She pushed back tendrils of yellow and gray hair that had escaped the roll on her head. “I can’t say for certain.”
“Then guess.”
“I’ve seen this technique before. Diamond Aristos in Sapphire Sector use it to control their taskmakers.” The doctor hesitated. “I suppose that doesn’t make much sense.”
“Unfortunately it does.” Tarquine was siphoning millions out of Sapphire Sector. Jai rose to his feet, then grabbed the doctor’s shoulder as dizziness swept over him. After his head steadied, he took a long breath and let go of her shoulder. Qoxdaughter stared at him in undisguised shock. Even through his fortified barriers, he caught her thought; she wouldn’t have expected him even to touch a taskmaker, let alone lean on her for support.
Jai inclined his head to her. Then, motioning to Robert, he set off down the hall. Robert hurried after with him. “Your Highness, you mustn’t push yourself so hard after such an attack.”
Jai scowled. “I have business to take care of.”
Robert continued to protest, but Jai refused to slow down. His bodyguards and Dr. Qoxdaughter caught up and kept pace with them, but no one attempted to stop him, which was a good thing, because in the mood he was in right now, Jai thought he might have punched anyone who tried.
Jai would have slammed open the door to Tarquine’s office if it had been slammable, rather than a molecular airlock that remained solid until he approached, at which time it shimmered and vanished. Actually, it underwent a change in molecular configuration that made it transparent and permeable to humans. It was impressively effective in ensuring no unwanted gases seeped into the office, but a dud when it came to door-banging.
Inside, Tarquine was standing behind her desk, studying a holomap. As Jai strode in, she looked at him over the map. “Did we have an appointment?”
“What?” Jai demanded. “I need an appointment to see my wife? I don’t think so.” He stalked to her desk and smacked a panel on its surface, making the map vanish. “Someone just tried to assassinate me. It might be the Diamond Aristos in Sapphire Sector. Surely you remember them.”
Tarquine looked around the office, at the many Razers, the medic, and a very agitated Robert. “Is that why you’ve acquired all these alarmed looking people?”
“I’m not the only one who has acquired them.” Jai swung around to the Razer captain. “See that my wife is protected.”
The Razer nodded. “We are on alert status four right now, Your Highness. The palace is secured. No one can enter or leave, and we’ve stepped up protection for both you and Empress Tarquine.”
“Do it for Lord Xir, too,” Jai said. Corbal was staying at the palace, supposedly to get to know Jai better, though Jai knew perfectly well his cousin was keeping an eye on Tarquine.
As the captain spoke into his gauntlet comm, Jai turned back to Tarquine. “For some reason the Aristos in Sapphire Sector aren’t happy. I can’t imagine why.”
Her gaze turned icy. “I’m not that easy to kill.”
“Neither am I. That hasn’t stopped people from trying.” He wanted to shake her. “Gods, Tarquine, we can’t keep turning the palace into an armed camp.”
She regarded him with a scrutiny that would have bored a hole through him if it had been a laser. “We?”
“Yes, we.”
“I’ve no idea what you mean.”
Jai threw his hands up into the air. “Of course not! What was I thinking? You’re just in here planning balls and galas like a nice empress.”
Unexpectedly, she smiled. “No, I suppose not.”
“We have to do something about Sapphire Sector.”
“I agree.”
That was a surprise. “Any ideas?”
Her voice hardened. “I rather liked your solution with Raziquon.”
Jai stared at her, a lock of his hair falling over his forehead. “You want me to throw the entire Diamond Coalition in prison? On what the hell grounds?”
“They tried to kill you. I should think that is grounds enough.”
“And I convict them on what evidence?”
“A lack of evidence didn’t stop you with Raziquon.”
“I had evidence there. Sunrise’s testimony. I don’t have any now.”
Her calm demeanor didn’t show the slightest crack. “I’m sure you can find some.”
“You’re out of your mind.”
“You have a better idea?”
“Yes. Give Sapphire Sector back its platinum.”
