by K. B. Wagers
The man on Clara’s other side was as tall as I was but didn’t look like much of a threat. His graying hair lay short to his scalp in what seemed to be the latest fashion of the empire. His white kurta and black pants were plain but cut from expensive fabric. He swallowed nervously, looking between me and Clara like a rabbit trapped between two wolves.
Trisa left the room, but not after shooting me one last look. I just grinned and rubbed my hands together. “Dr. Satir, it’s been a long time,” I said.
Dr. Satir’s smile creased her weathered face. “Welcome home, Your Highness. It is a great blessing to see you well.”
“Highness, if you’ll allow me to present to you Prime Minister Eha Phanin,” Clara said.
The Assembly General was open to anyone via a public election held every five years for one-third of the assembly. The prime minister was elected from the ranks of the AG by popular vote. It was a position that, admittedly, had little influence and was more a way for the ruling class to keep an eye on the mood of the rest of the populace. In a world ruled by women, the majority of the assembly was female so it was a bit of a surprise to see Phanin in the position.
And it didn’t explain why the man was here now.
“Your Imperial Highness.” The bow was elegant for a man with no noble blood, perfectly executed.
I hated him immediately. Worse, I couldn’t put my finger on exactly why. Something about the man made my skin crawl. My reaction wasn’t fair in the slightest, and I stepped down hard on my snarky reply. “Prime Minister, it’s a pleasure.”
“I wish I could say the same, Highness.”
Emmory shifted in front of me and I found myself wishing again for a weapon. Twice in ten minutes. Welcome home, Hail. Bugger it all.
But Clara held her hands up. “Apologies, Highness, Ekam. For a politician, Phanin can be entirely too blunt at times.”
“I prefer blunt and given the hour…”
“Yes, of course, you’ve had a long day. You know of the empress’s issue?”
“She’s got space madness.”
“Yes, Ven noticed some odd changes in her behavior and brought it to the attention of the Crown Princess. Your sister had Dr. Satir run the tests, and when the answer came back, she decided it would be in the empress’s best interests not to let her know.”
“Sometimes the knowledge of the diagnosis can make the disease progress faster,” Dr. Satir added. “When the news leaked to the public this morning, though, I informed the empress of her diagnosis. We are doing what we can to stop the spread, but it is difficult.”
“Plans were under way to convince your empress-mother to abdicate the throne to Cire, but then—”
“My sisters were murdered.”
“Yes, Highness.” Clara frowned and bowed her head. Not fast enough for me to miss the uneasiness in her eyes and I braced myself even as I asked the question.
“So what’s the plan now?”
“Mostly unchanged, Highness.” It was Phanin who answered me. “Since your sister was unsure if you would come home, it was decided to follow the line of succession and name your cousin Ganda as next in line. Since the chaos she has been handling the day-to-day issues for the empire when it is obvious the empress cannot keep her normal schedule.” Phanin bowed his head. “Now that you are home, things will, of course, change.”
I swallowed down my hatred, and it burned all the way into the pit of my stomach. Ganda Naidu was my cousin, the eldest daughter of my uncle. Succession through the paternal line wasn’t ideal, but it was better than nothing if the family wanted to hold on to the throne.
The fact that I hated the spoiled, treacherous, conniving brat didn’t really factor into succession protocol.
Especially since everyone else loved Ganda.
She was the ideal princess. Prim and proper. She smiled when required and kept her mouth shut the rest of the time. As kids we’d tangled repeatedly and I’d always come out on the losing end because no one realized what a snake she was.
Tell them, Hail, the voice in my head screamed. Just tell them to let Ganda keep doing what she’s doing and you’ll get out of their way. You don’t want to be heir. You can go back to your life.
Back to my life without Portis.
My heart broke again, falling out of my chest and shattering on the rose quartz hearth at my feet.
