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Akai had three more of his soldiers join them. Hardly enough to make a difference if it came down to it, but Kiet preferred not to argue long over such trivial matters. Besides, if everything went according to plan, no blood need ever be shed.

'Gyoseong will allow none of you into the audience chamber with me, is that understood?'

'But—'

'So that includes you as well, Akai. In fact for this order of business, I expect the Emperor will clear his hall of everyone but his brother and I. Perhaps the truth-weaver, too.' Kiet fixed his collar. The yi-sang felt thrice as tight over his leather armour, but it was another precaution Akai had insisted upon. 'Where is the runesmith?'

'Already at the ship, maharaj.'

'Good. Have the servants clear the compound the second we leave Ikidojja.' He secured his boots, looked over the kyōgan one last time. He'd miss the place, he realised suddenly. If he had only come under more pleasant circumstances ... if things had only not devolved so badly ...

'You're sure you're ready to leave?'

'We've run our welcome, Akai. I'm sorry you had no opportunity to explore your homeland.'

For a second, Akai's stone face cracked. 'I'm here on duty, maharaj, not to reconnect with distant relatives.'

Kiet shrugged, following his men out to the courtyard. His swiftlet swooped down from the eaves to greet him.

The sky was still a dim red, a light patter falling from the cloudless dawn. Morning seven-bells had yet to be struck. One of his men stifled a yawn. There were six in total including his captain, half of them theurgists of some kind. A dhraokin, a mind-bender—both at fourth-rank—and a third-rank ramnapeut.

'What of the rajini?' asked Akai as they marched down the archway tunnel.

'You let me flush her out. Just make sure you head immediately to the Hokudo Gate while I speak with the Emperor. Sindhu reported some movement with the caravan late last night. We only were fortunate it had become too dark and unsafe for them to leave, especially in the rain. I suspect Dhvani will make her escape to the rookery the moment the sky clears.'

Akai's lip tightened. 'And if she comes escorted by the Emperor's guards?'

'Under no circumstance is Tsun blood to be spilt. If apprehending the rajini proves impossible, your task is only to delay them from exiting the gates. I will handle the Emperor.'

They spoke no more of it once they exited the compound. Even so early in the morning were the streets all filled with soldiers clearing the rubble. Kiet would have preferred to be out there doing the same. Instead there he was, on his way to uncover their Emperor's intricate complot.

At least his men reported no great damage to the city. They had felt the tremors well enough, but none of Fukuhei's fissures extended below the cliff. Momuji's architecture was sound enough to for the most part withstand quakes, thus luckily were none of their structures flattened, either. But if Fukuhei had erupted just a little longer or just a little stronger ...

Fukuhei is the Emperor's problem. Taking the runesmith will at least prevent Gyoseong from continuing with that hare-brained idea of theirs. He will have to rely on the Terran woman to help his son.

The entrance to Ikidojja was left wide open. Men and mules streamed through—dragging empty carts into the second enclosure and hauling them, stone-loaded, back out. They rolled into the bamboo forest, taking the path towards Handojja. The forest itself was a tangle of broken stalks. While the trail to the Ganwa Gate had been cleared, the route to the castle remained cluttered and dense. They moved slowly, cutting and clearing as they went.

'At least we left early.' Akai lugged a fallen bamboo off the road, his brow dotted with sweat or rain, Kiet knew not.

'I planned on catching the Emperor off guard, not spending the first few hours cleaning his forest.'

'What's stopping him from simply refusing you entry until ten-bells?'

Kiet sniffed. 'His curiosity, his fear, take your pick.'

'We're in his land. Maybe we should have some fear ourselves.'

Have some fear myself, you mean. Akai thought his confidence overweening, that he underestimated Gyoseong's power. Kiet worried more that he was overestimating the Emperor's prudence. But what was the use in showing his doubts? It only would trouble his inexperienced soldiers, here where they were greatly outnumbered.

He unsheathed his kalis to hack at a stubborn branch. It cracked in a few quick swipes, clearing the path.

Someone stood a short distance ahead, as though in waiting.

Kiet's breath caught in his throat.

