by K. B. Wagers
7
The public meeting with Taz felt entirely different from the quiet of the library. I sat at the head of a ridiculously huge table in a room I was fairly certain hadn’t been used for at least a decade. The windows arched to the ceiling and provided a view of the palace gardens, gardens that were currently covered in ice and snow.
I was tired and the pounding headache that had developed sometime after lunch kicked itself into high gear as the room flooded with people. Matriarch Surakesh was true to her word and didn’t show; however, her eldest daughter, Mina, came through the door and gave me an elegant nod.
“Your Majesty.”
“It’s nice to see you. I wasn’t expecting your family today.”
“My mother and I are not in complete agreement about some of the issues this empire faces,” she replied.
“Thank you for coming,” I said, and she nodded again before moving to her seat.
Taz and two young men entered and the buzzing chatter went mercifully silent. “Your Imperial Majesty,” he said with an elegant bow. He was dressed in a well-cut, dark gray Nehru jacket and pants of the same color.
“Tazerion. Garhi. Salham.” It hurt more than a little that the youngest member of their group had the same name as one of my dead BodyGuards, but it was a popular name and there was no avoiding it.
I relaxed in my chair as the introductions commenced. Given the number of people in the room, it was going to take a while before everyone was settled again. Half the matriarchs weren’t in attendance, though Matriarch Zellin surprised me with a curtsy before she took her seat. All the eldest daughters were here and I took that as a good sign. Prime Minister Phanin and several carefully selected members of the media were also in the room.
The security for the nobles and my two teams of BodyGuards shrank the space even further. Emmory was conspicuously absent, considering the fuss he’d kicked up about me being around Taz last night.
I pushed the thoughts of my Ekam out of my head as Clara welcomed everyone and graciously turned the floor over to Tazerion.
He cleared his throat as he stood, smoothing his hands down the front of his jacket. His nervous habit hadn’t changed over the years.
“Your Majesty. Ladies. Prime Minister and distinguished members of the media. Thank you all for coming today and thank you for giving us an opportunity to have our voices heard.
“The Upjas have never been against the empire. What we want is simply to be a part of the empire, an equal part. We believe that excluding half the population from the ability to inherit titles, from helping to make the laws we must obey, from the basic respect afforded to women simply by the accident of their birth, is wrong.”
I pulled my eyes away from Taz with some difficulty so I could scan the faces of the women at the table. The older matriarchs who did come were clenching their jaws and glared through unforgiving eyes—though Matriarch Tobin, ever the wild card, was smiling.
The younger women at the table were split. Some looked at their hands and shifted in their seats. Others shared the stone faces of the opposition. A small segment were smiling, clearly captivated by Taz and his message.
“Men fought alongside women to win our independence from the Solarians. You seemed happy at our support then and continue to accept it within all branches of the military. But we are more than just machines to be ordered about. We can think rationally. We are not controlled by our anger or ruled by our instincts.
“In this, the thirty-first century, do we not want to bring Indrana into the light? You are the ones who hold the power, but your power is not lessened by allowing us to determine our own fates, to feed our families, raise our children, go to school, and hold public office. Your power is not lessened by treating us as equals.”
“You seek to bring an end to the monarchy.” Matriarch Desai’s voice was quiet in the stillness of the room.
Taz looked at me rather than Clara. “Is it not an antiquated system of government? It suited us in the early days, perhaps, when things were dangerous and the whole existence of our world needed a single voice to keep it moving in the right direction. Now with our people spread across so many worlds, with so many lives in the balance, is it right for them all to be beholden to one person?”
He waved a hand through the air. “We’ve seen the danger that leads to over the last two decades, how close our empire was brought to the brink of war. One upon which we still totter because everything hinges on one person’s decisions.”
You’re pushing it too hard, Taz, I thought, wishing there weren’t com jammers in place around the room. The muttering was low, but it wouldn’t stay that way for long.
“Young man.” Matriarch Maxwell raised a slender hand. “You are—”
Chastisement or compliment, her words were cut off by the seething rumble that shook the table. I looked to Cas, whose com system was unaffected by the jammer, and he stiffened.
“Up, Majesty,” he said in a voice I’d never heard from my baby-faced Guard, but I had already pushed to my feet.
“Detain those three. Don’t harm them.” I had time to meet Taz’s eyes as my BodyGuards hustled me from the room. He was standing in front of the other two Upjas, his hands raised and a resigned look on his face.
Cas kept a hold of my arm as we strode down the hallway. The other BodyGuards formed up around us, eyes hard at whatever the threat was. I was dying to ask, but I didn’t want to distract him.
We weren’t heading back to my rooms. Instead Cas took a sharp right down a narrow corridor. My Dve stopped outside a blank metal door, pressing his hand to the panel next to it.
I balked when the door slid open to reveal a tiny lift. “Where does that go?”
“Under the palace. Your mother had it built several years ago.”
I resisted when he tried to pull me forward. My heart was pounding in my ears.
“Majesty, we have to.”
“Didn’t Emmory tell you—” I wasn’t going to have this conversation out in the hallway, but my legs wouldn’t move me toward the yawning steel coffin in front of us. “I can’t—I can’t go in there.”
