Golden Daughter Read Free

client Princess Safiya had come to expect and despise.
    “So my honored Prince Amithnal bids me hasten back with a bride worthy of the very gods themselves, as promised in the agreement you, Revered Mother, signed upon receipt of the advanced half-sum.”
    Princess Safiya said nothing as the ambassador’s voice trailed off awkwardly at the end of his rehearsed speech. She allowed the silence to linger a few moments longer than was absolutely necessary and watched the monkey-man’s eyes shift nervously. She could see him trying to recall everything he had just said, wondering if he’d made a mistake somewhere, wondering if he’d somehow managed, despite all his careful rehearsal, to offend the Revered Mother.
    But she couldn’t let him writhe for long. It wouldn’t be fair to her girls.
    She stood, and the ambassador took an involuntary step back, which he then tried to cover with a nervous bow.
    “The test is prepared,” Princess Safiya said. “Prince Amithnal will have his bride based upon the results. Walk with me now, Ambassador, and listen carefully to what I say.”
    She stepped down from her pavilion, and serving children scrambled behind her to carry the train of her golden robe, while others angled oil-paper umbrellas to prevent any sunlight from touching her face and possibly melting the paint she wore. Ambassador Ratnavira fell into obsequious step beside her, his stained fingers twisting his too-tight rings in unsuppressed eagerness. What did he expect this test to be? Some variation on one of his cheap operas?
    Princess Safiya made doubly certain that her voice betrayed none of her thoughts. “It is important, Ambassador, that you speak as little as possible while seated at the banquet. The Golden Daughters will read your voice and learn more than they should before completing the test. You must also understand that this is no test to the Crouching Shadow I have hired.”
    The ambassador stumbled, taken by a sudden fit of nervous coughing. Princess Safiya paused, the shadows of the two umbrellas settling around her, and watched fear shake the little Aja man to his core.
    “You hired a Crouching Shadow?” he cried. “But they—they do not exist!”
    “Neither do the Golden Daughters,” Princess Safiya replied calmly. “Shall we continue?” Without waiting for the ambassador, she proceeded, obliging him to trot to catch up.
    “But surely it is too dangerous!” the ambassador protested.
    Princess Safiya did not reply.
    “Who is the target?” the ambassador demanded, and his shaking voice told her he had already guessed the answer.
    “Why, the honored Aja ambassador, of course,” Princess Safiya said, turning her painted smile upon the little monkey-man. For a moment she almost hoped he would faint, so ashen was his face.
    But Ambassador Ratnavira pulled himself together and said bravely, “Prince Amithnal will not suffer his representative to be so treated. Should I die at your table, the reputation of the Golden Daughters will be forever impugned. You will be dishonored throughout the Continent and across the island nations!”
    A hint of a real smile twitched at the corners of Princess Safiya’s painted mouth. “So little faith you show in the legend you have come far to purchase! Do you not believe the Golden Daughters will be everything I have promised?”
    The ambassador licked his thin lips and continued twisting his rings. “A Crouching Shadow is—”
    “The greatest threat a man such as Prince Amithnal may hope to face in his lifetime,” Princess Safiya supplied. “An assassin of unprecedented cunning and ability. You recall the story of Lord Dae-Ho of Dong Min and his ten thousand warriors?”
    The ambassador had seen enough cheap opera to know the story well. His lips murmured a silent prayer. But Safiya continued mercilessly: “When sought by his twin brother, Dae-Ko the Usurper, Lord Dae-Ho entombed himself alive in a secret underground palace and placed a guard of ten