I haven’t been this nervous since the first time I met Po-Sin,” I murmured the thought to no one in particular, but it was Adail who responded.
“I’d think that would even make Emmory nervous, Highness.”
“Auho!” I laughed. “I doubt it very much. He’d stand up to the whole Zhang family without blinking until they turned over their warehouse codes.”
My green-eyed BodyGuard laughed, earning a glare from Nal. I grinned and moved from the window to the rose-colored couch. I was in a comfortable salwar kameez of gray silk decorated with silver embroidery and bells on the bottom hem. I wouldn’t be able to sneak up on anyone with this outfit but I loved it nonetheless.
“Highness, your family is here,” Nal said. Emmory’s ass chewing appeared to have improved her attitude.
I stayed in my seat. Emmory and I had gone over the intricacies of this first meeting with my nephew and the tone I wanted to set right off the bat. If he was involved in the plot against the throne like Tefiz suspected, I wanted to know. Zin stood quietly in the corner and Emmory was in the surveillance room, where he could watch Laabh’s every move unimpeded.
My nephew came through the door behind his wife. Leena Surakesh was tiny compared to her husband. Laabh, by constrast, was tall and blocky, dressed in a formal Naval uniform, and I could see the hint of Cire’s loveliness in his handsome face. It was ruined by the dissatisfied expression smeared across his features, which he didn’t hide behind a polite mask fast enough.
“Your Highness,” Nal said. “Allow me to present Leena Surakesh and her husband, your nephew Laabh.”
“Your Imperial Highness.” The young couple both dropped their heads. Leena’s pale yellow curls danced about her dark cheeks when she dipped a perfect curtsy. “It’s a great honor.”
“It’s very nice to meet you.” I waited a beat before waving a hand for them to rise and held the same hand out to Leena. There was genuine pleasure in her eyes, but my nephew’s dark gaze flickered with poorly concealed anger. Anger at what, I couldn’t begin to guess, so I gave him a smile and held my other hand out to him.
“I am sorry for the loss of your mother and your sister,” I murmured.
“Your kindness is appreciated, Your Highness.” His words were stiffer than his shoulders.
“Please sit down. Leena, I saw the news about your recent promotion at the accounting firm. Congratulations.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
“And Laabh, you recently graduated from the Academy.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” Laabh replied, straightening his shoulders under his dark blue uniform. “Just a few months ago. I was placed on the Makara.”
“So you’re following in your father’s footsteps? I hear he left with 2nd Fleet for the Saxon border.”
“How is Taran? It was very kind of you to take him in, Leena.”
“He is holding up, Your Highness,” she said. “And it was the right thing to do. He would have been all alone in the palace with his father constantly away and with the empress being ill…” She trailed off and the awkward silence filled in the gap left by her words.
“It is awful.” I had to remind myself that everyone else still thought my mother was suffering from dementia. Forcing a smile, I gestured for Stasia to bring the drinks over. “I’m sorry it took me so long to see you. As you can imagine, things are slightly chaotic. I’d like to see Taran also when the time allows. I’ll have my chamberlain contact you.”
“Of course, Your Highness.”
“Did you see him twitch when Leena mentioned my mother being ill?” I used our com link to talk to Emmory.
“I did, Highness. It’s hard to say what it means though.”
“Nothing good.” Accepting a chai from Stasia, I returned my attention to my guests. “I appreciated your mother’s support in the council meeting the other day, Leena.”
“Of course, Highness. We are ever the throne’s loyal subjects.” She smiled softly. “Mother was quite irate about Matriarch Khatri’s behavior.”
Laabh fisted his right hand.
“To be honest,” I said with a wink, “she didn’t say anything that wasn’t true. I was more surprised by Matriarch Prajapati’s support of my cousin.”
“According to my mother, you running away from home was Matriarch Prajapati’s major complaint.”
“I wonder if she’ll change her mind when she finds out that I left home for a very different reason.” I surveyed their confused faces over the rim of my mug. “Former GIS Director Britlen is giving an interview that should be going live any minute now about my hunt for the man who’s responsible for my father’s death. I suspect it’ll clear up a lot of the objections the matriarchs have—most of them anyway.”
“My mother never said a word about this,” Laabh said, his eyes narrowed.
“She wouldn’t have.” I smiled and stood. “It was all kept very quiet.”
“I suspect that will change more than a few minds on the council,” Leena said as she rose. “Thank you for making time to see us, Highness. It was very kind of you.”
