Two days later I was hanging out in my apartment replying to comments on my Hansi account. Hao had always said I was good at interacting with people and the social media platform that dominated the empire was a perfect setting for me.
“Good afternoon, Mother,” I answered the pinging of my smati with a smile.
“Hailimi, you are confined to your quarters until I inform you otherwise.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” she snapped. “I am the empress. You are the heir only because I say so, and if you continue to be defiant and willfully disobedient, then I will not say so. You will be released from your rooms when you agree to provide this empire with what it needs—namely a daughter. And when you have provided us with that daughter, then you will be named heir.”
Bugger me. I almost spit out the curse, only just managing to hold it back behind my teeth. Thankfully, Mother clicked the vid off without saying anything else, leaving me staring at the wall. I sat there a moment, fury brewing an acid soup in my stomach, as I tried to digest the mess Mother had just thrown at me.
I shoved out of my chair, startling Alba with my sudden movement and the string of curses I finally released.
“Emmory!” I pushed past Zin on my way into the main room. “Where’s Emmory?” Without waiting for an answer, I headed to the bar in the corner. It was 1600, but I needed a drink.
“Highness?” Emmory appeared in the doorway.
“That b—” I swallowed back the insult that would likely have resulted in all of us getting shot along with the whiskey I’d just poured. “My empress-mother,” I said through gritted teeth as I struggled for composure. “Has just confined me to my rooms.”
“I know, Highness. I just got off the com with Bial. He tried to talk her out of it.”
“I’m sure that went over splendidly.” Pouring myself another drink, I tried to find the words I needed. I was going to have to tell Emmory about my little problem. “What in the hell precipitated that?”
Gods damn it, Hail. This is your out. Don’t you get it? Let Ganda be all prim and proper and locked in this place. You can go back to your old life.
Except I couldn’t. It was likely by now that everyone in the known universe knew who I was. I couldn’t go back to my old life. The stream of Cheng curses I spit into the air was particularly vile. Emmory didn’t flinch, but Zin’s gasp was strangled.
The ping interrupted my tirade. Rubbing a hand over my face, I took a drink and then answered the call connecting Emmory in as well so I wouldn’t have to repeat the conversation. “Good afternoon, Clara.”
“Your Highness, I just heard about your empress-mother’s order.” Matriarch Desai’s face was carved into a deep frown.
“Can you talk to her? There are slightly more important things to deal with right now. I have the lamp lighting tomorrow.”
Clara dipped her head in agreement. “Be that as it may, your empress-mother is not to be argued with.”
I could argue with her; it just wouldn’t end well. I made a face and dragged my hands through my hair.
“There isn’t anything I can do about the briefings, Your Highness. She’ll attend many of them, and obviously, if you were caught disobeying her orders, things could get worse. We have no idea what her reactions will be right now. However, your Ekam has pointed out, and I happen to agree with him, that having Ganda do the lamp lighting tomorrow will cause unnecessary confusion among the general population. You are the heir; whatever contentions exist between your empress-mother and yourself right now are not the real issue. She has already acknowledged you as heir, and though the Matriarch Council has not yet given their approval, it’s not something that can just be taken away.”
Clara looked away for a moment, her jaw set, and then sighed softly as she faced me again. “Indrana is unstable, Your Highness. The last thing we need right now is a debate about who belongs on the throne. Your empress-mother is no longer capable and we need a clear line of succession. I understand your hesitancy about providing an heir of your own, and I agree there are far too many other pressing issues at the moment. However, the Bristol line must continue. I suggest you start looking. At the very least it will help placate your empress-mother.
“You will do the lamp lighting tomorrow—that is an order from the council. If we get lucky, your empress-mother will slip back into her dementia for a while and it will pass unnoticed. Bial will do what he can to keep her from the news coverage for the day.”
“And if we’re not lucky?” I didn’t particularly want to be shot for doing what the council said.
“I will handle it.” Clara smiled, and for a moment she looked as tired as I felt.
“Thank you.” I rubbed at the back of my neck with my free hand. “I appreciate all your support here, Clara, you didn’t have to—”
“You are the heir, Your Highness. I was there when your empress-mother birthed you. I know you are her blood and I know you can rule this empire as well as your mother has.”
Her words were honest, not pandering or an attempt to curry favor with me. I was grateful for them but couldn’t find the words to say just how much.
