Page 83 of Eyes of Kings

“No, I—” This isn’t how this was supposed to happen. Her breath clouds before her. “We come with the proposition of a treaty. We wished to speak to the yamen and the generals of the province.”

“There are no more generals of the province.”

This comes from another one of the assailants standing nearby. Their voice feels familiar, though Venus cannot put her finger on why. She has not spent long in West Capital. When they put Rincun on a voluntary confinement period, hoping that would protect the province against travelers seeking the divine crown, Venus was stationed in East Capital.

“I—I’m sorry,” Venus says. “What do you mean?”

The woman pulls off her mask, revealing her face. It is not one that Venus can immediately place, but she knows she has seen it before. Which wouldn’t make any sense, because why would she know the face of a rural rebel?

“Many of Rincun’s palace soldiers died in that qi attack,” the woman says. “Maybe you remember. You and the princess were here doing your little survey.”

Yes, Venus remembers. Did she meet this woman while she was here?

“Others deserted later, once the regime in San-Er changed,” the womangoes on. “There are no more generals in Rincun. We took your example in the capital. You had your coup. We had ours.”

Venus swallows hard. So this is the state of Rincun. Ruled by rebels—a quiet takeover that the rest of the kingdom has heard nary a peep about. When she speaks again, her voice is hoarse.

“We have brought a respectful treaty. Freedom for Rincun to become independent. Formally acknowledged by the throne in San-Er, so that the capital will no longer ask for taxes or devotion. All we ask in return is a continued trade route with San-Er. Only San-Er.”

The assailants do not react visibly to Venus’s proposal. The mountains, too, are indifferent.

“We mean no trouble,” she continues.Pleads. “All I want is to speak to the mayor in the yamen. Then we will be on our way. We’ll stay out of the province entirely after that, if needed.”

The woman folds her arms. She sighs.

“Councilmember Hailira,” she says. “I am the mayor of West Capital.”

Noise screeches in Venus’s ears. Before she can grapple with the ramifications of such a declaration, embarrassment sinks deeply through her cheeks, down her neck, warming her chest. She remembers calling the yamen of West Capital. Speaking on the phone line with the mayor—her name was Erwen, and her family had been the officials governing the administrative affairs of Rincun long before the province was made a part of Talin, in the decades when it was an independent region, in the decades following their last war.

“But…” Venus trails off. She shakes her head. “You’re working with rebels.”

The other unmasked assailant strides forward. He has had enough.

“I would suggest we wrap up this conversation.”

“Hal,” Erwen chides.

“Nobles are to be disposed of as palace generals were,” Hal says, and he’slooking at Venus when he says it. He wants to scare her, to threaten her life for what her family has done to his land, but Venus can’t quite find the fear she walked in with anymore. All she feels isabandonment—by her father, by the capital she was raised in, by each force above her that she was merely trying to follow.

“Whose body did you steal?” Erwen asks.

It is a non sequitur. Venus glances over her shoulder, as though the mayor could be speaking to one of her attendants instead. She has not heard that question in many years. The palace—it caredsomuch in the beginning. Where the body had come from. Its pedigree, its bloodline. Venus did not possess the answers, because a part of her did not want the answers. Whether the body had been retrieved empty, the perfect vessel awaiting her entrance, or if it had been forced empty, as was expected in San-Er, as anyone would assume was the case in San-Er.

“I don’t know.”

“You are doubled.”

Venus cradles the figurine tighter to her chest. “That’s not possible. It was empty when I acquired it.”

“There’s an immense amount of qi rippling off you. Do you not feel it?”

Hal, from behind the mayor, mutters something indecipherable. It was evident when Venus threw him off.

It was evident when Venus killed the Crescent in San-Er.

“No,” she says. She has neverfeltanything. She is an intruder even in this form that she has called her own for years and years.

Erwen steps forward. Despite the circumstances, her eyes are kind as she approaches Venus. She has the gentle manner of a mother, only wanting to caress someone’s lost child until help arrives.