The Phoenix Guard got Yeijiro safely landed inside the fortress walls. As expected, soldiers waited outside the ship. Corinne landed in front of the assembly with a flashy snap of her wings and pulse of her jets. “Marshal Miyōshi is in my custody,” she announced as Yeijiro climbed down out of the hatch.

Corinne glared, daring anyone to argue with her. A growing sense of relief washed through Yeijiro as no one did.

It helped that they were near the end of Shadow Court, that everyone was starting to relax. Flying into the controlled airspace around the fortress at the beginning of court would have probably gotten him shot down, and absolutely arrested. Now, with everything nearing conclusion, people were getting lazy. Which worked in Yeijiro’s favor right at this moment, but was also what the traitors were counting on.

The fortress guards seemed happy to let him be someone else’s problem. They waved Corinne along, and Yeijiro followed meekly behind her.

Until they got through the main gate, into the fortress proper, and Yeijiro jogged forward to walk at her side. “Thank you,” he said, letting out a long, relieved breath.

She shrugged. “It was bullshit anyway. What were you supposed to do? Crash politely outside and hope someone came out to find you?”

Any other day, Yeijiro might have smiled and joined her in a lengthy complaint about bureaucracy. Right now, he was still too aware of the seconds ticking away, of the information he needed to deliver.

Corinne was staring at him. “Are you okay?”

He wasn’t. He hadn’t slept. He’d been shot at. And what he knew… “I need to speak to the Lord Marshal. Immediately. This can’t wait.”

Dahle Roderich, the Lord Marshal—Yeijiro’s superior and the man ultimately responsible for the safety of the Emperor and the security of the Empire. He was the only person in the entire fortress Yeijiro could trust.

Corinne studied him with another long, piercing look. “Who’s really chasing you?”

Yeijiro couldn’t answer. He couldn’t give her the truth, and he’d pushed too hard over the last few days to come up with any sort of clever deflection. Not that deception had ever been a strength of his.

“All right,” she said, as though he’d answered. “Okay. I can get you to him. Most of the way,” she amended. Corinne tapped some buttons on the chest of her suit. The sparkling force field dissolved and the wings and struts retracted into the small pack at her back. “Come on.”

The Dragon Fortress was the center of learning and government for the entire world of Pax, and it had been thoroughly invaded and transformed by the Imperial Court. After three months of Shadow Court, it was hard to even see the austere bones of the Dragon aesthetic under the lush decadence that now filled every corner and blurred every line.

Corinne led Yeijiro on a winding path, through side corridors and back rooms, well away from anyone who would delay them with questions. The fortress was too crowded for any room to be unoccupied, but most of the people they saw—or heard—were too involved to pay any attention to Yeijiro and Corinne’s quick, quiet passage.

The end of Shadow Court meant a lot of good-byes. Heads pressed together as intimate words were exchanged, or sounds from curtained nooks that made clear a more physical conversation was going on. In one room, on a pile of velvet cushions, a writhing pile of naked bodies moved together, so close that Yeijiro couldn’t count the number of limbs to figure out how many people were actually there. That group was far too wrapped up in their own affairs to notice anyone else, but Corinne’s jaw clenched and she looked away as she hurried them through.

How many of the people they passed were Dragon courtiers, thoroughly seduced and debauched by the Emperor’s court? How long before the Dragon recovered their poise? How long before they fought to host a Shadow Court again?

The sensual decadence of the Imperial court had been no shock to Yeijiro—there wasn’t indulgence in the Empire a Serpent hadn’t thought of first—but the Dragon had been overwhelmed. Yeijiro imagined they’d be happy to see the end of Shadow Court and the Emperor’s return to the capital on Terris.

Corinne was able to steer through and around most of the security in the Fortress, and the rest simply let her through without question. But as they cut through the final passage and stepped into the hall outside what was currently the Imperial suite, Yeijiro forced his mind to refocus for the final hurdle.

