After she recovered, Lanna plucked up the courage to get Frez to write a letter back to her village. She mentioned no one by name, not even her family; she'd resolved that she wouldn't write a personal correspondence until she could brush the characters on the page herself. That and use a messenger from the city rather than one from the palace.

The rains dried and the season turned again. The temperature climbed and the workshop became stifling. She and Frez alternated in pumping the bellows to keep cool air moving around the room. Even the Imperials suffered in the thick heat.

Chowa was inundated with requests for sun oil. The formula stopped the skin browning so the concubines could spend time in the gardens and not be concerned for their complexion. Those from the north told stories of dry heat and entire years without rain. They laughed at the Imperials melting in what they considered a comfortable temperature.

Lanna couldn't wait for the freeze. She would perhaps borrow the Ninth's pearl outfit and strut around the halls while the Imperials shivered.

As the heat increased, Lanna slept badly, and her sickness bothered her as a result. Chowa gave her doses of pain remover for the headaches, while Frez watched her closely and offered to take over some of her chores. Lanna felt too anxious and twitchy to relax. Work was better.

Almost to the solstice and a box of flowers arrived addressed to Li rather than Chowa with a tie of wisteria. Lanna almost screamed. Life was unfair.

If this was punishment for her speaking out of turn to the Emperor, she would offer an apology in a heartbeat, but he'd never asked for one. Why order her to him now? Was the boy bored?

The tie inside was large, the message complex. Lanna thought the Emperor could have written rather than sent a floral puzzle.

The foliage confused her – sprays of green points she'd never seen before.

'Asparagus,' Frez said. 'You eat the buds. The leaves serve little purpose and so are used in decoration.'

Asparagus leaves, thought Lanna. Fascination. The bold purple flowers twined around the green were easily identifiable. Delphinium – amusement. The last bloom she knew well, as it was often used by the Emperor. Wisteria.

So, Lanna mused. He's amused by me and quite fascinated by my behaviour. He also welcomes me to attend him.

'Balls,' she murmured to herself.

'He turns his attention to you at last,' Frez said gloomily. 'Probably because Chowa is in the city today.'

His blue gaze flicked to her. 'You'll need to keep your wits about you and be as uninteresting as you can if you're to slip beneath his notice again.'

Quietly fuming, Lanna stalked up the corridor, aware her brittle mood would make her vulnerable, but what else could she do? There could be no refusal.

The sword maidens opened the doors and ushered Lanna through to the Emperor's rooms. The Ninth wasn't the only one who appeared to dislike the cluttered grandeur and dark colours of the hall. The Emperor's rooms were spacious, airy and only had subtle hints of the wealth and power of their occupant.

He had a canopied bed, but the sheets were bleached cotton, rather than silk. Above the bed hung an exquisitely inked map of the known world before the wars, the place names written in the old language that few but Chowa could read. Lanna felt saddened her people had lost their writing system. It seemed neat and efficient. Few characters and simple shapes.

Her eyes flicked around the rest of the room. Shelves of manuscripts and scrolls filled the space adjacent to the bed. Warm toned floors complemented the light-coloured silk rugs, and drawings and ancient architectural designs covered the walls. Here and there were the exquisite pictures people had made before the wars. Tiny rectangles, but so precisely detailed they appeared to be a moment of reality, frozen. Not a brushstroke or pen mark could be seen in their composition, and even after hundreds of years, the colours remained bright.

Rounding a corner of the chamber, light and scent smacked into Lanna's hypersensitive senses. She turned her head and took a moment to settle. Her eyes adjusted, not fluttering too badly, and she plodded reluctantly into the second chamber only to stare, her jaw slack.

The sliding screens that made up the back wall were open, the room now merely an extension of the garden. Through the screens, a pool of still water licked at the bottom of two wooden steps. A walkway arced over the flat expanse, suspended at intervals from piles driven into the soft mud.

Below the shimmering surface were fish of every colour: fiery orange, night black, bright purple and ghostly stark white. Some were bigger than her forearm. Not a breath of wind disturbed the water.

Sitting on the lower step, his feet in the water, was the Emperor, his hair wet and stuck to his back and face in black ribbons. His normally perfect silk clothing clung to him in places and sagged in others, hanging off one shoulder. The rippling colours of the crumpled silk put her in mind of the snakes in the rice paddies that would sit on warm rocks to shed their skin.

