Chapter X

“Emperor?”

Hyeon opened his eyes. He hadn’t been able to sleep for at least an hour. “Yes?”

“Empress Nari is awake.”

He sat up, ignoring the diminishing pain from the acid burns. “She’s awake?”

“Yes, Your Eminence.”

“Can I speak with her?” Hyeon had learned that making requests went much further with the healers than demanding.

“For a minute. They are getting rid of the last bits of crystal as we speak. You may converse with her, and then we’ll try to repair the damage done by that knife. Thank the goddess it didn’t hit anything major.”

Hyeon swung his legs over the edge of the bed and pushed himself to his feet, joints protesting as he walked for the first time in four days. Nari’s bed remained in the same place as it had been the first time he’d seen her. This time, though, the curtain had been pulled open to reveal her face. She smiled when she saw Hyeon. He reached out and held her hand, not daring to do more.

“Speaking… hurts.”

“Then don’t say anything. I’m right here. And I’ll be here when they finish doing whatever magic it is that they do.”

“Not… magic.” Nari managed a smile.

“Shhh. Rest now. It’ll all be over soon.” Nari closed her eyes and squeezed his hand before letting go. Hyeon smiled down at her and walked back to his own bed. The thin healer followed him. “Please pass a message to the Captain of the Guard that I need to see him.”

“It will be done, Your Majesty.” The healer bustled off.

The Captain of the Guard arrived precisely one hour after Hyeon had sent the summons, saluting as he came to a stop. “At ease, Captain.”

“You asked to see me, sir?” He dropped the salute but stayed as stiff as a board.

“Yes. Has anyone been in the reception hall since the… incident?”

“No sir. I had the building locked down until we received further orders from you.”

Hyeon smiled. “Excellent. Good work. I want you to take as many men as you need and search every square centimeter of that room. Even the entrance points on the outside. I need to know how they got in and who they were.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll see to it right away. Was there anything else?”

“No. That is all for now. You are dismissed.”

“Thank you, sir!” The Captain saluted again before turning and marching out of the infirmary. Hyeon nodded to himself. One more thing done. One very important thing. During his time in the infirmary, he’d had plenty of time to think about where the attack might have come from. He’d never heard of the amber crystals, nor, apparently, had anyone else. Which left only a few options as to its origin. Either they were a creation of another sovereign’s tinkers, outside the boundaries of the empire, they belonged to a scientist on the Outer Isles, or the Engineers were making another appearance. And the more he thought, the more he was sure. The Engineers had been chased out of the capital after they’d massacred hundreds. Perhaps this was an attempt, hundreds of years later, to strike back. Well, they had chosen the wrong tactic. No one played the game of revenge better than him.

The common room swirled before Cheer’s eyes, stone surfaces rippling like water or glass as it was blown. Something smelled terrible, so close to her nose that it turned her stomach. She tried to shy away from it before remembering her predicament. Levity glanced up from her book. “Creed, she’s finally awake.”

Creed stood up and coated another dart while Mantra capped the jar of mountain salt he’d stuck in front of Cheer’s face. Creed briefly considered where to place the dart before jabbing it in. The room shook more, the chairs growing bigger and the ceiling falling down. Cheer tried to keep her head up, but the poison pulled it downward. Light and sound were disappearing again…

“She only made it through one this time? Weakling.” Levity laughed. “Should’ve expected that.”

The next two days were torture like she’d never known before. Waking moments blended together, pain and color and jeers and more pain. Her heart slowly roasted inside of her from her fever. The space behind her forehead heated to the point that she wanted to knock it against a wall.

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Finally, after two days, the needles stopped. Creed wrapped the areas with ink in bandages from the supply raid. Levity pulled Cheer’s body off the upturned table and held it away from her. A trail of foam and drool trailed all the way down to her waist, along with a coating of sweat. Levity practically pushed Cheer into her room and onto the makeshift bed. “Don’t come out until you smell better than this.” She walked out of the room and over to the rope. “I’m going to be up there trying to get that disgustingness off of me. Don’t holler.” She pulled herself up and out of view.

The ceiling above looked different than before. Had it always had that green sheen to it? Cheer tried to push herself up and rub the sleep from her eyes, but failed on both accounts. All of her muscles screamed in agony, bile rising in her throat. She turned over despite the pain and let the fluid spill from her mouth and splash on the floor. With that done, her body demanded more rest. She grasped at the threads of reality as they frayed away into blackness, but to no avail. Silence once again.