“You’re family, Leena, and I owe you for taking Taran in.” I took her hand and squeezed it. “I’ll see you again. Both of you.”
“Highness.” Laabh only hesitated a second before he took my hand, then he tried to release me but I tightened my grip.
“Take care of yourself, Laabh. Someone’s after our family and there’s not many of us left.” I didn’t smile as I said it and watched him swallow. “I have enough vengeance to deal out. I’d hate to have to add you to the list.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Good.” I released him with a smile that almost split my face. The smile vanished as Nal and Adail followed my visitors out the door and I turned around to meet Zin’s grim look. “He’s up to his neck in this, isn’t he?”
Zin nodded. “And you weren’t very subtle there, Highness.”
“I’m too mad for subtlety, and I want him to be terrified of what’s going to happen when I find out he was directly involved in any of these deaths.” I stopped and raised an eyebrow at him. “What?”
“You don’t seem the slightest bit shocked he could do something that terrible, Highness.”
“How did you stay so naïve, Tracker?” I hoped my smile softened the words. “Or is it just that I’ve spent most of my life in a world where a man would sell his whole family to pay off his gambling debts. I’m afraid there’s very little left that would shock me. Money and power are shiny things; even the strong have trouble doing what’s right when everything they’ve desired is laid out in front of them.”
“Still, to push him might not be wise. Desperate people do desperate things. I’d rather they stick to whatever plan they have concerning you rather than some impulsive attempt to kill you that we might miss.”
“I think we’ve blown their plan out of the water already, don’t you?”
Zin shrugged, a half smile on his face as he studied the door. “Maybe, but it’s early yet. If it were me—” He broke off when Emmory came into the room, but then continued. “If it were me, I’d have a decent backup plan or two. You’ve always been the wild card, Highness.”
I snorted.
“I don’t mean it that way. We’re pretty sure they didn’t know where you were until just recently, or they’d have tried to kill you a lot sooner than they did. But they would have had to take you out; leaving you alive wasn’t an option.”
“Memz joined my crew three months after an incident on Candless cost me my navigator. She rode with us for six years. If she’d been working for these people, wouldn’t she have tried to kill me early?”
“Not necessarily. They could have got to her at Shanghai. That’s a deal I’d want to do face-to-face.”
I rubbed my hands over my face. We’d had five days of leave at Shanghai after closing the deal with the Chengs. More than enough time for someone to track her down and make the offer. I hated to say it, but it didn’t surprise me at all that they’d gone after Memz, or that she’d agreed to it. My only consolation was that she’d never gotten to spend all those credits. “So how did they track me down?”
Zin glanced at Emmory and they shrugged in unison. “We would have followed the money, Highness.”
I stood in the shadows, watching the colorful crowd below mingle in the cavernous ballroom in the north wing of the palace. They looked like butterflies dancing over a field of flowers. I snorted softly. Deadly butterflies dancing over a toxic field would be more appropriate.
The ballroom was reserved for special occasions, and the walls were covered with priceless tapestries. Golden statues were strewn about the room in an ostentatious reminder of my family’s wealth, and vases older than the empire itself sat on pedestals protected by force shields.
Mother’s coronation had been in the throne room, but the after-party had been here. My sister’s wedding reception would have been in this room and the party to celebrate Atmikha’s birth. Their funerals would have been in the temple.
Now I was about to be announced as the heir. Officially.
No objections had been lodged with Clara, and Mother had been lucid enough before the celebration not only to sign the declaration, but to record a brief message about her “illness” and what it meant for Indrana. I didn’t know when my coronation would be but I was sure we’d try to do it as soon after the holiday as could be managed.
I’d told Alice Gohil the truth about not running, but it didn’t mean I wasn’t terrified of screwing all this up or, worse, for everything to go sideways while I was still in this limbo of being almost, but not quite, in charge.
The lives of billions were going to be in my hands.
That thought made me want to throw myself off the balcony. Surely the drop of thirteen meters and the impact on the pale gray marble below would kill me.
Except Emmory and Nal were right behind me. Knowing them, I’d be grabbed before I could get a leg over. I let go of the carved railing, dropping my hands to my sides.
They disappeared into my massive sleeves. The heavy white satin of my court dress was finished off with gold thread and little oil-slick pearls. The hanging sleeves dropped all the way to the ground, the wide openings showing off the golden silk wrapped around my arms.
I felt like a gods-damned mummy.
