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At the same time, something like a giant’s fist punched me in the chest. For a few moments, I was airborne.

I smashed into the ground. All the air was knocked out of my lungs. Too stunned to breathe, I wondered if they’d ruptured and I was going to die there, but at last I managed a ragged inhalation. That was when I noticed how much every part of my body hurt.

Damn it, damn it, damn it. All that effort had been for nothing. I’d lost.

A red-gauntleted hand reached down to help me up. I grabbed it and let him pull me to my feet. My opponent had removed his helmet to reveal a head of thick white hair and a familiar face sporting a wide grin.

The Red Knight was the Red Emperor.

“Good show, nicely done!” he said as I gaped at him. “I’m very impressed by your performance. You’ll do well in my service, Sir Jules.”

“I…” My single syllable hung in the air while he waited for me to finish. He still gripped my hand in his own.

“You’ll get your laurel, no worries about that,” he assured me when it became clear that I was at a complete loss for words. “I’m not really in the running. And there’s no shame in being defeated by me.” He chuckled, and lifted my arm above my head to salute the crowd. Their response was a wordless roar that echoed across the stadium. “Listen to that,” he said. “They love you. You’ll be a natural leader in my army, son. Take off your helmet. Let them see your face.”

I fumbled it off one-handed, and the cheers redoubled. Yudit hurried up to us. The woolly geraniums that had sprung up where I fell withered away. She proffered a bucket to Sunbeam, who thrust his muzzle in for a much-needed drink. I could have done with a bucket of water myself.

“Is that your squire?” The emperor raised his voice to be heard. “A relative, I’m guessing?”

“My brother, yes. Listen—”

He let my arm back down, and the crowd noise began to lessen. “That was some of the finest horsemanship I’ve ever seen, what you did today. Remarkable riding. Remarkable horse, too, for its age.” He gave Sunbeam an admiring glance. His own horse, now a vivid blue, was getting a rubdown from a veritable horde of attendants. “There’s definitely a place for you in the cavalry, Sir Jules. Would you like to command a battalion?”

“That isn’t—”

“Not enough for you? A brigade, perhaps? I’m a good judge of men, and you have real leadership potential.”

“There’s something important that I—”

“More important than a promotion to brigadier general?” The emperor’s bushy white eyebrows climbed slowly upward. “Go on, then, son. Spit it out. I’m intrigued.”

Sunbeam had finished his drink, and he and Yudit were listening attentively. I took a deep, steadying breath.

“I know where to find Ilyana the Golden.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Your Princess Is in Another Castle

The room that Yudit and I had been ushered into was simple and spare. No grand receiving room where a ruler might greet an envoy or ambassador, but a small, white-plastered chamber containing only a table and a few chairs. An unassuming place somewhere in the depths of the imperial fortress where people could talk with the benefit of privacy.

Or so I hoped. If the emperor decided we were lying, it could also serve as a dungeon cell where no one would hear our agonized screams. But I didn’t think so. Tea had been set out for us in delicate porcelain cups, which wasn’t usually a preamble to torture. And it’d be difficult to clean blood off those pristine white walls. Most likely, anything horrible would have to wait until we were taken someplace less hygienic.

We’d given our arms and armor to a large group of very crabby guardsmen, who cast suspicious looks at us when the emperor ordered them to leave. Nonetheless, they duly filed out, and Yudit and I were left in the presence of Emperor Osvald Augustus Maximus, first of his name, and his grand vizier, Dr. Nikidik Pipt.

The asshole who’d slaughtered thousands of people in my home country decades ago, seated next to the asshole who’d tried to kill me last month.

The grand vizier was still in his wizard robes, but the emperor had switched to a red toga and a matching scarf encrusted with gems and gold. Casual clothing. I kept expecting Dr. Pipt to recognize us. My hair hadn’t even changed since the last time he’d seen me. I thought that at any moment he would leap up and announce that I was a Tailliziani spy, or that Yudit and I were women in disguise.

All he did was sneer disdainfully the entire time I related our adventures in the swamp. Once you’ve hurled enough bolts of lightning, I supposed, the people on the other end of them all start to look the same. Just a few more raw cutlets waiting to be seared into charcoal.

When I finished speaking, Dr. Pipt frowned so deeply I thought his face was going to crack.

“That,” he said, “is the most ludicrous story I’ve ever heard.”

“It does sound unlikely,” the emperor replied mildly. “Ilyana was abducted just before our wedding, but you claim it’s only a coincidence, not a plot against me?”

“It defies credulity.” Dr. Pipt spoke directly to the emperor, ignoring us completely. “They happen to shipwreck in a place where they happen to meet a monster who happens to take them back to his palace where he happens to have Ilyana the Golden imprisoned?”