Yes, the boy was the deadliest viper in this house of vipers and his dark, almost reptilian eyes watched her every move.

'Ceseed dislikes the sun,' he stated without preamble. 'I wished to have the doors open so she has retired.'

Ah, his plaything had left, so he'd called on her to amuse himself with on a stifling afternoon.

'You look hot. Has Chowa been working you too hard?' he asked as he tipped a white porcelain cup to his lips. Judging by the slight flush to his cheeks, he wasn't imbibing tea.

'I'm a Southerner,' Lanna said with a bow, dabbing discreetly at her perspiring forehead as she did so.

'Oh...' He trailed off, tilting his head at her, water droplets glinting on his hair like diamonds rolling on black velvet. Lanna had to regulate her breathing. Even dishevelled from his impulsive dip in the water, he was beautiful. The Emperor gestured to the step.

'Sit,' he ordered. 'Put your feet in the water – it cools your blood.'

Lanna cringed. There was probably something in the water or the fish had a liking for human toes. Still, an Imperial order was sacrosanct, and the Emperor seemed to have survived his bath.

She moved to the step, ignoring the watching demigod, then pulled off her slippers and sheer silk foot wraps. Lanna refused to hesitate in front of the Emperor and plunged her large Southern feet into the cool water.

Nothing happened, save for the very welcome chill. She sighed but couldn't rid herself of the tension across her shoulders. The Emperor was never someone to be at ease with.

A dish of rice wine appeared before her face.

'Drink,' came a blasé order. Lanna unceremoniously gulped the wine, cold liquid slipping down her gullet like a balm. Ashioto chuckled, his chin resting on his upturned hand.

'I see you're familiar with alcohol.' He lifted a brow. 'Indeed, your people are reputed to drink like a fish.'

'Fish don't drink.'

'What?' A small frown creased his brow.

Lanna eyed the dish before her, her mind already leaping to a conclusion. Was there something else in it other than wine? She felt slightly light-headed. Having been tricked so often by Chowa she suspected the Emperor may not be above doing the same thing.

'Fish breathe the water; they don't drink it. Even though they take it into their mouth it is not to consume it, Your Highness,' Lanna said in a much more respectful tone.

'So you're correcting me?' he asked, a smile pulling at his lips.

'Yes,' she said and covered her mouth, dropping the expensive dish into the pool. What was wrong with her?

'Another of Chowa's brilliant innervations,' the Emperor said as he sipped his wine. 'I've been imbibing small amounts of it for years so I have immunity to this formula. Never had cause to use it. I hope you don't mind me testing it on you.'

She wanted to hit him. Seething rage pulsed through her and Lanna bit her tongue to prevent it wagging, nostrils flaring as her breathing picked up. Ancestors help her but her palms itched to strike him.

'Now that's no fun,' he said with a mock pout. 'I order you to answer my questions and I know you'll be unable to answer them with lies or even half-truths.' He reclined, silk slipping further from his shoulder and exposing the planes of his chest. He was not unmuscled. Lanna had heard he trained with the sword maidens every morning.

'Now, Assistant Li,' he said, looking over the calm waters. 'Let's start with something easy before I get to the truly mortifying.' He grinned. 'This will be quite a delicious diversion. Now, you don't like me, do you?'

'No,' she responded, squeezing her eyes shut and resigning herself to humiliation. He wanted to put the plucky little servant back in her place? Fine.

'Why not?'

'You're cruel, lazy and childish.'

He burst into delighted laughter and Lanna trembled, her heart pumping hot blood to her head. She took a breath and forced herself to relax. She couldn't fight the formula. If he meant to have her executed, he could without going to such great lengths. No, he wanted to play. She sneered inwardly. If honesty was what he wanted, then that's what he would receive.

'Is that all?' he mocked.

'No.'

'Please enlighten me further.'

Enlighten? No, he was going to get a good scolding. Lanna took another deep breath and let the accented Imperial words roll off her tongue.

'You hold the last shining hope of humanity in your hand as if it was no more than a tarnished bauble. You ignore your ministers and dismiss the common folk who love you with their whole being, working every day to glorify your name.' She opened her eyes and looked out over the water, keeping venom from her tone.

'You have every woman in this place vying for your attention and yet you treat them as nothing more than bed warmers. You ignore advice, and within these walls are some of the highest-ranking nobles to be found within the palace. Women raised to be wise mentors and rulers.'

