Ilsa and I sighed. After we exchanged looks, it seemed to be my turn to deal with it this time.
“Emperor has always been an elected position,” I explained patiently. “Even the conspirators are treading lightly in claiming the throne, instead leaving it vacant.”
“The kaisers were not elected,” Miya said with a raised eyebrow and crossed arms. She looked a little too triumphant for somebody proposing that I should announce myself to the Empire as a throwback to the hereditary dictators who ruled with supreme power.
“It’s been some six centuries since Kaiser Lucius was deposed and the throne handed over to the elector-princes. Not that they are the elector-princes anymore. They are one voter among many, now that the Royal Elector College determines who is emperor,” I said. Or at least that was how it worked until this new Regency Council took over. “No power in the Empire is truly untouchable. Even the hereditary princes have been challenged and lost their titles in the Stump Assembly that is held every few decades.
“Every noble in the Empire, land-owning or not, human or not, holds power in some part of the Stump. Emperor Evigilus used it to enact the Reforms and seize power for the Imperial family, weakening the princes who had ruled with impunity for over the four hundred years we call the Decline. I need to respect that power.”
Miya frowned at me. “You said you would destroy the current corrupt Empire and reform it later. What happened?”
It was a fair question. I pointed out Talepolis on the map, as it had consumed my thoughts on this matter. “The very morning after we took Talepolis, what did you see in the city?”
Miya stared at me in confusion. Eventually, it seemed that she began to understand what I might be getting at.
“People celebrated, not at our victory but at the fact that they were alive. They returned to their daily lives. That legislator welcomed you like a lost son,” Miya said slowly, looking thoughtful. “Like this was normal for you. Like you belonged.”
Exactly right. “I had expected to find people who opposed the betrayal of the emperor like I did, such as the legislator and administrator. I had not accounted for the willingness of the people to simply treat me and my actions like another part of the Empire. If the elves, foxes, dragons, and vampires are seizing power, why would a magister-general with some oni be so special?
“Hence why I can still use the legitimacy of the Rogistran Empire to my advantage. Claiming the throne is too much and will upset the other nobles. Instead, I will claim the title of grand duke, a position normally granted by the emperor and nominally equal in status to a prince. Until the conspirators in the Regency Council elect an emperor, they cannot deny my title. To the citizens of the Empire, I will look like another player in the current power grab.”
In other words, I was carving out territory from the former princedoms. I might be claiming to do so in the former emperor’s name but most would see this as a power grab. In the minds of the nobles, maybe I was a new prince in this infighting. Or maybe I did want to be emperor but did not want to rob them of their powers as the Royal Electors.
It came down to what an observer wanted to believe. The people of Talepolis had ignored my rebellion because it was easier to act like I was still part of the Empire. If I didn’t push things too far, I could use the Empire’s power against itself.
It was delightful to imagine the fury the conspirators must be feeling as they watched otherwise loyal subjects of the Empire work with a man who had openly declared rebellion.
Wait, had I declared my rebellion yet?
“No, Mykah, you haven’t,” Ilsa said. “At no point have you ever actually made any formal communications with anybody in the Empire, so any ideas of rebellion are entirely inferred. The legislator and administrator of Talepolis are beginning to make some on your behalf now that you are Grand Duke of Nahaum.” Nahaum was what I had named my grand duchy, given the mountains that lined its easternmost border.
I smiled. “Well, doesn’t that work out well. Grand Duke Mykah Arium, who never rebelled at all. Ever.”
“Whatever your words may be, I suspect the dragon to our west doesn’t care much for them,” said a cold voice that I hadn’t heard since before we marched on Talepolis.
Standing at the entrance to the tower was Vasi, the voice of the mothers and liaison between me and those oni not serving in my military—really, between me and the double-horned oni. She seemed annoyed at our joviality, as if our returning in such a good mood had dampened hers. Then again, Miya had said that the mothers would have been happy for all of us to die in the south, along with Lyria.
Instead, we all returned north alive, including Lyria.
