That was a dead end, for now. There wasn’t much else we could do about Skit, and he certainly wasn’t at the top of our priorities list. He’d been sensed near our room, but he wasn’t one of the four soldiers assigned to our care. Maybe he’d simply passed through—like the Emperor had said, making his rounds. I decided to address a much bigger item on our said list.
“What do you think of Medina’s performance so far?” I asked. “Is she to your liking, as the new prime minister?”
“She’s very good at what she does,” the emperor said. “I vetted her myself. Loyal. Dependable. Ruthless. Resourceful. I appreciate those qualities in a leader.”
“Your Majesty, I must admit, I don’t like how she’s handling Trap’s investigation,” Eira chimed in. “She sounds like she’s already made up her mind about him.”
The emperor gave her a soft smile. “She’s merely following the evidence. If you remember, she also suggested that she’s more than willing to change her mind, should Trap be proven innocent. Now, enough about him. The subject irks me in his absence.” He glanced at me. “What locations have you chosen, so far, for your search tomorrow? Has Medina arranged everything with the local guards?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. She also had someone deliver the monogramed cloaks to our rooms,” I said. “The first three locations are in two different domains. One is the HuaWua Temple, on the northwestern coast of the Samotarcis Domain. The other two are both along the Cell River, close to the southeastern delta. Eira remembered there’s a rosy fish sanctuary near the HuaWua Temple, and that’s important to our search, based on newly revealed information. We’re just waiting for Medina to find out where the other rosy fish sanctuaries are.”
“Based on their locations, we’ll cross-check with what we’ve already learned about Eirexis’s possible whereabouts and, hopefully, come up with one or two more sites,” Lumi added. “We’re looking to be done by the end of tomorrow.”
“Provided the Hermessi don’t get in the way,” Raphael grumbled.
“That’ll be a given. They know we’re coming,” Varga replied. “We’ve been planning ahead, though. It’ll be a secret infiltration and extraction method, once we find Eirexis.”
“I can only wish you the best of luck,” the emperor said. “I would love to be able to help you more, but, alas, I’m but a mere Cerixian.” He paused, his brows pulling into a confused frown. “Wait, why is the prime minister having to search for the rosy fish sanctuaries? She knows where they are.”
A wave of ice rocks crashed into me. This was the first confirmation that Medina hadn’t been truthful, and it didn’t bode well for our mission—the worst part was that Varga hadn’t registered that deception earlier. But was he looking for it in her aura hours ago? No, because it was only after she’d left that we’d discussed Riza, Herakles, and Eira’s suspicions about her…
“Excuse me?” I asked, my voice barely audible.
“She knows the locations of all seven sanctuaries. She spent years advocating for them. Medina toured each of them, making sure our biologists were doing a good job,” the emperor explained. “In fact, she has been making efforts to establish an eighth. I’ve been told that the rosy fish populations in the freshwater sanctuaries were thriving, thus making enough eggs to set up a new colony. She mentioned it herself, just the other day.”
Looking around the table, I could tell what everyone was thinking. Medina was a very good liar—expert enough to get past Varga’s True Sentry radar. She had exquisite control of her demeanor, and she measured her words carefully. She definitely couldn’t be trusted.
“Don’t you think it’s weird that she—” Eira tried to speak, but I quickly squeezed her wrist beneath the table.
“We must’ve misunderstood,” I said, wearing a flat smile. “I guess she was talking about precise coordinates, perhaps to help us, since she won’t be joining us.”
The emperor seemed blissfully unaware of her deceit, and I decided to let it stay that way, at least until we figured out what Medina’s endgame was. Of course, I had every intention of handing her over to the emperor once I got my answers. I just knew I wanted to let this play out for a little while longer before pulling the plug.
Lumi mouthed a “Why?” at me, and I replied with a discreet wink. “We’ll have time to go over the last details for tomorrow’s search mission after dinner,” I said. “In the meantime, I have to say, the food has been fantastic. Looking forward to dessert.”
The emperor laughed and rang the bell. Within seconds, four soldiers came in and cleared the table. One of them moved around with the wheeled dessert cart, from which he served us. Tonight’s specialty resembled a layered cake, in delicious shades of pink, pale yellow, and white, the top adorned with a plethora of local fruits.
“The whole crew is with you on this,” Eira whispered to me, “but you have to explain your decision later. Most importantly, you can’t leave the emperor blind here. Make it right.”
The grave look in her eyes made me realize that she was right. She wasn’t the only one with this concern, either. I could handle any of Medina’s machinations, now that I knew she was up to something. The emperor, on the other hand, was still vulnerable, and everyone in my crew seemed to know it, as they shot me some of their more meaningful glares.
