by K. B. Wagers
My Ekam’s grim look told me all I needed to know.
7
My BodyGuards headed next door for shift change, and I followed them, the twins staying out in the hallway as Stasia finished clearing the room. My maid handed me a fresh cup of chai and a smile, pausing on her way out to exchange quiet words with Dailun. Judging from the quick shake of his head, she was checking to see if he needed anything.
What had become my rooms in the new hotel occupied the entire fifteenth floor. My suite was in the back corner, close to an exit with empty rooms on the opposite side and a block of rooms Emmory had converted into BodyGuard barracks in the last six months between me and the elevator and stairs.
I hadn’t been in those rooms for the first month, unlike my brief time in the palace when I’d spent as many hours in the BodyGuard barracks as my own space; where I’d laughed and joked with Willimet and Jet and the others; where I’d had countless meals and cups of chai, sat through briefings, and debated the art of bluffing at Antilan poker.
Now it was almost, if not quite, what we’d had. Zin smiled at me, his gray-green eyes sparkling with delight, and went back to the report he was typing.
“Majesty.” Indula had his back to the others, and he winked at me. “Did you get to see the end of the baller game last night?”
“I did, and it didn’t seem like the Queens were going to pull off that win.”
Indranan rugby, more commonly called baller, was an odd mishmash of Old Earth rugby and cricket—thankfully without the bats the latter sport employed back in the SC.
“Iza bet on the Water Bugs.” He nudged Iza as he passed, and she kicked him in the back of the knee in response.
Johar didn’t look up from her cards as I passed, simply holding out a fist to me that I tapped on my way by. The smuggler had made herself at home with my BodyGuards, and Emmory seemed content to let her stay. Dailun pulled up a chair on her left, peeking at her cards. She hissed and smacked him away.
“Majesty.” Zin finished his typing as I sat in the chair on the other side of the desk. “Have a good lunch?”
“It was lovely. Did you get something to eat?”
He grinned and winked. “Emmory does feed us.”
“Shift change, people. Let’s get this moving,” Emmory said, rapping his knuckles on the desk. My Ekam gave the tiniest smile as the Guards came to attention. “At ease, everyone.”
Johar had also gotten to her feet, but not braced to attention with the rest of them. Instead she crossed to me and rested a hand on my shoulder. “We need to have dinner soon.”
“Yes.” I peeked at my schedule on my smati. “What about next week?”
“Good. I will confirm with Alba.” She nodded and turned toward the door, Dailun on her heels.
“You’re not staying?”
“Security protocol,” she said with a shrug and an easy grin. “I am technically still a gunrunner. This one is whatever he is, mostly a pain in the ass.”
Dailun rolled his eyes at the ceiling.
Johar winked at me. “Your Ekam would be foolish to let us sit in on security briefings, and he is certainly not foolish.” She tapped Emmory on the arm on her way out the door.
“Huh.”
“What is it?” Zin asked.
“Nothing.” I shook my head. “I guess I just wasn’t expecting her to be so … okay with it?”
“That’s been the routine for the last six months,” Zin said. “She was fine with it from the very first shift change. I guess she thinks it’s a small price to pay to get to spend time with you.”
What really surprised me, but what I wouldn’t voice out loud, was that Johar seemed much more at ease with being the outsider than Hao did. My brother hadn’t settled into life on Pashati like Jo had and was off-planet as much as on these days.
“I never pegged Johar for being sentimental,” I said, because Zin seemed to be waiting for a reply. “It’s an interesting look on her.”
“All right, people, listen up.” Emmory tapped a fist on the desk again and moved to the front of the room.
It hadn’t been all that long since the fateful Pratimas day when I’d leaned against the wall with Zin listening to Emmory run a security briefing for my BodyGuards, but so many faces were missing now. So many faces were new and nervous.
“How many teams are we taking with us on the tour?” I whispered as Emmory ran through the shift briefing.
Zin glanced away from Emmory. “Three on the ship with us and four more scattered throughout the fleet.”
I raised a curious eyebrow, and he flashed me a grin, answering before I could ask the question. “That’s in addition to the battalion of Royal Marines and three additional Vajrayana ships.”
“Such fuss. Wouldn’t it be better if I stayed home? It’d certainly be cheaper,” I muttered, crossing my arms and settling back in my chair. I knew better than to disagree with Emmory’s security plans for the trip, though, especially since we were going to several planets that had been less than enthusiastic about staying in the empire. And even more so now with the additional risk of the fight between the Farians and Shen spilling out of their playground.
After the briefing, I rejoined Dailun in my rooms. A light schedule only meant I didn’t have to be anywhere, and I settled into the chair at my desk in the corner of the room to dive into the endless stack of files in my inbox.
So much of it just required my approval, or for me to suggest the best person to handle whatever the issue was. However, it was a relief to discover that I wasn’t responsible for the daily workings of the Indranan government even if I did have a tremendous amount of power. I was constantly on the lookout for ways to further reduce our dependence on the throne as the final stop for decisions in the empire. If Wilson’s coup had taught me anything, it was that Indrana was entirely too vulnerable with things as they were. My sister’s death and mother’s poisoning had created enough chaos to allow Phanin to gain more control than the prime minister should have had, and the councils had been so stuck in their ways that they hadn’t realized what was happening until it was too late. There needed to be more balance, more offset in who was making decisions.