“You have some news?” I asked Vasi as I looked over at Ilsa. My adviser’s face was grim as she finally looked at the pile of reports. The markers she placed in the province of Taranth didn’t improve my worsening mood.
“The mothers are concerned that after all of our efforts, Marshal Lyria has returned and is simply raising another army,” Vasi explained, pointing at Taranth’s capital, where the gold markers of Imperial soldiers were growing rapidly. “So much effort wasted, and for what? I thought you said you would protect us if we gave you our military, General Arium?”
I caught Miya’s fury and intercepted it, raising my voice as I said, “Firstly, it’s now Grand Duke Mykah. My plans for overthrowing the Empire have progressed rather well, which is where that effort has gone. Secondly, Lyria has lost an army. In the same way I ground down the oni’s armies in the past, I can simply crush hers. I am still the Bulwark, and my agreement still holds true.”
“Oh, so you’re enriching yourself with titles while we toil away in the north?” Vasi spat.
Ignoring her, I continued. “When Lyria marches on us again, I will fulfill my end of our bargain. I can ensure that the Empire doesn’t take the new territory that the oni hold up here, your rightful territory now, if you provide me with the oni’s armies. All of them.” The glare on my face shut Vasi up.
Vasi exchanged looks with Miya, and oni faced down oni. The showdown was short-lived. Vasi wilted in an instant, stepping back toward the door while shooting me a look of regret.
“I will let the mothers know that you continue to remain a steadfast ally. However, they will expect that Marshal Lyria is kept at bay. This is our future. It won’t be ripped from us so easily, not after we have only grasped it.”
“If the oni stand with the armies under my direction, Lyria will melt,” I said, crossing my arms and letting my glare fade. “As she did in Talepolis.”
Vasi nodded after a long, silent pause.
Before the other oni could vanish from sight, Miya spoke up. “It’s our future as well, Vasi. For all oni.”
I could only describe the look Miya received as confused. It was as if Vasi simply did not understand who was speaking to her—or what was speaking to her. She left without another word.
I let out a breath I had been holding for far too long, the map shifting and the magic markers waving with it. What a political mess that was going to be. A small part of me felt that I should ask Vasi for every demi-oni in oni territory and then leave them to rot. Something was very wrong up here, and I felt the same way about my erstwhile double-horned oni allies as I did about those officers in Talepolis.
Then I saw those papers in Ilsa’s hands, remembered Vasi’s look, and wondered why so many oni in the villages had been asking Miya for help if she felt more at home with my demi-oni. A question for later.
“There’s more bad news than Lyria, Mykah,” Ilsa said, handing me a sheaf of paper. It was a transcribed missive received in one of the towns we had captured in Aghram.
My vision blurred as I read the name on the page. Her face came to mind. Long black hair and enchanting red eyes. My former adviser, who had taunted me so in Talepolis, pouting and suggesting we were both traitors to the Empire.
“Aladria Serat is the new governor of Aghram,” I rasped out. “No announcement of her marshal, but it wil
l be another vampire. A powerful one, as if she wasn’t powerful enough to do it all herself.”
“Who is she?” Miya asked, then frowned and asked a follow-up question. “What is she?”
“Old. Powerful. Deceptive. Scheming. A daywalker vampire with no equal,” I said. “She’s been an adviser to power players across the royalty for over a century, including the Imperial family and the recent prince of Aghram. She’s also one of the central conspirators in Emperor Solumnus’s death. With her openly opposing us in the south and Lyria in the north, we’re facing a two-front war against two extremely dangerous threats.”
Worst of all, I didn’t know if I could kill Aladria. Not after how I had reacted to seeing her projection back in Talepolis. I hated her far less than I loved her, as much as I wanted it to be the opposite. More than a two-front war, I was dealing with two of my former lovers, one on each front.
“Winter can’t come soon enough,” Ilsa complained, staring out at the greenery beyond the window. We needed the reprieve from war that the bitter cold would give us.
END OF BOOK 1
Book 2 releases January 2020
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