“Wilt never have to go there again.” She bites her lip for a moment, and then adds, “And I could still gut Osmer Nelar if thou wantest it. “Tis not Edonomee,” Csethiro says softly, hoping it’s the right thing to say. And I - for a moment, I did not know where I was.”Ĭsethiro winces and gropes for Maia’s hand, tangling their fingers together and squeezing. There is a certain dampness to the air which is less common here. “It was often foggy there?” she prompts gently. Csethiro thinks several words that a good noblewoman oughtn’t know. “When I woke,” Maia says slowly, “the air felt as it did in Edonomee.”Īh. As it is, her duties will not allow that sort of indulgence, but perhaps she can still manage the tea.

If she were not empress, she would think this exactly the right sort of day to curl up with a book and a samovar of tea. Csethiro looks out, too, and discovers that she can’t actually see much there’s a thick grey fog hanging over the city. Maia glances out the window and hesitates.

He glances over and smiles a little as she tucks herself against him. Csethiro gets out of bed, fumbling for her slippers, and pulls her own dressing gown on, crossing the room quietly to join her husband. One of the edocharei should know if Maia has been called away -īut Maia is still in the bedroom, standing at the window, wrapped in a dressing gown. Did something happen during the night? Usually the emperor’s dav are very good about not waking him without very good cause - they are all determined that he should get as much sleep as he can, given how often he stays up far too late fretting over the endless drudgery of his duties. But generally, they share the big bed in Maia’s apartment, and Csethiro has grown used to waking up with her husband curled against her, his lovely dark hair coming loose from its nighttime braid to tangle with hers. Maia, who differs from his father in this as in so many things, actually prefers to have Csethiro share his bed, though she does of course still retain her own apartments - the ones Pazhiro Zhasan had used, in fact, though they’ve naturally been redecorated entirely - and will sleep there now and again when it is more convenient. They slept in their own apartments, which were for the most part not even in the Alcethmeret. But certainly not any of his other wives. Well, maybe Pazhiro Zhasan - by all accounts Varenechibel did love her, as much as he could love anyone. Varenechibel was not the sort of man to let his wives share his bed for longer than their conjugal duties might have required. Csethiro wakes up to find that her imperial husband is not in bed with her.Īs far as she knows, any of her predecessors as empress would have found this utterly unremarkable.

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison