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“I should have the only general who stayed loyal at my side,” Tallu said. He jerked his hand and Asahi visibly retreated. “Do not force me to kill you when instead we could trust each other.”

General Saxu lowered his head into a nod, pushing himself up until he once again faced Tallu.

“If you want peace, where will you begin?”

Peace started in the north. I wrote letters to my mother, sending them with Iradîo, who was more than happy to finally be going home.

I offered to let Naî go with her, but the dragon said she would only travel north when I did.

We returned to the Mountainside Palace, and it was just as bad as General Saxu had described. Entire buildings were reduced to ash. But there were others that had been untouched. The vaults containing all of House Atobe’s riches were still there, as well as all of the secret caches of money and supplies hidden in the tunnels beneath the palace.

After sending word to Krustau, Koque and Hallu returned with enough Krustavian guards to guarantee their protection and word that King Vostop once again wished to reaffirm his amity with Emperor Tallu, the one true emperor of the Southern Imperium. I could see Koque in the phrasing, reaffirming that she and the strongest ally she could bring wanted Tallu to remain emperor.

Tallu called court, but used Empress Koque’s advice. First, we summoned his closest allies, those we had only recently helped gain power and those who were tied to House Atobe too closely to ever move against the emperor.

Once inside the throne room that still smelled of smoke, with Dogs at the door, and General Saxu and Empress Koque standing behind Tallu’s throne, the nobles were made an offer: wholeheartedly back Emperor Tallu in his push for peace or die in the throne room.

Everyone there swore fealty to Tallu, agreeing that peace was a much more efficient way to unite the continent. That left the lords who had switched their loyalty to Kacha. Sagam and Asahi reported on their deaths, one by one. Their lands were redistributed to loyal retainers, or returned to Krustau and Tavornai.

Some of Sagam’s Dogs reported that the only reason Kacha had not perished from starvation was because there were some survivors still living in the Blood Mountains. It was unclear if they were blood mages, or simply civilians, but either way, it gave Tallu someone to negotiate with and pay reparations to.

We waited for my mother’s response, the work of changing the Imperium making slow, steady progress. Tavornai sent emissaries, elves that still wore their hair in sailors’ braids with tattoos on their arms and hands, and children who had known the Imperium through the imperial schools.

The only soldiers Tallu allowed to leave were ones guarding food and supplies. Even those were commanded by men Tallu and I both trusted, like Commander Rede and Commander Lugotu. They reported back that the crops in Forsaith were growing and the civilians in the Blood Mountains no longer met them with arrows first.

At night, in the far corners of the palace that Tallu no longer had the servants to maintain, I practiced my new magic. Naî watched, looking all the smaller as I turned a peaceful night sky into a rainstorm, then a snowstorm, then let wind collect all of the fallen snow into a tight ball. I threw it at her, and she arched her back, hissing and exposing her teeth like a cat when the snowball hit.

But I knew there were more powers. In the stories about her, the One Dragon had seemed impossibly capable. No magic was beyond her. No thought was beyond her.

She had dropped a mountain on Centipede and created Krustau’s mountains.

With time, my magic would be that endless.

“Do not try that ice ball on me or I will charge double for my news,” Terror said, flapping away from his perch.

“I am not afraid,” Ratcatcher said, although he took the branch behind Terror, guaranteeing that he would not be hit first.

“I am. Goodnight,” Dawn said, her tone cranky. She flapped through the air, calling backward that she would tell me her information tomorrow. “As long as there is no flying ice. I am not one who enjoys playing target even for the royal consort.”

Terror, Dawn, and Ratcatcher were spying constantly, earning more fish than the kitchens kept on hand. They reported on whispers from within the palace, but also throughout the city. The country waited, nobles and citizens alike. The discontent could inflame itself into a revolution or it could just as easily become the foundation on which Tallu would build his new nation.

Quietly, Sagam and General Saxu continued putting down imperial lords whose loyalty was to their own pockets rather than Tallu’s vision of the promise, and the Imperium shrank. I could look at a map now and see where the edges of Krustau, the Ariphadeus, and Tavornai were creeping into the Imperium as though they were the edges of the Mountainside Palace, being retaken by the forest.

The blood mages whispered that there were some imperials who were relieved. Servants and nobles alike, although for different reasons. The nobles understood that with the Imperium not at war, the balance of power in the court would be forever shifted. It would no longer lean so heavily on those who could provide war machines or soldiers.

In contrast, the servants were simply grateful that their brothers and sons would no longer be called forth to die in battles far beyond their homes.

I healed Tallu over and over, day after day, promising myself that soon I would not need to, soon he could stand on his own.

Still, we waited for my mother’s response. Koque and I became a united front, weaving the magic of tea parties and social events, using social coercion where Sagam and General Saxu’s blades would have failed to convince nobles.

Months passed.

Finally, my mother responded. Scouts reported seeing an armada of flying warships crossing Dragon’s Rest Mountains, the northern flag raised on their masts.

Forty-Two

Saxu’s men watched for two days as the ships moved across the Imperium, and Tallu allowed General Saxu to make quiet plans. He could defend civilians if my mother attacked, but any soldier who acted preemptively would lose their life before my mother could respond.