So they headed for the wedding chamber. They followed a secluded route through the palace that few people knew and even fewer had clearance to use. The floors were laid with hexagonal tiles in snow-marble and black diamond. Tessellated mosaics tiled the walls and sparkled in the groined ceilings far overhead.
Jai heard the pounding of booted feet just before a formation of Razers burst out of a side corridor. No one spoke, but he could tell the newcomers were communicating with his guards using wireless implants in their brains, a sort of crude, technology-induced telepathy. Jai’s guards responded fast; two took his arms, one on either side, and two more grasped Corbal. They set off running, pulling Jai and Corbal with them.
“What’s going on?” Jai asked, forced into a run. His Razers suddenly felt more like kidnappers than bodyguards.
The captain on his left answered. “Palace security has been violated, Your Highness. We are taking you and Lord Xir to safety.”
Ah, hell. “Safety where?”
Corbal raked his gaze over the new guards running with them. “You’re part of the Special Operations Cordite Team.”
One of the new Razers said, “That is correct, Lord Xir.”
Jai didn’t know which irked him more, that Corbal had interrupted him or that Jai had no idea what “Cordite Team” meant. They all raced down the hall: Jai, Corbal, both teams of Razers, and Robert, who was guarded by two Cordites.
A boom thundered deeper within the palace. The floor shook and Jai stumbled, lurching into the captain of his Razers.
“My apologies.” The captain steadied Jai as they ran, helping him regain his balance. Corbal and his guards were ahead now. Despite his age, Corbal was barely out of breath, his body obviously bio-enhanced for speed and strength.
As Jai pulled up alongside the Xir lord, Corbal glanced at him. “That blast came from the Hall of Octagons.”
Jai felt ill. His wedding was supposed to be in the Hall of Octagons. He spoke to the captain, spacing his words between breaths. “Any contact—with Minister Iquar?”
“The last we knew,” the captain said, “her retinue was headed for the Hall. We can no longer contact them.”
“Why the hell not?” Corbal was starting to sound winded. “This place is packed with security.”
“Whoever infiltrated the palace has sophisticated enough jammers to block our systems,” the captain said.
Jai felt the blood drain from his face. Security here was the best ESComm had to offer. Either someone had developed better, which meant his safety was severely compromised, or else this attack came from within ESComm, which would be even worse. Speaking sharply to the captain, he repeated his earlier question. “Where are you taking us?”
“To a safe room, Your Highness.” He sounded more like a machine than a man, with no trouble breathing despite their grueling pace. Jai didn’t think he wanted to know how much augmentation the captain had in his body. He preferred to believe his bodyguards were human.
The floor suddenly bucked under Jai’s feet, throwing him forward. As he hit the ground, Razers dropped all around him, covering him with their armored bodies, bracing themselves on their arms so they didn’t crush him. For interminable seconds, the ground heaved and debris showered over them.
Then they were scrambling to their feet, with dust and powder swirling in the air. As the two Razers grabbed Jai’s arms again, a medic ran a scanner over his body. “Bruises, scrapes, and a broken rib. He can run.”
Jai didn’t even feel the injured rib. His adrenaline drove him forward as they scrambled over debris that seconds ago had been a corridor. Corbal had been farther from the blast and wasn’t hurt, but Jai didn’t see Robert. Looking around, he caught sight of his aide following them, bracketed by two Razers. So he took off, running hard with his guards.
Within moments they cleared the worst of the wreckage. The Razers pulled them into a corridor that sloped downward. Jai was gasping now, choked by all the dust. He could hear Corbal’s breath rattling as well.
They rounded a corner—into a dead end. Jai swore and started to turn back, but his guards stopped him. Several Razers were crouching on the floor, pushing tiles in quick succession, like bankers entering a code into a vault. The pressure of their minds combined with the swirling dust made Jai feel suffocated. He struggled to breathe, holding one hand over his ribs, which had begun to ache.
One of the Razers looked around, his forehead furrowed. The captain grunted, then shook his head as if to clear it. Dismayed, Jai realized he wasn’t damping his empathic responses enough. His discomfort was causing the Razers to transcend, probably at too low a level for them to realize it, but enough to distract them.
