On Thin Ice (Prequel to Guild)

Chapter Forty-Six: Tenekhka

         Dawn cut the sky like a wicked blade with a serrated edge. Dusk's blood spilled from its jagged wounds, bathing the fortress grounds in crimson. Its glow penetrated the Imperial Shogun's dreams and woke him with the stinging realization that he hadn't heard from Yuina in hours.

He hadn't heard her.

Which meant she hadn't moved.

At all.

"Yuina?"

Deep into the night, he'd listened for her breaths, wondering if her lack of tears came from rage or regret... or indifference. Wanting to know if she lost sleep over him. Now, her silence had Dai fearing she'd lost more than that.

"Yuina!" To his feet. He tugged, pulled at the door to no avail. No entry. No welcome. No ancient curses to make the band at his wrist itch or burn patterns onto his wrist. "For Han'ei's sake, answer me! Say-"

The door obeyed before his wife. He'd tortured it into compliance. Hinges broke like fragile necks and that accursed barrier fell to the floor, bowing to its shogun. Bowing to an empty room.

Cold. And quiet. Quiet enough to amplify the pounding in his ears: a heartbeat that was far too slow and far too strong.

Yuina?

Dai stepped inside, his breaths thick and silent and unsatisfying. He heard only his heart, the resounding quiet that forced an echo.

Her bed stood smooth and tidy. Maroon cloth covered the birdcage. Nothing covered her floors. Room after room had been left pristine. Soulless. Empty. Like their tenant had moved and wasn't coming back. Like she hadn't existed at all.

Daiki Kimsura absorbed her silence. He didn't permit the floor to creak or his knuckles to rap against the cherrywood drawers. He scarcely let himself breathe. But his breaths ceased altogether when he heard the plate chimes moaning in the wind that twisted through the open door. Those made him turn. Drew his eyes to the only other trace of his consort's existence: a scattered group of hair sticks spilled from a toppled jar.

He'd given her nearly every single one, gifts plucked from the ruined manors of traitors because every time he saw those beads, those little enamel flowers... he thought of her, smiling and pleased, though upon delivery, she never was. So Dai had stopped presenting them in person and began sending them with his letters instead.

She'd worn them.

Until now. When she'd cast both gift and giver aside.

The shogun didn't realize how tightly he squeezed the thing until it snapped in his palm.

Teeth locked with jaw. He focused his gaze and tamed his breaths, glaring at the team of guards who looked back at him with steeled countenances.

"Your Excellency, fortress guards have been searching for you. Finding you so late has prevented us from reporting that the rebel Circle General Warauryu apprehended has escaped, apparently with the assistance of... a lady of the Serpentine Courts."

The Bone Collector's Blade burned into his side. Breaths hitched, stealing any curses, any accusations, any questions he might have except for the one that seized his innards and froze his blood.

"This was used to pick the lock."

Dai turned from his guards, the hair stick they held like a bloody dagger. Like the evidence it was. Heartbeat returned to ears, drowning out the sound of the few footsteps it took to cross the hall, the creak of the opening door.

Again, the pounding conquered the silence.

Again, the silence conquered him.

Dai returned to the guards without his son, with a pittance of steel left to keep his tone cool as he gave his orders. It lasted long enough for him to watch the guards set off, but the last dregs of control vanished with them.