“Damn you, sir!” Admiral Romanski tugged a white dress glove from his belt and hurled it at the Sudanese politician. “I demand satisfaction from you!”
“Sit down, Admiral!” Adele shouted, and when Garang began to retort, “Shut up, Mr. Garang! The next one of you to speak will be arrested.” They both opened their mouths, and Adele glared. “Test me, gentlemen.”
She waited angrily for the clamor to die down and for all eyes to return to her. She huffed and tossed her pen down. “You wish to know our war aims, Mr. Garang? Let me state clearly for you what they are not. This is not a war of imperial expansion.” Some politicians gasped. “Nor are we aiming to restore old ruling families to their ancient seats.” Other politicians gasped.
“Will these things happen?” Adele continued. “Perhaps. Will the aftermath be neat and clean? No. We may have to administer territory for years to come. Yes, it is expensive. We are already sending enormous quantities of humanitarian aid into southern Europe. And we are accepting vast numbers of refugees into Equatoria. But that is a burden we will bear as the preeminent power in the world.” She paused. “Would I prefer a reign of peace and prosperity? Yes. But the moment is here. How will history judge me? I care not. The world is on the edge of a knife and I won't have us bleed to death. Gentlemen, I would not have begun the war if I did not intend to win it, one way or the other. Humans in the north will be free and we will remove vampire power from the northern hemisphere. The day of the vampire is at an end.”
“Hear hear,” several gentlemen muttered, tapping the table. “Well said, indeed.”
Adele stood, and all others rose in response. “Gentlemen, I will expect your notes within the day.” The grandees of the Empire bowed to their empress, gathered their papers, and filed out, being careful to keep a buffer between Garang and Admiral Romanski.
When the heavy door shut, leaving her with Captain Shirazi and his young corporal, a fourth figure stirred from his spot across the room. Adele greeted King Msiri of Katanga as he stepped toward the table. He was a large man, tall and muscular, dressed in loose linen, with a regal carriage that made him unmistakably important. The Katangan sovereign pulled out a chair and dropped heavily into it with a laugh. “Excellent! You handled that admirably. It could have turned into a nasty scene. If it had been me, there likely would have been at least a fistfight, and at most a public execution.”
Adele resumed her seat with a long sigh. “Mr. Garang isn't a bad man. He's a patriot, I feel certain. And he has a point. There are vast numbers of people in the Empire who've had little or nothing to do with the vampires. These old northerners hold onto their heritage like a feeble dog with a bone. I find them annoying too. And times are changing. Generations have come and gone many times since the Great Killing. The old families from the north are disappearing into the folk of the Empire.”
Msiri said, “The war isn't about fighting for the lands of old northerners. You said it yourself.”
Adele laughed. “I say many things. Sometimes I'm not sure what I mean by them anymore. I hear grumbling from the officer corps that I've hamstrung them because I've ordered them to minimize casualties among the northern humans. They want to adopt a policy similar to the Americans'. And frankly, it would work.” She stared at the ceiling. “I worry that I'm fighting this war because it was too much trouble to stop it.”
The African king leaned forward and rested his forearms on the table. “As you well know, Your Majesty, there is no point fighting a war against evil if you become evil. We know that this war will cause enormous death and devastation, but that doesn't mean you can't labor to prevent it where you can. You are not some simple politician. You are the one. You are the pivot of the world. You will end the reign of the vampires. You will save the humans of the north. I have seen it. There will be a new Golden Age when all that land in the north and all those people are brought back into useful society.”
The empress sighed. “There are so many ways to view it. Unfortunately, I see all the facets. At one time, I would've sided with Mr. Garang. Now he's a bother to me.”
“True, our lives would be so simple if we spoke and others acted. But, in fact, that would be a bad thing. No one person has the wisdom to make unquestioned decisions over life and death.”
“I thought you said you would have executed him.”
“I say many things too.”
