Page 47 of A Dance of Shadows

Nole is swaying on his feet. Sweat gleams on his sallow face.

The Eloxian devout steps forward. “Help them over to the edge of the field, as carefully as you ca?—”

Marclinus cuts him off with a scornful bark of laughter. “I don’t think so. Leave the wounded where they fell. It looks as though not all Coteans have learned Estera’s lessons well enough.”

A vise squeezes around my lung. I can’t hold back my protest. “If they don’t receive medical help, they’ll die.”

The emperor narrows his eyes at me. “Then they should have looked where they stepped more cautiously and done their empire proud.” He cuts his gaze toward the medic. “Stand down.”

There’s no mistaking the warning in his tone. How many more will die if we provoke Marclinus’s temper?

I swallow hard, barely dislodging the lump that’s clogged my throat.

The two bitten civilians have sunk down amid the grass. The man is biting his lip against the pain that must be spreading up through his leg. Silent tears streak down the woman’s cheeks.

The rest of the snake-hunters start to move again, even more vigilantly than before. As they pass their felled companions, I catch whispers of solidarity and grief.

But we must keep going.

Pushing past the weight in my chest, I scan the irises and retrieve another snake. In the woods, the sacks squirm as they fill with captives. Surely there can’t be too many more.

No further cries reach my ears. When I return, no one else is slumped amid the flowers except the two who are now trembling with the effects of the poison.

As I venture into the irises again, a woman nearby scoops up an asp and then flinches as it whips its head toward her. It slips from between her sticks. She scrambles to the side with a swift call of warning.

All of us in the field freeze, watching for the serpent to come our way. The growing babble of the observing nobles drifts through our silence.

One baron lets out a whoop. “Where’d that one go? It was a wild one!”

A bellow of laughter and more excited chatter follows, getting louder by the minute. Perhaps they’re getting impatient that there hasn’t been more drama after that brief taste.

The woman who dropped the snake meets my gaze with a nervous twist of her mouth. The more of a racket our audience makes, the more agitated the snakes will get. And our task will become even harder.

I don’t want to see even more of my people lost to asp venom on our emperor’s whim.

I glance over my shoulder at the gathered court. No doubt if my family or I make any kind of request for silence, Marclinus will only egg the nobles on.

My eyes snag on Aurelia’s across the way. Pain briefly tightens her face, smoothed out a moment later with a serene smile. But her hand shifts across her skirt in what’s obviously a question.

You need help?

I pass the sticks into one hand and swipe my fingers through my hair as if pushing the auburn strands away from my eyes. As I lower my arm, I make a quick gesture.Quiet.

I’m not sure if she’ll understand, but calmness is my beloved’s natural state. She can probably guess that the tumult is stirring up the snakes.

As I shift my attention back to the field, the clear voice of my empress rings out through the chatter, gentle but steady. “We’re missing some of the fun! Let’s hear the snakes hiss and snap. I wonder if they make a particular sound right before they strike?”

It’s a perfect gambit, sounding as if she’s eager for carnage rather than trying to prevent it. Marclinus motions to the other nobles in support, and a hush falls over the watching crowd.

Suppressing a tight smile of gratitude, I spot another asp. With a hitch of my breath, I scoop it up like I did the ones before.

By the time the temple bell rings in the next hour, I’ve deposited a fourth snake in one of the waiting sacks. The city folk and I have spent most of the past several minutes scouring the ground beneath the flowers and collecting the last few asps that escaped our initial sweep.

Nole and the bitten woman lie slumped on their sides amid the flowers, their breaths coming in a halting rattle and their skin darkened with a purplish hue that matches the blooms.

When Marclinus beckons my family to stand at the edge of the field, I walk to join them with trepidation knotting my stomach.

I don’t think any of the creatures remain—but perhaps our wisdom and our eyes failed us after all. And we have to walk past our two citizens who will soon die so that we could make this short trek safely.

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