Whisper of Blade | ✓ (Crimson #1)

Epilogue: The Price of Poison

The dragon slumbered.

Kovine's nails scratched grooves in the wooden armrest of her chair. Before her, the fire burned low, licking at the metal grate. Like her, it wanted to escape the prison. So much potential, so much power wasted—only sleeping on a bed of coals, waiting to burn out.

Patience. The dragon stirred within her. The next step has been taken.

"So she ran, did she?" Dara said, her voice throaty like a kat's purr.

"Yes, Highness," the girl whispered. She knelt on the carpet's cushion, her small form trembling like a mouse caught too far from its hole. At any moment she'd be wringing her hands and squeaking useless pleas.

At the thought, the armrest splintered under Kovine's too forceful hand.

Dara shot her a disgusted glance. "I just had these re-upholstered, Kovi."

Kovi. Edina used to call her that.

The fire in the lamps flared a notch brighter, setting off the Draco Empress' smooth, tanned skin and lustrous eyes. When Dara picked up her tumbler of red liquid, her mouth opened to expose her sharpened canines. They resembled a tiger's fangs and the silver kiruki tips clinked awkwardly against the glass while she drank.

Kovine flicked a piece of the wood on the floor. "You needn't have bothered," she said coolly.

Inyo. Tiger and dragon. Evenly matched with neither capable of gaining the advantage over the other. Kovine hated and admired her opposite in the same glance. Dara was a rival worthy of her steel, but she also held her in check with her watchful eyes.

But even her vigilant gaze could miss things.

"Did they catch her?" Dara questioned the girl. She set her drink on the hinoki side table, red drops trailing down the side to discolor the pale wood.

She needn't have asked. Kovine had seen the outcome on the messenger's face as soon as she'd entered. Seen it and exulted in her silent victory.

The girl licked her lips and shut her eyes tight. "No, Your Highness."

Dara giggled. Her tone lilted to a higher pitch, balancing on the brink of madness. "Do you mean to say they lost her?" She didn't wait for an answer. "How did ten Blood Shadows—ten!—lose one blasted girl?" she roared.

Kovine stared into the flickering fire while glass shattered against the wall and the table flew past her. In her younger years, when her father made her mother's life a living hell, he'd done the same thing. He never touched his wife, instead flinging and breaking every belonging and piece of furniture in sight. Kovine's blood heated to a slow boil. She'd done nothing then and she did nothing now.

Until she heard the hiss of a blade leaving its sheath.

The dragon woke. Standing quickly, she intercepted the sword strike with her arm. The sword rang out. Kovine clenched her teeth to keep herself from flinching at the vibrations that shook her bones. A sensation like burning spread over the skin of her face and hands. "That's enough," she said quietly.

Dara bared her teeth but dropped the katana. "This is your fault. Your daughter has evaded those sent to retrieve her. If I find out tha—"

"Now, Dara," Kovine cut in. "You specifically requested that I be barred from interfering. If you continue to throw a fuss over this, we can take it back to them." Kovine flexed the black talons of her left hand where the armor had fused with scales. "What matters is that she has lost all influence. She won't be a problem any longer."

Dara sniffed and tipped her chin up. "You'd better be right." She eyed the prostrate girl with hungry eyes. "We can't leave that one alive."

"I will handle it." Kovine's gaze flitted around the room in ruins. "I'll leave you to tend to the ... upholstering." She snapped her fingers at the messenger and glided through the door into the next room. At its center, a giant table supported a scaled model mapping the known world of Elementon with raised mountains, cities, and borders. Markers indicated the positions of important pieces in the political game, such as her own dragon and Dara's tiger in the capital.

"Shut the door," Kovine commanded.

It clicked shut behind her. Fabric rustled and the girl knelt at her side. "I am most grateful for your protection, Highness."

"What is your name?"

"Iku, Highness," the girl stammered.

Kovine rested her chin on the fist of her right hand and gestured to the map with her left. "Tell me, Iku. What do you make of this?"

With a quiet murmur of apology, Iku rose to her feet only high enough to peek over the table's edge. "The empire boasts very large armies."

"What else?"

The girl surveyed the table with pursed lips and a furrowed brow. "The North is very exposed," she said.

"And yet our victory there would not be sure. Do you know why, Iku?" Kovine walked around the table to fondly stroke the pieces. Such strange creatures the Hydros had—white wolf, snow bear, arctic fox. They didn't have the flash and fire of a dragon or phoenix, instead blending in and utilizing the advantage of familiar and friendly territory.

Iku didn't answer for a long while and sweat beaded on her forehead. "I plead ignorance, Highness."

"Ice," Kovine said. "Ships. Domes. Cruel terrain. Blizzards. Avalanches. Guerilla tactics. A war of attrition. That is what we face." That didn't include the Hydros last resort, a sacrificial play with untold consequences.

"Is ... my Empress saying that a war with the Hydros would not be advisable?" Iku asked, settling back on her hands and knees.

Kovine tilted her head. Whether she thought so or not, she could lead the empire to war or be crushed underfoot as Ash appointed another to lead the charge. "Bring me the decanter on the chest of drawers."

Iku obeyed.

"Pour it."

The girl fetched a glass and filled it with the clear liquid. Gold sediment fluttered to settle on the bottom like blossoms falling from a tree. Many among the nobility drank real gold dust, but this infusion held an even more expensive substance.

"Power is a warm draught to the weak," Kovine whispered. "It lends temporary life and vitality. But power is poison to the strong. It clouds sight with blind ambition and fetters with addiction. We thirst for it and are never satisfied."

Iku presented the glass kneeling, but Kovine pressed it back into the girl's hand.

"Drink it."

The Empress' eyes skimmed over the map as if she were a dragon flying over the world of humanity. In her mind, she noted two invisible pieces on the table—a black manticore and a small, white blossom. The manticore prowled in one of the southernmost terrenes in the Rocklands while the blossom traveled north in the company of a wolf and sea trident.

The girl beside her began to convulse on the floor. Golden asp scales. Kovine preferred them to the ugly poison of the pale viper. She paid the higher price for the ability to administer a painless, bloodless death. Dara or Iku's superiors would not have been so kind.

She turned her attention back to the colossal playing board while Iku's movements decreased to occasional twitches.

"Two down, one to go," Kovine said softly.