Four days of the same. Four whole days. They were the worst days she’d ever had. Unable to walk, unable to eat, barely able to drink water. Her arm and leg alternated between feeling completely dead and screaming for mercy. Finally, on the morning of the fifth day, Cheer pushed herself up and stood on wobbly feet. The floor shifted dangerously, like Levity had that one night she let herself finish a bottle of extra-strong wine. She’d had to sleep in Creed’s room for two days while the effects wore off because nobody would let her climb the rope.

She pushed off the wall and stumbled into the common room, finding the nearest chair and sinking into it. Creed looked up from his spot at the table, which now sat in its proper place. “Morning, Cheer.”

“Don’t you ‘morning’ me. I have several bones to pick with you when this wears off.”

Creed shrugged. “Levity said the same thing when I didn’t stop after she told me to. But she got over it.”

Cheer grumbled under her breath and braced her elbows against her thighs. That dizzy feeling had started to come back. And the bandages were really starting to annoy her. They itched so badly after four moonsets. She picked at the edge of the one on her leg, pausing when Creed glared at her.

“Leave that alone. You can take it off when you’re back to normal. Or when you get to your new normal.” Cheer glared right back at him, but left the bandage alone. For now.

“What did you even put there? You never asked me for ideas.”

“You don’t get to choose. And you’ll see when the bandages come off.”

Cheer stared down the tunnel to where the main entryway had a new layer of cloth hanging in front of it. Had they not left anything useful for her to do? She pushed herself back up and stumbled into her room. If she couldn’t do anything else, she’d draw. She’d draw and draw until she couldn’t pick up another charcoal pencil.

Sora fell to one knee beside Akio’s burned body, forcing his own pain out of the way. There was no point in focusing on pain unless it taught you something. And Sora already knew not to run through fire unless it improved chances of surviving.

Akio needed help. She had too many burns for him to do much, and they needed to be cleaned. What was it she’d done right before she fell asleep? She reached toward the moon and… The stream! He could use the water to cool her down. They weren’t going to get anywhere like this. Sora pushed down on his knee and hauled himself to his feet before grabbing Akio by her arms and swinging her onto his back so that her head rested against his. Leaning forward, he used their combined weight to start moving towards the stream. One foot over the other. One step, then one more. The edge of the field, the belt between the stream and the burned grain, had tiny plants growing everywhere, each one just tall enough to be a hindrance. Sora stumbled as he hit a particularly stubborn plant, pitching forward and falling to the ground. He tried to stand, but the combination of Akio’s weight and the pain from his burns sent him back to the ground.

The stream was right there. He wouldn't give up and let the duke win. He raised one arm and dug it into the soil, levering himself up and forward. Then another arm, then a knee. His burns were already dirtied, and he lumped the additional pain in with the rest, shoving it deep down where he couldn’t feel it. Sora inched his way towards the water until an abrupt cool washed over his arms. He opened his eyes, not realizing they had been closed, and felt for a handhold under the surface of the water. His hand caught on a rock, and he pulled the two of them into the stream.

So many signals and thoughts crowded his mind. His burns weren’t hot anymore, but they were raw. The water was snowmelt, blessedly pure, so the water didn’t leave any residue on the wounds when he popped his head back above the surface and the light wind blew droplets off his cheeks. Even now as the cold seeped into his bones, the shock of the fight and the fire threatened to pull him under as surely as a whirlpool. He resisted the rising level of panic and turned to Akio.

She looked absolutely terrible. Although her dress had given up trying to incinerate itself, it still had several holes from where the sparks had won the victory. Her black hair had burnt in an uneven line, the longest part still several centimeters shorter than it had been. The blue ribbon in her braid had a black, frayed edge, and the crescent pendant had a dark, warped look in several places. All along her side, especially on her face, angry red blotches started to show as the water cooled the skin around them. The bits of black among the red flaked off in the flow of the stream, the rest of the burns gradually receding in color. Distinct red and white patches eventually settled into place and stopped changing color. He silently thanked Yukima that she was still asleep. She had plenty of pain to come, but at least the worst of the cleaning was over. For now.

Beyond the stream, the fields stretched for kilometers more. At the very edge of his vision, Sora thought he could pick out some trees. Maybe the forest was closer than he remembered? But it would still be a very long hike between the other grain fields, and he didn’t have the strength to carry her that whole way. They’d have to walk it together. The moon touched the horizon, close to finishing her descent as the sky brightened with the rare colors of moonset. They could spend a little more time washing and cleaning wounds, but they needed to get going soon. The duke would find out soon that they had escaped his death trap. Sora hesitated, then tapped Akio on the shoulder. He wished she could sleep for longer, but survival dictated otherwise. “Akio? Wake up. We need to go.”