I hadn’t breathed a word of it yet. I didn’t know anything about ruling an empire, but I knew you didn’t tell a crew you were changing things up while you were still out in the middle of the black. You told them once you were safely in port and they were well paid and preferably drunk off their asses.
With all the turmoil swirling over Taz and the Upjas reformations, I knew better than to throw this pot of oil onto the flames. We’d deal with it later.
I signed off on three requests for funding from the General Assembly and glanced Dailun’s way. “You doing okay? I’m sorry there’s a lot of work to do even during my supposed downtime.”
“I’m fine, jiejie.” He smiled. “I am writing my family.”
Stretching, I got to my feet and wandered out onto the balcony. Closing my eyes against the warm sunshine and letting the sounds and smells of Krishan surround me. The scent of the sea lingered on the breeze coming in from Balhim Bay, tangled with something sweet—jalebi, maybe, from a street vendor—and the heavy spice of the noodle shop just around the corner from the hotel.
I exhaled with a sigh as Dailun joined me on the balcony. “You are happy here, sister.” It was a statement, not a question, and I turned my face to the sun again.
“I am. I didn’t think I would be. Thought I’d chafe at the restrictions. Naraka, I did chafe in the beginning. But this?” I opened my eyes and gestured at the city around us. “This is actually interesting, not stifling.”
Dailun smiled and leaned his forearms on the railing; the breeze ruffled his pink hair as he squinted up at the suns. “I suspected you would be better at this than you thought.”
Bumping his shoulder with mine, I snorted on a laugh. “Know it all, do you?”
He raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “I am Svatir, sister, that’s a given.”
; “I think what surprises me most is I enjoy this. There was something to be said for not having every second of my day plotted and planned.” I heaved a sigh. “But I don’t have someone trying to kill me at every port and I sleep in a Shiva-damned bed every night.”
“The hospital trip was hard on you.” A second statement. Dailun was good at those. So sure for one so young.
“I am responsible for them,” I replied.
“You mean you’re responsible for their injuries.” Dailun made a shushing sound as he reached for my hand. “Do you mean as a gunrunner or as their empress?”
“Both. I guess? This fight was justified; those warriors carry their scars proudly.” I looked at the buildings across from my balcony. The sunlight reflected off the petal-shaped arches. “But I have lied to myself about the jobs I chose while out in the black, trying to reframe them as the best choice I could make under the circumstances. Trying to tell myself that the path I started down was about my father’s killer even though I continued it long after I’d given up finding Wilson.
“The truth? I was a gunrunner. We ran other cargo, but I sold weapons. Weapons that dealt death and destruction. That caused injuries like those soldiers had. The same soldiers who sat there and stared at me with expressions too much like worship on their faces.”
“Are you looking for forgiveness, jiejie?”
“I don’t know.” I truly didn’t. Polite society dictated that I should feel guilty and ashamed for the choices I’d made. Some days I did. But those choices had led me here. Without them there would be no Emmory or Zin, no Gita or Jo, no Hao or Dailun. Everything about my life would be different. How could I forsake all that?
“There will be more war.” The third statement was a knife between my ribs, cold and painful, and I closed my eyes to the tears that threatened. “Are you ready for it?”
“Are we ever?” I rubbed both hands over my face before I dropped them and looked at Dailun. “Do you know something I don’t?”
“No,” Dailun said, settling against the railing with a shake of his head. “The Farians and Shen have been at war for a very long time; these escalations are familiar. The Svatir have stayed out of it because we are pacifists. It is a natural by-product, I think, of carrying the memories of all those who come before you. The Farians and Shen could stand to do that a little more.”
“I don’t want to go to war again.”
Dailun smiled at my quiet confession. “I know you don’t, sister. I am not Fasé and I cannot see the future, but I see things clearly enough to know we are headed back into the very place you don’t wish to go.” He wrapped a hand around mine. “I asked my mother once why she’d fallen in love with someone like my father. I didn’t understand it. She said sometimes we make a bad choice, but we play it through to the end because there are things bigger than ourselves at stake.”
“Your mother sounds like a wise woman.”
Dailun smiled. “She would have liked you.”
“Even though I was a gunrunner?”
“Possibly because of it.” He laughed softly. “She fell in love with my father, after all. I miss her, even though her voice and her memories are in my head. Her dreaming came too early. I should have had more years with her.”
I wrapped an arm around his shoulders and leaned against him. “I know how much that hurts.”
“Majesty?” Emmory’s voice floated through the open door. “Matriarch Khatri is here with a representative from the General Assembly; do you have a moment?”
I checked my smati; we still had an hour before the palace tour, so I pushed away from the railing with a sigh. “Duty calls.”
“You can close the door,” Dailun said. “I think I will sit out here a while and be with my mother’s memories.”
Nodding, I slipped through the doorway and tapped the panel to close the sliding door to the balcony, tapping it again to darken the glass and give both Dailun and myself a little privacy.
