Cover

Dedication

For John, who always makes sure I have time to write. They say no one is perfect, but that is obviously a lie.

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Map

1

Lin

Imperial Island

I’d thought I could set things right in the Empire if only I’d had the means. But setting things right meant weeding a garden gone wild, and with each new weed pulled, two sprouted in its place. It was so like my father not to leave me an easy task.

I clung to the ceramic tiles of the rooftop, ignoring the soft whimper from Thrana below. There was little privacy in the palace of an Emperor. Servants and guards walked the hallways; even at night there was always someone awake. My father had strolled the hallways of his own palace at all hours with impunity; no one had dared to question him, not even me. It probably helped that he kept more constructs than servants, and the servants he did keep regarded him with terror. I wanted to be a different kind of Emperor. Still, I hadn’t counted on having to sneak around my own palace.

I wiped the moisture from a rain-slicked tile with my sleeve and pulled myself onto the peak of the roof. It seemed a lifetime ago since I’d last climbed up here, and though it had in fact been a few short months, my muscles felt the lack of activity. There had been administrative matters to deal with first – hiring servants, guards and workers. Repairing and cleaning out the buildings on the palace grounds. Reinstating some of my father’s commitments and abolishing others.

And always there were people watching me, wondering what I would do, trying to take my measure.

Somewhere below me, Jovis, my Captain of the Imperial Guard, paced the hallway outside my room, his beast, Mephi, beside him. He’d insisted on taking on this duty himself, and though he did sleep at some point, he only did so after he’d had another guard relieve him. Having someone stationed outside my door at all hours made me grind my teeth. Always he wanted to know where I was, what I was doing. And how could I blame him when I’d tasked him with my safety? I couldn’t very well order him and his guards to leave me in peace without sufficient reason. My father had been known to be ill-tempered, eccentric, reclusive. How could I give that order without appearing to be the same?

An Emperor was beholden to her people.