Page 36 of A Dance of Shadows

One of the retreating locals bumps his elbow against her. Another stumbles and nearly backs right into the soldier. Her frown spasms into a tight grimace.

Just as the first man pushes the second again, she springs forward with a shout of her own.

Her sword flashes through the air, and my heart leaps to my throat. Before my instinctive cry of protest can burst out, she’s already bashed the flat of the sword across the first man’s temple.

He sways and slumps toward the other nearby spectators. The second man spins around with a startled yelp and a defensive jerk of his hand—and the soldier plunges her sword straight into his chest.

My cry dies in my constricting lungs.

The man crumples. The soldier yanks her blade free, the steel smeared with scarlet. I can’t see the body amid the crowd, but everyone close by has gone still and silent.

She killed him. He wasn’t even attacking her, only startled, and she cut him down just like that.

A vision flares before my eyes, with a glowing haze that tells me it’s not quite real. The figures in the square swirl and shift into knots of commoners each surrounding a single soldier. The city folk bunch and churn, and the soldiers spin with an arc of their shining swords.

Blood splatters the cobblestones. A scarlet wave sweeps through the square, toppling every figure in its wake.

I blink, and only a reddish sheen remains over the scene that lay before me to begin with. My heart thuds heavy against my ribs.

My gaze slides along our line of carriages and snags on the youngest foster prince’s face.

In that brief glimpse, Neven is watching me, his mouth twisted at an uncomfortable angle. When our eyes meet, he jerks his head farther back from the window.

Why was he staring at me like that? Or was it actually my husband he was watching?

“It’s all over!” Linus is hollering from beside me, with a salute to the soldier who ended the fight. “We’re back to order. Let’s see no more violence—this is a time for making merry, not fighting!”

Right. Because an argument with a little shoving isn’t acceptable, but stabbing a man in the heart is a totally reasonable response.

Just one more way what’s good for Dariu isn’t so wonderful for the rest of the empire.

My husband tugs me back into the carriage. He brushes his hands together with a huff. “Pathetic louts, all of them.”

I bite back the words I’d like to snap at him. They’d only cause more harm, one way or another. I can’t bring back the life that was just lost.

But perhaps I can see to shorteninghis. I roll the words in my mouth before deciding on the best ones. “It’s always a pleasure to see you taking command so forcefully. The soldiers obviously admire your approach as well.”

Linus’s sharp grin comes back. Yes, let his arrogance grow.

Let him spout off more bold, brutal words to his twin and set them more at odds.

Despite the minor victory, the vision that came to me simmers in my memory for the last short distance to our ship. Every time I blink, flashes of the scarlet flood flicker through my sight.

I’m missing something. What was Elox trying to tell me? Was he warning me of more violence to come?

The people of Rione couldn’t surround so many soldiers the way they did in the vision—the imperial forces are rarely alone.

The horses draw the carriage right onto the transport boat. As the workers secure them to ensure they’re steady for the journey, Linus and I emerge onto the deck.

The crowd we left behind appears to have recovered their spirits. More cheers rise up from the now-distant square at their glimpse of the emperor at the stern of the boat.

I hang farther back, my stomach churning with the first lurch of the boat forward. As I rub my temple, clutching the railing with my other hand in case I need to expel my breakfast into the sea, Bastien ambles up next to me.

He holds his expression carefully stiff, as if he’s carrying out a task he dislikes, but the twist of his hand at his side conveys sympathy.

“I suppose I should ensure you’ll be fully prepared for what you’ll find in Cotea,” he says for the benefit of my guards, who are watching from near the carriage. “There’s little enough else to do right now.”

I make my own smile tense. “True enough. It would be interesting to know how your home country compares to Rione.”

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