Clara smiled again. “Your empress-mother didn’t say anything about you not being allowed visitors. If this stretches beyond today, I’ll see about sending someone to keep you up to date.”
I nodded and cut the connection. Alba was whispering quietly with Zin by the door and I could feel Emmory’s eyes on me as I wandered to the windows and cracked one open. Cold air rushed in, alleviating some of the claustrophobia that had already gripped me tight.
There was access to the tunnels my sisters and I had used for years to sneak out of the palace in these rooms. It was buried in the back of my wardrobe. If we needed to, we could still get out of here. The thought helped calm me down as much as the air did, or maybe it was the second glass of alcohol. I rolled the empty glass between my palms and watched the waves crash on the shore.
The words I needed wouldn’t come. How did one admit to being useless?
You’ll have to do something, Hail. There’s no point in a farce of a marriage since you can’t have a baby.
Cloning was illegal, but maybe I still had viable eggs in my damaged ovary and I could have a tubed baby. Tubed babies were commonplace in the Solarian Conglomerate, where women preferred to keep working rather than deal with the mess of pregnancy and childbirth. They claimed lost productivity wasn’t worth the experience.
In the empire it was frowned upon, especially among nobles, and I couldn’t think of a point in our history where the royal family had had to stoop to something so unnatural.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” I murmured.
“That they do, Highness.”
I jumped, squeezed my eyes shut, and cursed Emmory in Cheng. He laughed and said, “Actually, Highness, my grandfather was a very attractive man.”
“I shouldn’t be surprised you speak Cheng,” I replied and went back to watching the waves crash on the shore.
“Likewise, Highness. Your ability with languages puts mine to shame.”
I felt a smile hovering just out of reach, but didn’t look at Emmory as I asked, “How many do I have you beat by?”
“Three and a half,” he said. “I speak passable Svatir, but I’m not fluent in it.”
“The verb conjugations are a bitch.” I let my smile show as I glanced over at him. “And they’re so quick to take offense if you mess up. I guess I’m stuck in here for the day. Give the Guards a rest. I’m safe enough in my rooms with someone on the door, and if you leave someone in here with me, it’ll just make the rooms seem even smaller.”
“All right, Highness.”
I didn’t tease him for the lack of argument even though it surprised me. If I hadn’t been spinning possible solutions to this trouble with Mother, I probably would have realized what my Ekam was up to.
Cire had chosen better than she could have imagined, for there was no one better to find the people who murdered my sisters and my niece than Tracker Emmory Tresk.
The sun shone in a clear sky as I exited the aircar, smiling and waving to the crowd who’d gathered to see the flame lit. My BodyGuards followed in a tense formation around me, and I elbowed Jet lightly. “Smile, for fuck’s sake, you’re all scaring the crap out of people.”
“We’re your BodyGuards, Highness. We’re supposed to scare people,” he replied, his gray eyes never leaving the crowd.
“Not like this,” I murmured.
Fear tempered the ground ahead of my BodyGuards. A bystander might not have noticed, but I was looking for it, so I saw how people shifted out of the way of Nal, who led my black-clad Guards toward the temple. The look of wary suspicion they couldn’t quite hide dampened the joy in the air like a wet blanket. They weren’t afraid of me; people still called my name and smiled in my direction. It was my Guards who garnered the reaction.
“Emmory.”
“I see it, Highness,” he replied from just behind me.
“What’s going on?”
“Not now.”
I gathered up the heavy fabric of the traditional white sari I wore and mounted the steps. “Fine. Later, though, and for right now, tell the others to smile. Or at the very least to stop looking like they’re going to eat someone.” I hissed the last bit, pasting a smile on my own face and holding out my hands to greet Mother Superior Benedine.
She’d become the head of the Indranan temple when I’d been just a girl. Now there was gray in her brown hair and lines around her serious eyes.
“Anand, Your Highness,” she said, kissing my forehead.
“Anand, Mother Superior.” I returned the greeting and sank down to my knees in front of her.
I wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but I’d missed this ceremony. I missed the smell of incense hanging heavy in the air, missed the cool drops of lemon-scented water she shook onto me as she chanted the blessings.
“May your light be stronger than the darkness,” the abbess murmured as she pressed her thumb to my forehead. The precious sandalwood paste filled my nose with its sharp, woody smell.
