The crown was a lie, and it was heavier than a mountain.
Mwei Thauk, merchant's daughter, imposter queen, stood before the polished silver mirror and did not recognize the woman staring back. The gown of Northern velvets was too fine, the silver diadem resting on her brow too cold. It was meant for another woman....a princess of true blood and unshakable grace, not a girl from the dust of the Southern markets who knew the price of everything, including herself.
She had been sold for a title. Her father's, to be precise. In exchange for playing the part of Princess Lilly in a political marriage to the feared Dragon King of the North, the Thauk family name would be restored. It was a simple, brutal transaction. Her life for their honor.
And she had agreed. For Jei, her found sister, whose wild, terrified magic would have been purged by the Southern priests. Mwei had one condition: Jei comes with me. It was the only clause in the contract of her own betrayal.
Now, she was here. In a fortress of stone and ice, married to a king whose gaze felt like draggers to her chest. She had to deceive his entire court, survive his notorious temper, and protect Jei from the Northern fanatics who hunted magic just as fiercely as the Southern ones did.
A whisper of movement behind her. Jei, pale and wraith like, emerged from the shadows, her hands twisting in the fabric of her simple dress.
"It's time, Mei," she murmured, her voice barely audible.
Mwei turned from her reflection. The imposter vanished, replaced by the strategist. The merchant's daughter who had bartered for her sister's life.
"Remember," Mwei said, her voice low and steady. "You are my lady in waiting. You are nothing more. Keep your eyes down."
Jei nodded, a flicker of fear in her eyes. "And you? Can you do this?"
Mwei's smile was a thin, sharp thing. "I've been playing a part my whole life." She adjusted the crown, the cold metal biting into her skin. "This is just a bigger stage."
She leftt from the room, the ends of her gown whispering against the stone like a serpent's promise. Ahead lay the Great Hall, the Dragon King, and a court of wolves waiting for a princess to stumble.
But as she walked, a single, traitorous thought echoed in her mind, a truth she would confess to no one, not even herself: the crown of a queen, even a false one, felt less like a burden and more like a weapon. And Mwei Thauk had just learned how to hold it.
The crown was a lie. But the power it represented? That was real. And she was a very, very quick learner.