In what my mother had said was one more indication of my poor judgment, I’d always been fond of the priest who was in charge of the family temple at night. Since I was a member of the royal family, it would have been more proper for me to associate with the Mother Superior, but I—and my sisters—found a better connection with the kindly old man than the stiff and oh-so-formal head of the Indranan Church.
I couldn’t afford to let my grief show for long and clung to the old priest for only a moment before I released him and stepped away.
“Father, what is going on?”
Black eyes flicked to my BodyGuards and then nervously back to me. “Not in the open, child. Even in this temple the things said reach more ears than just the gods’.”
Translation: We were being watched. But by whom?
“Highness, we should go.” Emmory’s voice was pitched low and his hand was on my arm. Again.
I reacted without thinking, managing only at the last second to change from a jaw-breaking punch to an open-handed slap. Mourning powder mixed with the blood from my palm glittered in a streak over his skin like diamonds on satin.
Emmory didn’t react. Zin gaped at us, the look on his face clear that he was torn between defending his partner or keeping his mouth shut.
I was going to have to apologize for this anyway, so I settled on the option most likely to make anyone watching think I was still a spoiled princess, even after all my time away.
“I haven’t asked for your counsel, Ekam, and you do not order me around.”
Father Westinkar also looked between us, his black eyes wide in his wrinkled face. I kept my gaze locked on Emmory until he dropped his head in a barely civil bow I hoped was an act.
“My apologies, Highness,” he said, raising his head. “I am concerned for your safety.”
“Be as concerned as you want, Emmory. I have known Father Westinkar my whole life. He will not harm me. From now on, unless I’m actually in danger… you keep your hands to yourself.”
“Yes, Highness.”
I smiled at Father Westinkar and looped my arm through his, walking him away from my sisters’ bodies and toward the fountain on the far side of the temple. The water should hide our conversation. “I’m sorry, Father. We’re still working out the kinks in the chain of command.”
The old priest’s mouth twitched as though he was holding in a burst of laughter. Then he sobered, and said, “Before she lost her voice, Pace asked me to give you this—when you came home.” He held out the charm suspended on a silver chain, a polished piece of shell wrapped in silver. It had a pearly sheen, and a thin spiral decorated the surface.
For an instant the world narrowed down to the space around the gently swinging necklace. I froze in the act of reaching for it, a thousand thoughts colliding in my head, all of them screaming for precedence. I took it, blinking away the image of my sister’s face, and hugged Westinkar again.
“Thank you.”
“When was the last time you spoke to a priest?”
“The day before I left home when I came to see you.”
That wasn’t technically true. A drunken, excommunicated cleric from the Holy Roman Republic was the last priest I’d talked with some six months ago, but I was pretty sure that wasn’t what Father Westinkar meant since our conversation revolved around how the man had been dishonorably discharged for leaving his post during a firefight.
“There is more I must tell you, but we need to be careful.” His whispered words were right against my ear and I stiffened.
“Highness, we should go.” Emmory didn’t grab me, but he was hovering so close I could feel his warmth through the heavy fabric of my sari.
I pulled away from Father Westinkar and looped the silver chain around my wrist so that it tangled with the leather already in place. Folding my hands, I bowed to him. “Thank you, Father.”
He laid a gnarled hand on my head. “Bless you, child. I know you have had a long journey. I am sure the Mother Superior won’t mind if I excuse you from Light Mass this morning.”
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak, and with a final bow, turned and walked away.
The other BodyGuards were absent when we got back to my rooms. This time I stood quietly in the hallway with Cas and Zin while Emmory and Jet checked out the premises. When the all-clear sounded, I brushed past them all and headed for my bedroom without looking up.
I closed the door with a snap, cursed at my empty room as images replayed themselves, and jerked it back open.
“You two, in here.”
“Highness, I apologize—”
“Stow it, Emmory. You’re only apologizing because Zin just elbowed you,” I said with a laugh. “Close the door.” Turning my back on them, I unwound the sari. The patterns woven into the fabric caught my fingertips and I traced them absently as I stared unseeing at the floor and tried to collect my thoughts.
Rock and a fucking hard place, Cressen. Get a hammer.
“Or a plasma pistol,” I muttered under my breath.
“Highness?”
“Sorry. Are we clear here? Or is someone listening in?” I shook my head and folded the fabric over a hanger, smoothing the wrinkles out to give my hands something to do.
“We’re clear, Highness.” Emmory turned his palms up, revealing the jamming device lodged in the wrist of his glove. It was flashing a series of green lights. “I haven’t had a chance to check out all the surveillance on your rooms, but for now I can ensure at least a few minutes of privacy.”
“I’m the one who needs to apologize. I’m sorry I hit you.”
“It was your right, Highness.”
“Oh, cowshit,” I tossed back at him and he raised an eyebrow at me. “I’m on a hair trigger here and hit you because you grabbed me. I shouldn’t have, you’re trying to do your job, and it’s my job to make that easier, not harder.”
“I figured as much.”
