“Thank you, Emperor Maicu.” Nina stood quickly and smiled, the sweetest smile he had ever seen on her face, and Kasik finally placed the nameless emotion burning in his chest. It was jealousy, because Kasik had never gotten that kind of smile. There had never been the time, he knew that, but she had just met Maicu, and he was lying to her even then. He planned to make it so she never smiled again. He didn’t deserve a single one of them.
Kasik knew he didn’t, either, but perhaps that could change.
The conversation picked up again as Kasik stood. They had all dismissed him, his tayta especially, but still he held himself rigid, forcing his hands to open the door, his feet to carry him out, his eyes to stay straight ahead.
The door snicked closed and he took a deep breath, turned to ask Nina if she was all right, and found her halfway down the hall, her slippered feet nearly silent on the stone floor.
“Nina,” he called, but she kept walking. When he tried to grab her arm, she dodged away from his touch and walked faster. There was no reason to stop her, not when she was heading in the correct direction, and he couldn’t do what needed to be done in these halls where there were no secrets kept.
The urge to comfort her made his chest hurt.
“Nina, please,” he said again, following as closely as he could without seeming too eager. “Let me help you.”
Finally, she whirled around. Her eyes and the tip of her nose werered. When she lifted a hand to wipe at a stray tear, it trembled slightly. She clenched it against her belly. “I think you’ve done enough, don’t you?”
The words rooted him to the spot. The truth of them pierced him as surely as the sharpest blade. Before he could respond, she turned and stormed off, leaving him to stare after her and wonder what he was meant to do next.
33
Nina paced in her room the next morning, waiting for the empress or Kasik to knock on her door. It was difficult to know what time it was due to the overwhelming lack of sunlight, and she had hardly been able to sleep in such a large bed and quiet room. She was used to her sister beside her, the sounds of her parents in the kitchen, the hushed rustle of their fields from outside.
These stone walls were thick and cold and strange. Everything about it and its occupants made her skin crawl, but she was glad to have met the emperor and taken his measure. He was brazen and proud, with his flashy appearance and wandering hands and smug smiles.
Nina knew exactly what she needed to do.
It was in that room that she realized she still had power. Perhaps not the kind she had hoped for, but one that held sway over men, nonetheless. Nina would seduce Emperor Maicu into removing his achilla, and then she would remove his head.
As long as she was able to avoid Kunay Atik’s touch and Chaska’s meddlesome curiosity and Kasik’s overwhelming desire tohelp, then she might get everything she wanted.
Even if it was tempting to accept his hand, Nina could not, because leaning on him would lead her closer to a fall, and she could not afford to fall. Falling meant failure, and failure meant danger for Sacha. The kunay and the emperor had no reason to go back for her so long as she didn’t give them one.
Someone knocked. Nina stopped her pacing and ran her handsdown her dress and over her hair. At the last moment, she decided to sit on the bed and affect an air of indifference. “Come in,” she sang.
The empress breezed through the door. Today, her dress was the color of the sky right before the sun fully rose during the wet season, an orangey red that was on the border of the emperor’s color. “Good,” the empress said, stepping aside for an attendant to follow her into the room. “You’re awake.”
They waited for the food and tea to be placed, and then the empress motioned for Nina to join her at the table. If Empress Chaska insisted upon sharing her time, then Nina would sit and eat and drink and glean as much information from the woman as she possibly could. Who else knew the emperor better than she?
The chair creaked underneath Nina. The steam from the tea caressed her face as she took a sip. It tasted normal again, just like home. The familiarity made her heart ache.
“Are you ready for today? Master Wara is looking forward to meeting you.”
Nina swallowed the last of her mouthful. “Mmm, yes,” she quickly answered. “I’m curious about what he will teach me.”
“Good.” Empress Chaska nodded, and Nina could have sworn there was a glint of pride in her eyes. “And the mamakuna is a severe woman, but she is not cruel so long as you comply. Youarea virgin, yes?”
The question was so forward that it made Nina sputter and choke on a bite of fruit. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and it came away red, much like what she imagined her entire face looked like. “I haven’t... That is, there’s never been... I don’t... Yes,” she finally settled on, mortification entirely replacing any confidence she might have successfully portrayed.
“That’s good.” The empress grabbed a piece of pitahaya, a whitefruit that was better suited to her elegance, and took a demure bite. “There must have been plenty of opportunity while traveling with Kasik. He is a handsome man, and he seems to care for you very much.”
Nina snorted indelicately. “He only cares about his honor,” she said, completely ignoring thehandsomepart. The way he looked was of no consequence to the feelings she didn’t have for him.
“That is truer than you know,” the empress said with a smile. “I have known him for as long as I’ve been at the kancha, and he has never treated me as anything other than what I am to the emperor. I thought perhaps he wasn’t capable of it, but he seems to be different with you.”
“I can assure you he is not,” Nina said, averting her eyes and fidgeting with the cup of tea to keep her hands busy. “His loyalty is unshakable.”
The lie slipped past the memory of Kasik’s words outside Qorikancha.Ask me to forsake every vow I’ve ever made.But that had been before he believed her capable of controlling his desires. Before he had watched as they dragged her away with nothing but betrayal in his heated eyes.
“In any case,” the empress said, a hand brushing aside an errant piece of hair over her shoulder. “It’s best to leave all of that behind. You are meant for so much more than these men can comprehend.”
