He sat down with some effort, but the dining hall remained quiet enough to hear a number of hearts beating.
Lord Noir slid the emperor’s chair back into place and smiled wickedly while stepping around to Prince Oswald’s chair. Noir stood behind the prince and whispered to him; I moved closer, out of the shadows, and strained my ears to hear Noir.
“It was your arrow, Prince Oswald, that killed Sumter,” Noir said. “We’ve proved you had the means. You had motive and opportunity, too.”
My Lord started to protest, but Lord Noir silenced him with a wave of his hand and continued. “Alas, there are no eyewitnesses. If you weren’t a blood prince, I’d have arrested you already. However,” — he waved at the emperor — “in light of His Grace’s obvious affection for your fiancée, I have elected not to do so — yet. For the time being, you may visit your starship if you wish—”
I breathed out a sigh of relief before I checked myself, not wishing to alert Lord Noir that I was eavesdropping. Incredibly, against our expectations, Lady Redwing managed to save my Lord from an almost certain death, simply by being present at court. I thanked whatever deities I could recall for whatever it was that made her change her mind about coming to New Rome’s court after Lord Oswald’s slight in her chambers had set her so vehemently against it. I made a mental note to make sure my Lord pandered to her every whim in the future — assuming there would be a future for the prince once Noir was done throwing his weight around in the name of the emperor.
“—but don’t even think about leaving New Rome,” Noir continued, eyeing Prince Oswald malevolently. “I am watching you,” he said, and oozed out of the room.
Chapter 9
Jewel's Bedchamber
IN THEORY, MY LORD AND I WERE NOW FREE TO DO AS WE PLEASED IN NEW ROME — although there were certainly some heavy conditions implied along with that airy freedom. The safest thing to do would be to go back to our palace suite. Despite Lord Noir’s invitation, the worst place we could go was our starship, where we’d undoubtedly be under close scrutiny, for fear we’d leave New Rome without permission.
So, like throwing salt on the slimeworm, Noir, Lord Oswald chose the most contentious option and headed straight back to the Phoenix, Lady Redwing in tow. She babbled the whole way to the starship.
“Whew,” my Lord said, ignoring Lady Phoenix as we boarded the starship for the first time in a day. He ran his hand along the smooth metal finish lining the hallways as he headed for the captain’s cabin. “I never thought I’d miss this little girl, but I sure did.” He grinned at me.
I understood. Starships spoke of adventure and independence and speed; the palace reeked of back-stabbing intrigues and guarded comments and glacial progress. It struck me then why Lord Oswald had spent so much time touring on Oasis before I started working for him. He was bored, hanging around the palace alone. After I joined his staff, I became his confidant and best friend. We went out and did stuff together, interesting stuff — although a lot of it seemed to revolve around ladies of easy virtue — and that satisfied his craving for adventure to a certain extent. Whenever the urge got to be too much, we hopped a jumper to some remote part of Oasis.
Friendship. That was what drove Lord Oswald. No wonder he’d never married, especially after Lady Karla’s jilting; he’d closed off his heart to love and relied on friendship instead.
I almost felt guilty pushing Lady Redwing on him. What right did I have to make that decision for him?
On the other hand, I’d grown awfully fond of Lady Phoenix since she moved in the palace. A part of me didn’t want her to leave, but I also knew that my fondness wasn’t because I wanted her to marry my Lord. I’d come to view her as a sort of treasured sister.
But, what man didn’t want the best husband for his sister? My Lord, my friend, was undeniably the best man I know. In time, he’d come to agree with me, I was sure.
Lord Oswald opened the door to his cabin, and Lady Redwing followed him in, claiming she needed help adjusting her gown.
I followed, too, turning my back while my Lord helped her. I tried to ignore their conversation.
“Where were you?” my Lord asked her. “You left the ship with everything and didn’t tell me.”
“I went to my suite in the palace, of course,” Lady Redwing said. “The administrator came to collect me as soon as he heard the Phoenix had landed.” She laughed. “We’re old friends, Laxel and I.”
