conversation once more, “the Emperor seems to think they’ll be taking the quickest route to Volstov.”
One of the men spat on the floor at the mention of Volstov, which earned a laugh from his companions. Kouje joined in too, after a moment. I couldn’t place what was so odd about the sound at first, until I realized that I had never heard Kouje laugh in such a loud and unfettered fashion before. It was nothing at all like the soft and courtly laughter he permitted himself in my company.
It made me wonder what else of Kouje I didn’t know. For the first time, I was coming to realize that, for someone whose company I’d kept through my entire life, there were great gaps in my knowledge about him.
“Why would they be heading to Volstov?” Kouje asked, his tone full of contempt for the doings of royalty and the suggestion that good decent people wouldn’t be able to fathom them.
The bullfrog-woman shrugged, and nodded toward the man with the mole.
“Shen here had trouble even getting into the village from Hojo last night,” she said, naming one of the main cities, to the south of the capital and facing the water in the direction of Tado. “They’ve set up checkpoints along all the main roads, and they’ve already reinforced the existing checkpoints between prefectures. He says it takes hours to get through now, especially if you’re traveling alone, or worse, with only one companion.”
Shen—the man with the mole—nodded, and took another slurp of his noodles. I held my hands rigidly in my lap, and willed my stomach not to give me away.
“You’d be better off if you had another woman with you, if you don’t mind my saying,” Shen pointed out, looking me up and down in a way I truly didn’t care for. “This one looks as if she’s liable to drop any minute from starvation. She’s not much for conversation either, is she?”
“It’d certainly aid the numbers problem,” said the other man, who must have been Jin. He laughed, slapping his thigh at his own little joke.
“Actually,” Kouje said, that one word so like iron that for a moment the man stopped laughing, and the bullfrog-woman raised her eyebrows in surprise. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kouje lower his head in contrition. “What I mean to say,” he began again, his words so deferential and so scattered with interruptions that it was all I could do not to stare at him as he cleared his throat and added extra, unnecessary phrases for sheer politeness’ sake, “is that I am hoping to find someone to barter with, that I might prevent her from—as you said—dropping dead of starvation.”
I lifted my head in protest. I was already the subject of gossip in the smallest of road-stop towns. I would have something to say against being discussed like that right to my face.
Shen only laughed, and held up his hands in the sign meant to ward off bad luck. “I didn’t mean anything by it, little miss, and you’ve a pretty enough face when you hold it up that way.”
“I’m here for bartering,” Kouje said. It was a gentle enough reminder, and perhaps I was the only one who could hear the steel behind each word. It wasn’t a threat if it didn’t have to be, but it lingered in the air along with the scent of the noodles and strong, hot tea.
The bullfrog-woman sucked her lower lip in, thinking. I found myself wondering whether or not she would emit a croak, then almost immediately felt contrite.
“It all depends on what you’re looking to sell,” she said at last.
“Some garments,” Kouje told her. “Belonging to a former master of mine.”
Her eyes flashed with amusement. “Stole them, did you?”
Jin shook his head. “Don’t mind her. Old Mayu doesn’t understand that not everyone’s got a closet full of skeletons.”
“Jin, that’s a lie,” she began.
“Just last month, weren’t you trying to convince us all that the paper-hanger who works for Ketano was stealing from him?” Jin asked, laughing.
“And the year before,” Shen chimed in, “when you said that Suzu was in love with a married man one town over?”
I wanted to tell them that Kouje wasn’t the sort of man who would steal things from anyone, let alone his own master, but I was faced with the new and terrifying knowledge that it was not my place. I’d only just begun to grow comfortable with my place as a prince over my