creature. It’s more clever than most—it speaks our words and plays at being like us—but the beast is feral beneath the facade. It plots the downfall of our city. I can sense it. I saw it in his face last night on Isra’s balcony. He wanted nothing more than to kill me, the way his people have killed mine for centuries, though I have done nothing but treat him with a civility a prisoner scarcely deserves.
But he’ll be taken care of soon enough. I spoke with Father before Isra went into his meeting chamber to discuss her tour of the city. He agreed the Monstrous would have to be disposed of as soon as I am made king of Yuan. The safety he affords isn’t worth the risk he poses. The entire court has been on edge since the day Isra insisted on working with the creature. He hasn’t hurt her yet, but we’d be fools to think he isn’t planning to. We’ll kill him before he gets the chance and deal with the—
“Yes, I agree.” Isra’s voice drifts from the shade of the arbor covering the front entrance to the court offices. In the spring, purple flowers will hang down far enough to tickle the top of her hair as she walks beneath.
Bees will hum and the air will be warm and sweet and we will be married.
And I will have the power to tell her to go to her tower and stay there if she refuses to listen to reason.
The thought makes it easier to smile as she emerges into the watery afternoon light, followed closely by my father. He’s dressed in his faded amber advisor’s robe, the one with the slightly frayed sleeves worn by three generations of chief advisors to the royals of Yuan. The robe softens his rough edges, makes him seem more approachable than his soldier’s uniform.
I’m sure the choice of clothing is no coincidence. He wanted Isra to feel comfortable with him today, to feel confident that he was listening to her concerns and opinions.
“I’ll start organizing the documents at once,” Father says, stopping less than a foot away, but not cutting his eyes in my direction. He tilts his head back to look Isra full in the face, as if he has never found anyone more enrapturing. “I’ll send them to the tower for your review as soon as they’re finished.”
“And when will that be?” Isra asks, fingers twirling absent-mindedly at her sides the way they have all day. I grit my teeth and force my eyes away from her fidgeting. It’s enough to drive me mad. If I’d fidgeted like that as a child, my father would have bound my hands in cotton. “I want to start the process as soon as possible. Things can’t continue as they have.”
“Certainly not.” Father nods, but I see his eyebrows draw tightly together. “I’ll have the first drafts of the amendments to the code drawn by late tomorrow. The next day at the latest.”
“That isn’t soon enough.” Isra’s fingers move even faster, tracing an elaborate, repeating pattern I can’t begin to sort out. “I need them sooner.
At least the amendment related to the treatment of the Banished. I’d like to see a draft of that tonight.”
“Tonight it is, then.” Father’s forehead smoothes, and the hint of a smile gentles his lips. He looks as pleasant as he ever does—even more so, actually—but I’m not fooled. “I’ll work through dinner and have the amendment delivered to you in the great hall as soon as I’m finished. The texts you requested on the covenant should already be waiting in your rooms. I ordered them sent before we sat down to chat.”
“Thank you.” Isra’s breath rushes out, and her fingers finally still.
“But have the amendment sent to my rooms as well, please. I won’t eat in the hall tonight. I need some time. Alone. It’s been quite a day.”
“Indeed.” Father smiles. “I’ve never discussed this many amendments to our code of law in the course of a year, let alone one afternoon.”
Isra bites her lip and shoots Father a wary look from beneath her long lashes. “I know this must seem strange, but I’m certain this is right, and the only way to move forward. I think Baba … what he did … giving me the herbs for all those years …”
“Your baba loved you very much,” Father says, apparently not minding if Isra uses childish words. “Never doubt that.”
“I know. I believe he did,” she whispers in a trembling voice, but when she lifts her chin, her expression is calm, strong. “I was shocked, at first, but I think the choice Father made was for the best. He gave me fresh eyes. He allowed me to see Yuan and our people in a way those who have lived in the midst of this … confusion no longer can. Being an outsider, and ignorant of many things, has allowed me to see where our city has gone astray.”
Father inclines his head in a gesture so subservient, it makes my jaw drop. “An interesting and wise perspective.”
Isra glances my way, and I hurry to return her hopeful smile. “Thank you,” she says, turning back to Father. “I’m glad we could come to an agreement, and I’m grateful for your support. I know the other advisors will find the changes easier if you’re there by my side when I announce them.”
“Certainly,” Father says. “Change, even drastic change, can sometimes be the only way to move forward.”
Isra’s smile is … dazzling, and for a moment I remember why I wanted to marry her. She’s lovely in her happiness. So lovely it makes me ill to know this moment isn’t what she thinks it is. I know my father hasn’t been won over so easily. I
“No, no, don’t worry about me,” Isra says, her smile still lighting her face. “I have my guards, and Needle is waiting for me.” She watches with a satisfied expression as Father and I bow. “Until later.”
And then she turns and glides away, the confidence in her new walk making her seem like a different person from the girl who scurried across the field to her tower rooms a week ago. I watch her greet her guards, with a hint of guilt worming its way into my heart. I told myself I didn’t care about the queen anymore, but I can’t help but feel bad for her, to fear for her.
She’s barely out of sight when my fears are confirmed.
“We’ll have the wedding tomorrow,” Father whispers. “Prepare yourself. It might be an unpleasant ceremony.”
“But her period of mourning isn’t over.” Mourning rituals are strictly observed in our city. It’s bad luck to go against them, such bad luck that the advisors decided it was better to leave Isra unmarried for several months rather than go against the grieving customs.
“I know, and it may bring dark days to Yuan to have her married while still wearing green, but there’s no help for it. The girl is out of her mind.” Father waves a weary hand through the air. “The other advisors were listening in on my conversation with Isra. They sent this just before the conclusion of our meeting.” He hands me a note on parchment paper, written in the unmistakable cramped, slanted hand of Tai, the late king’s oldest advisor and the man second in power only to my father.
“They think she’s mad?” I ask, shocked, though I shouldn’t be. I’ve had similar thoughts all day, but when the word “insane” flitted through my head, I didn’t mean it. Not really. Isra is odd and stubborn and strange, no doubt, but she’s not out of her mind. At least not in a dangerous way. “But, Father, I don’t—”
“You should have heard her, Son,” Father says with a sigh, plucking the parchment from my fingers. “She wants to put an end to the Banished camp and bring those pitiful creatures into the city center to live with our people.”
I lean in, certain I’ve heard him wrong. “But she saw them. They’re animals. They barely speak our language, they lack the sense to keep their waste in the assigned trench, and ran from us every—”
“She thinks they’re afraid.” Father sighs again before shuffling over to the bench and easing himself down. He looks older than he ever has before, as if the meeting with Isra has aged him ten years. More. “She saw bruises on their bodies. She thinks the guards beat them, and that’s why they run from whole citizens.”
“They beat them because they attack each other,” I say, pacing in front of the bench. “They’d tear each other apart if the guards didn’t keep them in line.”
Father lifts his hands in the air. “I tried to tell her, but she wouldn’t listen to reason. She thinks the Banished could learn to speak our language and behave properly if they received different treatment.”