“Majesty.” Cas now wore a look of panic that was probably the same as mine. “Please don’t make me carry you. I have orders.”
“I don’t care about your fucking orders—”
“Majesty.” Emmory appeared around the corner. “Everyone stand down. The threat here has been contained.” The BodyGuards around us relaxed and Cas quietly shooed them down the hallway until Emmory and I were alone.
I closed my eyes. “What happened?”
“Two men drove a truck into the front gate of the palace and detonated it. I’m getting scattered reports that other places in the capital have been hit but nothing more than preliminary details at the moment.”
“Dark Mother. How many?”
“The two women on duty at the gate were killed along with several civilians waiting to be admitted. A handful of others were injured.” Emmory rubbed a hand over his head. “I don’t have numbers yet on the other attacks. We weren’t sure if there would be a force trying to breach the gate. I wanted you somewhere safer than your rooms. I’m sorry. I should have briefed you on this plan and reminded Cas about your claustrophobia.”
“We probably should have done a dry run… or eight hundred.” Swallowing hard, I cursed under my breath and took a step toward the lift. “In fact, we’re here, we may as well see what happens while there’s no urgency.”
“Majesty—”
“Don’t argue with me, please, it’ll just give me an excuse to run.” I was thankful for the lack of a skirt, which I’m not sure would have fit inside the tiny space. The lift was barely over two meters square—four people could have fit if they liked each other. Holding my breath, I stepped inside, and the floor shifted when Emmory followed me. I squeezed my eyes shut, knowing if I turned around and saw him blocking the doorway I’d lose it.
The door made no sound when it closed, but the light shifted behind m
y eyelids and my heart jumped in response. I opened them, studying my blurry reflection in the poly-steel wall.
“General Saito said the Trackers lost Bial.”
“Majesty?”
“Just talk to me, Emmory. Give me something to think about besides the fact that we’re in a box.” I grabbed for the bar on the wall when the lift started moving and gave what I’m sure was a hysterical laugh.
“You didn’t read my report?”
“There wasn’t time this morning.” I pressed my head to the cool metal. “And I was still mad at you.”
“You were right, Majesty.” He sighed. “I’m sorry for questioning your judgment. Cas said you ordered the Upjas detained.”
“I think it’s far more likely Christoph orchestrated these attacks, but it’s safer for everyone this way.”
Emmory leaned against the wall next to me and I turned my head so I could see his face. “Tu Winston is one of the best Trackers I know. They lost Bial’s trail at Wasteland Station, but they were backtracking and she was confident she could find the trail she missed.”
“You’ve been looking into his activities here, haven’t you?”
Emmory nodded.
“I want a full report. We’ll go over it from this end and hopefully be able to find something that will help the Trackers when we talk to them again.”
“We, Majesty?”
I shrugged a shoulder, trying to ignore the way the lift shuddered to a stop. “I want to know if he was involved in the plot against my family.” The door slid open and I bolted out of the lift into the dubious safety of the underground chamber. “Or if he just had a misguided sense of honor and we should cut him loose. Send these Trackers after our mystery man, Wilson, instead.”
“His trail is even colder than Bial’s.”
“I know, but he’s more important. Bial’s a puzzle, to be sure, but you and I both know if he’d wanted to bring this empire to her knees he could have done it long before I got home.”
The underground room Mother had built showed no signs of wear. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was paranoia or prudence that sparked the construction of what could only be called a war bunker.
There was a small hologram table in the far corner and several banks of screens on the wall. Tables and chairs along the other wall. I pointed at the two doors with a raised eyebrow.
“Sleeping quarters in the one on the right. The left one leads to a secondary exit.”
Most of the tension left my shoulders at those words, even though I knew it was likely the exit in question was a tunnel of some kind. It at least meant that there was another way out besides that hideous metal box.
“Zin told me about the dreams.”
“He told me about Rastinghowl.” A small smile flickered to life on his face. “And that he was done being the go-between for us.”
“That didn’t even last a full day.”
“He doesn’t care for strife, Majesty.”
“Who does?” I lifted a shoulder and then leaned against the hologram table. “What did you say to him when you came into the library?”
“I asked him how his leg was.” Emmory actually looked ashamed. “I was angry. It was uncalled-for.”
“But obviously pertinent. How did he hurt it? How did you get the Star?”
The Imperial Star was an award of great prestige. It wasn’t issued for just any act of valor, but something above and beyond the call of duty that caused the recipient to walk the road to temple—usually they didn’t return to the living.
Emmory wore his on his face for all the universe to see. I doubted it was from pride that the intricate diamond pattern, the four spikes turned slightly widdershins, rested in so prominent a location.
“I got it on my face so I would remember whenever I looked in the mirror that letting my guard down will get the people I love killed,” he said as if I’d asked the question out loud. “Zin’s leg isn’t injured, Majesty. He lost it. Just below the knee.” Emmory tapped at his own, his eyes clouding with memories and grief.