Stasia had done up my hair so that green curls spilled down my back and over one shoulder. There were enough gemstones in the crown buried among my curls to feed a large family for a month.
I was grateful for the slender reassurance of the knife tucked against my left forearm. Stasia had protested, but I wasn’t going to be moved on the subject. Illegal or not, I wasn’t going anywhere in the palace unarmed.
Just because I could kill someone with my bare hands didn’t mean I liked how the odds shifted if they happened to have a gun.
After I promised not to draw it on any nobles unless they really tried to kill me, she’d relented and promised not to tell my Ekam.
“Ready, Highness?” Nal offered me a tentative smile. Her attitude had continued to improve, though her posture was still ridiculously formal.
“I suppose.” I attempted to smile back, glanced over my shoulder at Emmory, and started forward down the wide stairs.
The swirling collection of people below us froze at the sound of the gong, and more than four thousand pairs of eyes turned our way.
“Ladies and gentlemen. Her Imperial Highness, Crown Princess Hailimi Mercedes Jaya Bristol!”
The crowd burst into applause and cheers—a predictable reaction, but I still jumped. Ostensibly they were there to celebrate my return and the holiday, but I knew better. Somewhere in this crowd were those who were plotting to overthrow the throne.
“Smile, Highness,” Emmory whispered from behind me. “You look like you’re about to shoot someone.”
“If you’d let me have my gun with me, I would,” I hissed back from between the clenched teeth of my fake smile. “Let’s get this damn thing over with.”
A nice thing about being royalty is you don’t have to circulate at parties. Everyone else is expected to come to you. After I had presented myself to the empty throne and watched the shocked reactions of the crowd as the announcement of abdication was read, all that was left was for me to pick a spot and wait for people to approach me.
Everyone was all abuzz about Fenna’s interview and the news about my involvement in catching my father’s killers. Also the curious and more daring of the bunch asked me questions about gunrunning or Po-Sin. Those questions I avoided deftly or answered carefully.
I endured a number of not so subtle requests for assistance, poorly veiled insults, and insipid conversations, smiling politely and getting my own carefully worded stabs in when I could. When the flow of curious introductions trickled off, I was left standing across the room from Mother’s empty chair, watching the intricate dance out on the floor.
There was at least food. I nibbled on an idli coated with spicy chutney from the plate Nal held as I attempted to catch up on the various factions at court. The subject, I figured, was safe enough to discuss in front of Nal.
“So the Surakesh are solidly on the side of the crown,” Emmory murmured, gesturing unobtrusively at the woman with silver hair who sat at my eleven o’clock.
Leena’s mother had been silent and watchful during the council meeting, agreeing with Matriarch Maxwell’s position but not engaging in any of the debate.
“They always have been. Though I suspect it’s as much a matter of self-preservation as anything. The matriarch had six daughters and”—I frowned and checked my smati—“four sons. The eldest daughter has four girls of her own—”
“Five now, Highness,” Emmory murmured the correction. “Leena is second oldest of them.” He gestured covertly and I followed the line of his gloved finger until I spotted my nephew.
“He doesn’t look happy at all, does he? And he hasn’t come to say hi.” I cocked my head to the side and studied my nephew. “Interesting.”
“I could have someone bring him over,” Emmory replied.
I gave a minute shrug, watching the whirling dancers. The bright silken dresses and impressively cut jackets were a riot of colors on the dance floor.
Pace hadn’t been old enough when I attended my first adult party, but Cire and I both got new dresses—silly, girlish things with too many ruffles. I remembered that my thirteen-year-old self had been delighted with it. Father danced with us, as did our uncles. Tefiz had even taken my hand and turned me in circles, all the while watching the crowd with those piercing blue eyes of hers.
I missed her. She’d been an older sister to me as much as a BodyGuard. It was a relief that Mother hadn’t sacked her outright for my disappearance.
“Emmory…” I hesitated, suddenly unsure if I should even ask the question. “Did Tefiz—were she and Ofa angry with me?”
“No, Highness. They were worried.”
“I’m relieved Mother didn’t punish them,” I murmured as tears pricked at my eyes. “Though I wish I’d had a chance to apologize to Ofa before she died.”
“It was unnecessary, ma’am.” Emmory’s reply over our com link threw some steel into my backbone. “They both spoke highly of you. So did Portis. I am glad to see their judgment wasn’t clouded by their feelings for you.”
“Which is what you thought?”
“At first.” His smile was fleeting. “You’ve changed my mind.”