She moved past me and I hid my surprise when Emmory allowed the mother superior to bless all my BodyGuards in the same manner. It was just as well I did because the media cameras were hanging in the air like flies, recording everything.
Smile for the cameras, girls. My father’s voice whispered in my ear and my arm was moving before my brain caught up with it. Dropping it again would have looked foolish. So I pasted a smile I hoped looked somewhat genuine onto my face and waved.
The crowd roared in approval. This was no snotty gathering of nobles. It was the backbone of Indrana: the workers, the merchants, the businesswomen—all the people who made up the empire.
In truth, who made the empire.
My stomach cramped as I looked out at the sea of faces, and the reality hit me square in the gut. If I left the care of my empire and my people to someone like Ganda… that was something I couldn’t do.
Oh, bugger me. I am well and truly fucked. They need this, need me.
None of this showed on my face as I continued to smile and wave to the assembled crowd. Mother Superior Benedine stepped up to my side and raised her hands, quieting the cheers.
“There has been a shadow in our hearts and a grief coating this empire. Now, as we enter the holy festival time, we look to the return of the light.
“It is a fateful time, for another light has returned also, the shining star of Indrana. I give you the Heir to the Throne; may her light banish these dark times!”
The crowd roared its approval.
She turned and pulled the torch from the Dark Mother’s lower right hand. I was supposed to take it from Benedine, light the massive copper basin at the Dark Mother’s feet, and then replace the torch in Her lower left hand.
Instead, when I reached for the torch, I spotted a familiar face in the crowd. My breath ghosted out of my lungs as if I’d been spaced. The next few moments played out like a corrupt digital video, all jerky and disjointed.
A split second later I saw another man with a gun off to the left. Emmory shouted. Nal froze. Jet, already in motion, tackled me. We went spinning off to the side of the statue, the first shot hissing through the air at us.
I felt the sting when the shot passed through Jet’s upper shoulder and nicked mine. The jolt of current that followed had me throwing curses into the air as my smati blacked out from the interference.
We hit the stone floor with enough force to eject the rest of my air, sliding to a stop before I bashed my head on the base of the statue.
Jet went limp when he cracked his temple against the marble corner. I swore, fumbling at his belt for his gun, as a second gunman sprinted across the stage.
I jerked the gun free and squeezed the trigger. My would-be assassin crumpled to the floor missing a chunk of his head.
“Jet!” Keeping one eye on my surroundings, I felt around his head and breathed a sigh of relief when my hand came back clean. I was not so lucky with his shoulder, but I decided I’d gladly take the bloodstains on my sari in exchange for his moan of pain.
“Wake up,” I said, unwinding my sari and pressing it to the wound with my free hand. “You’re not allowed to die for me.”
Jet cracked an eye open. “Sorry, Highness, that is in my job description.”
“Not funny.”
His sharply angled face transformed briefly with a quick grin. “What hit me?”
“More like you hit this.” I gestured up at the statue of the Dark Mother with his gun.
“Help me up.” Jet groaned, ignoring my protests. He froze when he spotted the dead body near us. “Mother of all. Highness, did you shoot someone with my gun?”
“He was going to kill me,” I replied with a tiny shrug.
“I’m going to get it from the commander for that.”
“Sorry, it seemed like the best—” I jerked the gun back up, but it was Emmory who skidded around the corner.
“Highness, are you all right?”
“I’m fine. Jet needs a Farian. Is anyone else hurt?”
“Why didn’t either of you answer your com?”
“Disrupter shot,” I replied. “I just took a piece of it. Jet got the worst.”
“Sunshine is safe. I repeat, Sunshine is safe.” Emmory dropped down into a crouch next to me.
“Sunshine?” I groaned. “You’re fucking kidding me.” They’d apparently kept the old codename from my childhood.
“It seemed appropriate, Highness,” Zin said, sliding to a halt with Cas on his heels. “Nal and Salham went after the third shooter, Emmory.”
“Good. I’ve got an ITS transport on the way. We need to get her out of here.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
That made Emmory blink. “Excuse me, Highness?”
