She gives me a surprisingly tender look, her usually tough features softening. “Lei, we arranged that for you. To spare you being here again with the King. But you chose differently. And I must say, what you chose was admirable.” She cocks her head, a sharp smile tucking her lips. “Your trick with the bangles was clever. I only wish I’d thought of it.”
I grin. “How did you know about that?”
“One of our allies visited Ruza yesterday.” She raises her voice for the benefit of the guards. “Now these, too! And hurry up! Aiyah, you two are as slow as newborns!”
Water splashes over my hands as we allow the buckets to overflow.
Chenna leans in. “Any news of the war?”
“Reports are coming in that the Hannos will shortly be on the move. The King has redistributed more soldiers to Marazi and the Black Port in anticipation of assaults there, and reinforcements are arriving here at the palace every day. The King expects an attack—and soon. He is fortifying the palace. He wants the Hannos to come to him.”
“Why?” Chenna asks.
“He thinks he’ll have the upper hand if he fights them on his own turf.”
My throat tightens. “Will he?”
Mistress Azami answers with her typical frankness. “Most probably.” She raises her voice again. “Now the tub! And handle it carefully, or I’ll have your food rations cut in half for a week to repay for a new one!”
We move to the farthest tub so we’re half hidden by a shelf of supplies.
“Our allies within the palace are working on weakening the King’s forces,” Mistress Azami tells us in an undertone. “You heard about the recent illness that hit Military Court? Or the ‘accidental’ death of General Nakhor during a drill? And we are doing what we can to spread discord and miscommunication throughout the court. A few of the recent executions of council members loyal to the King were thanks to our spies’ hard work.”
“Any chance you could work on getting Naja implicated in something?” I mutter sourly.
“Trust me, Lei. She’d be the first to go if it were up to me—”
“Hurry up in there!”
Commander Razib’s call makes me jump. He’s standing in the storeroom entranceway, the twisting lance of his gazelle horns framed in the light. For a second, I almost mistook him for the King.
How lucky demons are to be born with weapons built into their bodies. I always imagined if I had the choice I’d be a bird-form. Some fast, graceful demon who could soar through the skies so she’d never again be trapped. No one would ever be able to cage her, keep her from the ones she loves. Recently, though, the thought of having horns has started to look appealing. There’s a reason Papers find bull and other horned demon forms so intimidating. Plus, I’m beginning to feel dangerous. It would be fitting to look it, too.
Under Mistress Azami’s instructions, Chenna and I lift the tub. We lug it slowly toward the doorway.
Mistress Azami shifts in close behind me. “Look after the girls,” she mutters into my ear. “When the time comes, they’ll need to be ready to run.”
“I could use some herbs,” I say. “Blue and Aoki’s injuries are still pretty bad.”
“What do you need?”
“Milk thistle. Cinnabar. Lei gong teng, if you can get it.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“We’re given herbs for my baths,” I tell her. “Maybe you can sneak them in with them?”
“Excellent idea.”
We’re almost at the door now, and I know we only have a few seconds left. “Is there anything else I can do?” I ask in a whisper.
She answers simply. “Stay quiet. Stay safe. And stay prepared.”
When we return to the room, the others are still cleaning the stained mat. Zhen and Zhin jump up to help Chenna and me with the bathing tub, while Blue cuts us a glare before resuming her aggressive scrubbing.
“Lei-zhi is to be ready for an appointment with the King in exactly forty minutes,” Mistress Azami announces. “She’d better be ready when I come for her. You have already wasted my time once today. None of you wish to find out what will happen if you do so a second time.”
“Yes, Mistress,” the girls murmur.
As she leaves, the dog-woman slips a folded scrap of paper into my hand. “A letter from a friend,” she says.
I tuck it quickly into the fold of my robes. Warmth thrums through me—until I find Blue staring straight at me.
Once, I would have been afraid of her. But for some reason, her glare only fires me up. I stride toward her, and she grimaces, throwing her rag on the floor and starting to her feet. She has to push off her good knee with both hands. She wobbles, and I rush to steady her.
She bats me away. “Get your filthy paws off me, Nine.”
Aoki is the only one of the girls paying us attention. Chenna, Zhin, and Zhen are busy filling the new tub with the buckets of water we brought. Lemongrass and ginger fragrance the air as Chenna sprinkles them into the water.
Blue bares her teeth at me. She’s become even more of a feral creature since the Moon Ball, every flint-edged angle honed, the wild look in her eyes like that of a trapped cat: angry, scared, defiant. “Any excuse to touch a girl,” she spits.
Instead of embarrassment, all I feel is pity. Just like a feral animal, Blue has learned to bite first.
“Take your clothes off,” I say.
Blue’s eyes widen. Aoki’s face flashes up.
“You sick—”
“I’ve seen you naked a million times, Blue,” I interrupt. “And while you are undeniably beautiful, I’m not interested. Sorry. But you stink, and your leg needs cleaning. Proper cleaning.”
None of the girls have been allowed fresh water for bathing since they got here, left to use the tub after I’ve already dirtied it. I asked Madam Himura for their own bath supplies, but of course her response was a sneer and a jab to the ribs with her cane.
“The warmth will help with the pain,” I tell Blue.
She juts her chin. “I’m not in pain.”
“Yes, you are. Aoki? Could you help Blue into the tub? I’d do it myself, but…” I don’t need to explain. Blue’s glower is still boring into my skin. I reach for the cloth Aoki’s been scrubbing the stained mat with. “Let me do that.”
As I take her place, Aoki moves aside slowly, eyeing me almost timidly. “You need to be clean for the King,” she says quietly.
I look away, my chest tight. “No, Aoki,” I say. “He’s the one who needs to get clean.”
SEVENTEEN
LEI
AS THE CARRIAGE PUSHES THROUGH THE braying crowd of Ceremony Court, I thumb a spot in the fold of my black and gold hanfu where I hid a scrap of Lill’s letter.
I’d read her message in secret last night, once the rest of the girls had fallen asleep. I hadn’t realized how much I missed her. Like Aoki, my young Steel doe-form maid buoyed me through so much of my time as a Paper Girl with her sweet, optimistic presence. I’d cried happy tears, laughing at her jokes and vivid descriptions of life in the Night Houses, with the courtesans doting on her just as she deserves. Then I’d torn a single character from her letter before holding the paper to my lantern, the edges curling and blackening, Lill’s scrawl disappearing into ash.
“Stop fussing,” Madam Himura snaps. “You need to look presentable at dinner.”