THEY SEARCH ME BEFORE BRINGING me in to the Kaiser, and I’m grateful that Søren didn’t trust me enough to give me my dagger back. They find nothing, but that won’t help me. If Cress survived, I’d imagine she told the Kaiser everything—about my seducing Søren, my stealing her Spiritgems because I was working with others, the treasonous things I said about him in the garden. I’ve become more trouble than I’m worth to him now; he’ll have no choice but to kill me.
But the Theyn is dead. The Theyn is dead. I repeat the words again and again in my mind, waiting for them to feel real. I no longer have to dread seeing him, no longer have to skitter deeper and deeper inside myself anytime we breathe the same air. This is what I’ve wanted—needed—for so long, yet strangely, all I feel is relief that Cress is alive.
How? I wonder. No one survives Encatrio.
As I’m shoved through the door to the throne room, I search the crowd for her face, but she isn’t here. It’s possible she didn’t drink the wine. That’s the only explanation; even a drop of Encatrio would have been enough to kill her. No matter what the guard said, I won’t believe she’s alive until I see her with my own eyes. Considering where today will lead, that doesn’t seem likely.
Maybe I’ll see her in the After one day. Maybe by then we will have forgiven each other.
When we reach the base of the Kaiser’s dais, they push me roughly to my knees and I stare at the gilded carvings that wrap around it. Flames for Houzzah, but this close I can see they are more than that. The arcs of the flames form letters. The letters form words. Astrean words. It’s so subtle I doubt any Kalovaxian would have noticed it. I hadn’t even noticed before.
Long live the daughters of Houzzah, born of fire, protectors of Astrea.
They are words meant for my ancestors going back centuries. They are words meant for my mother. They are words meant for me. I will die today, but I will die with them in my heart. I will die fighting and my mother and Ampelio will be proud when I join them in the After. Maybe the Kaiserin will be there, too, finally at peace.
I could have done more, fought harder, wavered less, but I tried. And Artemisia was right: the rebellion won’t end with me. She and Heron and Blaise will keep fighting. My people will keep fighting, and maybe one day, Astrea will know once again how freedom feels. I’ll go to the After happy if I can believe that.
“Ash Princess.” It has never been a title said with anything other than disdain, but now the words are full of venom as well.
I am not a Princess of Ashes anymore, though, and I am not Lady Thora. My name is Theodosia Eirene Houzzara, and like my mother and all my foremothers before her, I am a Fire Queen, with the blood of a god in my veins. Even if it is only for a few moments more. I square my shoulders and meet the Kaiser’s cold gaze. I do not look away, even as my stomach churns.
His mouth twists. “You stand accused of orchestrating the murder of the Theyn. How do you answer these charges?”
There is no right answer. Even if I deny it, he will have me killed. But I will not die as Thora, begging for mercy on my knees.
“The Theyn slit my mother’s throat ten years ago. I’m only sorry it took me so long to repay the debt,” I say, projecting my voice loud enough that it echoes through the silent throne room.
The Kaiser’s face sharpens and he grips the arms of my mother’s throne. If we were alone, he would take pleasure in killing me himself, but he has to put on his show. He wants them to remember me a certain way, too: the little Ash Princess, small and cowering. But I won’t let him win this time.
“What did you put in the wine?” he asks, his voice frighteningly calm, though I’d imagine he already knows the answer, given the state the Theyn’s body must have been in. He wants me to say it, though. His eyes glint dangerously, matching the pendant around his neck. Ampelio’s pendant. He means to frighten me, but he doesn’t have that power over me anymore. He has already taken everything—my mother, Ampelio, my home. But now I have nothing left to lose and so I have nothing left to fear.
I lift my chin and keep my gaze level on him, unflinching. “Liquid fire that burns the drinker from the inside out,” I tell him. “It’s a merciless death. The throat burns first, you know, so that the drinker can’t even scream as they die.”
Horror flickers across his face for only a second before it’s replaced by hunger.
“Encatrio,” he murmurs. “Where did you obtain it?” he demands, leaning forward.
“There are many who know the rightful ruler of Astrea and were willing to help me. One day soon, you’ll see just how many there are. I only wish I could be there when you do.”
The Kaiser nods to the guard behind me, who steps forward and brings his sheathed sword down hard on my back so that I lurch forward, bracing myself with my hands against the tiled floor as I fall to my knees. I cry out as pain sings through my body and the wounds still fresh from the whipping come open again. One shout breaks through the silent crowd. Søren. I’m not sure whether his presence is a comfort or not, so I try my best to ignore it. I take a breath before getting to my feet.
I will not die on my knees.
The guard steps forward to hit me again, but the Kaiser holds up a hand to stop him.
“Do they know that you killed the Kaiserin?” I shout so that everyone in the room hears me. “You shoved her out that window. I saw it myself.”
He leans forward, face turning red.
“It was probably you who killed my dear wife,” he spits, motioning for the guard again.