“Was anyone else hurt?” He shook his head and I glanced over his shoulder as Zin and Cas came around the corner of the statue. “Jet will be okay,” I continued, finally releasing my grip on his gun so I could reach for the knife at the small of my back. I ignored Emmory’s look and sliced through the top piece of my sari that was pressed to Jet’s wound, unwinding the rest and rewrapping it around my waist. The long-sleeved white shirt I wore underneath was streaked with blood, but there wasn’t anything to be done with it now.
“I’m not letting some idiot ruin this ceremony,” I said and got to my feet. “Get that body off the stage. You do what you need to, Ekam, I’m going to light that damn flame.”
“Highness, you should go,” Benedine said.
I touched her shaking hands. “Are you all right?” At her nod I smiled. “Then we’ll do this. Bristols aren’t afraid of a little gunfire and I’ll be damned if I let someone interrupt this for my people.”
Somehow the torch hadn’t gone out when I dropped it, and with Emmory and Zin flanking me, I held it aloft until the crowd quieted from their panic.
“People of Indrana, know this—I will never back down from a challenge. I will never forsake you. Our light will shine through the stars now and forever.” My words echoed through the air. I thrust the torch into the copper basin and the flames roared up.
“Okay, you’ve lit the damn thing. Now move.” Emmory grabbed my arm the second I got the torch back into its holder and practically dragged me to the waiting transport.
“He’s mad at himself, not you, Highness,” Zin murmured after Emmory barked an order at me to “sit the hell down” and strode out of the room snarling for Nal.
“It wasn’t his fault.” I pulled on the tear in my choli, trying to get a look at the shallow furrow in my shoulder.
“Don’t mess with it.” Zin slapped my hand and winced. “Sorry, ma’am. Let the doctor look at it.”
I grinned at him. “You have younger sisters, don’t you?”
“One older and three younger, ma’am. Captain Hafin on the Para Sahi is the eldest. Can I see if your smati will link?”
I nodded. The damn thing had been flickering on and off since I’d been hit. I felt trapped in a black hole, no light or sound, cut off from the world around me with only my pitiful gods-given senses to manage the deluge.
With any luck, Zin might be able to jolt it back up fully and save me from another trip to the plastic coffin at the mod-center. The easiest way to facilitate the process was for me not to think about it.
“How’s Jet?”
“He’s fine,” Zin replied. “Fasé saw to him on the way back to the palace and they’ve got him at the mod-center to get his gear back up and running.”
“Good.” A shudder crawled through me as Zin’s smati tried to make contact with mine. It was like ants running on my skin, and I wondered briefly how people had stood it before this technology was commonplace.
Zin muttered a curse under his breath and frowned. “Why won’t that… There you are. Give me a second, Your Highness.”
I tried not to hold my breath and closed my eyes to the wave of dizziness as my smati came fully back online.
“That’s better. Thanks.”
“You’re clean.” He smiled at me and got to his feet. For some stupid reason it reminded me of Portis and the pain that shot through me had nothing to do with my injury.
I faked a smile—poorly—and ignored Zin’s concerned frown as I tucked my feet up under my skirt and rested my head on the back of the couch.
It was quiet enough in the room that I let myself slip into a doze until Emmory returned with a nervous-looking doctor. I resisted the urge to tease him about being new as he cleaned and bandaged the shallow scrape with shaking hands. The bandage melted into the wound and within moments the stinging pain was gone as the skin fused itself over the cut.
“Thank you.”
“My pleasure, Your Highness.” Zin led the man out, holding the door open for Stasia as they crossed paths.
My maid slid a large tray onto the table in front of me and I shot her a grateful smile when she poured me a mug of blue chai and passed it over.
“You’re a blessing,” I said, holding the steaming mug up to my face. The adrenaline had worn off and now I felt disconnected and as shaky as that young doctor.
“Do you want me to start a bath, Highness?”
As tempting as it was, I shook my head. “No, but if you’ll lay out a change of clothes for me, I’d appreciate it. Don’t go anywhere,” I said to Emmory. “I want to talk to you.”
I reluctantly pushed to my feet with a groan, still holding my chai. “I’m all right.” I waved off Emmory before he could help me up. “That man hits like a professional baller.”
“I believe Jet played in college, Highness. Turned down several pro offers to join the military,” Emmory replied with a straight face.