“Well—” The word came out rough and I had to clear my throat and start again. “Yes, I’m back. So Ganda can go back to whatever it was she was doing before she got dragged into this. I’m sure she’ll be relieved.”
“Of course, Highness.” Phanin bowed again. “I will see to it.”
“You’ll need someone to organize your schedule for you. I can send you several candidates for a chamberlain if you’d like to choose yourself?” Clara asked.
“I’d like that very much. Thank you.”
“I realize it will probably take you several days to get up to speed. If it is acceptable, we’ll keep Ganda on her scheduled appearances for this week.”
I nodded again. “Yes, that’s fine.”
“We’ll leave you then. Sleep well, Highness.”
“Matriarch, if I might beg a moment of your time?” Emmory held up a hand with a quick bow of his head. “In the excitement of the princess’s return home, something was overlooked. If you wouldn’t mind witnessing for us, it would be appreciated.”
At Clara’s nod, the door opened and my BodyGuards filed in—or what Guards had been collected so far. They were a motley group, some still in street clothes, others in military uniforms of various branches.
“Highness,” Emmory said, and I managed somehow not to let my mouth fall open when he dropped to a knee in front of me. “We didn’t do this properly,” he said, taking my hands. He’d removed his gloves, and the hard calluses of his palm scraped over my equally rough knuckles.
Gunrunning didn’t give a girl ladylike hands.
“Didn’t do what properly?” I asked warily.
He smiled and the brief flash of emotion showed his dimple. He composed himself, looked right into my eyes, and spoke, “Hailimi Mercedes Jaya Bristol—I swear my loyalty to you. Your life I will defend until my last breath if there is need.”
I stiffened when the formal words of the BodyGuard oath hit me with all the force of a sledgehammer swung by one of those muscle-bound guys at the circus. Emmory tightened his hand over both of mine, holding them in place when I tried to pull away.
“I give myself willingly to you, Heir to the Throne of Indrana. You are the shining stars in the blackness of space. The hope of the lost and forsaken. The spark that must not be extinguished. So I pledge myself to you—loyal subject, protector, and BodyGuard.”
“Gods help you.” The comment slipped out and I bit my tongue with a mental swear.
Emmory was unfazed by my rudeness. He smiled, releasing my hands. “Yes, gods help me, Highness.” Then he sobered, the amusement sliding away like the rain off the windowpanes. “Gods help all of us.”
Before I could say anything else, Nal had taken Emmory’s place. She recited the oath in a clear voice, though the words were devoid of any emotion at all. One after another the Guards followed suit, until at last Zin slowly lowered himself to a knee and took my hand.
His hands were cooler than Emmory’s had been as he folded them over mine and repeated the oath without ever taking his eyes off me.
Zin’s hands tightened briefly as he got to his feet.
“Very well done.” Matriarch Desai nodded in approval. “Good night, Highness. I’m sure I’ll see you soon.”
Hating the arrogance of the gesture, I waved a hand toward the door and turned to the windows. I couldn’t have said anything if I’d wanted to. Not without breaking down into tears. I heard Emmory’s voice mixing with Clara’s and then silence as the door closed.
My Ekam hadn’t left me alone, though. He reappeared at my side as I was wiping the tears from my cheeks with the palm of my hand.
“I
’d like to pull a few candidates for your chamberlain position and do a background sweep on the ones Matriarch Desai sends over.”
“Agreed.” I’d be spending a lot of time with my chamberlain and I’d need to be able to trust her. “Speaking of backgrounds, what do you know about Phanin?”
“Very little. He was elected two years ago. Seems to have done a decent job as prime minister.”
“Odd that he was here tonight.”
“Not as such, Highness. Princess Cire did quite a bit of work to make the prime minister more involved in the day-to-day affairs of the empire. She felt it kept her more in touch with the people.”
I was wiped, and even though he wasn’t showing it, I figured Emmory was at least as tired as I was. “What have we waded into here, Emmy?”
