CONTENT WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS THEMES OF HUMAN TORTURE WHICH MAY BE UPSETTING FOR SOME READERS.

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The cool air pressed through the thin fabric of Reiji's tunic. Mist vapored around him from the dew of the plants lining the corridors of the palace grounds, which were empty in the early morning except for the guards who stood watch by their posts.

"I'm not sure we should be doing this, My Matu," Gat Kiyo said as they walked across the palace courtyard. "The Kahani said that she'll take care of it." He was almost jogging to keep up with Reiji's pace.

"I know what she said. I heard it. I was there, Gat Kiyo," Reiji addressed his attendant. He hadn't been able to sleep the night before, and the saggy tiredness weighed over his eyes and face. He knew the next night would be the same if he couldn't face the man who tried to kill him.

It was already the third attack since they returned from Zircka, but this was the first attempt on Reiji's life while he was within the palace walls. He had been walking alone in a corridor at the West Keep when someone jumped at him with a sword. He had been lucky that Heneral Arkan had taken the same route. The general had captured the assassin—now locked up in the dungeons beneath the palace. Whoever was trying to have Reiji killed was getting desperate.

"Yes, but you are aware... that the Kahani... does not tolerate insubordination," Gat Kiyo said, catching his breath between words. Though his legs were long, he had trouble keeping up with Reiji's stride. He held on to his bandana, trying to keep it in place over his bald head.

"You forget, Gat Kiyo, that I am the Matu. I will not be treated like a child," Reiji said.

"But, My Matu—" Gat Kiyo protested.

Reiji cut him off by diverting their conversation to a different topic. "Do you have the information I asked you to acquire?" he asked.

"Information?" Gat Kiyo said. "About what?"

"The smiths," Reiji answered. "Those who worked on Master Kazuri's machine." He continued to walk until they reached the end of the courtyard and entered the hallway of the east keep.

"Oh, yes," Gat Kiyo said, a step behind Reiji. "The smiths are gone, My Matu."

Reiji stopped and turned to Gat Kiyo, who almost slammed into him. "What do you mean gone?"

Gat Kiyo caught his breath before he spoke. "They're missing."

"Missing?" Reiji asked. "How are they missing? They are under the employ of Master Hatari, and they are staying here in the palace, aren't they?"

"They were, My Matu." Gat Kiyo wiped the sweat from his brow. "But when they finished their work, their contract ended. They returned home. I had a messenger take invitations to their houses, asking them to join you for a meeting. But they weren't in their homes. Their families haven't heard from them, and their neighbors say they haven't been around for months."

"All of them?"

Gat Kiyo nodded.

"That's—" Reiji couldn't find the right word for it, and he settled with "—odd." How could the smiths go missing? At least five of them worked on Master Kazuri's project. They were the best in Kazima. Some of them even came from Maginoo families.

Could this be the doing of the Keepers to keep Master Kazuri's machine a secret?

Reiji suspiciously glanced around the empty corridor. He would have liked to speak with any one of the smiths so he could know more about the machine. Despite his position as the heir to the throne, the Keepers hadn't shared much with him when it came to it.

"I want this looked into." Reiji lowered his voice.

Gat Kiyo hesitated but eventually nodded. "As you wish, My Matu."

Reiji turned back to the hall and walked forward toward a door. Behind it was a spiraling staircase which he followed to go below the underground level of the palace. His attendant stayed with his pace.

At the bottom of the steps, a guard greeted them with a bow before they entered another hall—dim, lit only by torchlight. They were now deep below where the rays of the sun could not reach. The air was cold, musty, and humid—gone was the scent of the fresh morning.

"My Matu, I still think we should not be here." Gat Kiyo spoke as they moved through the hall. The walls enclosing them were a stack of coral rocks, the same as the ground and the low ceiling above them.

When they came into an empty room with three doors leading to different paths, Reiji headed for the one in the middle. "Just stay quiet," he ordered Gat Kiyo before he opened the door.

They continued walking through dark corridors until they reached another hall lined with barred doors.

A waft of stink was sudden—the smell of shit, piss, and something rotting.

A guard was posted every ten steps. All of them bowed as Reiji and Gat Kiyo passed by.

The barred doors were prisons, and most were empty, but some weren't, and the prisoners inside them tried to catch Reiji's attention, calling his name and reaching their arms out through the bars. "Prince Reiji!"

He ignored them, focusing his attention forward. He rarely came to this part of the Ozaro Palace. He never had a reason to enter the dungeons, but this time he had, and it was an exception.

After several attempts on Reiji's life, an assassin was finally caught alive. Heneral Arkan had thrown the man down here for interrogation the night before, and the Kahani had told Reiji that she would take care of it. She had given specific orders to him not to get involved, but he couldn't do that. He could not leave it to her.

I can't just sit back and wait until another assassin comes. Maybe next time, I won't be so lucky. Reiji thought this as they neared the end of their path.

They reached a closed metal door flanked by two guards who looked up at the sound of their echoing footsteps.

Reiji stopped before the guards and gave them an order, "Let us pass."

The guards didn't hesitate, and one of them moved to open the door, allowing them to enter a chamber. Reiji stepped through first, and Gat Kiyo followed, hearing the door click closed behind them.

When Reiji's eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room where a single torch light was lit in the far wall, his stomach turned at what he saw.

The blood on the floor shimmered against the flickering light—a pool made by the red drips from the naked body of a man that hung from the ceiling. His bare feet hovered above the ground, chains bound his hands, and his back was a mutilated puddle of blood and flesh. The man was suspended in a slanted manner because one of his shoulders was dislocated. The shiny white of his bone protruded out of his skin as if his arm would come right off.

Standing by the hanging body, a woman in a blue mestiza had her back to Reiji. The edge of her skirt was soaked in red. She held the handle of a long whip, and strands of her dark hair had come undone from her payneta.

Even without seeing her face, Reiji knew the Kahani.

Two guards and Heneral Arkan looked up as soon as Reiji and Gat Kiyo entered the room, but Reiji didn't give them notice. He only saw this—the prisoner's head hung loose on his neck, his mouth gaped wide as if he had been screaming, and his eyes looked at the floor in a steady stare.

The Kahani turned to see Reiji. Orange light flickered over her blood-splattered face. Her blue dress darkened where it caught the splashes. She flinched when she saw him and took a surprised step backward, dropping the whip.

"Gat Kiyo," Heneral Arkan spoke, his voice heavy and his face hooded in shadow. "Please take our Matu back to the courtyard. I will be with him there shortly."

Reiji couldn't stop staring at the Kahani and her too with him. He felt his arm being tugged, and he was dragged away, but only his body. His sight had stayed in the dungeon with the woman he'd known all his life and the dead man hanging from the ceiling. 

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