“Why did that matter?” Julius asked, because the loss of magic certainly hadn’t stoppedhismother. Bethesda had popped out eggs like she was the Easter Dragon all through the drought, and she’d been young. Age was power for dragons, and the Empress Mother certainly had that. Add in a century of stored-up magic and the Qilin’s mother should have been able to lay as many eggs as she wanted, but the emperor was shaking his head.
“If I were anyone else, it wouldn’t have mattered,” he said. “But the birth of a Qilin is different from other dragons. The preparation of the egg requires an enormous amount of magic, more than any single dragoness can hold on her own. Even with my father’s luck to help her, with no ambient magic to lean on, my mother’s chances of producing a Qilin egg strong enough to survive outside her body were nearly impossible.”
That was unexpectedly bad luck for the clan of good fortune. “So what happened?”
“My mother did,” the emperor said proudly. “She’d beaten a hundred other dragonesses for the right to be the mother of the next Qilin, and she refused to give up on her ambition. Even when the world grew so dull and magicless that lesser dragons were trapped in their human forms, she hoarded her magic patiently, cannibalizing her own fire to ensure that I wouldn’t just be a Qilin, I’d be thebest. She even convinced my father to hold on to his fading life for another century so he could die at the most auspicious time.”
“Wait,die?” Julius said. “Why did he have to die?” What kind of mating flight did it take to make a Qilin?
“The old flame must die before the new can be born,” the emperor said sagely. “Each Qilin’s magic is built from the combined fires of all those who came before him. That’s how the golden flame grows: leaping from father to son in an unbroken line that goes all the way back to the ancient clans of our lost homeland. As the latest to possess it, I would have been the strongest Qilin by default, but thanks to my mother’s sacrifice, I am greater still. My luck is twice that of my father’s, and my reach stretches not just across my empire, but all around the world. This is what my mother sacrificed to give me, and I thank her for it every day by ruling in serenity so that my good fortune may flow to everyone who depends on me. That is what it means to be Qilin.”
He looked so proud of that, Julius didn’t have the heart to tell him how horrible it sounded. To hear the emperor talk, you’d think he’d been given a great gift, but all Julius heard was the story of a dragon who’d been force-fed both his parents’ fires for the sake of amplifying his power. A horrible, uncontrollable power, that required him to never get angry or upset.
At least now Julius understood why the Empress Mother looked the way she did. She wasn’t withered because she was ancient. Her shriveled body was all that was left after she’d spent her fire supercharging her son. But while the Golden Empire’s philosophy of putting all their eggs in one golden basket seemed to be working given how long they’d been around, Julius couldn’t shake the feeling that entrusting your fortunes to a magical ruler who could never be unhappy wasnota good idea. There were way too many ways this could all come crashing down on their heads, and the more Julius heard, the more desperate he became to find a way out.
“I’m not questioning the strength of your magic,” he said, trying a different angle. “But I still don’t think this conquest plan is going to accomplish what you want. Heartstriker is a big, stubborn clan. Even if you go completely hands off and let us rule ourselves, we’re going to be alotmore trouble than you give us credit for. Why put yourself through that if Chelsie’s the only one you really care about? If you’d just talk to her—”
“Absolutely not,” the emperor said, glaring down at him. “Were you not listening? I must remain calm if the magic that protects my clan is to work. Talking to Chelsie isn’t part of that.”
“I get that,” Julius said. “But that’s no reason to drag us all into—”
“Your sisterbetrayedme!” he cried. “Just because I don’t want her to die like a dog to Algonquin doesn’t mean I’m willing to let her near me so she can do it again! Bringing Heartstriker into my empire lets me protect her without exposing myself to her treachery. It’s the only way everyone stays safe. Why can’t you see that?”
“Because I don’t think you’re right!” Julius said angrily. “You’re making all these plans based on the assumption that Chelsie used you and then dumped you when things got too hot, but that’s not the Chelsie I know.”
The Qilin looked away. “Then she’s deceived you, too.”