Adele reached out and took the king's hand, squeezing it in gratitude for his camaraderie. Anhalt was away. Gareth was away. Msiri, along with Mamoru, were the closest things she had to friends and confidants in Alexandria. She felt no pretense in front of the Katangan; they understood one another in a meaningful way. He had protected her last summer when she was being pursued by her own nation. He saw her powers at work against the vampires of the high Rwenzori Mountains. His own mother was a mystic in Mamoru's secret network, although he didn't seem to know that. His troops were fighting beside Adele's in Europe.
Still, even with those deep bonds, sadly, there were things Adele could not tell him. She wanted to lay out her problems and fears, but she didn't want to show weakness in front of the leader of a sovereign nation, and a potential rival. She was the empress, and she could have no true confidants.
No longer was she a child playing games in this vast room. Today she realized it had always been and would forever be a war room.
It seemed as if the entire world was in the crystal that Adele held in her hand. Every color flitted in the infinitesimal facets. Tiny cracks emitted jets of hot or cold that she could feel as if they were fissures in the Earth. Each endless edge was the frontier where a glacier met a boundless sea. She could see its vibrating notes, and hear the pinging colors in her head. Adele could have lost herself in the crystal's hard facets; it was complex and informative. It was so fascinating in its pure existence she almost lamented altering it.
Still, Adele took the heat of the crystal itself and spread it over one sharp edge with great care. She didn't want to ruin it. The fire softened the hard surface like paste under her finger and she pressed roughness off the crystal, creating a new angle, a new sharpness that allowed the stone to better free its nature, to express itself clearer.
She flexed her fingers and turned the crystal to engage the other side. Again, she touched it and drew its own energy to shave away the excess. The sound in her ear pitched higher. She bit her lower lip in concentration as she took two fingers and attempted to tune the stone by fashioning the interior. She had to deliver heat deep into the crystal without altering the surface. She felt herself bypassing the milky golden aura of the outer plane, dropping deep inside. Then she reached out, as if with both hands, shifting walls, opening passages to allow the heat and cold to meet and blend, balancing the interior of the crystal. The music was pleasing; all the hissing undertones were gone.
Adele sat back and stared at the saffron stone on the table. Bits of sloughed crystal lay around it. It felt right, but she couldn't be sure until Mamoru approved it. He had more experience in this than she; he had been giving her talismans for years. She was excited for him to arrive so she could show her first attempt to him.
The empress turned to a pile of books and notebooks. She ran her hand over them lovingly. They had belonged to her mother, the late Empress Pareesa, when she had studied geomancy years ago under Mamoru. Adele had only had them for a few months and most of the material was fairly mundane reports and papers, still exciting because they gave her some insight into her mother as a scientific intellect and as a poet of the Earth. However, there was one special journal bound in supple leather, with heavy linen pages covered with her mother's beautiful handwriting. As enjoyable as the geomancy notes and diagrams were, Adele was even more delighted by her mother's elegant yet fanciful doodles that covered the margins of most pages. The mysterious symbols and peculiar sketches were tantalizing and gave her mother's character even more subterranean angles to explore. Adele rubbed her tired eyes and began to read.
“Your Majesty?
”
Adele opened her eyes. She had fallen asleep in her chair. Mamoru stood over her, dressed in beautiful green silk. He was no taller than she, and not particularly muscular. His expression was intense, as usual. His short hair was greying slightly, but his appearance otherwise gave no great hint of his age. He seemed a peculiar balance of samurai and priest. He adjusted the wakizashi short sword in his sash while turning his attention to the crystal on the table.
“Sorry.” She yawned and stretched. “I fell asleep. The Privy Council meeting exhausted me.”
“Where did you get this talisman?” The priest took the crystal and rolled it between his sensitive fingers.
Adele smiled. “I made it. I'm sure it's not up to standards, but what do you think?”
“You made it? I thought we had agreed you would wait for me before engaging in exercises.” Mamoru tried to express mild annoyance, but failed because his voice was laced with excitement over the crystal. “There is little enough time to work together, particularly with your secret jaunts to the front, and your hesitance to work when Prince Gar…Greyfriar is about. I trust you found him well in France?”