Standing on either side of the last door that stood between Yeijiro and the fulfillment of his duty, two legionnaires watched his approach. In the ornate silver and sky-blue uniforms of the Imperial Legion, they were beautiful, looking entirely decorative—except for the swords at their side and the stony looks on their faces.

Legionnaires meant one thing. “He’s in with the Emperor.”

Corinne nodded.

Getting past them would be impossible, but Yeijiro didn’t need to get in. He just needed Dahle Roderich to come out. The legion reported to Roderich the same way the marshals did. Surely they would listen to Yeijiro’s request.

Yeijiro was so focused on the last obstacle before he could deliver his burden, he almost didn’t notice the third person standing a little to the side, someone who seemed entirely out of place at the Emperor’s door. A small figure, with shoulders just beginning to stoop from age, the upper half of their face covered with a plain, black silk mask. They wore a simple, but perfectly tailored black suit. Pinned to the right side of their collar, a hexagonal crest showed a black snake twined around itself—an almost exact match of the crest Yeijiro wore on the left side of his own collar. The crest of House Miyōshi, the First Family of the Serpent.

Yeijiro knew this person, knew what their presence at the door meant, and his entire body froze.

Corinne took his arm, shook it a little. “Seriously, are you okay?”

“I can’t,” Yeijiro whispered, his mind suddenly as sluggish as his body. Miyōshi Shō. Here.

“Who’s that?”

Of course she wouldn’t recognize Shō. Wouldn’t realize what their presence meant. “The Lord Marshal and the Emperor aren’t the only ones dining together.”

“So?” Confusion in Corinne’s voice. “I thought this was urgent. Does it matter—” her eyes swept over Shō, who was now watching her and Yeijiro with bland interest. “So there’s a Serpent in there?”

“The Serpent,” Yeijiro corrected. The lord of Yeijiro’s clan, who bore the same house name as Yeijiro but was as far removed from Yeijiro as the sun from the moon. The man Yeijiro had spent every waking moment of this court studiously avoiding, and too many nighttime hours dreaming about.

But she was right. His task was urgent and he needed to complete it. He stepped forward to address the guards. “I’m Imperial Marshal Miyōshi Yeijiro. I have information I must deliver immediately to the Lord Marshal.”

One of the legionnaires—a tall, distractingly handsome black man who wore the crest of the Swan house Kosuri alongside the crest of the Imperial Legion—raised an eyebrow. “The Lord Marshal dines with the Emperor.”

Noting the silver stars on his Imperial crest, Yeijiro addressed him by rank. “Major Kosuri.” Yeijiro gave a deferential bow, defaulting to his best court manners. One never got anything from a Swan through being rude. “I would not wish to disturb her Imperial Highness, but this matter is urgent. I must insist.”

The door opened, and for a moment, Yeijiro thought Roderich was coming out, but it was only Shō slipping inside. As the legionnaires traded amused looks. They didn’t seem to be taking Yeijiro seriously.

He was so close. And maybe—probably—Yeijiro could trust these two. This Kosuri officer was striking enough Yeijiro could remember having seen him frequently in the presence of the Emperor. Yeijiro should have had no worry that he would have the Emperor’s best interests in mind.

Except that the information Yeijiro carried proved that Yeijiro couldn’t afford to trust anyone short of the Lord Marshal himself. “Please,” he tried again, “I must ask of Major Kosuri that he consider—”

The door opened again and Shō returned, leaning up to whisper in the Kosuri’s ear. With a tilt of his head and a shrug, the legionnaire stepped aside. “It seems Marshal Miyōshi’s presence has been requested by the Emperor.”

That was…not what Yeijiro had intended. “There’s been a misunderstanding. I only need to speak to—”

“Sur Yeijiro.” Shō's voice was soft, but firm. “We do not keep the Emperor waiting. If you would follow me.” With a hand on Yeijiro’s arm, Shō guided Yeijiro inside.