“I don’t think so,” Julius said, stepping back into his line of view to make the golden dragon look at him. “I don’t claim to know her as well as you did, but Chelsie’s still my sister, and she’s put her life on the line for me more times than I can count. That’s not the sort of thing you can fake.”
“Of course she saved you,” he said dismissively. “You’re her clan head.”
“Not back then,” Julius said. “I’m at the top now, but a month ago, I was the runt of J-clutch, the lowest of the low. Chelsie had no reason to even know my name, and yet she was always there. When I got myself in life-or-death trouble, she fought hard to get me out. Shealwayscomes to our rescue and never asks for anything in return. That’s why I can’t believe your story is as cut-and-dried as you say. I mean, you’re claiming she worked withBethesdato betray you, but the Chelsie I know hates our mother. The only way she’d ever ask for Bethesda’s help was if she was absolutely back-to-the-wall desperate, which she must have been, because Bethesda’s been holding whatever happened in China over her head for the last six hundred years.”
“What are you talking about?” the Qilin sneered. “I might live on the other side of the world, but I’m not ignorant. I know Chelsie is Bethesda’s Shade. They work together all the time.”
“Not willingly!” Julius cried. “Chelsie only obeyed Bethesda because she was trapped in a life debt. They did a lot of awful things together, yes, but Chelsie was there as her slave, not her partner.”
The emperor stared at him for a long time. “I never heard any of this,” he said at last.
Julius shrugged. “Not many outside our clan have, but ask any of my siblings, and they’ll tell you the same. Ask Fredrick. He’s F-clutch, and you already know how Bethesda treated them. Now take the worst of those rumors and double them, and you might have something close to what my mother did to Chelsie. If you need more proof, I can show you the edict we signed to set Chelsie and F-clutch free when we formed the Council. Or you can just go out into the throne room. The Fang of the Heartstriker Chelsie threw down when she quit being Bethesda’s Shade is still right where she dropped it. Go touch it yourself if you don’t believe me.”
“I did try, actually,” the Qilin said, looking down at his hand as if it hurt him. “I knew it was hers from the scent, but…” He sighed. “This is very different from what I’ve always thought.”
“I know,” Julius said. “That’s why I’m saying you shouldn’t be so quick to jump to conclusions. I have no doubt that whatever Chelsie said to you back then was awful, but things in my family are rarely what they seem. You should know this. You loved her once. Would the Chelsie in that painting betray you?”
“I never thought so,” he said. “But that’s why it worked so well. Seduction for power isn’t much use if your target doesn’t believe you’d never sell them out.”
“Or,” Julius countered, “that could have been therealChelsie, and the part where she betrayed you was the lie. You tell me which makes more sense. That she faked being in love with you for an entire year only to give up and confess everything the moment she got caught, or that shealwaysloved you, but then something happened, and she had to lie.”
“To what end?” the Qilin cried. “I offered to save her! What possible benefit could she have from throwing that back in my face?”
“I don’t know,” Julius admitted. “Which is why this doesn’t make sense yet. But if you’re right, and she really was playing you the whole time, then why did she run? You said your mother already suspected Chelsie, but could she actually have stopped you from marrying her if you’d really wanted to?”
The emperor shook his head. “She’d have fought me every step of the way.Wasfighting me, actually, but she couldn’t have stopped me if I’d been determined.”
“There you go,” Julius said, spreading his hands. “You’re assuming she ran because she found out her jig was about to be up, but if she actually was the sort of dragon who’d seduce an emperor for power, then suspicion from your family would have only made her dig into you harder. Your opinion was the only one that actually mattered, so if you believed her, why would she care what anyone else said? Under those circumstances, running was actually theworstchoice she could have made because it made her look guilty. So either Chelsie was both good enough to fool you for a yearandbad enough to screw it up at the end, or she wasn’t fooling you at all. She really was what she appeared, and something else happened to make her flee.”
“But what could that be?” the Qilin demanded. “What would she be running from if not me?”