“Yes. Thank you for asking. And since he is due back from the north soon, I thought I'd better get as much work in as possible. I started studying the crystal, and the next thing I knew, I was shaping it.”
“I see.” Mamoru glanced around the table. “Where are your tools?”
“They're too clumsy. I just used my hands.”
“Your hands?” The Japanese man narrowed his gaze at her. He then inspected the tiny crystal slivers on the table. “This was the rough Persian stone you showed me yesterday? The one you found in your mother's possessions?”
“Yes.” Adele took a disappointed breath. “Oh no. Did I ruin it? I wanted to use it since you said it was so good. I should've practiced on a different stone.”
Mamoru removed a jeweler's glass from inside his robe and stepped to the window to study the crystal in full sun. He muttered to himself in Japanese. Without looking up, he said, “This is incredible. I can't conceive the control it took to cut down the outer layer without damaging the interior facets. And the interior is even more perfect than I saw before. Adele, this is one of the most beautiful talismans I've ever seen.”
Adele shifted in her seat. “Well, I modified the interior too. Those aren't the natural facets.”
Mamoru's head snapped around. “You altered the interior? How?”
“I just pushed until it sounded right.” She held out her hands. “Why are you surprised? I melted a crystal in my hand last year. And you make those talismans all the time. Isn't this what I'm supposed to do?”
“I can cut crystals with tools to enhance natural structures. I cannot alter the interior.”
“So you don't feel it? Inhabit it?”
Mamoru handed the crystal to Adele. “In a sense. My intuitive understanding is greater than most, but it is nothing compared to yours. I am banging rocks together while you are playing symphonies. No geomancer has your skills. That is why you are who you are.”
“Really? Who am I?”
Mamoru smiled. “You are the one I've been seeking for decades.”
“So you keep saying.” Adele held the crystal, felt its comforting warmth, and heard its sound. She fancied she smelled its spice. It was so perfect and powerful, and yet so fragile, such a tiny bit of something unknowable. “I feel small and unworthy, like a child playing with a weapon.”
“That's why we must train ever harder without interruptions. Your altering of crystals is laudatory and something we can explore much further later on. But crystallography isn't as significant to your progress as I once thought. You are more powerful than I suspected. And your focus now must be marshalling and directing the energies of the rifts. We must not be distracted by sideshows now.”
“Mamoru, you're not listening to me. It's that very power I'm talking about. It seems unearned. I don't know if I'm using it properly. I mean no disrespect, but I have only you to tell me. And, truthfully, you seem dismayed by me at times. I have to be sure about what I'm doing. I feel like I'm in the middle of something, but I've already forgotten the beginning. This is very important. Perhaps we should begin again so I can get a fuller grasp of what I am.”
Mamoru's face froze. “There is no time for that.”
Adele reached out toward her mentor. “I'm in a position where all my actions have enormous consequences. I'm the empress. I can hardly decide what to eat for dinner without changing people's lives. It's a great burden. I have to be sure of my course before I take it. Do you understand?”
“I'm afraid I do.” His voice was hurt. He laid a hand on Pareesa's journal. “Do you even wish to continue with me?”
“Yes. Yes. Please, don't be offended. I believe in what you're teaching. It means everything to me. I'd be lost without you.” Adele sat back into the shadows. “Still, the things I've done. All the dead spread over Grenoble. I can still see them, and smell them.”
“I'm sorry. Vampires are brutal creatures. No one knows that better than you.”
“Actually I mean the vampire dead. Males. Females. Children.” She began to roll the talisman in her fingers. “Children. I killed them. I did it. I don't know exactly how, which is bad enough, but now I'm beginning to think I don't know exactly why.”
“They aren't children,” Mamoru said through clenched teeth. “They're monsters. What more reason could you need?”
“I need more.” Adele sat quietly thinking of Gareth. She glanced up into the eyes of her mentor, hoping for some sympathy, but she saw only cold dismay, as if he could read her thoughts. “Surely there's something more to all this power I have. Something beyond just killing.”
