by Morgan Rice
“It is,” Thanos said, because there was no way he could deny it. “They didn’t grasp the full situation.”
“As far as I can see,” Queen Athena put in, “the situation was that you had a chance to capture the leaders of the rebellion, and you failed to take it. You do know that they escaped?”
“I know,” Thanos said. He tried to fill his voice with regret. He wasn’t made for this, for politics and secrecy, but he had to do it. “I also know what would have happened if rebels had reached the castle.”
“From what I hear,” Lucious said, “the real rebels weren’t in the streets. That was just a rabble.”
“You weren’t there!” Thanos snarled back, grateful that Lucious made it so easy to be angry. “I was. I heard that there was violence on the streets. I fought rioters, and I had to make a choice. I had to choose between crushing the Stade and risking that coming here. Here, where my wife was still in our bed. Where all of you were. Where you Lucious, were presumably still sleeping off the festivities!”
“And if I hadn’t, do you think the rebels would still be free? I don’t take things so gently.”
“You might think I made the wrong choice out there,” Thanos replied, “but that’s the point. I was the one who was there to make the choice, and I made the one that would keep my family safe.” The nobles there probably thought that he just meant Stephania. The king and Lucious would probably be wondering. “I won’t be questioned on that.”
He turned and made for the door. No one stopped him, which was probably as well. He was running out of answers. He’d bought some time by making his actions look like an emotional outburst, but there would still be questions.
He didn’t have time to answer questions, because of the scrap of paper in his hand. It had come by raven this morning. Just six words.
The sculpture garden. Noon. Meet me- A.
***
The sculpture garden was an ode in stone to Thanos’s ancestors, yet he couldn’t feel comfortable there. Carved images of kings since the start of the Empire stared down, along with their wives, children, generals, and favorites. The first king, Ullian, sat atop a rearing marble horse, the broken granite body of a creature that could only have come from the depths of the artist’s imagination beneath the hooves. After all this time, the marble features atop the horse were weathered to the point where Thanos couldn’t make them out. Would he have seen a resemblance there if they hadn’t been?
“The Great King Ullian, crushing the Ancient Ones,” Akila said, stepping from behind another statue. The rebel leader looked a little more battle worn than he had back on Haylon, but he was still spare-framed and dark-haired, with a short beard and a tinge of dark humor in his expression. As always, he wore two short stabbing swords at his waist.
“It probably didn’t happen like that,” Thanos said. “Cosmas, the royal scholar, is always saying history is more complicated than you think.”
“No? It’s the story I heard. The founders of the mighty Empire, freeing humanity from the yoke of the Ancient Ones, bringing fair and just rule to all.” That brought with it one of the sardonic smiles that the rebel leader seemed to specialize in. “Of course, for an Empire supposedly founded on rebellion, you and your family seem remarkably resistant to it now.”
“I’m surprised to see you here,” Thanos said. “I wouldn’t have thought you could leave the rebellion just to talk to me.”
“I needed to see if another story was true,” Akila said. He didn’t draw either of his swords, but his hands rested on the hilts.
“Akila?” Thanos said with a frown. “What’s going on?”
“You tell me,” the rebel leader snapped back. Thanos saw him take a step forward. “I let you go because of how much you helped us on Haylon. You swore brotherhood to us.”
Thanos didn’t give ground. “And I’ve been working to help you. I sent you a warning of the attack on Haylon.”
“An attack they’re saying you ordered,” Akila snapped back, and now one of his swords did clear its sheath. “We captured soldiers and they were talking about how you rode down to the docks to appoint the general attacking us.”
“Because he’s incompetent!” Thanos retorted. He took a step back now, and found himself pressed against the statue of Ullian, literally depending on his ancestors for support. “I only found out the morning that they sent the fleet. I had to forge orders to stop it from being commanded by one of our greatest generals.”
“Our greatest generals?” Akila said. He moved forward, his sword pressing to Thanos’s throat. Thanos shoved the other man away.
“You know what I mean,” Thanos said. He didn’t draw his own blade, but he wasn’t just going to let Akila murder him. “You know I’m on your side.”
“Do I?” Akila demanded. “This general of yours is a long way from incompetent. He’s plodding, but plodding is dangerous when you have the men. Now, I hear that you commanded a force that put down a rebellion here.”
Thanos shook his head. “I was trying to ensure that it succeeded.”
“By sending troops into the city?”
“The troops were coming anyway!” Thanos insisted. “All I could do was ensure that the leaders of the rebellion had enough time to get away.”
He saw Akila stalk among the statues. The rebel leader lashed out, hacking a chip out of a marble figure’s arm.
“You have all the answers, don’t you?”
“If I had all the answers, I would have found a way to bring down the Empire by now,” Thanos said.
“Would you?” Akila asked. “You’d bring down the nobility, and all the cruelty that goes with it? Then why did you marry one of them?”
Thanos thought of Stephania, and of all the joy he’d had with her. He wouldn’t let even Akila make him feel bad about loving her.
“You wouldn’t understand,” Thanos said. “Stephania and I are happy together.”
