Ma’am?” I nodded at the steward and she poured more chai into my mug with a deft hand. Mother shook her head, pressing a hand to her stomach with a sigh.
“I’m stuffed, Hana. Tell Olizi that was his best meal yet.”
“I will, ma’am. He’ll be pleased to hear it.” She bowed and left the room.
Mother and I sat in silence. We were alone in the room—even our Ekams were outside the door—but the silence wasn’t awkward.
It was three days since Zin had taken off. Three days filled with a ridiculous schedule of meetings, more meetings, and Pratimas rituals. For once in my life I enjoyed the rituals—mostly because they gave me respite from the meetings. The one today had involved touring several carefully selected private homes to light lamps and trade gifts with the owners. Neither Emmory nor Bial had allowed Mother or I to eat any of the carefully prepared treats the men of the house had presented to us until Mother snappishly reminded them she was dying anyway. In an almost comical scene both BodyGuards scanned each treat, then Mother ate part of it and handed the rest to me with a nod and a smile.
I hadn’t spent so much time with Mother since before she’d been crowned. It was bittersweet and I found myself blinking back tears at the oddest moments. The experimental treatment Dr. Ganjen was trying appeared to be working. Over the last few days Mother had been more alert, more stable, and even more like the pre-empress mother I remembered.
I knew it wasn’t going to last, so I was trying to stay with her as much as possible. The first day had been stiff and strange as we navigated between the past and the present, trying each in our own way to find some common ground—and failing with laughable results. That, I think, was what broke the tension between us.
Mother’s yawn interrupted the silence. I finished my drink and stood. “I should go, let you get your rest.”
She reached a hand out and I took it. “Sometimes I think it’s easier you’ve changed so much. You looked so much like your father I’m not sure I could have stood it.” Her smile was sad. “Good night, Haili.”
“Night, Mother.” I kissed her cheek and headed for the door.
Alba met me at my rooms. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I know it’s late, but can I trouble you?”
“Sure. What is it?” I stood back as my Guards swept my apartments and then followed Alba into the room.
“I’ve been screening your incoming mail for you, for junk mostly. I am passing on anything that looks legitimate.”
“You don’t have to apologize, Alba, it’s your job to look at my mail. What’s going on?”
“At first I dismissed it, but you’ve gotten fifty or so in the last week.”
“Fifty or so what?”
“Of the same e-mail. There were a few early on, but lately there’ve been more and more.” Alba shifted, clearly uncomfortable, and I couldn’t stop the laughter.
“Shiva’s bones, woman, what it’s it? Naked pictures? I can’t imagine death threats would bother you so, I’m sure I get a dozen a day.”
“No, ma’am, nothing of the sort. It’s just weird.”
“Well, let me see it then. Throw it up on the screen, though I’m sure Emmory’s already in the loop on this?” Alba nodded and sent the offending message to the screen on the far wall. I took one look and laughed out loud. “Bugger me; Hao, you ass.”
It was just white text on a black background that said: V sorry about P. You owe me 100 credits.
“You know who it’s from?” Emmory was shooting for casual and missed it by a meter and a half.
“Yeah.” I shrugged. “When did the first one come in?”
“About a week ago, Highness.”
“It’s Hao. He must have been on a news fast or something. That took him longer than I figured it would. I’ll have to think of a reply.”
“Highness, you cannot send one hundred credits to a known associate of Po-Sin’s.”
“I don’t owe him one hundred credits, Emmy.” I paused. “At least I think I don’t, maybe I do—either way.” I waved a hand in the air. “It’s just Hao letting me know it’s him. He’s not looking to collect. He always liked it when I owed him money because he could bring it up as often as possible.”
“Should I message back a reply, ma’am?” Alba asked.
“Tomorrow. I need to think of what to say and I have to be up ridiculously early in the morning. Night.”
The next morning found me up before the sun, dressed in a horrible petal-pink sari that clashed with my hair. It was traditional, so I hadn’t complained—out loud anyway—and my mutterings were quickly followed with an apologetic prayer.
Normally I wasn’t one for paranoid superstitions, but we could use all the help we could get in surviving this mess. Both literally and figuratively.