Jai’s fear surged, and this time it had nothing to do with explosions or dead ends. His fear of discovery outweighed it all. He intensified his mental barriers, buttressing his mind until he felt walled into a mental vault. The world became muffled, distant, not fully perceived. His mind was sluggish. Heavy.
“That’s it!” As the Razer spoke, a circular section of the floor began to descend.
Jai’s guards pulled him forward, fast and efficient. The circular plug was big enough for nearly everyone to fit onto it, though they had to leave two Razers behind. As they all crowded together, the plug sank into a chute of diamond-steel composite. Watching the walls slide past, Jai battled his shortness of breath. Razers hulked around him, shielding his body. Even through his deadened thoughts, their minds pressed on him, relentless.
The light faded. With growing apprehension, Jai looked up and saw a cover closing over the chute. Claustrophobia hit him like a jolt. When the chute became completely dark, he wanted to scream and pound the walls. He could almost feel the palace exploding above them, collapsing this chute, burying them in tons of rubble.
He didn’t scream. It took every shred of his control, but he kept his voice calm. “How far down does this go?”
“It isn’t far, Your Highness.” That came from a Razer, the captain maybe, though Jai couldn’t see in the dark.
So they descended.
The chute suddenly ended, and the plug continued to descend, lowering into a cavern lit in the center by harsh lights. Machines hulked in the shadows beyond, rank upon rank of robots, from small cleaning droids to military strikers that stood at twice the height of a man on their segmented legs.
Rails had risen around the circumference of the plug while it descended, protecting them from falling off as it came down to the cavern floor. When it reached the ground, Jai closed his eyes in gratitude. He opened them immediately, as Razers guided him off the plug. When he tried to pull away, they wouldn’t let go. He looked around for Robert; his aide was behind him, between two Razers.
Jai didn’t know what Robert saw in his face, but as soon as their gazes met, the aide strode forward. With deft confidence, he insinuated himself between Jai and the Razers and maneuvered Jai away from his guards. Robert even evaded Corbal, who had been closing in on Jai from the left.
As they drew ahead of the others, the pressure on Jai’s mind became more manageable. He spoke in a low voice. “Thank you.”
“It is my honor.”
They were crossing a floor made from a steel-diamond composite. Robert stopped at a platform piled with crates and pulled out a chair with nervoplex padding. Jai hated nervoplex; it responded to his every move as if it were alive. He shook his head and sat on the edge of the platform instead, planting his well-shod feet on the floor. Resting his elbows on his knees, he lowered his head and drew in a shaky breath.
“Are you all right?” Robert asked.
Jai looked up. Robert had sat down on the platform, but not too close. Several hundred meters away, Corbal was speaking with the captain. The other Razers had dispersed throughout the cavern, some guarding Jai, others at consoles. One was running checks on a suit of power-armor, what ESComm commandos sometimes wore, becoming the walking fortresses known as waroids.
The group of Razers closest to Jai, including the medic,
were speaking among themselves and checking palmtops, but Jai knew they were also keeping watch on him. The medic would want to treat his injuries. Had Jai been in any more serious trouble, he doubted they would have waited for his permission to approach.
“Your Highness?” Robert sounded worried.
Jai glanced at him. “I am fine.”
“Shall I bring the medic?”
“Not yet. Catch your breath.”
Resting his elbows on his knees, Robert clasped his hands. “It is my honor to serve Your Highness.”
“You always say that.” Jai spoke tiredly. “Everyone does. It loses its meaning.”
“I regret if it sounds false.” Robert seemed genuinely troubled. “Please be assured of my sincerity.”
Guilt tugged at Jai. When he eased his barriers, he could read Robert’s moods like holos in an open book. He knew his aide had never been anything but loyal.
Jai spoke quietly. “I greatly value your fidelity.”