Her laugh held no hint of humor. “You’ve a sharp wit.”
He braced his fists on her desk, resting his weight on them as he leaned toward her. “How many more of your deals are going to blow up in our faces?”
“You would let these cowardly attackers send you running?” She crossed her arms. “You shame your ancestors.”
“Bullshit.” Jai met her gaze. “If it wasn’t for my esteemed ancestors and their wonko ideas about how to run things, we wouldn’t have to live this way, always afraid of assassins, crooks, and torturers.”
“Bullshit? Wonko?” She put one hand on her hip. “What do these words mean?”
“It’s retro-slang from—oh, never mind.” Reminding her that only a few months ago he had been in high school was hardly going to increase his influence now. He pushed away from the desk and paced across the office. The Razers were checking the room, and Robert stood by the door, waiting. Dr. Qoxdaughter kept a discreet distance, but Jai could tell she was monitoring both him and Tarquine.
Jai stopped in front of the Razer captain. “Any news on my cousin, Lord Xir?”
The captain somehow straightened even more, though that seemed impossible given his already rigid posture. “Your Most Glorious Highness—” Then he cleared his throat.
Ah, hell. “What’s wrong?”
“Lord Xir left the palace just before you were attacked.”
“Well, well,” Tarquine murmured.
Ignoring her, Jai pushed the lock of hair off his forehead. “Where is he?”
“We’re searching for him.” The captain’s mind leaked fatalism; he fully expected Jai to punish him for delivering such unpleasant news. “Lord Xir received a transmission through the Kyle web before he left.”
Jai stiffened. Although the web was slowly coming back up, it was still rare for Eubians to receive messages through it. They had access to the webs only on the sufferance of the Skolians. No Aristo would put up with the humiliation of requesting Skolian help unless the message was important and worth that humbling price. “Do you have a record of it?”
The captain shook his head. “The message was too well secured. However, Security did trace the transmission. It originated in Sapphire Sector.”
“How inconvenient for Corbal,” Tarquine said.
Jai swung around and scowled at her. “Stop it.”
“Your loyalty is charming, Husband. Fatal, too.”
He went over to her desk. “Corbal wouldn’t be this obvious.”
To his surprise, she nodded in the Highton style that indicated she agreed with him. “He may be many things, most of them aggravating, but ‘obvious’ isn’t one of them.”
Jai blinked at her. Then he glanced at the captain. “Find Lord Xir.”
“Right away, Your Highness.”
“I doubt he’s still on the planet,” Tarquine said.
“Do you now?” Jai considered her. “How interesting.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Interesting?”
“That the Diamonds attacked me instead of you.”
“Perhaps my security is better than yours.”
“We have the same security.” He had no doubt she commanded resources neither he nor his staff knew about, but that didn’t matter. He had picked up what he needed from her mind: she hadn’t tried to murder him. If he hadn’t been a psion, he knew nothing could have appeased his doubts.
The Razer captain spoke. “Would you like us to take the empress into custody, Your Highness?”
Tarquine
gave the captain a forbidding stare. “You overstep yourself.”
Jai didn’t want her in custody; he needed her savvy if he intended to continue breathing. Of course his enemies wanted him to mistrust her. The Diamond Coalition had probably set her up, if they actually were the assassins and hadn’t been framed by someone else. Given all the schemes Aristos inflicted on one another, gods only knew who had done what.
To the captain he said only, “No, don’t take her into custody.” He gave Tarquine a measuring gaze. “You may be many things, my love, but ‘obvious’ isn’t one of them.”
A smile curved her lips. “You have wisdom.”
“Your Highness.” The captain sounded urgent.
Jai turned around. “Yes?”
“Security has located Lord Xir.”
The muscles in Jai’s back spasmed. They had become so tight, he wondered if they would ever relax again. “Go on.”
The captain kept his face neutral, as if he were dealing with explosives. “He went to the starport.”
“So.” Tarquine said more with that one word than an entire speech on betrayal.