“We’d been in the field for several years, but we were still rookies. The case was an ugly one. You probably don’t remember it; you would have only been nine or ten. We were tracking a serial killer who’d managed to escape off-world before his sentence could be carried out.”
“I do remember—you’re talking about the Fourteen Roses killer.” I nodded, shuddering a little. “I remember Ofa and Tefiz being completely on edge the year before he was caught. We were barely allowed out of the palace before, and even after they caught him, Tefiz kept a hand on her gun when we went outside.”
“It was just as well she did. His followers killed more people after he was caught than he did during his whole spree.” Emmory shook his head. “Zin and I caught up with him outside of Solarian territory. He died in the shoot-out.” My Ekam didn’t blink when he told me the lie, even though we both knew his orders were probably not to bring Howell Tajman home alive.
“We’d shot one of the women with him and didn’t check to make sure she was dead. She took Zin’s leg off with a machete, and I got shot twice by another man who was hiding in a crawlspace.”
I flinched.
“I let my guard down when I thought the job was done, and we both almost died. As it was, Zin lost his leg, and I can’t ever forgive myself for that.”
“He doesn’t blame you,” I said after touching my hand to my lips. I’d come close to losing these two before I’d even met them, and I wondered how things would have played out if they’d died in a run-down warehouse on some fringe Solarian world.
I’d likely be dead.
“He doesn’t have to, Majesty. I was in charge and I messed up.”
“You’re afraid the same thing will happen here?” Taking a deep breath, I headed back toward the lift.
Emmory shook his head slowly. “It’s not about being afraid, Majesty. I can’t let it happen here. I swore an oath to protect you and the empire. I won’t forsake it.”
I wasn’t about to tell my Ekam he was wrong. His penance was his own business. If I had learned anything about Emmory in the short time we’d been together, it was that once he swore an oath, not even the gods themselves could get him to turn his back on it.
We rode up to the surface in silence. The doors slid open and only the fact that I knew the rest of my Guards were still standing in the corridor kept me from doing anything but strolling out of the lift as if my heart weren’t about to jump out of my ears.
“You’re going to want to take a breath,” Emmory murmured. “I’ll unmute your vitals from the others once your heart has slowed down.”
“I’m working on it, Emmy,” I said over the com without looking in his direction, and smiled at Alba as she approached. “Let’s go talk to Tazerion. I really want to know if he was in on this plot or just a victim of circumstance.”
8
Where do you want to speak with him, Majesty?” Emmory asked.
“The throne room?”
Emmory and I shook our heads in unison at Alba’s suggestion. “It’s too formal,” I said.
“Too exposed. They’re confined to their rooms right now, but we could get an interrogation room cleared,” he said.
“I’m not treating them like criminals, Emmory.”
“They technically are, ma’am,” Alba offered. “Only your temporary clemency keeps them from being considered as such.”
“What about the room we were just in? It’s been swept and cleared and swept again. I can’t imagine things have gone downhill so badly in the last ten minutes that it’s suddenly unsafe?”
Emmory laughed and Alba looked a little sheepish. I continued down the hallway back to the meeting room. It was empty, no signs of the chaos that had filled it earlier except for a few chairs still pushed away from the table.
I dropped into mine and swung a leg up over one of the arms. “Alba, do we have footage of the room when the bomb went off?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
> “Get me a clip, starting thirty seconds before I entered and going until I left the room.”
My smati pinged several minutes later and I queued up the playback. Taz was giving his passionate speech, but I muted the sound so it wouldn’t distract me as the scene played out. Both Upjas and Taz jumped at the unexpected rumble, and so did the others around the table. Even I twitched, my head swinging toward Cas, looking for an explanation.
Something caught my eye and I started the playback over again.
“Emmory, look at this. What do you see?” I asked, throwing the file onto the screen embedded in the table in front of me.
My Ekam tilted his head to the side. “The Upjas were as surprised as everyone. Or they’re very good at faking—” He broke off and reached out to tap the screen, sending the images back several seconds. “Matriarch Zellin, however, doesn’t move at all. Even you flinched a little, Majesty.”
“It shook the room, everyone should have reacted. She stops tapping her fingers just there.” I froze the playback. “As if she were counting. But several hours earlier she was very vocal in her opposition to the Upjas.”
“It makes a decent smokescreen.”
“Shiva save me from political machinations, Emmory. Can’t people just say what they mean?” I rubbed my face with both hands and then looked at him. “This is all your fault.”
“You stayed, Majesty,” he reminded me with a slight smile.
I would have stuck my tongue out at him, but Cas escorted Taz and the two young men into the room. All three dropped to their knees.
“Bugger me, get up. Groveling makes me uncomfortable. Sit down.” I pointed at the row of chairs Emmory had pulled out on the other side of the table from me.
Taz winced when he sat, a hand going to his ribs.
I threw Cas a sharp look. “Cas, did I or did I not expressly say not to harm our guests?”
“You did, Majesty.”
“I want to know who wasn’t listening to me.”
“I’m fine, Majesty. It’s nothing.”
“It is not ‘nothing,’ Tazerion. You are my guests and your safety is my responsibility.”