had finally told him I was a girl. He had been furious, of course, but as he recast me in the mold of woman, I had felt my body became a possibility to him, and my flesh the sum of what I was. At the time, it had shamed and infuriated me.
I stared into the mirror and a small smile shifted across the reddened flower-bud mouth. Part of me wished Kygo were here to see me in the gown and paint. Would he think me beautiful? I glanced across at Moon Orchid. Not if she was in the room. Still, he had made me his
A small doubt slid through my thoughts like a honed dagger. It was possible that my body had never had anything to do with it. Perhaps he did not want Eona — just “the thousand lightning strikes tipped with pleasure.” Was that why he had not sought my company on the ride to the city — since I dared not touch the pearl, I was of no use? I looked at Moon Orchid again. He could have any woman he wanted. Why would he choose me?
Perhaps he did not even see Eona when he looked at me. Perhaps all he could see was dragon power.
Mama Momo guided me away from the mirror. “If all goes smoothly, you won’t be in the company of the officers for long, anyway,” she said. “Tell me the plan again.”
We had been through it twice already while I was being painted, but she was right to insist. “One of Sethon’s half- brothers is hosting the party — High Lord Haio. He has requested only lower rank girls, so when he sees me among the others, he will complain.”
Momo nodded. “He is tighter than a fish’s bum and won’t want to pay for a Peony he did not order.”
“I then explain that there has been a mistake, and that Vida and I are a gift for the emperor from the Blossom Houses: a Peony for music and song, and a Safflower for the more base arts.” I paused. “What if Haio decides he wants a Peony after all?” I did not have a clear idea of what would happen at such a party, but I knew it would not be safe for either of us.
“He will not want to interfere with his brother’s pleasure — with good reason. Haio will have a steward escort you to Sethon.”
“Ryko, Yuso, and Dela will intercept us,” I continued. “We’ll get rid of the steward and make our way to Ido.”
“Do not miss that opportunity.” Momo gripped my arm to emphasize the warning.
“We know,” Vida said.
“We get into Ido’s cell. I heal him, then we make our way to the east wall of the palace, where the resistance will be waiting with horses and an escape route out of the city.” I looked at the somber faces around me. “Let’s hope the gods are with us.”
“They should smile upon you just for the sheer audacity of it all,” Momo said. She turned to Dela. “Are you sure you cannot do this without risking Lady Eona? I could have her meet you outside the palace.”
“I have to be there to heal Ido and control him,” I said, before Dela could answer. I was afraid of going into the palace, but I was just as frightened of losing my one chance of rescuing the only man who could train me in my dragon power.
Momo sighed, then beckoned to Moon Orchid. “Take Vida and Lady Dela to the top room, my dear. Yuso and Ryko are waiting.” She smiled at me. “Lady Eona, will you stay a few moments longer?”
I crossed my arms. “What for?”
Did she think she could persuade me to stay out of the palace?
“I would speak to you about Ryko,” she said in an undertone.
Dela turned back, ignoring Moon Orchid’s gentle ushering toward the door. “Ryko? What about Ryko?”
Momo’s eyebrows rose at her tone. “It is a matter between Lady Eona and myself.”
Dela’s chin lifted. “Ryko is my guard. I will stay, too.”
“Your guard?” Momo echoed.
It was no longer strictly true, but both Dela and Ryko seemed to be clinging to the formal bond that had first brought them together. I caught the silent plea in Dela’s eyes.
“Lady Dela will stay,” I said. My support was not all for Dela’s sake; I did not want to face Momo alone. Especially about Ryko.
Momo’s lips thinned, but she nodded and waved Moon Orchid and Vida from the room.
“You are killing him,” she said flatly when the door had slid shut behind them. “This possession of his will — it is withering his spirit.”
I tightened my arms across my chest. “I did not ask for it.”
“Yet you keep on doing it. I have spoken to him.”
“Only twice,” Dela said. “And Lady Eona has promised—”
“Three times,” Momo said. “At least.”
Dela focus snapped to me. “Three?”
“His Majesty made me. It was a test.” I lowered my head. “I did not want to.”
“Eona!”
I did not look up; the disillusion in her voice was clear enough. “You were not there,” I said. “Do not judge me.”
Momo clicked her tongue in irritation. “It does not matter how many times. Ryko is a man who lives by his own code, and if he cannot have that, he would rather die. I should know. His damned code drove a wedge between us.”
“How?” Dela asked.
“His mother, Layla, and I were friends. We worked in the same house. She wanted to get out and take Ryko back to the islands, and she was so close to repaying her bond. Then she was killed by a client, right in front of him.”
Dela pressed her hand to her mouth. “Killed in front of him?”
Momo nodded. “He tried to stop it, but he was only eight. I took him in after that. Then when he was sixteen and I had my own house, he helped one of my girls break her bond. She manipulated him, but that’s not the point.” She waved away the girl’s importance. “He just wanted to save her, like he couldn’t save his mother.” Momo turned to me. “For Ryko, your control is a bond that can never be repaid or escaped. You have his spirit in chains.”
I glanced at Dela. “Maybe he should leave us.”
Her jaw tightened. “You know he will not.”
“It is only going to get worse,” I whispered. “If our plan works and I heal Lord Ido, then Ryko will be caught up in my control of him.”
Momo shook her head. “Does he know this?”
“Yes.”
“Then it is his own choice. And that is the crux of the matter, isn’t it,” she said grimly. “If Ryko cannot make his own choices, by his sense of duty and honor, he would rather die.”
“I am hoping that once I am trained by Lord Ido, I can end this bond,” I said.
Momo grunted. “You are pinning a lot of hope on Lord Ido,” she said. “I pray that you can control him, as you say. Let me show you something, as a warning.”
She loosened her sash and pushed her robe off her right shoulder, exposing the bony flat of her back. A long ridged scar, old and deep, slashed the skin — the mark of a whip.
“That was Ido?” Dela whispered.
Momo nodded. “When he was seventeen. I turned my back on him,” she said. “Never make that mistake, Lady Eona. He will strike as fast as a scorpion and with just as much venom.”
“Why did he do it?” I asked.
“Because he could,” Momo said. “It is his nature.”
Yet she had not seen the remorse that shook Ido’s body after I had healed him, nor witnessed the terrible pain he had suffered to hold back the ten dragons from tearing me apart. Surely it was possible his nature had changed. Why else would he put himself in such danger?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