“Why didn’t you wake us?”
“I thought you needed your rest.”
“You know we almost missed breakfast. How would that have looked to the emperor? I might’ve lost favor.”
“Phim?” Lady Redwing giggled. “Oh, don’t worry about that old sweetie. Jewel and I would’ve set him straight for you again.”
“Okay, fine. But why were you late for breakfast?”
“Now, that is a different matter entirely. When I got to my suite, and Foster unpacked for me, I discovered some of my clothes were missing, including my special silver and blue gown that I’d bought just for the occasion. I’m sure I packed it.” Lady Redwing drummed her nails on the dresser. “You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
Foster. That reminded me; I needed to look for him and find out why he’d interrupted Prince Vere at the hunt.
“Um....”
“That’s what I thought,” Lady Redwing said sharply. Then her tone changed instantly, all cheery and light. “That’s why I went straight out and bought more dresses, on your account, naturally.”
And she’d found a suitable replacement for the silver and blue gown I’d destroyed, too. I had to give the lady credit; she managed to correct the situation without blame, yet still managed to penalize the perpetrator in the process. It’s quite possible my Lord and I badly underestimated Lady Redwing’s intelligence, as well as her political advantages.
This trip was turning into quite a learning experience.
“And your suit would have matched my gown perfectly,” Lady Redwing scolded, “if you’d worn it.”
To me, she said, annoyed, “Oh, turn around, Euclid, it’s not like you haven’t helped me with my gown before. And we’ve been done for some time now.”
I turned around, tugging on my pants as I turned so they wouldn’t tear. Lady Redwing looked at me sharply, but said nothing.
“Fine, we’ll wear your suits for dinner,” Lord Oswald said.
I smiled. Once again, Lady Phoenix got her way in the end.
Foster poked his head in the cabin. “Lady, there’s a messenger here to see Prince Oswald.”
My lord cocked an eyebrow.
“Shall I send him in?” Foster asked.
Lord Oswald nodded.
“Wait,” I said, as Foster started closing the door, and jumped toward him. “I’ll come with you.”
A few steps down the hallway, I put a hand on Foster’s arm to stop him. “I thought you were being detained.”
A moment of panic flashed in Foster’s eyes and he nodded uncertainly. “I was, sir. They let me go.”
“Why were you at the hunt? What really happened out there? Did you really disturb Prince Vere? What happened?” All of my questions burst forth in a flood. I hoped I hadn’t scared the man with my urgency.
It was clear that Foster was overwhelmed by my interrogation, though. He backed away from me and pressed up against the wall, shaking his head violently. “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone, really. I was just trying to deliver a message.”
“Calm down, Foster,” I said, trying to sound soothing, but he blathered on.
“I came into the clearing and both the princes had drawn already. I got maybe ten paces from Prince Vere when I stepped on a twig. He released his arrow in that instant and turned on me. He said the twig snapping threw off his concentration and ruined his shot. I didn’t do anything wrong, honest.”
“Okay, okay,” I said, “calm down.”
The wild look fled from Foster’s eyes and he looked down at the floor, ashame
d.
“What was the message?”
Foster looked up at me, confused, and glanced down the hallway, where an imperial messenger waited.
“The message you tried to deliver at the hunt?”
“Oh, that message. They found Lord Sumter in the garden, stabbed through the heart.”
Lord Sumter? The same Lord Sumter that showed up at the end of the hunt with an arrow? “Are you sure it was Lord Sumter?”
Foster nodded. “Positive. I tried to tell Prince Vere’s man all about it before they took me back to the palace in the jumper, but he threatened me with a burner and told me to keep quiet if I wanted to live.”
This news was definitely interesting. How did Prince Vere’s man know about Lord Sumter’s death? He’d been out at the hunt with us, and the corpse hadn’t been discovered yet. Was Vere’s man acting alone, or did the prince know about Sumter, too, at that point? Who was behind this subterfuge?
“Who found Lord Sumter?” I asked, suspecting I already knew the answer.
