Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone

Author:Max Gladstone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

30

YANNIS MADE TEA like Viv’s grandmother, hot water first poured over the whole set of unfinished purple teaware to wake and fill its clay, then new water boiled, poured once again over tea leaves in a small pot, let steep a bare minute, poured from there into a second pot to prevent over-steeping, then, finally, into cups too small to use for rolling dice. It rested green and fragrant in Viv’s cup. Yannis raised hers first, breathed deep, drank, set it down. A show of good faith.

“I doubt we’re poisoned by the same things,” Viv said.

“If we wanted to kill you, dear, we would have done it already.”

Viv pondered the tea, and the pure white room, and the old woman across from her with the snake scales, and told herself this was just another negotiation. “Where did the water come from? I don’t see a faucet around here.”

Yannis made a precise gesture over the empty kettle. A stream of water poured into it from thin air, then stopped.

“Shame you didn’t teach the villagers that trick. It would save them trips to the well.”

“Work improves character. Now, drink before it cools. You’ll lose the aroma.”

This tea was a feeling more than taste, a half-remembered dream: warmth and shade, and somewhere, flowers. As she lowered the cup, she met Yannis’s eyes.

“You must have questions.”

“You’d be surprised,” Viv said.

Yannis opened one three-fingered hand, inclined her head: please.

“How many of the other Suicide Queens are left?”

Yannis did not smile like a human, but her eyes narrowed, sparkling, mirthful.

“All of them, I bet. I don’t know the other two—maybe they’re somewhere else within this complex. But Nioh is the Bull. And I bet you’re the one who sees from shadows. Heyshir.”

Viv had not expected a reaction, so she was not disappointed. This was a long, long con, and Yannis, or whoever she was, had spent centuries growing into her role. “The Suicide Queens,” Yannis said, “left their old names behind when Tiger died of her wounds. I never lied to you, dear. Or to any of them. This is who we are now. But I have to say, I’m impressed. I thought Zanj would be the one to put this all together. I’m hurt, really, that she did not.”

“You recognize her?”

“Dear. I’ve known her since the Empress first burned stars against the Bleed. We fought together, loved together. We stole wonders to slake our greed and lust, and reveled in our triumph to break the vaults of heaven. Of course I recognized her. But I have changed since I was the woman she knew. I barely remember that form anymore.”

The kettle spoke, and as Yannis poured, she flickered. Her scales glistened gold, her head proud, unbowed, feather-crested, her teeth long and fierce, her skin threaded with fire: immutable, unbendingly vicious, a violence that once stalked prey through some prehistoric alien swamp, still, still, each heartbeat closer to a pounce. The preconscious mammal buried somewhere in Viv’s body saw that shape and reacted with hot-stove speed; before she realized what was happening, she’d half risen to a crouch and dropped her teacup.

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