Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 6

upon your behavior in the morning nephew. It shames me to see you like this."
    Chien wanted to challenge her right then, but there was a proper time for all things. He nodded and bowed his head in shame, "I apologize for my behavior, Empress."
    Her expression was inscrutable. "Rest well nephew."
    ****
    Bao did not give him the dignity of walking from the hall, but instead half dragged him behind him. Chien allowed it until they stepped out onto the verandah walkway into the sultry night air. Once they were away from prying eyes, Chien pulled away and Bao allowed it.
    "Thank you for your assistance, General, but I can handle myself from here."
    "Perhaps you could explain to me what I may have seen you pour into the prince's drink."
    Chien froze. "Pardon?"
    "When you knocked his cup over, you spilled something into his drink." Bao's eyes narrowed as Chien turned to face him, "I saw it."
    He should have been watching more carefully. Hadn't he felt the general's eyes on him? Hadn't he recognized that intense gaze? He wanted to curse his stupidity, but he did not dare give any more away. Lie. It would just take another lie. He was good at those was he not? His greatest skill since his mother's death. "I would not dare drop something into the prince's drink." His eyes widened in innocence, a move that had fooled not only his dimwitted cousins but his aunt as well at one time or another.
    "Do not play me for fool, Prince Chien." Dangerous. He had let his guard fall, let himself grow too close to Bao, and now his plan would be ruined by his own foolishness. What had he thought to himself only a few hours ago? He was too close to make such mistakes.
    "Play you for fool, General, who would do such a thing?" Chien paused beside the pond and crouched to watch the goldfish play, trying to give himself a chance to pull himself and his story together.
    "Why do you do this, Chien?" Bao sounded exasperated. Good. At least he was not alone in it for once. "Why do you play the easily distracted dunce?"
    "Easily distracted?" Chien watched as the goldfish darted within the pool, lazy splotches of color. "You do not think a pond is suitable for my attentions?"
    "They're goldfish."
    "Maybe." He could not continue to engage in this conversation, not when there was a risk that he would give away more. Bao was surprisingly astute, and Chien could feel his control over this situation slipping from his fingers more and more as he stood, "If you are quite finished—"
    "I'm not."
    In his head, Chien cursed. "I have no interest in answering your accusations."
    "I could bring them before the Empress instead."
    Chien paused then slowly turned to face Bao. It was not worth it to feel betrayed. Not worth it to examine that pain in his chest. "You may feel free to report to the Empress anything you like." He'd known this. Gone into this situation with his eyes wide open. Bao's loyalties would always lie with the Empress first. This was why he'd tried so hard to remind himself not to get too close.
    When you allowed people close, their inevitable betrayal only hurt so much more. And in the palace, betrayal was inevitable.
    Bao was yet one more thing it seemed she'd stolen from him before he'd ever had a chance to truly appreciate it.
    "Chien, if you could simply explain it to me I could—"
    "And do not refer to me so familiarly." Distance. Distance was important. Because there was only one thing that mattered, really.
    He watched his words take effect on Bao, his face became colder, his mouth set in a hard line. Had Chien truly done that to him? The lives he'd taken in the search for vengeance and here was the one battle he regretted winning. "Of course, Prince."
    Chien did not have much to say in answer to that, instead turning to walk toward his rooms on the far side of the palace. Bao fell into quiet step behind him.
    It had not been his fault, he rationalized. Bao had been the one to bring up the Empress's name. To believe that invoking her name would somehow spill all of Chien's secrets.
    "There was a time when you might have told me you loved me." The words sounded unspeakably intimate.
    "Words that lovers whisper in the dark of night," Chien whispered back, "fade like shadows in the day."
    Bao cursed and grabbed hold once more of Chien's arm to pull him around. Chien's mouth opened to make it clear how little he appreciated being yanked around as such but the intensity of Bao's gaze took his words away. Not for the first time, Chien wondered