A dragonfly darted past her, a flash of blue against the silver stillness of the pool. Her mouth continued to move without much consideration to her will.

'You frustrate those who have knowledge to impart and degrade those you ignore, leaving them to plot. In listening only to the pretty creatures of the palace, you prove those who scheme against you are right to do so. The women you do shaft are grasping, scheming snapfish who are as likely to tear your face off as spawn with you.'

Her eyes flicked to him. He sat motionless, listening to her every word, his gaze on the water.

'This nation stagnates. Bandit attacks are on the rise. Food reserves grow short. Yet you waste time tormenting an insignificant assistant.'

A sneer entered her tone, her own frustration with the boy god entering her words. 'No, Your Highness. It's safe to say that I think very little of you.'

There was silence and Lanna kept her eyes on the lake, wondering if it was the last thing she would see before he imprisoned her.

'Well played,' he whispered. 'Now if you're punished, I'll fit the role you've just allotted to me. To prove you incorrect, I must act otherwise.'

'You asked for the truth, so now you have it.' She wiggled her toes in the water as a fish slipped past, slick scales rasping against her skin and sending a shiver up her spine. 'Ask me what you like. I don't care.'

Another chuckle. This time it sounded hollow. 'Are you an innocent?'

She could see a smirk on his lips in the corner of her vision.

'No,' she responded without shame.

'Was he a good lover?'

'I was with him a brief time and we were both untouched. We had much to learn about each other. Our encounters were passionate but lacking technique.'

The Emperor laughed. Lanna didn't even blush.

'That explains much,' he almost purred, reclining a little further, silk pooling around him. He pondered his next question, then spoke again with a sly grin. 'Do you hate Chowa?'

'No, I admire her ambition, though I think she needs to be more sympathetic.'

'That will change,' the Emperor said. 'Soon you'll hate her as much as you do me.'

'I don't hate you.' Lanna wanted to pull out her tongue. She did hate him. She really did! 'You're intelligent. If you applied yourself, then you could be brilliant.' Alright, she didn't really hate him; she hated his attitude.

'I have no desire to rule,' he sighed. His eyes widened, and Lanna grinned. Perhaps he wasn't as immune as he thought?

'But think of all the wonderful things you could do,' she pressed.

'I'll be dead before I see twenty,' he whispered. 'My half-brother is the next in line. Though but a child, he has powerful friends who would relish a boy they could influence.'

'So?' Lanna snapped. 'You choose to live as a coward? If you think you'll be the next to be assassinated, then make all the changes you can.' She slapped the wood of the step. 'Don't wait for the blow to come to you. Defend yourself and your people!'

He gave a bitter laugh. 'The people mean nothing to me. I don't even know them, and yet you say they love me?' Black eyes, simmering with long-buried anger turned to her. 'The people pile all their hopes on me. I'm expected to rule as a deity and yet I'm human. The people are ignorant oxen.'

'Then I hope you get chopped up and fed to your own fish,' she growled, her tone dipping as her temper darkened. 'The likes of you don't deserve to be on the throne. Shaft your women while you can and hope you die a quick death.'

'Such simple-minded anger,' he said with a smile. 'You really do dislike me.'

'Of course I do. You're frustrating and rude.'

'Don't you like anything about me?' he pressed.

She glanced at him; he had a look of genuine interest on his perfect features.

'You can be kind, and you let Chowa rein things in when the flowers in your hall start to scratch and bite each other,' she said, mulling over his question. The formula must have been weak; it was starting to let her hold back.

'You don't find me pleasing to the eye?' he asked, his voice dipping so low she hardly heard him.

The question surprised her. Was his ego so brittle that he needed to think he had the entire palace panting after him? She struggled with the prompting of the formula, but chose to surrender to it.

She looked directly at him. 'I've never seen such a beautiful boy as you,' she uttered in a half whisper.

'Boy?' A deep frown creased his brow, his tone puzzled.

'Yes, boy,' she confirmed. 'In the south, you are not of age. I struggle to consider you an adult. In appearance, you're like a creature not of this world, though I think you spend a lot of time cultivating that image, so you can maintain the myth that you're better than ordinary people.'

'I'm a product of selection,' he said with a half-smirk. 'Only the most cunning and intelligent rule for any length of time. They choose the most beautiful and devious flowers of the hall to be their wives and lovers. Then they spawn the likes of me.'