“Lord Noir,” said Foster.
***
Lord Oswald’s most recent message was a summons from the empress. My Lord and I left Lady Redwing on the Phoenix and returned to the palace as quickly as we could manage. Generally, my stride is longer than the prince's, but Peabody’s tight pants made it hard for me to keep up this time.
I arrived at Empress Jewel’s suite only a step behind Lord Oswald, though he made no effort to slow down for me.
Jewel’s receiving room was lavish almost beyond comprehension. Precious metals glittered on nearly every exposed surface, all the furniture was either gilded or covered in plush silk, or both, and tapestries as fine as the ones in the dining hall lined the walls. Despite its opulence, the room had the feeling of a comfortable chair, one that you could sink deep into and just relax.
A few moments after we arrived, the empress appeared at one of the doors. Unlike our suite, the door here was hidden, made to appear as if it were part of the wall. I only noticed the discrepancy when the door swung shut, silently blending into a solid wall again.
Empress Jewel wore a dressing gown caught high around her neck, completely concealing her ample bosom, and her long black hair floated loose along her back. Red silk slippers poked out from under her gown at the bottom, while along the edges running up the front of her body peeked out something frilly and nearly transparent. She appeared to be dressed for an afternoon nap, not as though she expected visitors.
“Oz,” she said to my Lord. She sounded friendly enough, but I thought I detected a hint of contradiction in her expression, as if she were trying hard to hide a grimace in her broad smile.
“And Euclid,” she said to me. Her smile this time looked genuine, and she reached up to slide a soft hand along my jaw. Her dark blue eyes twinkled with malice.
The empress withdrew her hand and clapped once without explanation. Another door opened wide, and a woman I didn’t recognize came in, leaving the door gaping.
The woman wore only a long robe, with the front open just far enough to reveal ample cleavage. Her dark brown hair was pulled back tightly into a bun, and her tanned skin shone in the lights, as if she’d been oiled recently. She wore no shoes, but padded into the receiving room barefoot.
Empress Jewel waved a hand at the girl. “I thought you deserved a celebration, Oz, now that you’re no longer under house arrest by that fool, Noir.” She grinned. “Kleva is an excellent masseuse. And you’ll find her more than willing to try new ... techniques.”
Kleva smiled and opened her robe, revealing heavy breasts with large dark circles around her nipples, a slim waist despite a slight thickening of her tummy, and a complete lack of any body hair below her neck. She closed her robe and turned around, then looked over her shoulder and motioned for my Lord before sashaying back through the doorway.
On Oasis, there was a place my Lord was very fond of called Eve’s Garden. Their motto was, “Bring Your Own Snake,” and you’d swear you’d found paradise by the time you left. Lord Oswald dragged me to the Garden after I’d been with him about three months, and he’d made it a regular stop after that.
The proprietress, Eve, offered her services personally for a full-contact body massage, and she stripped slowly, piece by piece, while my Lord and I were pressed to rub her newly exposed skin with baby oil at each stage. She, too, removed all her body hair, as we discovered while slathering oil on her. I also remembered that the resulting massage, while not the most relaxing, was one of the most memorable I’d experienced.
No doubt remembering Eve’s Garden himself, Lord Oswald followed Kleva into the other room unquestioningly, his attention committed to the lovely brunette.
I started to follow, but the empress stayed me with a hand on my arm. I turned around to face Jewel.
“Stay,” she said simply. “Let Oz enjoy himself alone. I’m sure we can find something to do.” She toyed with the huge sapphire earring in her right ear and stared at me with come-hither eyes.
I remembered the earring under the table and I’m sure I went pale with the memory. My heart beat loudly in my chest when I realized that I was alone with the empress, and she had romantic inclinations. There was no mistaking her signals.
She grabbed both my hands and backed toward a wall, which I was sure would turn out to be a door to her bedroom.
I stopped before we reached the wall. “Empress—”
“Jewel,” she said, smiling, cutting me off with a finger raised to my lips.
“Jewel,” I conceded, and immediately wished I hadn’t. “Not in there, please.” I nodded toward the wall behind her.