“Let them in, Emmy.”
He nodded and as Zaran and a shorter young woman came through the door I was hit with a memory. My heir and Zaran, their roles reversed as Alice led a nervous newly placed Matriarch Khatri into an audience with the empress.
Now, just like the meeting days earlier, Zaran was calm and composed. Her companion slightly less so, the darker-skinned representative twisting her fingers nervously in the edge of her patterned teal sari.
“Your Majesty.” The pair dropped into curtsies.
“Good afternoon.” I crossed the room. “Up, both of you.”
I took Zaran by the shoulders and pressed my cheek to hers. “How are you?”
“Very good, Your Majesty. May I present Representative Priti Qureshi.”
“Your Majesty,” Priti said from the floor.
I raised an eyebrow. Zaran gave me a suffering smile and then nudged the young woman with her foot. “What did I say about groveling?” She hissed and I laughed.
“It’s all right, Zaran. Priti, welcome.” The young woman’s shoulders were stiff under my hands and her cheek was cold with nerves. My smati gave me the necessary details as I ushered them to the couches. Priti was the youngest new representative, elected from Yamuna A. The planet was four systems away from Pashati, and its main city of Delhi was where I’d met Portis.
But Priti was from one of the outer districts, and judging from her wide dark eyes, Krishan was a whole other world to her.
“What can I do for you two?”
Zaran glanced at Priti, who was still staring at me slightly awestruck and chuckled. “I seem to recall being in her seat, Majesty, so I’ll have some patience for her. Priti was elected from District 43 in the special elections. Given the somewhat chaotic nature of the government, the Matriarch and Ancillary Councils thought it best to assign mentors to the newcomers.”
“I remember something about it coming across my desk.” I nodded. The special elections held just a month after my defeat of Wilson had been necessary to fill empty seats caused by the war. I’d wanted to make sure that the government was up and running as soon after my victory as possible. Even the façade of stability was enough to settle things and make our transition even smoother than I’d hoped.
Zaran’s lead-up was unnecessary, but I didn’t prod for more information, content to sit back in my seat and wait for the matriarch to put a hand on Priti’s knee and squeeze. “Tell the empress what you told me.”
Priti swallowed, hesitated, and then her words came out in a rush. “Yesterday before session started I was coming into the building and happened to pass the prime minister in the hallway. She was talking with some other, older representatives and made an awful comment about the Prince Consort.” She dropped her gaze back to her lap.
I waited a beat for Priti to elaborate on just what the comment was and when she didn’t, I looked Zaran’s way.
“She said it was a dangerous precedent to allow Upjas trash that close to the throne.” Zaran’s voice was flat.
“I see.”
Priti’s shoulders jerked at the fury sliding under the surface of my words, but then she looked up. “I thought it was going to be different here, Your Majesty. We’d heard such great things about how you were going to bring change to the empire. Yamuna A is committed to change; we’ve spearheaded several equality programs already. That’s why I ran for this seat. I thought I could help, but—” Her face fell, and she shrugged a defeated shoulder. “If the prime minister holds such beliefs, what good can I do?”
“You can give me your recording of the incident,” I said, holding a hand out. When Priti took it, I smiled, closing my fingers around hers. “You can go back to work with the knowledge that there are more of us who believe in equality, and we are not going to stop working for a better future for all Indranans. Don’t quit when the task seems daunting, Priti. Work harder.”
She smiled back. “Yes, ma’am. I will.”
Letting her go, I got to my feet. “I’ll handle the rest of this. Thank you for bringing it to
my attention.”
“Of course, Majesty.” Zaran nodded as she and Priti both rose.
I followed them to the door and stopped Zaran before she could follow Priti out. “I want to know how widespread this is.”
“Yes, ma’am. By tomorrow?”
“End of the week,” I replied. “And, Zaran?”
“Ma’am?”
“Don’t tell Alice about this. I’ll handle it.”
She nodded grimly, and I closed the door behind her, suppressing the urge to scream into the empty room. It had been the height of naïve arrogance for me to expect we’d make it through the reformations without significant obstacles, but the election of Prime Minister Shivali Tesla had been something none of us expected.
The representative from the third district on the northside of Krishan was a brilliant molecular biologist who’d won the PM slot by a narrow margin in the General Assembly after the special elections had been settled. At the time I hadn’t been particularly opposed to her candidacy, even though I preferred Representative Oena Jani. The more genial and well-known candidate from Canafey Major’s District 55 was openly in support of the reformations.
I’d mistakenly believed Shivali was also, just to a lesser degree, and it was only after her election that we’d realized just how much of a hard line she was going to take against not only the practical reforms but the very idea of equality for half the population of the empire.
Had I known, I would have had more quiet conversations with members of the General Assembly.
Once the urge to scream was gone, I turned my attention to the actual problem. As much as I wanted to com the PM right that moment and chew her to pieces, I knew I couldn’t. There was a fine line to be walked between direct intervention by the empress and delegating the job to someone with just as much influence but slightly less visibility.
Alice would normally be the first person I spoke to about something like this, but I didn’t want to upset her so I sent the file to Caterina with a note that said, Call me.