“Why can't you understand? You aren't just killing. You are saving the human race. When you see those dead vampires in your mind, try to think of all the human beings, all the men, women, and human children they have slaughtered over the centuries. Think of your father killed here in Alexandria as I think of my wife and daughter killed in Yunnan Province. You are their vengeance. That is your purpose.”
“I understand. I just need time to process it all. So much is changing, so fast. It seems I am at a crossroads no matter the issue. I'm frightened, Mamoru.”
“Of what?”
“Of myself. And the future.”
Mamoru regarded her. “Your future is clear, Majesty.”
“If only that were true.” Adele exhaled and wished there were times she could banish her personal concerns. “I believe we should postpone our lesson for today.”
“Majesty, on the contrary, we should press on.”
“No, Mamoru. I have other issues I need to work through. I fear I couldn't concentrate.”
Mamoru bowed stiffly in a posture of profound disappointment and sadness.
Adele wanted to apologize. He had given so much to her over the years. He had introduced her to ideas and concepts that no one else in the world could fathom. He had opened a fearsome door for her and then stood by her as she walked through it. Now she felt as if she was betraying him by hesitating, by asking too many questions about things he'd rather not face. But it was he who had encouraged her to be an outsider, to doubt the common wisdom of the world, and she couldn't stop that aspect of her nature, even for him.
“I'm sorry, Mamoru. I would do anything to keep from disappointing you, but I have concerns that I must face. I hope you understand.”
“I do, Your Majesty.” The priest did not raise his face to meet her eyes. “I fear I understand completely.”
Adele watched her mentor formally withdraw from her presence and shut the door behind him, leaving her alone with her crystal and her doubts.
THE EMPRESS TRUSTED Mamoru without question. For more than ten years, he had been her tutor, publicly, in the sciences including geology and chemistry and botany, as well as her fencing master. Privately, he had instructed her in various arcane arts and sciences. He had come from Java at the behest of Em
press Pareesa with the agreement of the emperor. Even the criticism of the hard-line court technocrats that Mamoru was a dangerous religionist, and shouldn't be on Princess Adele's staff, couldn't outweigh Empress Pareesa's will.
So influential was he that Mamoru had access to the crown's most infamous prisoner, Selkirk, the man who had attempted to assassinate Empress Adele. Little was publicly known about the assassin. The press had uncovered that he was from a poor family in Alexandria and had disappeared from school at age ten. He was unheard-of until the day he appeared as a man in his late twenties in the imperial crypt and plunged a knife into Adele's breast. It fascinated the public that he had been the tool of Lord Kelvin, the former prime minister who had been overthrown by Adele's triumphant return to Alexandria. But that tantalizing connection was made all the more mysterious because Kelvin was later killed by the empress's triumvirate of champions—the Greyfriar, General Anhalt, and Mamoru himself.
That was the story in the papers anyway.
The truth was more complicated and chilling, and raised a great many questions about the stability of the Empire, as well as the interactions between human and vampire hemispheres. Very few people knew the truth about Lord Kelvin and Selkirk, and how the attempted assassination of the empress was tied to the British vampire clan. Mamoru was one of those few, but even he didn't know the whole truth. However, he intended to.
The boy had shown promise as a geomancer, so Mamoru had taken Selkirk to Java, where he ran an intensive academy in all aspects of the earthly sciences. It was Selkirk whom Mamoru chose for the dangerous mission of mapping the dragon spines of Britain. However, something had happened to him in the north. He had left Equatoria as an inquisitive explorer, and returned as an assassin.
The clack of the key in the old lock echoed in the gloomy corridor. The heavy wooden door swung out and Mamoru looked down on a miserable wretch who lay on a simple cot. The filthy man was shackled at the ankle to a long length of chain that gave him room to move about his cell. He was cadaverously thin, clad in prison greys, with an unkempt beard and stringy matted blond hair. At the words “Good evening, Selkirk,” the young prisoner shifted his look to the samurai, and then returned it to the ceiling.
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