#Storm in the night book skin#

“Have you heard something?” My question was hardly above a breath, though I was sure we were alone, the only sound of life the continued scraping of the coal shoveller beneath our feet. Her grip on my shoulder tightened, a desperate intensity in her digging fingers that jolted fear through my heart.

I turned to find her gaze raking my face. Will His Majesty name him as his heir at the ceremony?Is he finally going to give his blessing to our marriage?” I just need to know what you know before I leave today. “Prince Tanaka never talks to me about anything, but you-”

#Storm in the night book skin#

“Koko.” Her breath was warm against my skin as she drew close. Her thoughts seemed to have followed mine, for heaving another sigh, Lady Sichi slid through the water toward me. I envied her almost as much as I pitied her. If I was the caged dragon he laughingly called me, then she was a caged songbird, her beauty less in her features than in her habits, in the way she moved and laughed and spoke, in the turn of her head and the set of her hands, in the graceful way she danced through the world. Lady Sichi was four years older than my twin and I, but her lifelong engagement to Tanaka had seen her trapped at court since our birth. Damp threads of hair trailed down her long neck like dribbles of ink, the rest caught in a loose bun pinned atop her head with a golden comb. Letting out a sigh, she settled back against the stones with only her shoulders above the waterline.

“Oh, you weren’t kidding about the temperature.” She took her time about it, seemingly in no hurry to get in the water and hide her fine curves, but eventually she slid in beside me with a dramatic shiver. Sichi untied hers as she spoke, owning none of the embarrassment I would have felt had our positions been reversed. I do not wish to know what Lord Rasten looks like without his robe.” “Yes, but I hope the whole court won’t be joining us.”

“Big enough for the whole court, really.” “The bath is big enough for both of us, though I warn you, it’s not as warm as it looks.” “No, don’t go on my account, Sichi,” I said, relaxing back into the water. No assassin would make so much noise, but my hand was still partway to the knife before Lady Sichi Manshin walked in. I closed my eyes only for quick steps to disturb my peace. I shivered and glanced back at my robe, the bulk of my knife beneath its folds, reassuring. Despite the steam dampening all it touched, the water was merely tepid, though the clatter of someone shovelling coals beneath the floor promised more warmth to come. Once sure I was alone, I abandoned my dressing robe and slid into the bath. A trio of lacquered dressing screens provided the only places someone could hide, so I walked a slow lap through the steam to check them all. I looked forward to them every year, and as I stepped into the empty building, a little of my tension left me. They were in the main house and in the courtyard, outside the stables and the kitchens and servants’ hall-two nodded in silent acknowledgement as I made my way toward the bathhouse, my dagger heavy in the folds of my dressing robe.īack home in the palace, baths had to be taken in wooden tubs, but many northern inns had begun building Chiltaen-style bathhouses-deep stone pools into which one could sink one’s whole body.

In the palace they tended to colonise doorways, but here, without great gates and walls to protect the emperor, they filled every corner. Emperor Kin was about to name his heir.Īs was my custom on the road, I rose while the inn was still silent, only the imperial guards awake about their duties. We were travelling north with the imperial court. And finally those dreams felt close enough to touch. Yet it was enough, and not a day passed in which I did not wonder whether today would be the day they finally succeeded.Įvery night I slept with a blade beneath my pillow, and every morning I tucked it into the intricate folds of my sash, its presence a constant upon which I dared build dreams. Nothing but own the wrong face and the wrong eyes, the wrong ancestors and the wrong name. Every time thereafter I knew fear, but it was anger that chipped sharp edges into my soul. Seven before I held any memory of the world. They tried to kill me four times before I could walk.