“I think you should take a look at the alternate version of your future before you decide you have already found the life you want,” the empress said.
“I’ve already abandoned one possible future because I didn’t like what lay before me,” Rafe said. “I’m content with the one that’s finally moved into view.”
“Come anyway,” Filomara said. “Come see Malinqua. There is a plain outside the royal city where the grass grows as purple as plums. There is a mountain so tall that no one has ever seen the top of the peak, because it is always hidden in clouds. The royal palace is twice the size of the one you have in Chialto. All of it could belong to you.”
“I think you have other heirs who have been brought up to believe it could all be theirs,” Rafe answered. “My time in Malinqua might be very short.”
Filomara’s eyes glinted. “I am not as ruthless as your Berringese cousin, but I can still control the members of my court. You will not be in danger.”
“I am still reluctant,” he said.
Filomara turned all the considerable weight of her attention to Steff. “And you?” she said. “Are you also reluctant to cross the ocean and explore your heritage?”
“No,” he said eagerly. “I want to come. If you’ll have me.”
She nodded. “Of course I’ll have you—Steff? There must be more to your name than that.”
“Steffanolo Kordan Bors Adova. But no one ever calls me that.”
“That’s your father’s name? Adova?” When he nodded, she prompted, “What’s he like? Not a royal man, I take it?”
“No. He’s very plain,” Steff answered. “He says what he thinks. He works hard and believes everyone else should work hard and he doesn’t have much imagination, but you can trust him. He’s all torz, but you’d think he was hunti, he’s so strong. He’d never fail you.”
Josetta heard the catch in his voice and thought this might be the first time Steff had tried to describe his father to someone who didn’t know him—the first time he truly realized what a good man his father was. And the first time he realized that journeying to Malinqua would mean leaving his father behind, maybe forever.
She judged by Filomara’s slight smile that the empress was thinking something similar. “He sounds like someone I would like and respect,” said the empress. “I am very plain myself.”
“You could meet him,” Steff said doubtfully.
Filomara actually laughed. “I intend to meet him,” she said. “You and I shall visit him before we set sail for Malinqua. With, I hope, your brother alongside us.”
Everyone in the room looked at Rafe. He shook his head. “I told you. I am happy where I am.”
Filomara turned her gaze on Josetta. “Perhaps if you offered to accompany him, he would change his mind,” she said. “And who knows? You might find Malinqua more to your taste than you expect.”
“The regent needs me to stay, and I have promised him I would,” Josetta replied. “But I agree with you. I think Rafe should visit Malinqua before he makes any decisions.”
Rafe’s head whipped in her direction. “You never said that! And it doesn’t make sense.”
Josetta kept her eyes on Filomara’s face. “I’ll do my best to persuade him. You and Steff visit his father. By the time you’ve returned, Rafe will be ready to go.”
• • •
The complicated work of convincing Rafe to leave her behind had to be put on hold, however, because the very next morning, Josetta was swept back up in her own life. Taro had arrived in Chialto, and all the primes had been called to the palace to discuss their own succession issues, which appeared to be even more tangled than those in Malinqua or Berringey.
“I am tired of sitting in rooms and listening to people argue about who belongs on what throne where,” Corene complained to Josetta as they made their way to Elidon’s quarters shortly after breakfast. Taro had been accompanied by a dozen companions, although Romelle, Natalie, and Mally were not among them. Nonetheless, Darien had insisted that the other two princesses be on hand for the discussion.
“So am I,” Josetta answered with a sigh. “As soon as we can, let’s slip off and go somewhere no one can find us.”
“The river flats,” Corene said instantly.
“Zoe could find us there in five minutes!”
“Not if we don’t put our feet in the water.”
“And we have to bring Foley.”
“Well, of course we’ll bring Foley,” Corene said. “But nobody else.”
“All right, then. As soon as we can.”
Elidon’s lovely yellow-and-white room didn’t seem sturdy enough to accommodate all the strong personalities gathered inside for the meeting. Taro alone seemed powerful enough to shove the walls outward with his bare hands, bringing down the whole ceiling, and he looked irritable enough to try it.
“I hope you had a pleasant trip,” Nelson greeted him as they settled around the table that was the centerpiece of the main room. Josetta had spent countless hours at that very table while the queens bickered and sparred. She couldn’t imagine this meeting would be much more cordial.
“No, I didn’t have a pleasant trip,” Taro snapped, his rumbling voice threaded with annoyance. “How many times am I going to be summoned to the city before the quintile is up? Can’t we just settle on someone once and for all and be done with these games?”
“You have been summoned to Chialto to do honor to the empress of Malinqua, but we may as well discuss our own issues while we are all present,” Darien said, casually taking his seat. Elidon always sat at the head of the table, and Darien had positioned himself at the foot. Staking out his position of power. “And I would like to point out that securing the succession of the kingdom is hardly a game.”
Josetta would have preferred one of the chairs by the window overlooking the butterfly garden, but she took a place at the middle of the table, Corene beside her. Zoe dropped down in the seat on her other side, and Josetta instantly felt more optimistic. Nothing too bad could happen to her as long as Zoe was nearby.