So I knelt in the flickering light of the temple dressed in that awful pink sari with the statue of Ganesh looming over me. He was massive, our dancing god with one foot raised in the air and his four arms spread wide. His ears were stained with red, and a great stripe coated the length of his trunk. Garlands of flowers in red and yellow were draped around his neck and lay in great piles around his foot along with the piles of offerings brought by devotees.
The temple was still except for Father Westinkar’s quiet chanting. The sweet smell of the treat offerings—modak and laddus—mingled with the spice of burning incense.
The great elephant-headed god looked down at me with an expression I always felt was a mixture of amusement and pity, and I found myself wondering if He remembered that time Cire and I stole his sweets.
“I don’t think we should be doing this.”
“Hush,” I hissed, tugging Cire back down by my side. “The priests will hear you if you don’t shut up.”
Together we crouched, hidden in the broad leaves of the midget palms that ringed the reddish columns of the temple belonging to Lord Ganesh. We found some relief from the oppressive heat of late Bhadrapad in places like this around the palace grounds. The dying summer sun did what Mother couldn’t—it made us too tired and lazy to attempt to outwit our BodyGuards and venture out into the city.
Instead, we confined our mischief to the palace grounds and today, on the last day of Ganesh Chaturthi—the ten-day festival—I’d promised Pace modak.
She’d been sick with fever for most of the festival and Mother was being mean. I knew a few of the sticky sweet treats wouldn’t harm my little sister, but the physician said no so Mother said no. Not even Father had been moved by my pleas.
So I was taking matters into my own hands.
“We can’t steal from a god, Haili!”
“Be quiet.” I felt a little pang of guilt as I brandished my fist at my sister and she subsided with tears in her eyes. “Sorry, Cire. Really. But Ganesh isn’t going to begrudge a few sweets. They’re not for us. They’re for Pace. He loves Pace, and if you do, too, then you’ll quit your bitching and help me.”
Cire’s lip quivered. “I do love Pace,” she whispered in a voice thick with tears, and I knew I’d gone too far. I wrapped my arm around her. Cire was the oldest, the heir, but sometimes I wondered if my kindhearted sister would survive as empress.
“I know you do,” I whispered back. “You keep watch; whistle twice if you see anyone. I’m going in.”
“Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha,” Father Westinkar chanted, jerking me back to the present. He pressed his thumb to my forehead and left a smear of precious red sandalwood paste there before bowing low. “Om Gam Salutations to the Lord of Hosts.”
I echoed the chant, folding my hands together and bowing until my forehead touched the cool temple floor. I was suffering from the early morning hours so I focused on the puja instead of the sun crawling up over the horizon on my left.
It was a ritual we’d repeated every morning for the last several days. A plea to the One who trampled obstacles under his broad feet. A lead-in to the holiday, a wish for Him to guard the light and keep us all safe.
For all my bitterness about the gods, there was a special place in my heart for Ganesh. I’d never told Cire, but when I scrambled up on the base of Ganesh’s statue to steal those modak for Pace, I’d left the bracelet our father had given me at the start of the celebration and whispered a quick, reverent prayer to the god to make my sister better. I’d told my father I’d lost it and he’d looked at me with disappointment, but it was worth it when Pace recovered that very evening.
“Highness?” Emmory’s voice was worried, and I realized why when a hand to my face came away wet. “Are you all right?”
“I was just remembering something.” I squeezed his forearm. “Give me a moment, would you?” He nodded and moved off to stand with Jet, two silent shadows against the reddish column less than ten paces from me.
Ganesh’s temple on the palace grounds was a small one, meant more for private ceremonies like ours. I’d always preferred it to the gigantic temple on the far side of the capital, which was filled with too much noise and confusion. But even here I apparently wasn’t safe. Cas was on the other side of the temple and the members of Team Three stood at parade rest along the far wall.
Sinking to my knees again, I reached a hand out and rested it on the god’s foot. The flowers tickling my arm were forgotten when I made contact with the statue. A tingle of electricity shot through me and I closed my eyes, dropping my head and pressing my free hand to my heart.
“I haven’t been the most faithful, Father,” I whispered in the Old Tongue. “My travels took me far from home and I’m afraid I’ve forgotten how to pray. But I haven’t forgotten what you did for Pace, and I won’t—not ever. I don’t know if I can do this, but I do know there’s no one else.
