“I hardly feel regal at all with you towering over me so,” I whispered, hoping that I might cheer myself simply by acting cheerful.
Kouje paused as though I’d surprised him, and I wished that I might look back, just to catch a glimpse of his face. He was far too good a servant, though, and even if I’d looked, I knew I wouldn’t be able to see him.
“I might always walk on my knees, my lord,” Kouje said, catching me off guard so that I had to clench my jaw to keep from laughing at the thought.
Instead, I raised my head and sniffed. “From now on, I think that I will employ only very short servants in the palace.”
“My lord might wish to wait until he has an actual palace to employ from,” Kouje murmured, “and not a very fine heap of rubble.”
I shook my head in despair, even as I felt relief like a warm wind against my face. In a time when everything had changed so drastically, so that even familiar buildings did not go unchanged, there were some things that remained the same.
One window in the hall was open, the lattice shade lifted to let in the sun. Down below the palace, sloping toward the rest of the city, I caught sight of the magician’s blue dome. From that height, it seemed no more than a child’s broken teacup overturned and, however momentarily, forgotten.
CAIUS
For once, Alcibiades and I were in complete agreement. It was high time we crossed the mountains and returned to Volstov—for I was going to come down with a bad case of the vapors, like my poor great-aunt Eurydice, if any more excitement was caused by us or to us in at least the next month.
We’d lived through the death of two Ke-Han Emperors in our short time in the lapis city, and it was time to remove ourselves from the premises before we fostered any further bad luck. I liked the new Emperor; he had a sweet little face, almost like a rabbit’s, and I wanted him to do well. Therefore, for everyone’s sake, I intended to return home, and have a nice cup of tea before I sought out my next adventure.
“You mean you actually want to go home?” Alcibiades asked me, without his usual vim and vigor. He was so tired, poor dear, after his little display, and I’d made sure to keep him resting despite his own wishes. The moment he’d come around after fainting—one couldn’t blame him for that, either, after destroying nearly an entire palace before taking on the Ke-Han Emperor—and learned which way the wind was blowing, it had been his intention to hop the next carriage back to the Volstov countryside. I’d spent all my energy and persuasiveness convincing him to give it a little more time, and once he’d realized just how little leeway his body intended to afford him, he finally agreed.
It didn’t mean he’d been very pleasant about it. But that was merely his way.
“I thought you loved it in this place,” Alcibiades went on, grimacing.
I patted him on the shoulder. “A change of scenery is necessary now and then. And I wouldn’t trade our time here for the world! It has been exceptional. But someone must see you home safe and sound, and I don’t think anyone else is quite as fond of you as I am.”
“Hmph,” Alcibiades grunted, looking away, and I couldn’t tell whether or not he was pleased—or, rather, I couldn’t tell just how pleased he was.
Let him be shy. He had saved all our lives.
I busied myself instead with all the details: the carriage, the cushions, the blankets in case the evenings grew chill; I made provisions for my peacocks, the ones my admirers had given me, to send them to my country estate for the time being. Perhaps I would donate them to the Volstov zoo—which meant of course I would also have to see my way toward snagging a white tiger. And, if I was lucky, too, one of those darling red pandas I adored so much.
“Cultural exchange, hm, Greylace?” Josette said as she watched me instructing the men carrying the cages about.
“I’m merely stealing a few animals,” I pointed out, “and not a warlord.”
“I was assigned to him,” Josette replied tersely. “The Esar’s orders.”
I had to pause for a moment to shout at some fool who was being careless with the white peacock’s glorious tail. When I returned, I