“So why should I believe that you want to disrupt all of that?” Akila demanded. “You know why I came here? Why I took a boat in the middle of defending my home? Because if anyone was going to kill you for betraying us, I swore it was going to be me. I was going to look you in the eye, and if you’d betrayed us, I was going to do the job myself.”
There was a time, after Ceres’s death, when Thanos might have let him do it. Now, though, there was too much to fight for. Too much still to do.
“I haven’t betrayed you,” Thanos said. He could feel Akila’s gaze on him. “You told me to come here and do this, when I wanted to fight.”
“I think you actually believe that,” Akila said. “You really believe you’re doing what we want. If you hadn’t sent that warning, you’d be dead by now. As it is… I don’t know what to make of you, and I don’t have enough time to waste working it out. Thanks to you, I have an island to defend from a plodding general who has seen every trick before. Thanks to you, the rebellion here has been set back by who knows how much. I’m not going to kill you, Thanos, but you aren’t one of us either, not really.”
“I’m risking everything for you,” Thanos said.
“We’re all risking everything,” Akila replied. “But some of us do it in ways that don’t involve marrying nobles and having rebels butchered.” He shook his head. “I have to get back. Thank you for your warning, but if this is your idea of helping, we can do without it.”
Thanos watched him walk back among the statues, quickly disappearing among the still marble figures. He couldn’t believe that Akila had come. More than that, he couldn’t believe that Akila didn’t trust him, after all he’d done.
He would find a way to do more. He had to.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Stephania walked the grounds of the castle, searching for her husband and taking a moment to enjoy the sunlight. Down in the courtyard, where servants and soldiers bustled about their duties, the world seemed brighter today, and had ever since she’d learned the news at the feast.
It was still hard to believe that she wa
s really pregnant, but just the thought of the tiny life growing inside her filled her with joy. She hadn’t told anyone, and it was far too early for the pregnancy to show, but right then she wanted to shout the news to the world.
Not until she’d told Thanos though. So far, Stephania hadn’t even told her maids for certain. She wanted Thanos to be the first to hear the news, and to learn about the child they would be bringing into the world.
Stephania allowed herself a moment to daydream about what it would be like. Thanos, she had no doubt, would be a wonderful father, doting on his son or daughter, kind and protective, loving and strong. Stephania would need to ensure that their child got the core of ruthless steel that would see them through the world, but Thanos would be the one to try to ensure they never needed it.
Stephania loved him for that, and for so much else besides. Soon, their lives would be as close to perfect as Stephania could imagine.
She was drawn from her reverie by the sight of a man making his way across the castle’s courtyard. He was grubby, dressed in the uniform of a soldier, but looking nothing like the pristine guards of the castle. Stephania wouldn’t have given him a second look, might even have called for the guards to remove him, except that she recognized him.
“Fikirk, what are you doing here?”
The man looked around, and yes, it was definitely him. The same harried look, as though constantly expecting to be attacked. The same collection of scars, collected more in barroom brawls than in the wars he claimed. He was the kind of man Stephania would normally never admit to knowing, but he’d been a useful informant over the years, providing information from within the armies of the Empire that most of its generals could only wish for.
She normally communicated with him at second- or third-hand, or occasionally by meeting in secluded spots. She certainly hadn’t summoned him to the castle today.
“My lady,” he said, with an attempt at courtly manners that was frankly embarrassing. “I hadn’t expected to see you today.”
“If you hadn’t expected that, then what are you doing here, Fikirk?” Stephania shook her head. It had to be important, whatever it was. The man wouldn’t have come if it weren’t crucial, and she wasn’t about to let the man get away without telling her. “Come with me.”
“My lady…” Fikirk said with a glance around. He was obviously looking for a way out.
“Do you want me to be seen out here with you?” Stephania demanded. “More to the point, do you want to continue receiving the stipend I send your way?”
She saw the man swallow, but he went with her. She led the way to a small side chamber. Not one of her own rooms, of course. That would have created too much of a chance of being seen. Instead, she picked a room that was probably used for storage, filled with sacks and crates that had probably been taken from peasants’ homes.
She carefully propped the door shut so that no servant would dare to interfere, then returned her attention to the informant.
“Do you understand the difficulty you’ve created for me by coming here unannounced?” Stephania demanded. “If people see you here meeting with me, then they’ll know that you’re one of my informants.”
“Maybe they’ll think I’m a lover,” Fikirk joked, and just the thought of it was enough to make Stephania feel ill. Or maybe that was just the pregnancy. “That was the story they told about old Xanthos. Haven’t seen him in a while. Was he really in your bed?”
The way he said that made Stephania pause. Her informants weren’t supposed to know about one another. They certainly weren’t meant to know about the people who arranged more dangerous matters for her, or to make guesses about what had befallen one who had become too dangerous.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Stephania countered with a forced laugh.
“Oh, are you shocked that I know about him?” Fikirk asked. He tapped his nose. “I work things out, I do. Wouldn’t be much use otherwise, would I?”
“I think you’d better prove yourself very useful right now,” Stephania said. “You obviously came here to tell me something.”
To her surprise, Fikirk looked down at his boots like some naughty child caught out stealing sweetbreads.