It was my turn for an eyebrow. A smile flickered at the corner of Emmory’s mouth and then vanished.
“I did apologize because Zin elbowed me, Highness. I realized what you were doing when you slapped me instead of punched me. Zin didn’t. Close your mouth and keep up.” He reached out and tapped Zin’s chin.
“I hate you both,” Zin muttered, then flushed. “I’m sorry, Highness, I didn’t mean—”
I raised a hand, cutting him off. “I need something from you two. I know offering unsolicited advice is against your nature, but—” I cocked an eyebrow at Zin’s suspicious coughing fit. “I need you to be honest with me. This isn’t going to work otherwise. We’re soldiers, you and I. I need truth from you. Show me deference in public, whatever you need to do to play with these cowshit societal expectations of men keeping their mouths shut, but in private, I need to know you’re not just agreeing with me to be polite.”
Emmory, unsurprisingly, didn’t even blink. “Done, Highness.” He glanced at Zin and the pair shared one of those silent conversations that longtime partners often have. Zin nodded at me in wordless agreement.
“I need to get up to speed. I’ve been gone for a long time.” I blew out a breath and forced a smile. “Which—” I stopped when Emmory raised a hand.
“Highness, Bial is here. Cas said he’s asking to see you,” Emmory said.
Sleep was apparently not in the cards right now. I hung up my sari in the wardrobe and started for the main room, but Zin stopped me with a half smile and a circle of his hand around his face. “Bad?” I asked and he nodded.
“I’ll clean up. Have Bial wait in the main room. Are we sure he’s not asking to see Emmory?”
“Yes, Highness,” Emmory said, heading for the door. “Take your time. He can wait.”
I didn’t dawdle, but I did make sure every trace of my smeared makeup was off my face before I came into the main room.
And found myself facing not Bial, but Matriarch Desai, Dr. Satir, and a man my smati labeled as Prime Minister Phanin.
Zin and Jet were in the room, as was Nal. Emmory wasn’t anywhere in sight, and since Cas was absent, I assumed my baby-faced Guard was getting his ass chewed for not telling Emmory how many people were actually at the door and for not announcing the matriarch properly.
Awkward.
Equally awkward was the fact that one of the matriarch’s BodyGuards had come into my rooms with her and stood at her side with her hand on her gun. Nal was blank-faced over the obvious breech of protocol, but my other two Guards wore looks of stone-faced fury.
Bial and Emmory came into the room, my Ekam’s jaw tight as he crossed to me. I glanced his way only briefly, folding my arms over my chest and flicking my gaze at the others one by one. I finished, deliberately, on Desai’s BodyGuard. Gun or no gun, I could take the young woman apart and we both knew it. I let a smile spread over my face and everyone except the Guards at my back shifted uncomfortably.
“So we’re starting things off on the wrong foot bringing armed Guards into my living quarters. Emmory, an explanation?”
“I objected, Highness.”
“And I overruled him, Princess,” Bial said, somehow managing to make my title almost an insult. “The matriarch’s Guard insisted on accompanying her and I felt—given your history—it was for the best.”
I was a little startled that the choked-off snarls behind me were from both Zin and Emmory, but thankfully neither of them spoke.
I laughed. “That was a neatly dressed insult, Bial. But we don’t need to stand on ceremony here; you can just say it’s because I used to be a gunrunner.”
Twitching my skirts out of the way, I took two steps until I was in his face. “It’s the truth, so it’s not much of an insult as they go. You know what insults me more? That you think you had the right to overrule my Ekam when it came to my personal safety and break the law by allowing someone armed into my fucking living quarters.” I dropped my voice to a whisper and watched him flinch. “Don’t fool yourself into thinking I am some uncultured gunrunner. Where I have been and what I have been doing since I left home haven’t changed my blood. I am a Bristol, a princess of the empire. Don’t think that I don’t know the laws that were hammered into my head from before I would walk. And don’t think, for one second, that I won’t hesitate to shoot you myself if you break them again. Am I understood?”
“Yes, Highness.”
“Good. I’m going to assume we don’t actually need you for anything. Get out of my rooms.”
“Princess Hailimi.” Clara Desai, an older woman built like a DLine pro-baller, smiled and folded her hands together as she bowed. I remembered being terrified of her as a child and how Mother would frequently threaten to bring Desai in to discipline us if we wouldn’t behave.
Clara was the head of the Matriarch Council, the fourteen women—one from each of the founding families—who would approve me as heir.
“Matriarch Desai.” I dipped my head. “With my apologies, we can either move this meeting to another venue, or for the sake of my Ekam’s blood pressure, I’m going to have to insist the law is upheld. Your BodyGuard can either leave or present her weapons to my man at the door.”
Clara studied me for a moment, her eyes dark in a smooth face that belied her age, and then nodded. “Trisa, wait outside, please.”
“Ma’am—”
“Don’t argue with me. I’d like to think at least one of the BodyGuards in the room is capable of following orders without fussing over it. I’m perfectly safe, and I’m sure the prime minister will jump to my defense if necessary.”
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.
“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.