“Ooo,” she purred. “Out here, then? Okay. But aren’t you worried about my husband walking in on us?” She batted her long lashes and smiled wickedly.
I was too shocked to respond quickly enough. Worrying about the emperor walking in on us was exactly why I didn’t want to go alone with her into what would undoubtedly turn out to be her private bedchambers. The emperor’s reputation for calmly executing his wife’s lovers wasn’t undeserved — I’d seen a few of the executions myself.
She grabbed my crotch, in all its too-tightly confined glory. “Nice pants,” she whispered huskily, then released me abruptly to pull her dressing gown apart below her waist.
Red crotchless panties showed clearly beneath her shimmering négligée.
I found my pants almost unbearably uncomfortable.
From the corner of my eye, I thought I glimpsed a movement in a mirror. I spun around quickly, but the room was empty. Though I couldn’t be sure, I thought I saw the door close to the room Lord Oswald had disappeared into.
The empress looked surprised for a moment, then she smiled and licked her lips. “You’re awfully jumpy for a man who wants to live dangerously, aren’t you?”
I was about to explain that I had no wish to die, as delicately as I could without incurring the wrath of a woman scorned, when Lord Oswald saved me.
My Lord banged open the door and loudly announced, “That massage was great! Euclid, my boy, you really must try it!”
I twisted around just as the empress dropped her gown back into place.
Lord Oswald stormed into the room fully dressed, a bewildered Kleva right behind him, clutching her open robe at her waist as she ran. She caught Jewel’s eye and looked down, ashamed.
“Yes, you really must, Euclid,” the empress said quietly behind me, and stepped out into the room again.
Kleva glanced up, surprised, then looked back down quickly after a glance at her empress. She turned to go back in the room, but waited for me to follow.
“I’m sorry, your Majesty,” said my Lord, “but if you no longer require our services, we must dress for dinner.”
I froze, and I felt my heart stop.
The empress remained silent for a few moments, and I dared not breathe in that short space of time.
“Do go, then, Oz,” Jewel said, finally. “I believe we’re done here.”
Lord O
swald bowed gracefully and turned to leave.
“Although,” the empress added, “if your man Euclid isn’t busy for a while—”
I turned to Jewel, who stared at me, smoldering with lust.
“I’m so sorry, your Majesty, but he’s the only one Lady Redwing trusts to cinch the ties on her dress.”
The empress raised an eyebrow, and her mouth pinched shut in a thin, straight line.
“I’m sure you understand,” my Lord said.
“Yes, of course,” said Jewel, through clenched teeth. “Perhaps another time, then.”
I dashed to the door, flinging it open for Lord Oswald, ecstatic to leave the suite with my skin intact. As the door closed behind us, I let out the breath I’d been holding.
“Thanks, my Lord,” I said, mentally adding a prayer.
“Call me Oz.”
I smiled, but it faded quickly after I glanced down the hallway, and thought I saw Lord Noir’s evil grin disappear around the corner.
Chapter 10
Noir's Threat
LORD OSWALD AND I RETREATED TO THE PHOENIX AGAIN, after a brief stop in our palace suite to retrieve Lady Redwing’s matching suits. While it wasn’t exactly the safest location for us, given recent events, it was certainly the most relaxing, at least for my Lord.
While I would acknowledge that the starship’s familiar surroundings should have been more relaxing under other circumstances, the sideways glances from the imperial guards every time we went into the Phoenix gave me the willies.
Contrary to my Lord’s excuses for our hasty exit from the Empress Jewel’s genial clutches, we didn’t dress for dinner immediately, or even help Lady Redwing to do so. Instead we lounged around the captain’s cabin for a while, chatting about the empress. At least while I was reclining, my tight pants didn’t bother me that much.
“You were pale when I walked in on you,” Lord Oswald said, grinning conspiratorially. “It looked to me like our Jewel was trying to arouse your interest in her pleasures.”
I nodded. “Yup. That’s exactly what she was doing.”
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