This time, I’m ready for it, though. Just as the covered blade hits me, I drop to the ground, taking minimum impact from the blow while still making it look real. I get to my feet quicker this time, feeling only a dull throb in my shoulder.
“The Kaiserin was kind to me,” I say. My voice wavers, but it’s clear. “She knew what a monster you were. Her hate for you overwhelmed her to the point of madness. Is there anyone, Your Highness, who wouldn’t happily see you dead? How many of them”—I gesture to the crowd behind me—“wouldn’t gladly stab you in the back if they had a chance? They don’t love you, they don’t respect you, they fear you, and that is no way to rule a country.”
“It is the only way to rule a country,” he snarls. “Should I rule through love and compassion like your mother? That didn’t end well for her.”
I clench my teeth. He will not use my mother to bait me. “My mother was a better ruler than you will ever be,” I say instead. “But then, a rat would make a better ruler than you. Even an ant.”
He gestures to the guard again and this time the blows rain down one after another, even after I fall to the ground. The gashes are all open again and my dress is wet with blood. But the pain barely registers. All I feel is fury. It burns through me until my skin feels like fire. When the guard finally steps back again, I am gasping for breath. It takes me longer to get to my feet this time. My legs refuse to straighten, to hold up my weight, but I force them to. Only a little longer, and then there will be no pain. Only my mother. Only Ampelio.
“Bring them in,” the Kaiser commands, waving a hand.
A guard steps forward to grab me roughly by the arm as the door behind the throne opens and two slave girls are dragged in, their hands cuffed together. It takes me a moment to recognize one of them as Elpis.
No. My heart plummets even as I tell myself I’m wrong. It can’t be Elpis. Elpis is on a boat, far away, with her family. Elpis is safe.
But she isn’t. She looks even younger than usual, her round face wet with tears and her large eyes red and frightened. When they find mine, they widen and her tears start anew. I want to go to her, to tell her it’s all right, to fight for her, but the guard’s grip on me is strong.
Two more guards appear behind them, unlocking their shackles. One guides the other girl before the Kaiser. Crescentia’s older slave, I realize. She limps as she walks and the skin around her left eye is dark and swollen. Unlike Elpis, though, she isn’t frightened. She holds herself tall and confident.
“What is your name?” the Kaiser asks her.
“Gazzi, Your Highness,” she says with a wobbly curtsy.
“Gazzi,” he says with a kind smile. “Will you repeat what you told my guardsmen when the Theyn’s body was found?”
She casts a glance back to me, but there is no softness in it. Astrean as she might be, I am not her queen. “I told them that earlier in the day Elpis had answered the door for a visitor. I was in another room, but they spoke for several minutes. I could tell it was Lady Thora—she visited Lady Crescentia so often I recognized her voice. When she finally left, I peeked out from the door and saw Elpis slip a glass vial into her apron. She was smiling bigger than I’d ever seen her.”
“And you didn’t mention this to Lady Crescentia or the Theyn?” the Kaiser asks.
“I didn’t know what I’d seen,” she admits. “I thought maybe it was a present for Lady Crescentia—they were such close friends, it wouldn’t have been unusual. It wasn’t until we were preparing dinner that I saw her take the vial from her apron and tip it into the dessert wine. I asked her what it was and she hit me, Your Highness.” She motions to her bruised eye. “Locked me in a closet. She finished preparing dessert herself, and the next thing I knew, the guards had found me and I told them everything. But it was too late and the Theyn was dead. Luckily, poor Lady Crescentia only drank a sip of wine because she’d had a bit too much of the dinner wine already.”
Only a sip. A sip alone should have killed her. It would have killed someone twice her size. But I can’t imagine they have any reason to lie about that now. Even though I still don’t really believe Cress is alive, my knees buckle with relief.
“Thank you, my dear,” the Kaiser says, before motioning Elpis forward.
The guard shoves her along and her eyes meet mine. I give her an encouraging nod, but we both know what will come of this. To my surprise, the fear dissipates from her eyes. She nods once at me before turning her attention to the Kaiser.
“Do you dispute the charges leveled against you?” he asks.
“I don’t,” she says, her high voice strong and clear. “My queen offered me a chance to help her strike back at the people who have hurt everyone I love. I leapt at it.” She smiles and it is wild and triumphant, despite everything.
But the Kaiser responds with a snap of his fingers and a grin that turns my skin to ice. The guard holding Gazzi unsheathes his sword.
Gazzi is too shocked to do anything before the guard holding her stabs his sword through her back, the bloody point of it coming through her chest. A quick death. My attention doesn’t linger on her. I wait for Elpis’s guard to do the same, but instead, he pulls a vial from the inside of his cloak and removes the cork. Keeping one arm firmly around Elpis’s waist, he brings the vial to her lips.
Her eyes lock onto mine and I realize what the Kaiser has planned. I’ve confessed, yes, but I haven’t told him everything. He’s smart enough to know that.