“Your Highness, if I may apologize for the interruption?”
I gave the stranger who’d approached a once-over. He was tall and wiry-thin with pale, almost white-blond hair and equally pale blue eyes. I’d heard the distinctive Saxon accent rasping in his voice, which explained why my BodyGuards had shifted uncomfortably.
“Ambassador Jaden Toropov, Your Highness.” He executed an elegant bow that was an interesting counterpoint to his scarred hands.
“Ambassador.”
Toropov smiled and extended a hand. “Might I interest you in a dance?”
“He didn’t ask you, Emmory. You don’t get to come with me,” I said before he could protest. I put my hand in Toropov’s with a smile of my own. “Of course, Ambassador.”
People moved out of our way as we crossed the dance floor—a multicolored sea parting without question or even really conscious thought. I suppose it’s another one of the perks of being royalty—people get the hell out of your way.
“I’m going to have to apologize to your Ekam.”
“For testing to see if the gunrunner knew how to dance?”
Toropov blinked at me in surprise and then laughed. “I suppose so, Your Highness. Though I would have phrased it differently.”
“That’s why you’re the ambassador.” I let him spin me in a circle and gave him a bright smile as he cupped my waist with one long-fingered hand. “I’m pretty sure things haven’t deteriorated quite that severely between our empires since this morning. Of course, ambassador or not, if you try to kill me, my BodyGuards will be the least of your worries.”
He grinned at me, the expression transforming his austere face into something devilishly handsome. “So the rumors are true? Perhaps I should put some money down after all.”
“There’s a bet about me?”
I shouldn’t have been surprised. Gambling was the national pastime. Bets about anything and everything were placed with frightening regularity. Sometimes the bets were just friendly wagers among a select group, but sometimes it was a publicly backed pool that attracted the attention of even the largest bookmakers.
I just hadn’t had a chance to look into it.
“Several, Your Highness. I believe the popular one concerns the odds of your survival.”
“That’s dreary. What are the odds?” I whistled when Toropov told me. “Steep. You’d think people would have more faith.”
“I don’t know, Highness; the odds do seem stacked against you.”
“I’ve had worse.” I poked him in the chest. “Remind me to tell you about the time I walked into a Zhang outpost and out again with four free boxes of their not-yet-released QLZ-57 handgun.”
Toropov blinked at me, and then burst into laughter. It rang through the air, a sound as clean and bright as the bells on Temple Day. I choked back a giggle, then gave up and joined him, laughing until tears were rolling down my face.
“Four boxes?” he gasped.
“The guards helped me carry them out,” I said breathlessly.
“That is a story I would love to hear,” Toropov said as the song ended. “However, I’m afraid if I don’t get you back to your BodyGuards, there’s going to be blood spilt—probably mine.” He took my hand and led me back across the dance floor. “I have been directed to convey His Majesty’s greetings, Your Highness.”
I swallowed back my laughter at the overly formulaic phrasing. “Tell King Trace I said hi, and message my chamberlain if you’d like to hear that story.”
“I will, Highness. Ekam, my apologies for stealing your charge. I have brought her back in good condition.”
Emmory didn’t say a word to Toropov, who was unfazed by the nonresponse. He gave me another smile and a bow and left me alone with my BodyGuards.
“Well, that was interesting.” I flagged down a passing servant and snagged a thin-stemmed wineglass off the golden tray.
Emmory caught my hand, passed three fingers over the top of the glass, and cocked his head to the side as he scanned the read-out from his sensors.
“Safe,” he said, and let me go.
I picked at the idli still on the plate Nal was holding and popped one into my mouth. Wrinkling my nose at the too-sweet paste coating it, I spit it out in my hand and dumped it back on the plate. “Ugh.” The dry bubbles of the shore-bred grapes helped cut through the sticky sweetness and I finished off my drink with a grimace.
“Did you know my odds of survival are 872 to 1 against? That’s insulting. Emmory, are you insulted?”
“Extremely, Highness.”
“I think—”
“Your pardon, Highness.”
“Prime Minister.” I offered my free hand. Phanin took it and bowed low.
“If I may have a moment of your time?”
“Sure, what’s up?” I handed the glass off to a passing servant.
Annoyance flickered over his face at my casual reply and I resisted the urge to grin because Alba had been gently hammering away at my desire to behave like a gunrunner rather than a princess.
“Understand I’m in no way criticizing your behavior, ma’am, but you do realize that was the Saxon ambassador you just danced with?”
