by K. B. Wagers
“The Pedalion requested you, Your Majesty. If they had been willing to meet with anyone else, they would have said so.”
“I’m sure they will understand my position,” I replied with a smile, and watched as her eyes narrowed a fraction. This was a woman not used to being refused.
Not an ambassador, then. Interesting.
I wondered if that was just an easy title for the Farians to convey their wishes or if there was some awkwardness in the translation from a Farian title to Indranan and Adora had chosen the easier, more understandable term.
Colonel Morri’s behavior was the most curious. Her tense shoulders and the barely controlled muscle twitching at her jawline screamed her unease. She kept her eyes glued to the floor rather than looking my way.
“I will send a message home and let the Pedalion know of your concerns,” Adora said finally.
“That sounds like an excellent idea. I’ll let Alba know you’ll be contacting her for any future meetings. Do you need accommodations?”
“No, Your Majesty. Colonel Morri has already taken care of that for me.” Adora’s smile was tight, the woman so clearly perturbed by my refusal that it was all I could do not to laugh out loud. “Thank you. Good night.”
“Night.” I turned and went through the door Indula opened, waiting for it to close behind me before I blew out a breath and looked at Emmory. “That sounded an awful lot like a summons,” I said.
“It did, Majesty. And one they weren’t expecting you to refuse.”
The door to my rooms opened and the Guards stepped aside so Emmory and I could enter. Alice stopped her obvious pacing as we came into the room, and I grinned at her demand of “What happened?”
“You’d think they’d know me a little better than that,” I said to Emmory instead.
“They’ve obviously not been paying attention over the last year.”
I punched him in the arm with a laugh, but my amusement was fleeting and was soon replaced with a hissing curse. “Give us a minute, Emmory. I want to talk to Alice and Taz alone.”
My Ekam nodded, ushering out Stasia and the maids who were cleaning away the remains of our dinner. He paused at the door. “Hao and Johar are here; do you want to see them, or should I tell them you’re busy?”
My first thought was an immediate Have them come up. But the words didn’t make it out of my mouth. “Tell them I’m busy,” I said instead, and continued over to the bar.
“Hail, what is it?” Alice whispered.
“Come here.” I held my hand out, passing over the clip of my conversation with Adora. “Let Taz see.”
Ice clinked into my glass, competing with the quiet direction of my staff as they cleared the table and with Alice and Taz’s reaction to the recording of Adora’s demands.
Shocking didn’t even begin to cover what had just happened. On any other day, under different circumstances this would have been exciting. I would have said yes to Adora’s invitation and become the first human to set foot on Faria. Something was off about this whole thing, and as I sent a copy of the encounter to Caspel I realized what it was. Why hadn’t the Farians just sent a message to Ambassador Ussin about the trip? Why send an entirely new ambassador who didn’t behave like one? Who was Adora and what did she really want?
I poured whiskey onto the ice and stared down into the amber depths. “Hai Ram.”
The Farians were at war. Indrana needed me here. And the invitation was a poorly concealed demand to fly far too many light-years away from my home for reasons unknown.
The audio on Fenna’s recording of the two Farians talking was better than I expected, not that it did a whole lot to help me understand what was being said. Instead I followed along with the text translation Gita had provided.
Which was fine, but it meant I couldn’t watch their faces as they spoke, and after several minutes I hissed in frustration and paused the playback.
“Gita, come in here.”
The hallway door cracked open. “You’re up early, Majesty.”
“I’ve been up for an hour, as you well know.” I stuck my tongue out at her when she grinned and pushed the door open further for Stasia to come through.
“Morning, Majesty,” she said, putting the tray on the table in front of me and passing along the cup of blue chai before I could answer.
“Morning, Stasia. Thank you.”
“Let me know when you’re ready for breakfast.”
I murmured a reply, inhaling the steam from my chai before I opened my eyes again and looked up at my Dve. “Sit,” I said. “Do you want some?”
Gita’s lips twitched. “With respect, ma’am, it tastes like the bowls of smelly flowers my mother’s staff would leave around the house.”
“Potpourri?” I snorted, nearly inhaling my chai when I laughed.
“Sure,” she replied, lifting a shoulder.
“You are too like Hao at times.” The smile fled Gita’s face and I cleared my throat at the sudden uncomfortable silence. “Gita, you need to talk to him.”
“Majesty, please don’t.”
I stared at her. I knew Hao was hurt by the sudden distance, and even though Gita was nearly as good as I was about hiding her emotions, I suspected my Dve was suffering equally. However, the pleading in her voice was enough to push my advice back down my throat and I sighed heavily. “Fine. Read Fenna’s translation of this conversation for me.” I tapped at the tablet with the text portion. “I can’t read it and watch at the same time. I want to see their faces.”
“Yes, ma’am. May I?”
I handed the tablet over, reset the image on the screen on the wall, and started it again.
Miles and Lucca were both students at the Ashva branch of Indranan Royal University and had been on Ashva for three years. They hadn’t known each other before coming to my empire but had become fast friends shortly after their first meeting, according to the files Fenna had composed on each of them.