Robert’s troubled expression calmed, but his worry for Jai didn’t fade. He glanced at the medic and beyond to where Corbal was conferring with the captain. Jai knew he should be over there, taking charge. But even if he could have endured so many Aristos up close, he wasn’t as well qualified as Corbal to deal with the situation. If he survived long enough, he would gain experience with Aristo culture, but he didn’t see how he would ever adapt to their cutthroat politics. He had begun to question whether he could truly function as emperor. He had no wish to adopt Highton mores or motivations. No doubt the Aristos would consider him hopelessly unsophisticated, but he had liked himself better before he became one of them in name, if not in his heart.
Jai inhaled deeply, trying to calm his agitation, then winced as pain shot through his torso.
“Your Highness.” Robert watched him with concern. “May I allow the medic to approach?”
“All right.” He couldn’t put it off forever. “Send the captain over too. I would like a report on the situation.”
“Yes, sir.” With obvious relief, Robert jumped up and bowed, then strode over to the medic. They conferred, and the medic headed toward Jai while Robert went on to where Corbal stood with the captain.
Jai steeled himself as the medic approached. After the requisite kneeling, the doctor stood and unhooked a holotape from his belt. “May I do a scan, Your Highness?”
“Yes. Certainly.” Jai wondered if it seemed as surreal to the medic as it did to him that they needed his permission to heal him. That was only true up to a point, though; if his life were in danger, they would save him first and apologize for touching his imperial personage later.
The medic sat on the platform and unrolled the tape. But when he tried to lay it against Jai’s neck, Jai jerked back, his reflexes kicking in before he could control them.
The doctor took his emperor’s peculiar behavior in stride. Instead of setting the tape against Jai’s neck, he pushed up the sleeve of Jai’s tunic and laid the tape on his forearm. Holos formed above it, views of Jai’s upper body: bones, organs, circulation, and more. The broken rib showed in his skeleton. Strange, that. He felt relatively little pain. Perhaps he had too much adrenaline pumping through his body to register how much he hurt.
The medic took an air-syringe off his belt and dialed in some drug Jai hoped would make him numb, not for the rib but because of how the Aristos and Razers affected his mind.
As the medic treated him, Jai stared out at the cavern. Seeing him, Corbal lifted his hand. Then the Xir lord approached, with the Razer captain at his side. Jai didn’t know much about the captain except that he was the son of a Red-Point Diamond Aristo and one of her providers. Razers rarely if ever used names; it had taken Jai weeks to find out that some people called this one Redson.
The captain bowed to him. “I am gratified to see you looking so well, Your Highness.”
Jai was tempted to say, I look like hell. Instead, he spoke in his carefully cultured Highton voice. “Thank you. Do you have information for me on this disruption?”
The captain glanced at Corbal, who inclined his head. Jai gritted his teeth. His Razers ought to ask his permission to speak to Corbal, not the reverse.
Redson did address Jai with deference, though. “It appears a traitor within the palace has given Qox security codes to another Highton Line. We are tracking the leak.”
Jai relaxed his barriers enough to absorb a sense of Redson’s mind. The captain had no idea what had happened, but he dreaded telling Jai, whose grandfather had thrown people in prison for having the wrong answers. Jai wanted to heave his purportedly revered ancestors into the ocean for making it near to impossible to do this job. How did they expect their staff to operate when everyone was afraid of being drawn and quartered for failing to achieve the impossible?
“Let me know as soon as you find out more.” Jai feared the answer to his next question. “Has anyone been hurt?” Like Tarquine.
“We have reports that four taskmakers were killed in the explosions,” the captain said. “Sixteen injured.”
Heaviness settled over Jai. “We must take care of the families of those who were lost.”
Redson blinked. “Yes, sir.” He seemed surprised to have the emperor concern himself with the loss.
The captain still hadn’t told him what he wanted to know. Jai gave up trying to be oblique. “And Minister Iquar?”
“We believe she is safe,” Redson assured him. We haven’t a damned clue, he thought, with so much apprehension that Jai picked up the actual words.
Jai didn’t think he could live with himself if his attempt to marry Tarquine had caused her death. “Has anyone been apprehended? Any more explosions?”
“No more explosions,” Redson said.