My amusement vanished. I straightened my shoulders. The shoes Stasia had forced on me had a decent heel and I was half a head taller than Phanin with them on.
“Do I look like an idiot, Prime Minister?”
He paled and bowed again. “Of course not, Your Highness. Of course not. Perhaps if I knew what your plan was, I could—”
“I don’t have a plan. He asked me for a dance. I was being polite. Last I checked, we were not at war with the Saxons, Phanin. Have I missed something? Should I have shot the ambassador instead?”
Nal coughed behind me. Emmory was stone still.
“Highness, I realize you may not have caught up quite yet with the empire’s affairs. I am merely trying to—”
“I was in a damn briefing not five hours ago and I am fully aware of what’s going on in my empire, even though it has more affairs than a call girl from Holgan. Untwist your knickers, Phanin. The ambassador wished to pass on a greeting from his king and, I don’t doubt, to be able to tell his peers he danced with the infamous gunrunner princess. Despite what you seem to believe, I can be trusted to not start an interstellar incident over a dance.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Go away.” I waved a hand.
Phanin bowed again and scurried off.
“What in the fires of Naraka was that about?” I muttered.
“I don’t know, Highness. Tensions are high right now.”
“If they were that high, Toropov wouldn’t be here.” I grabbed another drink, hissing at Emmory when he insisted on performing yet another scan on it.
We fell into a somber silence. The odds were not in my favor, no matter what I’d said to Emmory and Toropov. This was going to be a hell of a fight. But since the options were death or the throne, I figured I didn’t have anything to lose.
“Nal.” I gestured at her and she leaned in. “I think we should put some money down on me.” I tugged her closer and whispered an amount in her ear that made her mouth drop open in shock. “Go find the royal bookie and tell him to take care of it. If he wants to argue with you about it, tell him to come talk to me.”
I smothered a laugh as Nal shared a look with Emmory and then vanished into the crowd. I sipped at my wine, watching the dancers with half-closed eyes.
“They’re underestimating us, Emmory.” I kept my voice low even though the music made it damn near impossible to eavesdrop.
“Thankfully, yes. I doubt their arrogance will last long. Especially if you keep showing people how smart you are.”
“I’m not good at playing dumb, Emmy.”
“Better that than dead. We need to have a conversation about your abilities.”
I managed not to turn around and look at him, instead concentrating on the bubbles in my glass. They floated through the pale gold liquid, popping on the surface.
“What do you want me to tell you? That I could kill someone with the stem of this glass if I had to? That I can point out every single noble who’s packing a weapon tonight despite the fact that it’s illegal? I can even tell you which of them actually knows how to use it.
“I’ve got a knife in my left sleeve, four jeweled pins in my hair, and could probably beat someone to death with these monster shoes I’m wearing—though that’s messy and exhausting, and I wouldn’t want to do it in public.”
“It’s a good start,” Emmory murmured back, the amusement in his voice wrapping around me like a security blanket, soothing my worry. “I knew all of it except for the glass. That hadn’t occurred to me.”
“That’s because you’re an honorable man. I’m only a princess by blood, Emmy—well, that and eighteen years of training which I can’t seem to shake. But I was a gunrunner for longer and that sort of training has a steep learning curve.”
“You don’t say.”
“You know, with all of us in one place like this, a thermo would take care of their problem in one shot.”
“Highness, there are bomb detectors for a reason.”
I shrugged. “The Chernovs figured out a way to break one down, smuggle in the separate pieces, and reassemble it in less than a minute. It’s rather impressive.”
“Your definition of impressive and mine do not quite line up, Highness.”
I was right in the middle of another drink and my laughter turned into coughing as I sucked wine down my windpipe. “I’m all right,” I gasped, swatting at Emmory with my free hand. “Just the wrong—”
My throat closed up, or more accurately my lungs just stopped working, and I realized that I wasn’t okay. Someone’s shocked gasp mixed with the shattering of glass as my nerveless fingers lost their grip on my wine and it plunged to the ground.
I dropped after it. I was desperately trying to convince any part of me to function, but I was paralyzed.
Emmory caught me before I shattered on the floor. “Hail?” He cupped my face. “Damn it! Nal!” He shouted something garbled before looking back at me. “Inhale for me,” he murmured, pressing his hand above my mouth and nose. A pale yellow mist appeared and I tried to obey but my body wasn’t having any of it.
As I passed out, I hoped that the panicked look on Emmory’s face wasn’t the last thing I’d see.