“I don’t know.” He wasn’t prevaricating or trying to placate me. As hard as Emmory was for me to read, I was able to figure out that much from his open stance. “I think it is suspicious enough to have the empress’s Ekam, two of her daughters, and a granddaughter die within two months of each other. Even without all the other troubles facing the empire, that spells trouble of the worst kind.”
I whirled away from the window. “Ven is dead?” More crushing anguish landed on my shoulders at Emmory’s solemn nod.
Scattered memories of Mother’s Ekam rushed through me—his bright smile and a laugh that rolled on the air like colored candy falling off a scoop, the way his face went from open to deadly the day someone from the Upjas had tried to kidnap Pace. The time he and Father had found me trapped in that tunnel—I shuddered and fought the memory off.
“Ofa? Tefiz? You said she’d sent Portis after me.”
My Ekam and Dve had been a wife-and-wife team. I’d looked to Ofa like a mother when my own was too cold and royal, but it’d been Tefiz I’d really bonded with. The thought that either had been punished for my flight from home was almost too much to bear.
“They were both officially dismissed, Highness, but still on the BodyGuard payroll—tasked with keeping tabs on you after you left home. They were in the aircar with Ven when the accident occurred.”
“Still dead then, just not my doing.” Grief welled up again. “I don’t trust Bial. Do you know him?”
“Not now, Highness. You need your sleep.” Emmory headed for the doorway with Zin on his heels. “I’ll find out what I can and we’ll talk about it in the daylight.”
I sighed and reached behind me for the ties of my corset as I headed for the bedroom.
“Highness, will you need assistance with that?”
“Are you offering?” I watched in the mirror as he paused, and a dark eyebrow arched upward.
“I’ll call a maid, Highness.”
“I don’t need—“I stopped at his look and sighed. “Call a maid. I honestly have no idea how I managed to get into it in the first place.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” he said and continued out the door.
8
The sun was shining in through the stained glass of my bedroom windows when I awoke the next morning. Exhaustion had dragged me into a dreamless sleep, and I felt a little more like myself as I stretched.
A riot of colors danced over the white linens, and I lay for a moment on my back, tracing my fingers through wavering diamonds of green and blue.
It reminded me of the waters on Calpis VII, a resort planet we’d stayed at once after a successful drop-off. After several months with Hao, and a brutal induction into Po-Sin’s employ, it had been our first big score as official members. We’d spent a blissful week soaking in the warm waters and dozing on the pink sand.
It was there, floating in the waves, that Portis had told me he loved me for the first time. I could still remember with painful clarity how gentle he’d been that night. How his hands swept over my skin, followed by his mouth, shooting trails of fire through me. We’d gotten along so well, right from the beginning, and now I knew it was because he had known exactly who I was.
“I miss you, you bastard,” I whispered.
“Your Imperial Highness? Are you awake?” My new maid, Stasia, poked her head into the room. Her golden curls bounced merrily around a cherub-like face.
“Come on in,” I replied, sliding from the four-poster bed and padding across the floor. The moment was gone and there wasn’t any point in terrorizing the girl just for having bad timing.
The satin wood covered a complex system of water pipes that kept the floors warm in the winter seasons and cool in the summer. I sighed at the heat under my bare feet.
I’d forgotten about little luxuries like this. Sophie’s always-freezing steel floors had kept me from going barefoot that often.
Stasia averted her eyes at the sight of me naked. I rolled my eyes and headed for the bathroom. Hot water already steamed in the tub, and the smell of lemon and spearmint dragged away the last vestiges of my sleep.
“I’ve brought you breakfast, Princess, and your empress-mother wishes to see you once you’ve eaten.”
“How generous of her,” I muttered, and watched Stasia’s reflection in the mirror wince. “What time is it?”
“Half past ten, ma’am.” Stasia kept her gaze on the floor, her hands clasped at her waist. Skin the color of cream stood out against the drab gray uniform.
“Stasia, look at me,” I said.