Miles was slightly taller than his companion, his red hair straight and clipped short. Lucca had wild red curls and both of them had the same golden eyes as Fasé.
“All I’m saying is that it’s worth listening to. Call it a thought experiment if it makes you feel better,” Miles said, via Gita’s murmured translation. The Farian gave off a good show of being relaxed for his friend, but I spotted the ticking muscle in his jaw and the way he fisted one hand under the tabletop.
“It’s less about feeling better and more about what my father would do to me if he found out I was involved in heresy.” Lucca leaned forward over the remains of his meal. He wasn’t even pretending to be anything other than tense, every muscle taut like a prey animal waiting for the decision to flee to finally connect from its brain.
“He’s been living a lie, Lucca. Are you going to keep doing the same thing just because you’re scared of your father?” It was a carefully designed jab and I watched it hit its mark.
“I’m not scared of my father. I’m scared of the idea of spending twenty years atoning for my crimes instead of getting to be here. Look, I agree with you about the Pedalion, they’re overstepping. Things are changing, but they refuse to see it. We should get more involved with the humans. We should consider putting this ridiculous feud with the Shen to rest. But—”
“The Pedalion and their enforcers are going to be so busy with the Shen they’re not going to have time to round people up, especially all the way out here. Relax some. I’m just saying we should meet with the local group and listen to what they’re saying. This prophet knows things, Lucca. She’s special. We’re not alone, and there is a much wider universe we should be a part of. The Pedalion doesn’t understand, or worse, they don’t care.”
“Fine. When’s the meeting?” Lucca slumped back in his chair, the battle of wills with his obviously stronger friend lost.
“Tomorrow night. Finish your drink. Class starts in an hour, and I wanted to swing by the shop on the corner.”
“You just want to flirt with that Indranan girl b
ehind the counter.”
“Meeting new people is a large part of the reason I left home, Lucca.”
I leaned back against the couch, cradling my chai in both hands as the recording ended and Gita fell silent.
“Didn’t Ambassador Notaras say Fasé was ‘atoning for her sins’?”
“She did, Majesty.”
“Bugger me. That conversation sounds more ominous than I first thought, Gita.” It also highlighted how little we knew about our Farian allies, and I felt more than a little concerned that lack of knowledge was about to turn around and bite us in the ass.
Before I could say anything else, Alba stuck her head in through the open doorway, knocking on the frame. “Good morning, Majesty. Hao would like to see you, if it’s convenient?”
“Morning, Alba, that’s fine, we’re just finishing up. Make sure Emmory sees this,” I said to Gita, who nodded and stood.
“He’s watched it once, Majesty, but I’ll fill him in on our conversation.”
“Good, tell him I’ll want to speak with him about it when he has time.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I watched as Hao came into the room, and my Dve’s posture shifted almost imperceptibly. She changed direction, avoiding him, and took up a spot on the other side of the room.
Hao didn’t change his expression, and no one else noticed the moment, so I forced my attention and my concern away from the pair.
“Morning.”
“Lot of activity around here,” Hao said, settling onto the couch. “And a bit more security.”
“We had some excitement last night.”
“That you’re not going to tell me about.” His grin faded when I didn’t smile back, and he stared at me for a moment. “You’re really not going tell me?”
“I’ll let you know when I can. Are you going to tell me what you were talking to Po-Sin about yesterday?”
He blew out a breath and muttered under his breath. “Family business,” he said.
“Ah. Did you need something?”
“I thought we’d have breakfast.”
“I already ate. I’ll talk to you later, though,” I said to Hao, who raised an eyebrow at me.
“A dismissal, how imperial.”
“Would you let me do my job?”
“Don’t let me get in the way.” He got to his feet and headed for the door Gita had opened, pausing as if he wanted to say something to her, but she refused to meet his gaze and he left the room with a muttered curse.
“What have you got for me this morning, Alba?” I pulled up my schedule for the day as she took the seat Hao had just vacated, refusing to feel the guilt clamoring for my attention.
“I received a request from Ambassador Notaras first thing this morning, Majesty.” Alba cleared her throat, a smile curving her lips. “She is most insistent that I allow her to speak with you.”
“I’m sure she is; however, today is pretty packed.” I scrolled through my schedule. “Tell her today won’t work, but that I’ll see her tomorrow afternoon.”
“I can do that.”
“Majesty, Director Ganej is here for your daily briefing,” Gita said from the doorway.
“Let him in.”
“Morning, Majesty. My apologies for the delay.”
I waved him off. “We were just discussing Ambassador Notaras’s request to meet with me. Have a seat.”
“I brought you some reading material.” Caspel sat down next to Alba and handed over a book.
“A History of Indranan/Farian Relations? Interesting.”
“It seemed like it might be a good place to start.” He cleared his throat. “Also you need to see this, Majesty.” He held his hand out and I raised a curious eyebrow at the chip in his hand. If the director of my intelligence service was reluctant to pass something over the network, it had to be important.
I slipped the chip into the slot at the base of my skull and cued up the playback.
