“They’ll kill me,” Kaneko muttered.
“They’ll try.” I smiled without humor. “But they’ll have to go through Esumi and m—and a palace full of guards and Samurai. I like our odds.”
Kaneko looked at Yoshi, who squeezed his hand. Some unspoken communication passed between them.
“Okay,” Kaneko said finally. “If it helps, if it means I can actually protect you this time instead of—” His voice caught. “Instead of handing you over to them.”
“You will need to be careful,” Esumi said, joining the conversation properly for the first time. “They’ll test you, give you orders that conflict with your true loyalty. You’ll have to decide in the moment what information helps us more than it hurts us.”
“I know.” Kaneko’s jaw set.
“We’ll need signals,” I said, already planning. “Ways for you to communicate with us that they can’t intercept. And most importantly, we’ll need to keep this between the four of us. No one else can know—not the guards, not the ministers, no one.”
“What about the black cranes?” Yoshi asked. “If they contact him—”
“We use them.” I turned the coin over one more time, then handed it back to Kaneko. “Keep this. It’s your proof of loyalty to them, and it’s a reminder of what we’re fighting against.” Kaneko took the coin, closing his fist around it. “I won’t fail you again.”
“You didn’t fail me,” I said gently. “You were betrayed. We all were. There’s a difference.” I gripped his shoulder. “But now that you know the truth, you can choose whom you really serve.”
“I choose you.” His voice was fierce. “I choose the throne. Therealthrone, not whatever lie they sold me.”
“Good.” I looked at all three of them. “Because we’re going to need each other for what’s coming. Eiko has been planning this for years. She has people everywhere and resources we can’t even guess at. But now—” I smiled. “Now we have something shedoesn’t know about, an advantage she didn’t plan for. We have someone who’s going to help us destroy them from within.”
Chapter 25
Haru
They came for me at dawn.
Not servants. Not guards.
Officials.
Three of them, their faces gray with exhaustion and something worse—something that looked like fear wearing the mask of formality.
“Heika.” The eldest one’s voice cracked. “The Grand Minister requests your presence in the council chamber immediately.”
I was already dressed—I’d barely slept since Father’s death, and when I had, the dragon’s words had followed me into dreams.
Heaven will not wait.
The urgency of it still thrummed in my blood like a second heartbeat.
“What has happened?” I asked, though some part of me already knew it would be terrible.
“The Grand Minister will explain,Heika. Please, we must hurry.”
The palace halls were too quiet for dawn. We’d been in mourning since Father’s poisoning, the entire palace draped in white, but this felt different, somehow worse, if that was even possible.
Servants we passed averted their eyes.
The guards stood rigid at their posts, faces carefully blank.
Something wasverywrong.
The council chamber doors stood open, whichneverhappened. Inside, I saw movement—officials clustered around something I couldn’t make out, their voices low and urgent.
The smell hit me before I crossed the threshold.
