The Tyrant's Pet novel · Chapter 4 of 32

Chapter 4: One Drop

I didn't sleep that night.

I lay in a real bed, under a real quilt, and thought about Blaise in the black water.

One more for Father. He'll need it now.

At dawn I went back to the map room.

Agatha was already there, in her green dress, with a pen behind her ear.

"Do you have any of it?" I asked. "The river water. From Saltgate."

She looked at me for a moment.

Then she unlocked a cabinet and took out a stoppered glass jar.

The water inside was black as lamp oil.

When she pulled the stopper, the smell filled the room.

Iron and burnt flowers.

I'd tasted it going down.

I took the pin from her collar before she could stop me and pricked my thumb.

One bead of blood came up.

I held my thumb over the jar and let it fall.

The drop sank.

For a breath, nothing happened.

Then the black around it began to pale.

It spread from the middle out to the glass.

By the time I'd counted ten, the jar held clear water.

A few flecks of silver grit settled on the bottom.

Agatha didn't say anything.

She went to the door and shouted down the hall in a voice that could have stopped a horse.

"Somebody wake him!"

An hour later I stood in the throne room of the Coil.

It was long and black and cold, with pillars carved like coiled snakes.

The court lined both sides.

Lords in velvet. Ministers in gray. Women in silk with fans they weren't using.

Every one of them was staring at me.

The Emperor sat on the black throne under a gold serpent the size of a river barge.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Tyrant's Pet from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.