He looked down his nose at me. “Get up, Sonya,” he hissed. “If you were anyone else, I would have you publically lashed for your insubordination.”
“I don’t care if I suffer.” I took his hand and pressed a kiss to it, trying to do anything I could think of to reach his mercy. “Just believe that she is innocent.”
Roughly exhaling, Valko rolled back his shoulders and cast his gaze to Pia. I tried to unearth any compassion buried beneath his apathy. What did he feel when he looked at her? Did he even remember they’d shared a secret kiss? Did he have any pity at all?
With my hands over his, I tried to use my ability to persuade him. I labored to place in him all the love I had for Pia, her sweetness and laughter, her bright smile and the heart she gave so freely.
His deliberation continued as he tapped a finger on his armrest. Each beat suspended in time.
One, two, three, four.
“Take her to the dungeons,” Valko commanded his attending guards.
I shut my eyes. His words fired like a cannon ball to my chest.
“No!” Pia wept harder.
I spun around, watching in horror as two guards apprehended her. Her bloodshot eyes rounded like a deer’s in the moment an arrow pierced its hide.
I revolved to the Valko. “Please! She is—”
He backhanded me.
I released a gasp of amazement and blinked in pain as I touched my smarting cheek. Had the emperor really struck me in public?
His nostrils flared as he fought to compose himself. Adjusting the sleeves of his kaftan, Valko addressed Bartek. “I will give you one hundred rubles. However, from this time forward, you will let the law dictate whom you are permitted to seize into custody.”
The bounty hunter prostrated himself in a low bow, the picture of humility now that money was guaranteed him. “I thank you for your generosity, Your Imperial Majesty.”
“You are dismissed.”
Bartek bowed again and tossed me a smirk without bothering to glance at the broken girl he left in bonds. He sauntered out the way he came.
As the palace guards dragged Pia away, she whirled to give me one last pleading look.
My heart ached past endurance. I stumbled off the dais and rushed toward her.
A group of guards emerged in my path. I tried to push past them, but they formed an impenetrable barrier. Beyond their shoulders, I watched helplessly as my friend was taken from the room, her cries descending into sobs of despair.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
ONCE VALKO DISMISSED ME, I RACED BACK TO MY CHAMBERS and hurried through the doors—red, lavender, evergreen, and midnight blue—but Anton wasn’t in his room. I couldn’t wait for him. Something had to be done. Hurrying back to my room, I hefted the box bed back into place on its casters just before Lenka entered my antechamber. Her aura still reeked of arrogance. She’d played a part in this. I knew it.
“Did you report Pia missing?” I asked before she had a chance to speak. She drew nearer and reached for the laces at the back of my dress. I shifted away. “Did you?”
She lengthened her wiry neck. “That girl is beneath you. I don’t understand why you concern yourself with her.”
“She is my friend.” Something Lenka most certainly was not. “And now she in the dungeons, thanks to you.”
My head maid’s lips pursed with a sunburst of wrinkles. “Pia had a simple duty to perform in the palace, but she grew too self-important. She thought she could fritter away her time with you and come and go as she pleased. It’s time she learned her place. I merely told the guards she had gone without permission.” Lenka shrugged a bony shoulder. “It isn’t my fault she is facing the consequences of being a traitor.”
“She isn’t a traitor!” I pressed the heel of my hand to my temple, where a deep ache pounded through my skull. “It’s you who doesn’t know your place. Pia doesn’t answer to you. You had no business interfering!”
“You are my occupation,” Lenka retaliated. “Pia put you in danger. But I didn’t report you, did I?”
I studied her, the sly bending of her aura. “You knew I left last night.”
She clasped her hands in front of her apron. “Your note never reached the coals to burn.”
Everything came back to me. The way her eyes flickered to the furnace after I’d tossed Anton’s letter behind the grate. She’d never seen Pia give me the message, but she must have discerned her involvement when I later wore her clothes. That noise Anton and I heard in the kitchens had been Lenka.
I frowned at her. “Why did you protect me?”
“Because you are Sovereign Auraseer, blessed by the gods and born to serve the holy emperor. You are young, but you can be molded. You can be great like Izolda.”
I shook my head in bewilderment. “Do you think Izolda idealized this life?” Grabbing her arm, I ushered her back to the box bed. “Look inside. Those are the marks the blessed gift left on her soul!”