His lovely face contorted into a sneer. 'And I am better than you,' he spat. 'Compared to me you're a mixed-blood mutt.'

Lanna's head throbbed. Mixed blood? She was all Clanswoman. Offended, but also confused, she pondered the insult – then she had a moment of pure revelation.

'I know why you won't have children,' she exclaimed, pointing a finger at him in accusation. The idea exploded across her mind, and she almost shouted at him in her excitement. 'It's not because you can't; it's that you feel unworthy. Why complicate things when you'll soon be dead? I don't know if that's a great kindness or another expression of your cowardice.'

He hissed and struck. The hand across her face burnt her skin with a sharp impact, but Lanna remained still, vowing internally she would perish before she showed pain.

'Leave!'

'Gladly.'

She scrambled to her feet and bowed with no grace.

'I accept whatever punishment you may see fit to bestow upon me, Your Highness.'

Lanna realised the thought of punishment held hardly any dread. By rights she should be on her knees begging for her life or in a towering Southern rage. Instead, she walked out the door, head held high, steps measured with a slight swing to her hips for that finishing flair of defiance.

The sword maidens saw the mark on Lanna's cheek and clucked over her. With the formula still influencing her tongue, she told them briefly of what had happened. The women's faces turned stern.

Lanna shuffled back to the workshop and prayed to her long-dead ancestors that the formula was out of her blood. Frez glanced up from his work when she entered, then gave a little cry as if he'd been struck himself.

'What happened?' he blurted, large work-roughened hands cupping her face and tilting it to be seen in the lamplight above them.

'The Emperor fed me some sort of truth formula,' she said between winces as Frez's blunt fingers probed her cheekbone. 'He asked me what I disliked about him.' Lanna didn't need to elaborate.

'Balls.' His blue eyes filled with softness. 'Did he do anything other than strike you?'

'Just asked me the most embarrassing questions he could think of, though why he wants to know about Hemil, I can't fathom.'

Frez heaved a sigh and grabbed a bottle from the shelf. He treated her face with something deliciously cold, then left to find Chowa. The chemist was angry on her return, but the emotion wasn't directed at Lanna.

'This is unacceptable,' she fumed. 'Pranks are one thing, but abusing my formula is another. That supply was meant for his immunity program, not to be wasted on tormenting assistants.'

Her dark gaze fixed on Lanna. 'If he tries to punish you for this, I shall protest in the strongest terms.'

'Thank you,' Lanna whispered.

'The treasury owes you a favour,' Chowa continued, pacing. Her hair ornaments made a pleasant tinkling, her silken garments whispered as they brushed the stone paving. 'I will request you run errands for them for a few days. You can return to the Hall of Flowers at night. That should keep you away until this sputters out.'

It was a sound plan.

No punishment came, and the Emperor didn't request her presence again. In fact, it was two weeks before Lanna heard anything from him.

She was barely dressed when Chowa stepped into her room without even knocking. Lanna panicked. Was she late? Chowa was burdened with several scrolls and laid them on Lanna's sleeping mat.

'The Emperor has finally dismissed the last palace surgeon and transferred all care of his health to us,' Chowa said, her face smiling in the predawn light. Lanna had never met a surgeon, but Chowa had a long-standing vendetta with several of them. They were far too inclined towards the 'old treatments' as Chowa put it. Using bloodletting and potions for most ailments, then the surgeon's knife when those methods failed.

'This will mean more work for us. The Emperor has requested that you deal with the final doses of his immunisation program.' Chowa's face smoothed over. Lanna couldn't tell what the woman thought. 'You will need to minister to him once a week.' Chowa indicated to the scrolls. 'His immunisation history. Read it. If you have trouble with some of the higher characters, get Frez to help you.'

Chowa swept out of the room leaving Lanna bewildered.

Why? was all she could think. She sighed and sat for her morning meditation. Much more useful than a devotional mantra to a demigod that slapped people when he didn't like what they said.

Judging by some of the acts that had been carried out during the succession Lanna had got away from her brush with Imperial displeasure lightly indeed.

As her body calmed, her mind drifted. There it was again – the shadow skirting the edges of her mind. For a moment she pushed after it, reaching out. What was it? The shadow eagerly enveloped her and two words, clear and desperate, forced themselves into her mind.

Free me.

Epen came for her later. Lanna had suffered a seizure so massive she had lost control of her bladder.

It took her three days to be able to speakagain.