11
The slender Farian on the screen had the golden eyes and distinctive red curls of so many of her kind, but her heart-shaped face and smile were painfully familiar to me. My breath hitched, and I tightened my hand around my mug.
“Your Majesty.” Fasé Terass dipped her head in greeting, the Farian’s smile so soft it took some effort to remember she’d engineered the death of one of my BodyGuards with ruthless efficiency. “I suspect you have already met with the Farians who came to see you. I thought it best you have an unbiased opinion of them to start with. It is vital that I speak with you; if you will meet me at your country estate this afternoon at eighteen hundred hours, I will explain everything then.”
Caspel lifted his hands slightly in a helpless gesture when the message ended.
“I have reports of a Farian ship docking on Ashva at a warehouse supply depot,” he said. “The timing matches. If she boarded a freighter headed for Pashati, she’ll land here a few hours before the meeting.”
My hands were cold and I rubbed them together. I wasn’t afraid of Fasé, quite the contrary; I still cared about her as much as any of my BodyGuards. And I knew I couldn’t turn my back on her. Adora had spoken of her as though she were still back on Faria, but that obviously wasn’t the case, and the fact that she’d gone to such lengths to conceal her return meant something important was on the line.
When a Farian who could see the future wanted to meet with you, you couldn’t say no.
“Alba, figure out a way to get us to the country estate by eighteen hundred hours without raising a lot of eyebrows.”
“Today?”
“Yes.” I waved a hand at the door before tapping my fingers and thumb against my lips. Alba read my mood easily and left with a smile and a good-bye to Caspel. I waited until Gita closed the door behind her before I started speaking again. “The Shen have been a thorn in the Farians’ side for longer than any of us have been alive, but it’s always been something the Farians could handle on their own. Now we’ve got rumors of a schism within Faria, Fasé is here, and I have a feeling she’s tangled up in all this.”
“You need to tread very carefully, Majesty,” Caspel replied. “I don’t know what the Farian rules are in regard to Fasé. It hasn’t had the feel of someone who’s a prisoner, but Adora’s reaction when you asked about Fasé made me feel like we’re missing something. Adora’s mention of Fasé was pure political propaganda with an edge that I disliked.”
“You and me both.” I got to my feet, waving Caspel back down before he could rise. “Damn it, Caspel. It’s obvious something has rattled the Farians enough to make them approach me about a visit to their homeworld. The question is why? Why now?” I exhaled. “And why Indrana when there are half a dozen other governments the Farians have alliances with?”
“Two reasons, I think: Whatever is going on back on Faria has them rattled enough to ask us for help. And two, the other governments don’t have Hail Bristol in charge, Majesty.”
I snorted at Caspel. “Outside of the empress of Indrana, I’m nothing.”
“You are far from nothing, Majesty.” It was Caspel’s turn for a look. “You are the woman who survived an attack on the royal family. You are the woman who rode a fleet into the Ashvin system to liberate Indrana from Wilson’s grip. You are the empress who just negotiated and signed a historic peace treaty with the Saxons. And you were Cressen Stone, one of the most dangerous gunrunners out in the black. The only reason you weren’t on Fenna’s radar was that she knew who you were. And that was information she didn’t share with me, so I was keeping an eye on you even though you seemed to have an aversion for Indranan space. I was waiting for the day you changed your mind and made my life miserable.”
I couldn’t stop the grin that spread across my face. “Bet that was a surprise, huh?”
“One of the few in my life.” Caspel’s amusement faded. “Indrana is hurting, Your Majesty. We’ve gone to great lengths to keep just how badly a secret, but we couldn’t afford to get involved in another extended war. Maybe something
quick, but—”
“There’s no such thing as a quick war.”
“True.” He nodded. “The Shen have always been a relatively small faction of—according to the Farians—heretics. I’ve pressed for more information recently, but again it’s been nothing but silence from my sources familiar with the Farians. What I have been able to figure out on my own is that the Shen often recruit directly from Farians. We’ve seen Farians among them in some of the more recent footage and some who look—odd.”
“Define odd,” I said.
“The Farians are distinct, Majesty. They’re all pale-skinned, small, the pointed ears and eyes the color of gold or silver. It’s easy to spot them in a crowd. The Shen look like humans.” He lifted his hands. “Which makes them harder to spot, and that makes me nervous. But I’ve caught glimpses in the footage of Shen forces that I would swear were Farians with coloring much more in line with the Shen physiology.”
“You think they’ve been having children?”
“I would,” Caspel replied. “The Shen have always seemed to be at a disadvantage on the population end of things. But there’s obviously more of them now, and I think that’s a big reason for the escalating violence. Before this they were not willing to confront the Farian navy directly. They’d do a lot of hit-and-runs and then disappear. The only time they’ve ever attacked anyone other than the Farians was the attack on Solarian Colony 17 sixty-three years ago. Since then they’ve both gone to great lengths to keep the fight in their own backyard, so to speak.”
“Bugger me.” I muttered the curse as I rubbed a hand over my face.
“In the last six months they’ve enlisted the aid of mercenaries. It’s added considerable bulk to the Shen forces, and their tactics appear to have completely thrown the Farians for a loop.”