The Siren, the Song, and the Spy by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

Author:Maggie Tokuda-Hall [Tokuda-Hall, Maggie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-5362-3422-0
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: 2023-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Keiko would tell him about it after. Alfie was not so foolish to pretend that he would have been brave enough to watch it unbothered. He had been fortunate that he was off reporting to his contact for the Pirate Supreme at the Crandon docks when the entire palace was gathered into the great courtyard to bear witness to the executions.

No one was surprised that Lady Michiko was sentenced to death. She had lain with a senator while married to the Emperor. This had happened before in history, and— Alfie thought, given the Imperial predilection for taking on many wives even well past the time in the Emperor’s life when he was likely able to perform any husbandly duties— it would happen again and again and again. And again. And just like every other time it had ever happened, the wife was sentenced to death and the senator, too, for betrayal. They were hanged in the courtyard before all who knew them, a warning.

But this time, so was Princess Jingū.

They’d had to stand her on an empty shipping crate so that the noose could reach her neck.

It was not enough to simply punish the criminals. Their families must be punished, too. The senator had been a young man, not yet married or father to any children, his parents already gone. But their graves were exhumed and their remains thrown into the sea.

And still, the next day, the three bodies hung in the courtyard as all tried their best to pass them without seeing them, trying to ignore the smell of them as they went about business that invariably took them through the courtyard, which was at the center of the palace grounds.

Alfie secreted a bottle of sake from the kitchen. It was easily taken— there were so many bottles, and everyone was a little distracted. And he took it to Keiko, who had a rare day off from watching the Prince. A kindness from Priyanka, no doubt.

Alfie knocked on Keiko’s door. There was no answer.

“Come on,” Alfie said as kindly as he could. “I know you’re in there. And I’ve got a present for you.”

Silence.

“Keikooooo,” he crooned.

He knocked again. “Beautiful Keiko, if you don’t open this door, I’ll have no choice but to serenade you from the hallway. I have been practicing my finest Iwei opera voice, and I think both you and everyone who happens to walk by will simply—”

There was a shuffling, scurrying sound, and Keiko opened the door. Her eyes were narrowed in annoyance, her hair disheveled, and Alfie could see that she’d been crying. A lot. He lifted the bottle of sake and two glasses with a smile, and, after a perfunctory glance down the hallway to ensure no one saw, she let him in.

The nurses got their own rooms, and Keiko kept hers very tidy. Her bed was made, and there were a few books stacked in a neat pile on the small tansu where she presumably kept the rest of her belongings. A tiny window let in the last bit of red light from the dwindling sunset.

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