Redemptor by Jordan Ifueko

Author:Jordan Ifueko [Ifueko, Jordan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781683357209
Google: qsIdEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: ABRAMS
Published: 2021-08-16T23:00:00+00:00

Wearing nothing but a purple cape over my night shift, I tumbled from a palanquin into the sleepy streets of Ileyoba: the residential district of the nobles and home to the temporary Songlander royal villa. Already the building seemed almost vacated. Servants poured out of the villa with the queen’s possessions, loading carts with jeweled chests and silk-swathed baskets.

“In the name of the empress—let me see the queen,” I hollered, barreling through lines of servants and flashing my imperial seal. “Please. Just for a minute.”

When I burst into their private salon, Min Ja and Da Seo shot surprised, then guilt-stricken looks my way. Sheets covered the furniture. Both the queen and her consort were bundled in dark cloaks, dressed for a lengthy journey.

“We hoped to leave while you slept,” Min Ja said, with her usual bluntness. She gave an apologetic smile. “I do not excel at goodbyes.”

“But why?” I panted. “What about getting anointed?”

Min Ja and Da Seo exchanged a meaningful look. “Little Empress,” the queen said after a pause, “you don’t need us to fulfill your promise to the abiku. And we’ve been in each other’s heads for a month. I have a kingdom to run, and—Let’s be honest. If we had enough in common for love, don’t you think we would know by now?”

I opened my mouth, then closed it, heart sinking to my sandals. She was right.

At my forlorn expression, Da Seo tutted and came to plant a kiss on my forehead. “Cheer up, Lady Empress. I’m sure you’ll woo the others. Any girl who survived riding through twenty-six lodestones can convince the Arit rulers to join a council. And now that we hear you’ve put your nobles in line, you can count on their support.”

I sank despondently onto a sheet-covered divan. “You mean, now that my nobles are afraid I’ll kill them.”

Min Ja laughed. “In my court, we call that being popular. All hail Tarisai the Reaper: arbiter of death upon haughty nobles.”

I smiled half-heartedly. “But I didn’t want them to fear me. Not that way. I think I’d rather be hated as a weakling than loved as a monster.”

To my surprise, Min Ja’s face closed up immediately, and she expelled a short, bitter laugh. “You know,” she said, “for all your speeches . . . your sacred Hallows, your magical sprite clouds . . . you really are still little more than a child.”

I glared at her, taken aback. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means,” she said, “that not all of us get to be noble. We don’t all get to be the selfless heroine, flitting gracefully through life, adored by all. Some of us get our hands dirty. Some of us . . .” Her voice hitched. “Have scars.”

“Min Ja,” Da Seo intoned, a gentle reprimand.

Min Ja colored and sucked in a breath. When she released it, her voice was as calm and cool as ever. “Forgive me, Little Empress. That was unfair. I suppose you can’t help being a saint, any more than I can help being a viper.

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