The Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart

The Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart

Author:Andrea Stewart [Stewart, Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2021-11-09T00:00:00+00:00


27

Jovis

Imperial Island

I’d forgotten what it was like to be alone (or “lonely”, Mephi isn’t sure). Ylan reminds me of my life before becoming an Alanga. Everyone I’ve known from that time has long since passed away. I’d forgotten what it was like to feel like every small thing mattered.

And maybe he’s right. Maybe the small things do matter.

—Notes from Jovis’s translation of Dione’s journal

Imperial didn’t feel like the respite it should have been. Ragan had kept his mouth shut about being an Alanga at Lin’s request, but in spite of the absence of a beast at his side, there was an oddness about him. A cloudtree monk out and about? In Imperial? More than one scholar had requested to meet with him, inquiries Lin had all denied.

Pressure for Lin’s abdication was mounting – it was what I’d wanted when I’d joined the Shardless Few. Now, though, I found myself hovering outside her bedroom door at night, pretending not to hear her frustrated crying, but wondering if I should knock, ask her if she was all right, offer some words of comfort.

When I’d told Lin what I thought of her, I’d been thinking of my mother’s hands on each side of my face. The truth.

She didn’t deserve this.

I swung my staff harder than I intended, sweeping the feet clean out from beneath the guard I was sparring with in the courtyard. She fell onto the cobblestones with a grunt, the wind knocked out of her. I cringed at her gasping, and then put out a hand to help her up once she’d caught her breath. “I’m sorry, that was too rough of me.”

She gave me a weak grin. “That’s just how we get stronger.”

No, I thought to myself, that’s how I accidentally kill you. Around me, guards clashed with blades and staves.

“That’s it,” I called to them. “We’re done. Keep alert. Constructs are running about wild, looking for any opportunity. And remember: some of the constructs may look like people. Don’t hesitate.”

Mephi came barreling out of the gardens, shouldering my thigh. I did my best not to fall over. “Hello hello hello!” he said. Some of the guards cracked grins. A wonder they still liked him; he’d rifled through their things and had turned more than one sentimental item into an impromptu toy. I was still working with him on personal boundaries.

We were leaving for Hualin Or the next day – the island Lin’s mother had come from. She’d died when I’d been young, and all I remembered were the white flags being flown from the masts of ships and the eaves of rooftops. A sudden illness that ravaged her body and left her a husk in a matter of weeks. No one knew how to cure it, and I’d heard my mother and father talking in whispers – that several physicians who’d failed had been executed.

I was curious to see this place, this family. My mother was right: Lin had no one. But perhaps she could find kinship there. Surely



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