mind, she couldn’t find a loophole in the logic. She had to be defanged if she was to get close enough to get a hit.
She tried not to let her fear show as she spoke. “So am I—I mean, will I be alone?”
“We cannot bring a larger guard to the Autumn Palace without arousing Daji’s suspicion. You will have hidden but minimal reinforcements. We can get soldiers in here, here, and here.” Vaisra tapped at three points on a map of the palace. “But remember, our objective here is very limited. If we wanted an all-out war, we would have brought the armada up the Murui. We are only here to cut the head off the snake. The battles come after.”
“So I’m the only one at risk,” Rin said. “Nice.”
“We will not abandon you. We will extract you if it goes badly, I promise. Successful or not, you’ll use one of these escape routes to get out of the palace. Captain Eriden will have the Seagrim ready to depart Lusan in seconds if escape is necessary.”
Rin peered down at the map. The Autumn Palace was hopelessly large, arranged like a maze within a conch shell, a spiraling complex of narrow corridors and dead ends, with twisting hallways and tunnels constructed in every direction.
The escape routes were marked with green lines. She narrowed her eyes, muttering to herself. A few more minutes and she’d have them memorized. She’d always been good at memorizing things, and now that she was off opium she was finding it easier and easier to focus on mental tasks.
She cringed at the thought of giving that up, even for an hour.
“You make this sound so easy,” she said. “Why hasn’t anyone tried to kill Daji before?”
“She’s the Empress,” said Vaisra, as if that were explanation enough.
“She’s one woman whose sole talent is being very pretty,” Rin said. “I don’t understand.”
“Because you’re too young,” Eriden said. “You weren’t alive when the Trifecta were at the peak of their power. You don’t know the fear. You couldn’t trust anyone around you, even your own family. If you whispered a word of treason against Emperor Riga, then the Vipress and the Gatekeeper would be sure to have you destroyed. Not just imprisoned—obliterated.”
Vaisra nodded. “In those years, entire families were ruined, executed, or exiled, and their lineages wiped from history. Daji oversaw this all without blinking an eye. There is a reason why the Warlords still bow down before her, and it’s not just because she is pretty.”
Something about Vaisra’s expression gave Rin pause. Then she realized it was the first time she had ever seen him look scared.
She wondered what Daji had done to him.
Someone knocked on the door just then. She jumped in her seat.
“Come in,” Vaisra called.
A junior officer poked his head in. “Nezha sent me to alert you. We’ve arrived.”
Near the end of his reign, the Red Emperor built the Autumn Palace in the northern city of Lusan. It was never meant to be a capital or an administrative center; it was too far removed from the central provinces to properly govern. It served merely as a resort for his favorite