“No, but it’s very tedious,” Kayle replied earnestly. “I agree with Taro. Let’s just settle it so we can get back to more important things.”
“And I agree with Darien!” Nelson cut in. “What could be more important than the fate of the kingdom?”
“Let us first review the facts that have come to light,” Elidon said. “Odelia, the only princess who is Vernon’s daughter by blood, has a condition that makes her unsuitable to rule. We must look about us for alternatives.”
“Josetta is the eldest. Name her and let’s be done with this,” Kayle said.
Mirti frowned him down. “And is that how the Dochenzas choose the next elay prime—in five minutes—because that son or daughter happens to be the eldest?” she demanded.
Even Kayle looked a little chastised. “No,” he admitted. “It is a very delicate process.”
“Then naming the next ruler of the country should be approached with equal care,” she said.
“If there are three princesses, there are three choices,” Darien began, but Nelson cut him off.
“We can cast a wider net than that,” said the sweela prime. “And if our goal is to choose an heir who is related to Vernon by blood, we must.”
Darien gave him a long and level look. “And is that our goal?” he said in a mild voice.
Nelson showed surprise, an emotion Josetta had to assume was false. “Isn’t it? Isn’t that why we were all so pleased, once Odelia was born, to find that she had been sired by Vernon when all the other princesses had not?”
“Of course it was,” Mirti snapped. “What’s your point?”
Nelson glanced around the room, making sure his gaze touched everyone else at the table. “Vernon had no close relations but his bloodline is far from extinguished. We should look for his next of kin—”
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“Spare us all the pretense,” Darien said. “You know his nearest living relation is Dominic Wollimer. Who is no more fit for the throne than Odelia is.”
“I agree, but he has an heir of his own, who will be born by Quinnelay,” Nelson responded, not at all flustered by Darien’s manner. “That child deserves serious consideration.”
Mirti spoke up in a heavy voice. “The primes did agree that we would recur to Vernon’s bloodline if we ever needed another heir. But that’s before we looked ahead at who might be parenting that child.”
Elidon had just now worked out the genealogy. “What—Alys’s child? To sit on the throne? Certainly, if you want to see the kingdom in ruins.”
“Corene is Alys’s child and I assume you think she is still in the running,” Nelson said. The glint in his eyes convinced Josetta he was just trying to stir up trouble.
Elidon glanced at Darien. “Her father’s strengths outweigh her mother’s defects.”
“If we are going to choose a queen based on which of her parents we like best, we will never come to an agreement,” Taro said. “We must choose based on the abilities of the candidates.”
“We must choose based on bloodlines, because that is what the people value!” Nelson exclaimed.
Mirti leaned across the table to respond in an equally loud voice. “You’ve never cared what the people value! What you’re looking for is an advantage to the house of Ardelay! And both Dominic and his scheming bitch of a wife are sweela creatures with Ardelay connections.”
“That’s offensive!” Nelson bellowed, slamming a fist to the table, then gesturing at Josetta. “If I was trying to control the throne, wouldn’t I choose my own brother’s daughter?”
Zoe spoke up for the first time. “Not if you’ve spent much time with her,” she said coolly. “Josetta isn’t often amenable to persuasion.”
Kayle was watching Nelson, his expression bemused. “Is that really true?” he asked. “Are you favoring Alys’s child because of some Ardelay connection? I might have backed you up on Vernon’s bloodline, but not if you’re just being sneaky.”
“Nelson is always being sneaky,” Taro said.
Nelson threw his hands in the air. “I argue for purity of blood and you accuse me of crass self-interest!” he exclaimed. “Choose your own heir, then, and be damned to you all!”
“Well, there are clearly four choices,” Taro said, enumerating them on his fingers. “Josetta. Corene. Natalie. And Alys’s child.”
Mirti shook her head. “Aside from all other considerations, do we really want to wait another twenty-four years to see Alys’s baby grow to adulthood? And what if that child falls ill or proves unsuitable in some fashion? Think of all the time we will have wasted!”
“That is an issue that must be considered,” Darien said, his voice silky smooth. “How stable is Vernon’s bloodline? Vernon himself was very unreliable in his final years—physically sick and mentally uncertain. He sired only one child, which raises questions about the virility of his line. And that child has certain deficiencies of her own. Is that really the heritage we want for the next king or queen?”
Oh, he’s been waiting for just the right time to raise that particular question, Josetta thought, feeling reluctant admiration as she glanced around the room. Kayle was wide-eyed as he pondered this new thought, Mirti and Elidon were nodding in agreement, and even Nelson looked somewhat uneasy. Taro appeared to be already convinced—and there had never been any doubt about Zoe’s opinion.
“I move that we strike the unborn child from the list,” said Taro.
Nelson spoke up quickly. “If you cannot stomach Alys as mother to the next ruler, Vernon had other connections, a little more distant than Dominic Wollimer—”
Taro fixed him with a fierce stare. “I move we strike all of Vernon’s relatives from the list.”
“I agree,” said Mirti. “We have plenty of choices as it is.”