“Just enough poisoned wine left for one,” the Kaiser says. “You have a choice, Ash Princess. Tell me the truth and I’ll send her to the mines instead. Otherwise…”
The guard pulls Elpis’s hair back until she has no choice but to open her mouth and he tilts the potion closer. I struggle against the guard holding me, but his grip is like iron.
He won’t spare her, no matter what I do—just like he didn’t spare Ampelio. He’s a liar and he doesn’t show mercy. I know that and so does Elpis. So does everyone in the room. I cannot save her. I cannot save her. I cannot—
“Stop!” The word is wrenched from my throat like a sob, against my will. The guard freezes.
“I thought we could come to an understanding,” the Kaiser says with a nauseating smile. “I’ll ask again: Where did you get the Encatrio?”
I swallow. Suddenly I don’t feel anything like a queen. A true queen could weigh the lives of many against the life of one, but I can’t. All I see is Elpis. All I hear is Blaise’s voice, telling me she’s my responsibility. I asked this of her, I brought her here, I’ve as good as killed her. I owe her this. Even if the Kaiser doesn’t spare her, he’ll give her a clean death, like Gazzi. Not the Encatrio; he’ll save that for someone else.
“My Shadows,” I say, trusting that they are long gone now. “Rebels replaced them last month. Where they got it, I don’t know.”
The Kaiser frowns and motions to the guard, who tips the vial again.
“I don’t know!” I shout, fighting against the guards who hold me, but it does no good. “I swear, I don’t know anything more!”
They don’t stop, though. Elpis’s guard tips the vial just enough to give her a drop before pinching her nose until she swallows. The sound that erupts from her is like nothing I’ve heard before, the hoarse cry of a dying animal that vibrates through my whole body, scraping over my skin like claws. I fight against my guards, my elbow flying up. Something cracks and one of the guards lets out a string of curses, but their hold never loosens.
Elpis slumps against the guard, her eyes half shut. The skin of her neck is already charring, turning gray and dry. She can barely whimper.
“Still a few more sips to go,” the Kaiser drawls. “What were you doing tonight?”
I swallow and tear my eyes away from Elpis. This, at least, will cost us nothing. “I was supposed to kill the Prinz before escaping.”
With her throat burned, Elpis can’t do more than shake her head an inch.
“Escaping where?” he presses. “With who?”
I open my mouth to answer, struggling for a lie—any lie. It won’t matter; Elpis and I will both be dead by the time the lie is discovered, and Blaise and the others will be far gone. But it isn’t so simple. The Kaiser will arrive at whatever country I name with battalions and soldiers and berserkers. He will bring war to their doors. I can’t form words.
The Kaiser seems to expect it. He seems to want it. Gleefully, he motions to the guard again, watching Elpis with a fascination that turns my stomach to lead.
Elpis is twitching against the guard now, and he struggles to hold her still as he lifts the vial to her lips again. She groans and her eyes find mine. The pain there clutches at my stomach, but there’s something else as well. I put a name to it a second too late: resolution.
The guard goes to force another drop of the potion down her throat, but Elpis drinks it all instead, sucking each drop out before the surprised guard can pull it away.
I shout a string of Astrean words my mother never taught me and struggle against the guard holding me, fighting him with everything I have as my mind spins and blurs. But the guard doesn’t loosen his grip, and all I can do is watch as Elpis falls to the ground, twitching and curling in on herself like the child she is. The charring spreads from her throat and the smell of broiling flesh fills the room. The courtiers behind me begin to gag, as if they were the ones suffering.
When she finally stills, her blackened mouth is frozen in a silent scream.
Dimly I hear the Kaiser order for the bodies to be removed. A guard drags Elpis away like she’s no more than a rag doll, her head lolling on her neck limply, eyes mercifully closed. A trail of ash is left behind in her wake.
She was my responsibility and I killed her. If I have any regrets, it’s this. Too many people have died for me, and now I’m almost grateful that no more will have to.
The Kaiser steps down from my mother’s throne, his footsteps echoing loudly in the silent room as he comes toward me. I can’t look at him, unable to take my eyes off the trail of ash Elpis’s body has left in its wake, but he grabs my chin and forces me to look up so that all I see is his face, red and sharp and cold.
“It’s a shame,” he whispers so that only I and the guards holding me can hear him. “You would have made such a pretty kaiserin.”
I swallow my tears. They’re for Elpis; the Kaiser doesn’t deserve to see them. If the guards weren’t holding me as tightly as they are, I would throw myself at him and do whatever damage I could before I was stopped—claw his eyes out, smash his head against the stones, grab the guard’s sword and stab him through the heart—there are so many ways to hurt someone in a matter of seconds, and I would invent a dozen more. But the guards must feel my desperation, because they hold me tight, like I’m a threat.
I do the only thing I can—I spit. It lands just below his eye, shiny and wet.
The back of his hand hits my face. The force of the blow should send me to the ground again, but the guards keep me standing.
“Take her away,” the Kaiser says to my guards. “Set her execution for sunrise so that everyone will witness it. I want the world to know that the Ash Princess is dead.”