Page 48 of Beyond the Shadowed Earth
The door creaked open to reveal a young serving girl. She stared at Eda, belatedly dropping into an awkward curtsy. “Your–Your Imperial Majesty?”
“I need to speak with Baron Domin, at once.”
The girl nodded. “He’s in the drawing room. This way.”
Eda didn’t need to be shown through her own house, but she followed the serving girl anyway, eyes wandering to the mosaics in the floor, the domed ceiling set with colored glass, the tapestries on the walls. One of the tapestries—which depicted the wind gods Ahdairon and Mahl riding winged steeds—covered a significant crack in the plaster, where Eda had crashed headlong into it at the age of seven. She and Niren had been chasing a lamb they’d foolishly let loose in the house, and Eda wasn’t looking where she was going. She still had the scar where the stitches had been, just behind her hairline.
The drawing room was not far down the main corridor, but it seemed to take an age to get there.
The serving girl opened the door and stepped in front of Eda. “Her Imperial Majesty is here to see you, Your Grace.”
And then Eda came into the room and saw Domin lounging on a low-backed couch in front of the fire flickering unnecessarily on the hearth. His thin hand was curled around a wine glass, and rings weighed heavy on each of his brown fingers. He seemed somehow older than the last time she’d seen him, and something that she didn’t like lurked in his eyes.
He didn’t get up from the couch, just took a long draft of wine and watched as she crossed the room to him.
“Domin,” she said, trying to keep the irritation out of her voice. Her head was beginning to spin with exhaustion and thirst, and she wanted to harangue him for not tripping over himself to accommodate her, as he usually would. She forced her voice to remain steady. “Ileem has flooded Eddenahr with Denlahn soldiers. He betrayed me.”
Domin’s eyes flicked up to Eda’s, then down to his wine glass. He traced the rim with one finger, and suddenly she saw the tension in his shoulders.
She decided to ignore it. “What happened to Evalla’s army and Rescarin’s mercenaries?”
“Mercenaries take time to get rid of, Your Imperial Majesty. Some have gone, some are still camped outside of Eron.” He waved his hand in the vague direction of the city.
“Good. We’ll need them to retake Eddenahr.”
Domin laid the wine glass on an end table. He lounged back against the arm of the couch, folding his hands behind his head. “They’re my army now, Your Majesty. You made me Baron of Evalla, if you recall.”
“So I did.” She smiled at him, tried to be warm. Flirtatious. “And I mean to make you something more than that, once my current husband is drawn and quartered.”
Sweat beaded on Domin’s upper lip, but he smiled back. “He married you andthentook the city? Bastard.” This last bit was said with some degree of admiration.
Eda wasn’t about to admit to Domin that she’d crowned Ileem Emperor, too. “How soon can we have the army mobilized? I’d like to start back to Eddenahr tomorrow, or the day after at the latest. Ileem can’t have too much time to fortify the city. Domin, are you listening?”
He’d shut his eyes, and stretched the whole length of his lanky body out onto the couch, sandaled feet dangling over the end of it. He was dressed in silk, she noticed. Diamonds gleamed from his ears and his skin was dusted with gold-flecked oil.
Since when had Domin cared about finery?
“Domin. We have to actnow.”
He sighed, and jerked suddenly to his feet, pacing around her to the elaborately carved sideboard on one wall and taking out a bottle of her father’s wine. Jealousy sparked through her—no one should touch her father’s wine but her. He poured a glass, handed it to her.
She accepted it but didn’t drink, watching Domin over the deep red liquid.
“Don’t you trust me, Your Imperial Majesty? Or are you afraid it might be poisoned?”
Eda’s heart jerked. She frantically reviewed everything she’d ever made Domin do, right up to stealing the papers from Rescarin—the papers that, if they were found to be forgeries, incriminatedher.
“Eda—I can call you Eda, can’t I?” He snatched the glass back from her, and took a healthy swig before dashing it against the wall. It shattered in a rain of red and crystal.
She stood very still, a dawning horror taking root.
“I know everything about you, everything you yourself choose to forget—or refuse to believe. You murdered our Emperor, poisoning him slowly so it seemed he was succumbing to illness. You banished the rightful heir to the throne and made yourself Empress in her stead, claiming the Emperor’s paternity. But I know that is a lot of nonsense. You aren’t royalty, Eda. You aren’t even of noble blood.”
He circled her, dragging one finger along her cheek.
She reached for the dagger that wasn’t there and he laughed and grabbed her wrist, hauling her back over to the couch. He shoved her down onto it and stood over her, anger hardening every plane of his face.
She’d never known Domin could be angry. Gods help her, she’d never known Domin even had a spine.