I've lost it. He had gone completely insane. Clearly he suppressed his worries so well, they were now manifesting as visions before him.

'Maharaj?' Akai sounded worlds away, though he only stood paces behind him.

'Do you see that?' he whispered, eyes never leaving the apparition.

'The girl?'

'You see her, too?'

Akai drew his weapon, moved towards the girl. Kiet held him back.

It can't be. His eyes were playing tricks on him. It was just a stranger, returning from the temple.

She took a tentative step forwards, right between two stone lanterns.

There was no mistaking that face.

No. Why would she be here?

What was this, some kind of trick the Emperor kept up his sleeve? Or was it Dhvani? Yes, that must be it. The rajini was down to her last tethers, now had she pulled another of her dark devices to mess with his head ...

'Leave me,' he muttered to Akai. 'Take the others and clear the path ahead.'

The captain made clear his displeasure, but waved for his men to follow. They parted around the girl like running water before a great stone. Kiet failed to collect his thoughts. Surprise, confusion, suspicion ... nothing good came of the vision, but still he found himself approaching her.

He was close enough to see the bruises on her face, the bandage around her left wrist. This was no specter; no illusion conjured by some devious rune. She, too, was walking closer, faster and faster with every step.

Before he knew it, he had her in his arms, his nose deep in her hair. It smelled of coconut oil; too real to be imagined. It was her voice, too, that came muffled from his chest. She was saying something, but he could barely register the wind howling around them, let alone her tremulous words.

'You're real.'

Her hands slipped under his robe, tightening around his back, up his neck ...

How is this possible?

Slowly the world returned to him. Light filtered through the leaves. His swiftlet called from a branch. The convenience of it all hit him in a rush.

Kiet pulled away. 'What is this? How did you get here?'

'Well, I'm thin enough to squeeze through the path. No civilians are permitted into Ikidojja while they clear out the debris, so I waited here for you.'

'No—why are you here? Are you with Dhvani?'

'Dhvani?' She shrugged his hands away from her shoulders. 'What in all the epps has she to do with anything?'

He took a moment to step back and regarded her. 'You disappeared after the attack on my mother's estate, as did Dhvani. So were you captured, or have you been working with her?'

'Neither!'

'Am I to believe you being here is all a coincidence? Like the time we met on Tempestorm, or you finding me at the Water Palace—' Gods. Had she been a plant all along? Had Dhvani inserted her to watch him, get her into his mother's estate, and like a prodigious fool, he had—

'They were coincidences—I was in Tsunai long before you!'

'Because you came with Dhvani.'

'Will you stop it with Rajini Dhvani!' Now was she angry. 'I came here to visit a friend. She's a mind-healer and works for the Emperor.'

The Terran woman.

'I first met her on Tempestorm. You've seen her yourself!'

That had been so long ago, and Kiet had seen so many faces from so many places. It did ring a bell, but perhaps he wanted too much to believe her. 'If you were neither captured by Dhvani nor working as her agent, then why hide all this time?'

'I was not hiding. I've only been trying to find help for my sister.'

The one I was helping her look for. Yes. He was to take her to the labyrinths that night. The same labyrinths in which his mother had died. 'So you found her.'

'You do not believe she is real.' The coldness in Isla's voice matched his own. 'You will meet her yourself soon enough. You will see why I needed a mind-healer's help.'

She was convincing, he'd give her that. If she was a silver-servant, Dhvani had her trained well.

'I thought you had died,' continued Isla. 'I knew how it looked. So I fled to the labyrinths as we had planned. My sister was there, just as I suspected.'

'In Chei's dungeons?'

Isla gave no response. Kiet was hardly in a place to listen, anyway. Her story added not up, and his head spun in the confusion. The fight had taken place beneath his mother's estates; in his mother's parts of the labyrinths—not Chei's.

'And after you found your sister? What happened then?'

'Your mother happened. She came into the labyrinths with her men.'

'Of course.' Someone would by then have found his body. The alarms would have been sounded. 'She thought you an intruder.'

'Something like that.'