She raised her head, and I raised an eyebrow at the vivid blue eyes she’d kept hidden from me the night before. As clear as the Hini sapphire and twice as brilliant.
“Orphan?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Most of the servants in the palace had no sahotra. A position in the palace meant a better life for them since businesses tended to hire within the family or upon recommendations from very good friends. A person without family was lost in Indrana, with very little chance to change their fate.
I added this to the list of things I intended to change if I was going to be in charge around here. You’re just pretending, Hail, remember?
“We have cycled through three different titles in less than three minutes,” I said, keeping my voice gentle. “‘Imperial Highness’ is fucking cumbersome and I’ll forget to answer to ‘Princess.’ My name is Hail.”
“Highness, I couldn’t.”
I smiled. “So let’s stick with ‘ma’am’ for the moment, okay?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Good.” I nodded and waved a hand. “I don’t need an audience. Go entertain my BodyGuards.”
What I did need, I realized when Stasia paled, was to think before I attempted to issue orders. Rumors about the gunrunner princess were no doubt flying with reckless abandon. And the horrified look from my maid told me more than enough what some of them might entail.
I closed my eyes and cursed, opened them just as quickly to look at Stasia with an apologetic smile.
“Poor choice of words. That wasn’t what I meant.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I waved a hand, swallowing back the need to apologize again. “Go find something else to do besides stand there and watch me.” I gave her a second smile, which she hesitantly returned before she bowed and left me alone.
I sank down under the water, letting it close over my head and cocoon me in silence. The beating of my heart throbbed in my ears as I floated to the surface and took a breath.
All your running, Hail. All your attempts to get away led you right back here. There’s a reason for it, don’t waste it. My father’s voice in my head was kind, but firm as it always had been.
I pulled up the local news reports using my smati and started piecing together the timeline as best as I could.
Just a little under three months ago my baby sister had died of ebolenza. There’d been a huge outpouring of grief from the people, but little to nothing reported on the strange, isolated outbreak by the palace-controlled news stations. Two of her BodyGuards and a servant had also died, but for so virulent a disease, the spread had been stopped quickly.
A month after Pace�
�s death—the empress’s Ekam, four other BodyGuards, and the dismissed Ekam and Dve of the runaway princess were killed in an aircar accident.
Grief ripped through me again at the familiar faces in the news report. Ofa and Tefiz Ovasi had been my BodyGuards from the moment of my birth. When I’d left, they’d been officially dismissed from service for failure to perform their duty but had stayed on in secret to help me with my search.
There’d been a great deal of speculation by the press about why they’d been in the aircar with Ven that day, but no concrete answers.
Then, not even forty hours ago my older sister and niece were killed in an explosion while out on a shopping trip. That, and news of my mother’s dementia, was all the news stations were talking about.
Well, and the return of the runaway princess. Though the off-planet news was by far more amusing. A severe-faced man with shocking purple hair waved his hands in the air on the set of Interstellar Daily. “Cressen Stone, feared gunrunner, is revealed as the daughter of the Empress of Indrana. Is this a plot by Chang Po-Sin to take over Indrana?”
I snorted with laughter, accidentally sucked water down my windpipe, and surfaced in a spray of water and curses. The door to my bathroom slammed open, Emmory and Zin bursting through.
I blinked at them in shock as both men turned their heads fast enough to get whiplash. Stasia came in through the other door and my giggles broke free at the sight of the wicked knife in my tiny maid’s hand. I finally got control of myself enough to gasp, “Emmy, I admire your diligence, but you really need to not burst into my bathroom without permission.”
His face didn’t change expression as he pushed Zin out the door. “Perhaps you would be kind enough to not shout in the bath, Highness. I take it you’re all right?”
“I’m fine; apparently being heir doesn’t mean I can breathe underwater.” I exhaled slowly, pinching the bridge of my nose again with one hand while I waved at Emmory with the other. “I’m fine. Go on.”