“Your Majesty,” I said, my spoon slicing through the soft dessert, “would you mind if I asked you something?”
The soldiers were already gone, having finished the dessert service. Emperor Tulla nodded, occasionally eyeing his plate. His serving was definitely appealing enough to make it harder for him to concentrate. It was equal parts funny and adorable—a side of him I hadn’t seen before. “Of course, son. Talk to me,” he replied.
“Can you please not tell Medina about this whole rosy fish confusion? There’s something we need to look into, first.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your Majesty, just… be careful,” I said, smiling. “Let us keep this entire conversation to ourselves, for everyone’s sake.”
“What are you trying to tell me? Spit it out already,” he replied, getting visibly impatient. I didn’t like where this conversation was going, and I regretted bringing it up in the first place. I’d wanted to please Eira and the crew on this, but it was clearly making room for difficult questions, since it was far too early to point fingers at Medina. We’d already ruined the career of one prime minister. We couldn’t keep knocking them down without solid proof. All I had now was purely circumstantial, and I didn’t want to worry the emperor.
“I’m not looking to make any accusations.” I sighed, feeling the crew’s eyes on me. Their silence on this was much appreciated. I’d sort of dug myself into this, and I had to make my way back to the surface as quickly and as smoothly as possible. “I’m just kindly asking that we don’t mention the rosy fish sanctuaries to Medina. That is all. Could you, please, just trust me on this?”
The emperor stared at me for a while, and I could hear the wheels in his head turning, ever so slightly, as he pondered a response. I didn’t need Varga’s True Sentry abilities to know that he was curious. He was dying to ask more questions, but I’d made it relatively clear that I wasn’t ready to answer any of them. I’d asked for his trust, instead. That had to count for something.
Emperor Tulla was extremely intelligent and had the purest of intentions. He’d met all kinds of people during his lifetime, and I was sure that Medina’s possible betrayal or shady machinations wouldn’t have come as a shock. Nevertheless, these were special circumstances. The endgame was far too precious for us to get embroiled in Cerixian politics again. Most importantly, I needed to get more dirt on Medina before I could tell the emperor everything.
He smiled with his lips, but not with his eyes. “I appreciate your thoughts and concerns, young prince. And worry not, you have my trust. I will do as you asked,” he said. I could almost hear the collective sigh of relief around the table, along with the throng of future questions that my crew would ask me—most involved a lot of cursing, for sure. They didn’t oppose me in front of the emperor, but they were bound to confront me later, in private, about my decision to not elaborate on Medina’s deceit.
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” I replied. My palms were sweaty, feeling as though I’d just defused a highly complex bomb.
“You know, Medina might come across as shrewd,” the emperor said. “Perhaps even manipulative. But she is a loyal servant of the empire. I will be careful, as you advised, and I agree that it may be too early to make any accusations regarding her. I appreciate your diplomacy on this. Good to see you understand that indisputable evidence is a better weapon than one’s suspicions.”
Oh, there was so much to unpack in that statement. It was as if he’d read my mind and agreed with me, against my own crew, even. He had made a good point. Medina was definitely slippery and calculated, and yes, she’d lied about the rosy fish sanctuaries… but it definitely wasn’t enough to even formulate a solid accusation. I needed more, and Emperor Tulla seemed to know it.
No wonder he’d been leading an entire empire for years. He was remarkably measured in his judgments and responses. I had a lot to learn from this guy. Hopefully, we’d stop the ritual, and I’d arrange a few more visits to simply pick his brain. Emperor Tulla’s wisdom was a high-value asset, no doubt about it.
One quick look at the table, and I knew that the rest of the crew had caught on, too, without me having to explain it later. The way the emperor had chosen his words had made it quite clear: Don’t accuse without indisputable proof. They didn’t like it any more than I did, but they accepted it. We all took comfort in knowing he’d received our message about Medina, and left it at that, choosing to focus on the dessert instead.
We had a big day ahead of us tomorrow. I was better off planning for it, thinking about it, anticipating every single detail or obstacle, anything that could possibly go wrong in our search for Eirexis. No one would stand in our way—that much I’d already established with myself. Not Brendel, not the other Hermessi, and certainly not Medina, if that was her intention.
Amelia
Dinner ended quickly after that conversation. We took a few minutes in private with Taeral to discuss the whole Medina business, but the emperor had already made Taeral’s intentions clear, without Taeral having to explain anything. His wisdom was awe-inducing, if he’d been able to realize Taeral’s intentions before all of us.
The facts were pretty straightforward. We knew that Medina had lied about the rosy fish sanctuaries—she did know where they were, and she could’ve told us straightaway, but she hadn’t. She’d made us wait, instead, pushing us into the next day to start our search operation, for a variety of reasons, all cited as safety precautions.