“Not to see… you… as such, my lady.”
Stephania sighed. She should have guessed that this would happen. That was the problem with informants. They had no sense of loyalty.
“Who then?” Stephania demanded.
“Well, you see, it’s tricky—”
“You’d best make it a lot less so quickly, if you want to continue working for me,” Stephania said.
The soldier took a look around the storeroom and spat. Stephania saw a rat scurry away across the floor. It seemed that even his own sort wanted nothing to do with Fikirk.
“Well, I guess I have been working for you for a while,” Fikirk said, “but Prince Lucious wasn’t exactly what you’d call subtle in his recruiting strategy, you know?”
“Lucious? You’re here to see Lucious?” Stephania asked.
“Not exactly,” Fikirk said.
“His people, his thugs, whatever he wants to call them,” Stephania said, waving that away. The point was that her informants were working for a man she’d assumed to be too arrogant and stupid to employ any at all. Lucious was the kind of man who assumed he knew everything anyway, so why would he employ informants now?
“Well, it was Prince Lucious who set me off looking, but what I found…” Stephania waited out Fikirk’s pause. “I think I might go straight to the king with this. Isn’t as though Lucious will pay me what he says.”
“And what does he say he’ll pay?” Stephania asked, taking out a small pouch of gold. “Maybe I can outbid him?”
The soldier shrugged. “It would take more than that. This information is worth a man’s weight in gold.”
“And maybe you’ll get that from the king,” Stephania said, “but this is what I have now. Think of it as me paying for a preview.”
Even with that, the man seemed reluctant. Was he really that ungrateful after all the time he’d spent working for her?
“I don’t know, Lady Stephania. You might not like what I have to hear.”
“All the more reason for me to hear it then,” Stephania snapped. Why was she spending all this time in a dank storeroom? Only some sense that this was truly important kept her pushing. She had gotten where she was today by never letting things happen without her knowledge. She drummed her fingers on the edge of a crate, then decided to try a different approach.
“You aren’t thinking this through, Fikirk. You’ve come here because you don’t trust Lucious to pay you. Maybe the king won’t either. You’re already a part of his army.”
“I have the proof stashed,” Fikirk said. “Well, more or less.”
“And you think that will matter?” Stephania countered. “Tell me now, and you can still try to get what you can, but you’ll at least have something for the information.”
“Hmm…”
Stephania knew she had him with that small sound. It was just a matter of waiting.
“All right,” he said at last. “But like I said, you won’t like it. You’re going to have to work out what to do about your husband. Prince Thanos is a traitor.”
Maybe he put it that bluntly because he wanted to see the look of shocked disbelief rise up to overtake Stephania’s features. She could already feel her mind racing, grasping for any explanation, any straw.
“No,” she said. “He’s a prince of the Empire!”
“And he’s working with the rebels,” Fikirk insisted.
Stephania shook her head so hard she thought it might fall off.
“Oh, not those here,” she heard Fikirk say, and it seemed as though it was coming from a distance. “Didn’t you ever wonder what happened to him on Haylon?”
Of course she had. She’d wondered, because somehow her attempt at revenge had gone wrong.
“Fishermen found him,” Stephania said.
“Rebels
found him,” Fikirk insisted. “Ever wonder why Thanos was one of the lucky ones? They took him in as a prisoner, and he helped them to beat Draco’s men. Then today, I heard he helped replace Olliant with old Haven for the new expedition.”
It couldn’t be true. It had to be some lie, made up to discredit Thanos. Except… Stephania had seen him fight Lucious to protect the common folk. She knew he’d argued with the king, and she’d heard the rumors about what had happened in the Stade. That he’d had a chance to crush the rebels and hadn’t. She’d assumed that it was just Thanos not wanting to risk the people of the city, but what if it was more?
“Is that all of it?” Stephania asked.
“It’s enough, I reckon,” Fikirk said.
It was. It was enough that Thanos would find himself branded a traitor, regardless of who he was. And that would mean only one thing, because the king didn’t allow rebellion. Thanos would die.
“No,” Stephania whispered to herself. “No.”
Stephania tried to compose herself, but she couldn’t stop the feelings welling up inside her. She was so used to being in control. She planned things well in advance, but there was no way to plan around this. How could she not have known all this about Thanos? How could she have been so stupid, not to learn it earlier?
Why didn’t it make a difference to her?
She should have been planning then. She should have been thinking about ways to extricate herself from this, maybe even about bringing the information forward herself. But she couldn’t. Not when it was the father of her child. Not when it was Thanos.
“Well, that’s all I know,” Fikirk said. “So I guess it’s time to pay me so we can see how the king likes it.”
Thanos was a traitor. Stephania knew it, deep in her bones, but the truth was, she didn’t care. She didn’t care if she had to kill half the Empire to keep him safe, either. The only thing that mattered was that he was hers, and nothing, nothing was going to destroy that.
“Yes,” Stephania said, hefting the bag of gold. She threw it, lobbing it high and to the right of the soldier. He had to reach out wide to grab it, half turning to snatch it out of the air with a grin.