Jai refused to believe Corbal was trying to escape. “Why did he go there?”
“We are checking,” the captain said.
“Yes, you do that,” Tarquine murmured, watching the Razer as if she were a hawk and he a rodent. “Take him into custody, Captain, just like you wanted to do with me.”
Jai gritted his teeth. He wanted to tell her to stop, but he couldn’t risk making her feel as if she had lost face in front of his staff. In the suffocating atmosphere, the minds of the Razers pressed on him. Resting his palms on Tarquine’s desk, he leaned his weight forward and dropped his head. “Go,” he said through clenched teeth. “All of you. Find Corbal and detain him.”
Robert cleared everyone away. Only half the guards left the room, but the rest doubled their distance from Jai. No one was imprudent enough to ask Tarquine to move. Jai could see her hand resting on the desk near his. He didn’t raise his head, though he knew she was seeing him fight an internal battle she could never understand. He told himself he didn’t care what she thought. His head throbbed and nausea rolled over him.
She spoke quietly. “Jaibriol?”
Lifting his head, he looked into her eyes. He expected to see scorn but found concern instead. It disconcerted him. He sensed how much she wanted to ask, What is it? But she held back, giving him the same face-saving respect he had given her. Gods willing, none of them would ever guess he couldn’t bear the Highton minds of his Razers. Tarquine was the only one he let stay with him, and she had more Highton lineage than any of his guards.
As Jai straightened up, the medic stepped toward him. He shook his head, stopping her advance. Nothing she could do would help. He felt trapped, with no escape.
None.
27
Accusations
Corbal waited in the arrivals lounge. In the distance, the spires of ships in dock gleamed against the sky. A magrail car was crossing the port. Most such cars followed a set route, picking up arrivals and delivering passengers, but Corbal had arranged for this one privately, to honor his guests.
As the car pulled up to the platform outside, Corbal went to the window with his bodyguards. Normally he would have sent an aide to the port to meet his business associates, but given the difficulties in this deal, he had come in person. The message from the Diamond Coalition had subtly indicated they would appreciate the implied honor.
A woman stepped out of the magcar, a taskmaker rather than the expected Diamond Aristo. Puzzled, Corbal went to the entrance. The wall there shimmered and vanished.
The taskmaker approached him and bowed deeply. “My honor at your presence, Lord Xir.”
“My Line gives you welcome.” Corbal considered her. “You represent the Diamond Coalition?”
“Yes, sir. My lords and ladies of the Coalition invite you to their yacht as an honored guest. They wish to express their appreciation for your diplomacy and expertise in restoring their confidence.” She indicated the car. “Please allow me to offer you transportation to their ship.”
Corbal hesitated. The invitation was well made, and he would enjoy a night hosted by Diamond Aristos in the fashionable hospitality of their yacht. It also boded well for the reestablishment of relations with the Coalition. But he didn’t like it. He couldn’t say why, but he didn’t trust the invitation.
“Your hosts are gracious,” he said. “Please extend my appreciation to them. It is with regret that I must decline; I have duties to the emperor I cannot miss.” He actually had nothing scheduled, but he needed only stop by Jai’s office to make his excuse real.
The woman flushed. Obviously she hadn’t expected a refusal. “Yes, of course, sir.”
After a few more exchanges, the aide boarded the magcar and departed. Deep in thought, Corbal crossed the lounge, flanked by his Razers. He couldn’t isolate why the invitation troubled him. It was something about the aide’s attitude, perhaps unintentional clues she gave with her tense posture. But clues to what?
Kelric felt the mind of the Ruby Pharaoh. Standing at a window of his home, contemplating the hills outside, he knew when she entered the gallery. He turned to see her walk out of the shadows. Wind gusted through the open windows, carrying the fresh smell of the hills and stirring her hair, which hung dark against her pale jumpsuit. She seemed ethereal, intangible. Decades before she ascended to the throne, she had been a renowned mathematician. Then she had focused her luminous intellect on the Kyle web. She might share authority with the Assembly now, but it was she who ruled the webs.