Jai noticed what he didn’t say. “Do you have any idea who set the blasts?”
Sweat sheened the captain’s forehead. “We have many promising leads.”
In other words, they had no clue. Jai suspected that no matter what he asked, the guards wouldn’t admit their uncertainty. Their apprehension was too ingrained. “Very well. Let me know how the leads turn out.”
Redson bowed. “Most assuredly, Your Glorious Highness.”
Jai lifted his hand, dismissing the captain. Corbal was standing back, watching, but he didn’t interfere. As Redson returned to confer with his team, Jai raised his mental barriers again, with relief. Whatever painkiller the medic had given him, it wasn’t enough to mute the headache caused by his exposure to Aristo minds.
Jai couldn’t fathom how Aristos could bear to live this way, stiff and formal, with assassination just around the corner. They seemed to have no real friendships, the kind where you just enjoyed each other’s company, laughed about nothing, and trusted each other. He felt sorry for the Highton children growing up in this chill, deadly atmosphere. No wonder they turned out so strange as adults.
And yet . . .
Jai knew his father had treasured his memories of Ur Qox, Jai’s grandfather. Ur Qox had secluded his son in childhood, determined to protect his heir. Incredible as it seemed, he had loved his Ruby telepath son.
Jai laid his palm against his ribs. He felt no pain at all. His head hurt more from the presence of the half-Aristo medic. He inclined his head to the doctor. “You have done a fine job. You may go now.”
“But I should—” He stopped when Jai scowled at him. “Of course, Your Highness.” The doctor withdrew, leaving Jai with Corbal, which Jai doubted was likely to help his blood pressure. At least his bodyguards were standing far enough back to respect his reputed idiosyncratic need to surround himself with empty space.
Corbal frowned. “Good health benefits a sovereign.”
“I was tired of being poked.” Jai spoke bluntly, even for kin-speech. “They have no idea who tried to blow me up, do they?”
Corbal sighed. “Do you know, Cousin, you might be more successful if you learned to master the intricacies of proper speech.”
“The hell with proper speech. I want to
know who tried to kill us.”
“Antagonizing people isn’t the way to find out.”
“Who do you think did it?”
Corbal finally relented. “Probably Raziquon’s kin.”
“I should think they would be relieved he is away.” He had ordered Raziquon put into a real prison, with no luxuries, servants, providers, or any other privileges such as Corbal had enjoyed during his ESComm custody, the pleasures an Aristo took for granted. “Now they don’t have to put up with him.”
“Jaibriol.”
“Jaibriol, what? The man is insane.”
“He is perfectly sane.” Corbal’s manner cooled. “Questions of sanity are far more likely to arise over your behavior.”
“He deserves to be in prison.”
“You didn’t have enough evidence.”
“I had Sunrise’s testimony.”
“She is a provider.”
“So?”
Corbal made an incredulous noise. “You are hopeless.”
Jai crossed his arms. “If his kin killed Tarquine, I will execute Raziquon.”
“Don’t be a fool.”
“Damn it, Corbal, she is my wife.”
“Not yet.”
Jai clenched his fists. “For all I know, you set this up to stop the marriage.”
Corbal raised an eyebrow. “Setting up my own death would be rather ill considered on my part.”
“You don’t look dead to me.”
“We were lucky.”
“Maybe.” Jaibriol stood up, wincing as pain stabbed his torso. “But this assassination is more Xirad Kaliga’s style. He framed you in his own home.”
“You have no proof of that, either.”
“He did it, Corbal. You know it. The only reason he isn’t in prison, too, is because you interfered when I tried to put him there.”
His cousin shook his head. “Don’t be foolish. Kaliga controls ESComm. Push him, and you’re pushing the entire military. Take on your Joint Commanders and you won’t survive a day.”
Before Jai could respond, a rumble vibrated through the floor. Jai froze, his pulse surging as he imagined the cavern collapsing. Then he realized the rumble came from the plug that had brought them here. Slowly and smoothly, it rose from the floor, ascending until it disappeared into the chute in the ceiling.