'What is that supposed to—'

'What do you know about her, really?' Isla's voice was quiet, her eyes accusing.

Kiet pushed back the anger bubbling inside him. This he expected from Khaisan or Divya or any number of his half-siblings and cousins; but he had thought better of Isla. 'What is it exactly you are asking?'

'Do you know why Dhvani killed her?'

'I've spent this past year and a half chasing her down fuelled by that very question!'

Isla drew in a deep breath. Pain flashed across her bruised face. Despite everything, he reached for it, his fingers brushing her cheek gently. What happened to her, anyway? Had Dhvani been torturing her? Forcing her into service?

'Rajini Dhvani killed her to avenge the murder of her own son.'

His veins twitched with the heat of theurgy. Kiet clenched it down. 'What kind of twisted lies has Dhvani been feeding—'

'No, Kiet. I heard the confession with my very own ears.'

'A confession made under duress—'

'She made the admission even before she knew Dhvani was there.' Isla was backing away from him.

Did she really think he would strike her?

First she accosts him in the middle of a forest, she accuses his mother of capital murder and him an accessory after the fact, now she acts as though he might an unarmed girl kill and body hide in the bushes.

'Listen to yourself. Your story is senseless. My mother has no reason to kill Kiaan any more than Dhvani had business being in those labyrinths that night.'

'She—she probably felt the tremors, as Rajini Chei had.'

'Get me not started on Chei!'

'Believe it or not, that is what happened! Maharaj Kiaan was not the primary target of your mother's attention—it was his son!'

'You mean Nor?' She was out of her mind. 'Why would my mother want an eight-year-old child dead?'

Isla only shook. 'I know this is not what you wanted to hear.'

'What I want—' Kiet steadied himself. The heat was coursing wild through his arm, and he could feel now its hunger. He sheathed his blade and stepped away, giving her the distance she so clearly needed. 'You think me in denial, but it is you who have fallen for Dhvani's tricks. What was it? Did she promise your sister's safety in exchange for your compliance?'

'For the last time, Dhvani has nothing to do with it!' yelled Isla. 'You think I am her silver-servant, is that it? That she went through all the trouble of putting me aboard Tempestorm, go through some convoluted plot of having me arrive into the palace under a false identity, just to what, get me closer to you? The sun does not shine solely for you, maharaj. Besides which, I'm sure there are much simpler ways to get you in bed with a woman. And should I remind you, that it was you who first approached me?'

There was some sense in her words, but it was diminished behind the absurdity of everything else ... his mother, who spent her days mending the broken wing of a rice sparrow; who would tend her own herb garden and walk through Kathedra's anterior ring to bring its harvest herself to the children's wards; who would offer opportunities to even the most unemployable of men and women alike ... that she would have an entire family slaughtered out of what—jealousy? fear? Neither Kiaan nor his son could ever pose a threat. 'No. There must be some kind of mistake.'

'I'm sorry.'

'You're trying to distract me.'

'No, Kiet. I came here to offer you a deal. I was there, in the dungeons. I can describe the entire place, the traps that had been set off, the number of men who had been present. I saw Rajini Dhvani kill your mother with my own eyes. I can testify against her. More than that, I can make her confess.'

'You can make her confess.'

'I will explain it to you, but not here, not now.'

For a deal. Kiet's heart sank. Another deal. That was all anyone ever wanted of him. 'What do you want? Land? A title?'

Isla gazed back at him, her face reflecting his own disappointment. 'I want you to take the throne.'

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↝ END CHAPTER EIGHTEEN ↜

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☆ this chapter is dedicated to IneseAndzane ☆

Video: Relaxing White Noise
Image: Original artists unknown

Aaand they finally meet again! I didn't plan on drawing it out -- trust me, I was also surprised Isla decided to show right up in this scene, but there you have it. Was it what you expected, and what do you think of her proposal?

Please don't forget to vote and comment if you liked this chapter, and while you're here, why not check out the interview I've done for the BootcampMentors Spotlight? The link is posted in the inline comment or, if you're on desktop, you can also click the External Link bar. Check it out if you're interested in joining the mentorship programme next year!