She joined him at the window. “My greetings, Kelric.” Her voice had a lyrically resonant quality.
“My greetings, Dehya.”
They stood together, gazing at the hills that rolled from the mansion down into the valley. Kelric felt at ease with the silence. When she was ready, she would speak.
“The Traders have moved against us,” she finally said.
He glanced at her. “How?”
“Their pirates boarded a Skolian yacht.” She turned to him. “They stole the ship, terrorized the passengers, and kidnapped a Skolian man named Jacques Ardoise.”
Kelric swore under his breath. With the peace talks set to begin in a few tendays, they and the Traders had kept an unspoken truce, neither side upsetting the precarious cease-fire that allowed the talks to proceed. This could collapse that fragile accord.
“Is Ardoise a psion?” Kelric asked.
Anger sparked in Dehya’s mind. “Yes.”
Damn. They would sell him as a provider, making this even worse. “Did the other passengers survive?”
“Yes, but they all suffered spiker injuries.”
He clenched his fist at his side. “We can’t allow this to pass.”
She pushed back tendrils of hair that had blown across her face. “The passengers said the pirates claimed to work for the Line of Xir. Corbal Xir.”
“The same Corbal Xir who would have become emperor if Jaibriol the Third hadn’t shown up?”
“Yes.” She sounded tired. “That Xir.”
Kelric leaned his arm against the top of the window and rested his forehead on his forearm, gazing at the pastoral valley outside, though its beauty no longer calmed him. They couldn’t talk peace with the Traders while Trader pirates terrorized Skolian citizens.
Security fliers apprehended Corbal when his hovercar was five kilometers from the port. Corbal sat, stiff and uneasy, while the captain of his bodyguards spoke with a Razer in one of the on-coming fliers. Corbal had never been so glad to have proof, in the log of his hovercar, that he was returning to the palace.
The fliers escorted them back. At the palace, aircraft and soldiers were on patrol everywhere. Laser systems blinked on the roof, and Corbal had no doubt many other defenses were activated. Vitar Bartholson, the head of palace Security, met them at the landing field. He treated Corbal with respect—and made him a prisoner. Corbal was heartily tired of
being taken into custody.
Security officers surrounded them as they walked through the palace. At least they headed for the suite where he and Sunrise were staying; if he had to be a prisoner, he preferred the familiarity of his own rooms and provider. He covertly studied Bartholson. According to the files compiled by Xir security, this Qox security chief was the half-Aristo son of Barthol Iquar, brother of the current empress and father of the previous empress.
Although Corbal didn’t want to speak first, his need to know what had happened outweighed his reticence. He could just ask Bartholson why the palace was under a lockdown, but the commander had enough status to merit a less direct approach, particularly given his control over the present situation.
“I would regret,” Corbal said, “to see any misfortune befall His Imperial Highness.”
“It would be unfortunate,” Bartholson said, meticulously neutral.
“Is His Highness well?”
Bartholson glanced at him. “Yes, sir. The assassination attempt failed.”
Hell and damnation. Corbal knew then that his decision to decline a visit to the Diamond yacht may have saved his life. If he had been discovered leaving the planet during an assassination attempt, the implication could have been deadly—for him.
With careful prodding, he convinced Bartholson to give him the details. They puzzled Corbal. Although it looked like the Diamonds had set him up, he didn’t believe it. The explanation was too convenient. How he was going to convince anyone else of that, and his innocence, remained to be seen.
Jai strode into Corbal’s suite, again wishing he could slam a door. Across the living room, Corbal was studying a wall-size holomap of the local starport.
“What the flaming hell were you thinking?” Jai demanded. “Why don’t you just shoot me, Corbal, and get it over with?”
His cousin turned, his body silhouetted against the holomap. “I would never bring harm to your person.” He even sounded sincere.
“I’m not talking about the fucking assassination attempt.”