She Dreamed Her Empire Would Burn, So She Set Out to Break Four Collars novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: Little Leaf
Her father was sitting up against the pillows when she came in, and the white guards had shut the door behind her.
He looked ten years younger.
His hands still shook, but his eyes were his own.
"Come here, little leaf," said the Emperor.
Nobody had called her that since she was nine.
She sat on the edge of the bed, and he took her hand and squeezed it once.
"Once means yes," he said. "I never could say it in front of him."
"Father, what has he done to you?"
"Given me a cup every night for a year." His mouth twisted. "Something sweet, to help me sleep. The physicians stopped it yesterday, and I woke up this morning and remembered I was Emperor."
He looked at the ceiling.
"I've been a coward, Nimeriel. I want to say it while I can."
"Don't."
"Your mother was the Warden before you."
She had always known that.
She had not known what came next.
"The Warden doesn't live long," he said. "Not if she does it the old way. The Tree gives her the gift of healing, and she pays for every heal out of her own body. Your mother healed half the capital in ten years. She was thirty-four."
Nimeriel sat very still.
"She told me not to tell you. She said you would want to do the same."
"I would have."
"I know." He almost smiled. "That's why Veridian came to me the winter she died. He said he had found a way no Warden would ever have to die again. A collar, a cheap, small one, to carry the cost in her place. A kin would feel tired, he said. That's all."
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