“Let’s examine them one by one,” Zoe suggested. “Natalie.”
Nelson shook his head. “Too young,” he snapped, “if you’re already weary of waiting for the next heir to grow up.”
“What concerns me,” said Elidon, “is how she has been raised.” When Taro rumbled in annoyance, she continued, “Oh, spare me your protests! You know as well as I do that Romelle has had almost no attention to spare for the girl in the past three years! Natalie has hardly ever been at court, she is shy and difficult around strangers, and she is almost as wild as a girl who has been raised by animals! She could be trained and molded, perhaps, but not by Romelle. If we choose her, she must come to Chialto—and I must be the one to prepare her for her role.”
There was a short silence while everyone imagined what that would be like. Corene looked over at Josetta with one expressive glance. Nobody deserves such a dreadful fate. Josetta was certain they weren’t the only two thinking it.
“Then we are down to two,” Darien said at last.
Everyone was staring at Corene and Josetta.
“Either one would be acceptable,” Taro said. “Either one has always been acceptable.”
“Corene has the fire, but Josetta has the vision,” Mirti said.
“Corene is too reckless and Josetta is too cautious, but those are both faults that could be balanced by thoughtful advisors,” Elidon added.
As if we aren’t actually sitting here! Josetta thought indignantly.
“Josetta is the eldest,” Nelson said. “Just as Kayle said.”
Taro gazed at him with contempt. “So now you’ll back your dead brother’s daughter. Still looking for that Ardelay advantage.”
“If you don’t want my input at all, just say so,” Nelson shot back. “If you’re going to question my motives every time I offer an opinion—”
“I question everyone’s motives every time anyone offers an opinion,” Elidon interrupted. “Everyone has some self-interest at play. The trick is to set that aside as much as possible to consider the welfare of the kingdom.”
“Well, I don’t know why Welce even needs a king or queen,” Kayle said, his voice petulant. “I mean, we haven’t had one for five years—longer, if you add in Vernon’s final years on the throne—and we’ve managed just fine, haven’t we?”
Mirti cast him a look of irritation. “We’ve been governed by a regent and an advisory council as we waited for the heir to grow to a suitable age.”
“And the regent and the council have managed just fine, haven’t they?” Kayle repeated. “There’s been no civil discord. There’s been no financial crisis. We’ve treated and traded with foreign nations. Why do we need someone to sit on the throne?”
“Well, because—” Elidon began, and then stopped. Mirti was frowning, and Nelson looked thunderstruck. Taro and even Darien looked as if they were having trouble processing what he’d said.
Zoe, of course, was laughing. “Kayle raises an interesting point,” she said. “Do we need a royal ruler for Welce? Can the primes and selected advisors adequately manage the kingdom?”
“You are talking about overthrowing an entire government and starting from scratch,” Darien said. Josetta thought he actually sounded breathless. “You would need—systems for choosing advisors and guidelines for when to get rid of them. And you would need—you would need—a constitution of some sort, a document, rules that everyone agreed to. And you would need to determine who would vote on this government. And you would need—everything. You would need to redo it all.”
“He’s right. It’s too much work,” Kayle said.
But the others were shaking their heads, looking at each other with a certain degree of speculation. “It’s certainly worth considering,” Taro said. “It would save all this nonsense about choosing an heir.”
“There would be just as much scheming and maneuvering,” Nelson warned. “I am not the only one constantly jockeying for adv
antage! A throne changes hands once every two or three generations, if you’re lucky. But an elected government—well—that can turn over every few years.”
“Yes, but the primes stay in place for decades, usually,” Elidon pointed out. “They would provide a great deal of stability on any council.”
“So who would be eligible to take a seat in this governing body?” Mirti asked. “How long would they stay? What would they be empowered to do?”
“All of that would have to be decided,” Darien said. “It is a monumental task.”
“Well, we are intelligent people,” Elidon said. “I think we’re up to the challenge.”
• • •
The debate was not nearly done by the time servants began bringing in luncheon trays. Josetta imagined it might go on for days, as the primes and their advisors hammered out the details of what a new government might look like. She formally asked to be excused and Corene hastily jumped up beside her, equally eager to escape. Darien caught Josetta’s wrist as she brushed past him on her way to the door.
“Don’t think you’re out of this—either of you,” he said. “You’re both too important to Welce, even if you’re just very visible figureheads. Don’t think you’ll be running off to live in obscurity somewhere.”
“You read my mind,” Josetta said, and Corene merely smirked.
Two steps out of the room, Josetta inhaled deeply and said, “I can hardly breathe in there. Let’s get out of here before Darien finds a reason to call us back. Where should we go?”
“Like I said. The river flats.”
“Let’s do it.”
They made a quick detour through the kitchen, where the cooks packed them a light lunch, and picked up Foley as they were crossing the courtyard. He commandeered a small elaymotive and drove them down the winding mountain road that served the palace, and from there they followed the Cinque to the river flats. Josetta was practically starving by the time they parked as close as they could to the wide, depressed stone apron that fanned off from the Marisi here on the lowest corner of Chialto.