Page 74 of Forest of a Thousand Lanterns

“Are you a painter?” he asked, the corner of his mouth quirking.

“I beg your pardon, Your Majesty?”

“You study me as though you’re about to take my likeness. I thought you might be an artist as well as a poet.” His face softened to show he had taken no offense. “Come. Paint me a picture that shows me what you think of me.”

Xifeng eyed him warily. “I’m not a painter.”

“I mean with your words, of course.” His eyes twinkled. “You can clearly think for yourself, and you don’t bow and scrape like all of my wife’s other women. Go on.”

“I envisioned Emperor Jun as quite a different man.”

“Tread softly now.” His grin widened. “Remember I have an entire army at my beck and call, so take care I compare favorably to what you imagined.”

She couldn’t help smiling back. “I pictured a large, balding man with an impressive beard, who smelled of duck fat and wore a perpetual scowl.”

“Duck fat?” He gave a great laugh like rolling thunder.

Xifeng watched him shake his head, still smiling from ear to ear, and marveled that this was a king who invaded other lands in cold blood. He held Feng Lu in the palm of one hand and with the other, beckoned lesser men to help him keep it. Yet even with all the wars he waged and the kingdoms he intimidated, he could be as merry as if he hadn’t a care in the world.

He recovered from his mirth. “Tell me what you see, then. What do you make of me now? Can you tell me what sort of man I am simply by my appearance and surroundings?”

She cocked her head at him. “Is this a game, Your Majesty?”

“I like games. Don’t you?” Though his voice remained cheerful, he had stopped smiling, and his features became granite once more. But she preferred him this way—it seemed his truer self, and his charming, jovial manner was too disarming for her taste.

Xifeng observed him again with care. He still reminded her of a bird of prey, sleek and silvery, a perfect blend of sinew and feathers. He had a high, open forehead and a soft mouth, but the craggy peaks of his nose and jaw belied the truth of his temperament.

“And don’t worry about the army,” he added, a glint of amusement appearing in his eyes. “I won’t dispatch them on you. I want the truth.”

“You expect the world to run on your command. Once your orders are given, they should be followed without question.”

“That could be said of any king.”

“You live your life with precision, but you have a soul touched by art and beauty.”

Emperor Jun followed her gaze to a collection of pipes on an adjacent table, too precious to be handled by servants. He had laid them out so the end of each lined up in mathematical precision with the others. Beside them were volumes and scrolls of poetry, as neatly stacked. The whole room proved her assumption correct: he was more of a scholar than a warrior.

He wore an unreadable expression. “Continue.”

“A ruler has little time for kindness. He does not give without expecting something in return. He can’t afford to.”And he does not have meetings with no purpose.She knew this private audience was a chance for him to assess her, and she needed to impress him with her sharpness—without cutting herself. “You consult the Empress in all matters. You want her to feel like she’s a part of your decision-making, no matter how trivial the issue.”

“Trivial?”

“Your Majesty signed a treaty with Kamatsu earlier this year, which has made other rulers uneasy. The queen of Dagovad, for instance, who supplies your army with fine horses in exchange for your support in the conflicts over eastern territories. She and her sister, the queen of Kamatsu, have not seen eye to eye for a very long time.”

The corners of his mouth turned up, as they had at the moon-viewing party. “How did you come by thistrivialinformation? Were you listening to the eunuchs again?”

She did not dignify that with a response. “The queen won’t dare enter into war with us. She knows she’ll be grossly outnumbered, but still we can’t afford to make an enemy of her.”

“Her people breed the finest stallions on the continent.” The Emperor stroked his close-cut beard. “But to counter the first argument, she could rally the nomadic peoples with those horses as incentive. She is still capable of raising a formidable army.”

“Either way, we cannot antagonize her or renege on the treaty with Kamatsu. Both options would ignite war and end trade agreements for goods too precious to lose. What we need is a gesture to show Dagovad we value their friendship. That we respect the queen, but our relations with other kingdoms are not her concern.”

Emperor Jun looked amused at the use ofweandour,as she knew he would be.

“Hence the festival in the queen’s honor, and the envoy to her kingdom in the spring with gifts of spices and lumber.” Xifeng raised an eyebrow. “This is a solution Your Majesty and your councilors must have agreed upon in minutes. But still you took the trouble to ask the Empress, knowing she would only tell you what you had already thought of. Maintaining relations is a game of strategy, and you are a master.”

His eyes sparkled at her, and she released a quiet breath.

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