“I’m not surprised by this at all.” Shaking my head with a laugh, I made my way to my room. Indranan rugby was an odd mishmash of old Earth rugby and cricket—thankfully without the bats the later sport employed back in the SC. It was a way for men to get their aggressions out and also served as a showcase for women to admire the physique of the players. The whole thing made me uneasy, even though I’d enjoyed it when I was younger.
Ten minutes later I was cleaned up and dressed—at my insistence—in black pants and a long-sleeved shirt. Stasia left my hair in the intricate braid but took out the heavy diamond tiara that had miraculously stayed in place throughout all the excitement. I refused her offer of shoes and padded barefoot back into my waiting room.
Emmory backed away from Zin where they’d been in quiet conversation.
“First things first,” I said as I curled back into the corner of the sofa with a new cup of chai. “Jet’s really okay?”
“Yes, Highness.” Emmory didn’t smile, but his reply eased my nerves.
“Good. Did you get an ID on the first shooter?”
“We’ll handle it, Highness.”
“Is that a nice way of telling me to mind my own business?” I smirked at him when he raised an eyebrow. “I realize it hasn’t even been a week, Emmory, but you should realize that it’s not going to happen. This is my business. You know this wasn’t your fault, right?”
“I shouldn’t have let you go.”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing at Zin’s stunned look and busied myself with putting my cup back on the table as I hunted for the right response.
“Sit down, both of you. Come on, it’s awkward to have this conversation with you looming over me and I don’t want to get up.” I pointed at the couch and gave Emmory a look of my own. “Sit. Down.”
Zin moved first and only then did Emmory budge. I was pretty certain if it had been just me and him, we’d have stayed in deadlock for a few days before someone—me, more likely—passed out from thirst.
They dwarfed the delicate, rose-colored couch and I had to press my lips together to hold in my laughter. I leaned back and crossed my arms.
“Not your fault,” I repeated. “You’re going to have to trust me on this one, Emmy. Whoever is behind this isn’t going to quit. They’re going to take shots at me. They’re going to try and kill me. It’s not the first time in my life that’s ever happened. If Portis was sending reports back, you know that already. I’m not going to cower in a cage thinking it will somehow keep me safe. Mother’s sick and I have to step up and take the brunt of the responsibility.”
I leaned forward. “What in the hell was with everyone being so scared of you guys?”
“There were reprisals, Highness,” Emmory replied. “After Pace succumbed to the ebolenza and then again after the explosion. Bial sent Guards into the streets, presumably on the empress’s orders, to find the men responsible. Several people were executed in the main square the day you arrived home.”
“Without a trial? By BodyGuards?” I snapped my mouth shut as my exclamation came out louder than I’d wanted it to. “Emmory, they are not meant to be used as—”
“Executioners?” Zin finished my sentence, his face hard with fury. “The empress used them as such. The news of it was all over the empire. Hundreds of people were rounded up in the weeks following Princess Pace’s death. Princess Cire protested, but your empress-mother refused to listen to reason. We have no idea what happened to them.”
A horrible chill crawled over my skin. I pressed a hand to my mouth, struggling with the now familiar surge of guilt that mixed with my outrage. This was my fault. Because I had been stupid and selfish and—
“If your empress-mother gave such an order, it was because of the dementia, Highness.” Emmory’s reassurance was off the mark, but it helped derail my self-loathing nonetheless.
“Maybe,” I murmured sadly, unable to look him in the eye.
“It’s more likely that Bial or your cousin gave the order. He also knew of our orders to go get you. After Princess Cire was killed, I felt it was best to notify him we were en route to retrieve you. There’s a good chance that he told Ganda.” Emmory shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
“Yet another reason not to trust him. You think that’s why Memz tried to kill me on Sophie? She’d been with me for six years, Emmory.” I wouldn’t have put it past her to sell out to someone, but how did they know where I was?
“I don’t know, Highness. Only a few people knew where you were. Most of them are dead,” Emmory continued. “Which is why the majority of the BodyGuards are not to be trusted, Highness. I am weeding out the ones on your team as fast as I can, but there are some I have no control over.”
“Nal,” I said, just as she came through the door. “Speak of Kroni and she appears,” I muttered under my breath as Emmory and Zin got to their feet.
“Your Highness.” She bowed low without so much as a glance in Emmory’s direction. “Your empress-mother is headed this way.”
“Hailimi!” The shout echoed from the hallway.