The bowing red dragon—one of the twins, she’d never been able to tell them apart—nodded. “Yes, Empress. Lao is with him now.”
“And the Heartstrikers?”
“Vanished through one of the secret passages.”
That was vexing, but they would turn up again. Bethesda’s children could always be counted on to pop up like weeds. Even so. “Search the lower levels,” she ordered. “If you see a chance to kill him, take it, but don’t do anything that might upset the Qilin further. This place is dangerous enough as it is. I don’t want any more unnecessary stress placed on my son.”
The red dragon nodded obediently and backed out of the enormous empty cave that had once been the Broodmare’s gold wallow. When he’d closed the vault door behind him, the empress turned her attention back to her own unexpected problem. “You were wrong.”
“I was nothing of the sort,” Brohomir replied, his face irritatingly smug even through the terrible, grainy connection of the public AR terminal he’d insisted on calling her from. “I told you this would happen.”
“You told me that if the Golden Emperor spoke to Julius Heartstriker, I would lose my position as empress,” she said, scowling through the projected screen thrown up by her own, far superior, personal phone. “But your whelp is long gone, and here I sit still.” She lifted her chin proudly. “You werewrong, seer, but I knew you would be. I raised Xian to be dutiful above all else. We are nothing like you barbarians.”
“No one implied you were,” Bob said, leaning against the wall of the grubby public booth he’d crammed himself into. “But you’re thinking too short term. I’m afraid your precious golden treasure has already fallen into the well-meaning clutches of my youngest brother, and those are very hard to escape.”
“Then I will kill him,” the empress said.
“Such is the common refrain of Heartstriker Mountain,” the seer replied with a chuckle. “But Julius is harder to kill than he looks. Even if you did succeed, I’m afraid it wouldn’t do much good. You lost your son years ago, Fenghuang. It’s only the duty you value so highly that’s kept you from feeling it sooner.”
“What do you know of duty?” the empress said haughtily. “You are a traitor, a seer who sold out his mother and his clan.”
“That I am,” Brohomir said cheerfully. “Funny how you find that so offensive now, yet you had no problem accepting my traitorous ways when I was serving Heartstriker up to you on a platter. No Amelia, no White Witch, no annoying siblings. Just my mother and sister, hobbled and bound, as promised.”
The empress sneered. “Hobbled and bound, indeed. Bethesda was bound, but she was never the problem, was she? That honor goes to her shameless daughter, and yet I arrived to find her still running around loose.” She leaned into the projected screen with a scowl. “You told me you had the little whore in check.”
“I’d thank you not to talk about my sister that way,” Brohomir said, his normally lilting voice sharp. “And I pulled off amiraclewith Chelsie. Even with your son’s luck coming down on us like a sledgehammer, she and the Qilin have yet to cross paths. It’s coming, though, and soon, but you knewthatwas inevitable when you came here.”
“I had no choice,” the Empress Mother said bitterly. “Xian had been considering conquering Heartstriker for years. Algonquin’s foolish war was just the final straw. After that, there was no reasoning with him. Even I cannot defy the will of the Golden Emperor.”
“But you manipulate it just fine.”
“I used to,” she said sadly, looking down at her withered hands. “He is my only son. My treasure, bought with everything I had. I made his luck greater than even his father’s at its prime, a blessing that fell on all of us without fault, without fail. With one exception, he has always been a perfect emperor. A perfect son, respectful and obedient and utterly above reproach. The only thing that could ever break him was her.” She clenched her bony fingers into fists. “I will not let her take him from me. You must have seen the mountain quake just now. Youknowwhat is at stake. She already ruined him once. I can’t allow that to happen again. Not after all I sacrificed.”
“That’s the trouble with sacrifice,” Brohomir said. “You paid for a Qilin, but you still hatched a dragon. You can’t be shocked he has ambitions of his own.”
The empress’s lip curled in disgust. “Love isnotan ambition.”
“It is when you love a Heartstriker.”
“I didn’t call you so you could make jokes at my expense,” she snapped. “You play the careless seer well, Brohomir, but you’ve worked too hard on your precious Heartstrikers for me to believe you’re throwing them away now. I know this is all part of some greater plan in your twisted mind, but even your machinations cannot stand before the will of the Qilin. His luck moves the future of all our clans. It will smash your schemes to pieces if you presume to play games with the Golden Empire.”
“A fair threat,” the seer admitted. “Even I am powerless before the Golden Wrecking Ball.”
“I’m glad you understand,” the empress said, nodding. “But just because you are lower doesn’t mean we can’t still come to a mutually beneficial arrangement. Tell me how to save my son, and I will promise to spare your hateful relations.”
“Such a benevolent offer,” Bob replied, pressing a hand dramatically to his chest as he flopped against the booth’s graffitied wall. “I think I might faint.”
She gave him a cutting look, and the seer sat back up with a grin. “I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do. I came to your aid six centuries ago when I wrote you that letter explaining how to corner my fleeing sister, but while this saved your empire from the worst ravages of a broken-hearted young Qilin, it fixed nothing. The damage was only put off, not prevented. Your son came to our mountain with pure intentions. He has not deceived you in the least. He really did plan to return home the moment he put Chelsie under his luck without seeing her at all. But while sterling duty guides his actions, his luck has always followed his emotions. From the moment he arrived, the Qilin’s desperate, repressed longing to see the dragon he loves has been warping the future like taffy. It pulled Julius to him despite your best efforts, and now, as is his habit, the Nice Dragon of Heartstriker has made things infinitely more complicated. I’ve done all I can, but at this point I’m afraid there’s not a single path of possibility remaining where your emperor and my sister do not meet, and where he does not learn the truth.”
The empress closed her eyes with a shudder. “Then it is finished,” she whispered, pressing a shaking hand to her eyes. “We areallfinished.”
“Not quite.”
She lowered her fingers to see the seer leaning into the camera, his face filling the screen with a predatory grin the empress was not accustomed to seeing aimed at her. “Delightful as this has been, I didn’t risk calling you just to rub your face in bad news. It’s true there’s no future left where your son remains only yours, but there’s still a way to make sure he’s nothers.”
“Why would you betray your sister for me?”
“Because I’m not doing it for you,” Brohomir said. “I’m doing it forme. The fact that you also benefit is merely a happy coincidence, but thechoicestill has to be yours.”
