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Still my magic wouldn’t come. I could feel myself fraying.

We trained for torture, Yorîmu reminded me. I had the feeling it was not the first time she had said something like that.

“And I’m withstanding it, aren’t I?” I said, feeling irritated. That was good. Irritation was not fear. Irritation was not the pain I felt anytime I shifted.

You are, Yorîmu’s voice was fond. Don’t let it go to your head.

I only ever heard her. But after so long, I wished I heard Tallu. I wished that he was back with me.

What would he say if he saw me now? I had no fingers. I doubted my legs would ever work again. What kind of consort could I be to him?

It should have been strange that all I could hear now was Yorîmu’s voice. My old trainer shouldn’t have been the balm I needed. But if I heard Tallu’s voice, I was sure I would break.

If he asked me to come to him, I would happily accept as many scorpion bites as needed. I would give up for him.

Kacha returned. I could see a large glass platter topped with the glass dome in his hand. It was larger than the arrayed jars. In the Mountainside Palace, it might have held a cake.

“You can’t seem to resist me.” I tasted blood in my smile. “Am I that enticing to you imperials?”

Kacha said nothing. He set the glass jar directly in front of me, inches away from my destroyed hands. “I have spent my entire life serving the Imperium. Now I will happily sit on the throne if that is what is required to bring honor back to our empire.”

“Honor? What do you know of honor? After what you let Rute Sotonam do? After what you let Emperor Millu do, these scorpions have more honor than you.” I knew I was slurring my words, but my tongue wasn’t quite working. My throat was so dry that everything was a rasp. “You turned the last of the air mages into a dancing monkey for your entertainment. You feasted while the empire starved around you.”

“And yet, I will still win,” General Kacha said.

“You underestimate Tallu. Vipers eat scorpions.” And my death would give Tallu more than enough reason to turn everything Kacha had built into ash.

“Luckily I am no scorpion. I am glad he will find you like this, just moments too late to save you,” Kacha said. He lifted the lid from the glass platter and the enormous scorpion paused before delicately picking its way off. It came closer to me slowly. I could see its eyes examining me, pausing in front of the pools of blood around my hands.

Kacha stepped back. Then, one by one, he kicked over each of the other jars. The scorpions moved toward me, and he took another step back to the door. He closed it behind him after the first scorpion stung the back of my hand.

I felt its pincers take hold of the flesh, tearing it free as the poison entered my bloodstream. There were more stings, but I didn’t have the voice left to scream.

I was going to die locked in this room.

My body felt as if it was melting, my bones turning to liquid, my flesh torn by pincers and eaten by small mouths, and there were eyes everywhere.

Are you ready? Are you ready for what is to come?

I wanted to answer yes. I wanted to answer that I was more than ready, that I was happy for a sea serpent to take me to the afterlife where I would wait for Tallu.

But that was a lie. I wasn’t happy for that ending. I wasn’t ready for it. I didn’t want it.

I wanted to live. I wanted to help Tallu build peace on the continent. I wanted to see him and my mother sitting across the table from each other negotiating amity where his father had stained the ice red with blood.

My mouth didn’t work anymore, the poison having destroyed all the muscles that controlled my throat. Soon I wouldn’t even be able to breathe.

A single thought formed in my head, turning into desire, turning into anger. No.

No, I was not ready. No, the sea serpents could not take me.

No.

Ice rebuilt my skeleton, creating it from nothing. Fire burned my flesh, growing it anew. The scorpions screamed, their feet clicking, but the room was too hot and they cooked inside their own shells. The forest wrapped around my bones of ice, giving me strength, giving back the muscles that I had sacrificed for.

My voice came to me last, a single scream of desperation that turned into something more.

“Tallu,” I whispered.