“I need help, Father. Clear the obstacles from my path. Help me save my empire, my people.” I knew a request of that magnitude required an equally great sacrifice, and I dragged in a deep breath. “I don’t have anything I can offer you but my freedom. Do this for me and I swear I’ll do my duty for as long as you require of me. I swear I will be faithful to you for the rest of my days.”
It was a hell of an open-ended vow, dangerous enough to make to a person, but to a god it was a promise of endless devotion.
My heart tore itself open as I sacrificed myself for my people the same way my ancestors had so many thousands of years ago when they volunteered to go out into the blackness of space.
“What the fuck are you doing, Hail?” I muttered the question even as I unwound the leather band from my wrist and took off Pace’s heavy silver ring, leaving them both amid the piles of flowers. Wiping my face with the heels of my hands, I rose to my feet, gave the god a final bow, and headed out of the temple with my shadows following me.
Alba met us outside the temple and I answered her bow with a smile. We were halfway back to my rooms when the ping of an incoming call sounded. “Emmory, it’s Admiral Hassan,” I said, holding up a hand and stopping to answer the call.
“Admiral,” I greeted Inana when she appeared on the screen I threw onto the nearest blank wall.
“Highness, I’ve got Caspel on the line also,” she said. The screen split and the hawk-faced head of GIS appeared in the second panel. I added Emmory to the link with a thought.
“Your Highness, I have bad news.”
The knots in my stomach that had been slowly loosening themselves snapped taut. “What?”
“I’ve just received reports from our assets on the ground in Canafey. Less than ten minutes ago Saxon Shock troops hit the governors’ palaces on Major and Minor. Governor Phillus is dead. Governor Ashwari has been taken prisoner. I’ve got an operative trying to get her out, but I can’t give you any promises.”
“The shipyards?”
“They’re intact, ma’am. The lockdown order went out from Governor Phillus’s office; that’s all I know at the moment. So the ships in the yard—all forty-seven of them—are pieces of floating rubble as far as the Saxons are concerned. Unless they can get the lock codes from Governor Ashwari.” Caspel’s expression was so cold it froze my skin. “If she’s still alive, ma’am, they’ll get them one way or another.”
“You get her out of there, Caspel.” I’d seen what Saxon Shock troops could do to their prisoners and I’d be damned if I’d leave any of my people in their hands. “Alive. Do you hear me?”
“We’re working on it, Highness. I’ve got one of my best trying to get in there now.”
I barely smothered the curse threatening to crawl up my throat. The man knew his job and so did whoever he’d just sent in to rescue the governor. My railing at him wasn’t going to help matters.
“It’s the day before Pratimas, Caspel. They know what this holy day means, how could they—”
“It’s not how could they, Highness. It’s that they did. They know we’re vulnerable right now. Governments in transition always are. I wanted to move your coronation up, solidify your rule. This delay makes things wickedly unstable, but—”
“What? No one told me that.”
“Your empress-mother disagreed and no more was said on the matter.” Caspel glanced away from the camera. “We’re landing. I’ll be at the palace in five minutes, Highness.”
I didn’t bother to ask how the head of Galactic Imperial Security knew I was in the palace and instead nodded sharply. “I’ll meet you in the War Room.”
“I’ll join you on-screen,” Admiral Hassan said. “It would take me too long to get to the surface. I’ve already commed the other members of the Raksha. They’ll meet you in the War Room.”
“We’re on our way.” I waited until the com was off before I blistered the air with curses. “Alba, where’s Toropov? I want an explanation from him and I want it immediately.” Rubbing my hands over my face, I started down the hallway again at a speed that forced my chamberlain to run to keep up with me.
“I’m messaging his aide now, ma’am. I also sent a note to Leena about your meeting with Taran.”
“Bugger me,” I muttered. I’d forgotten about my lunch plans. “Make sure it gets rescheduled, Alba. After Pratimas probably. That is, if we don’t end up at war again.”
Mother and Bial met us at the door to the War Room, with Caspel showing up just a heartbeat later.
“Highness,” Bial said with a short nod.
“Your Majesty.” Caspel bowed. “I didn’t think you’d want to bother with this.”
“I am still empress. Sick or not. Next time you try to tell my Ekam not to trouble me, I’ll have you cut into pieces and fed to my cats.”
I raised an eyebrow, but Caspel didn’t look the slightest bit abashed. He shrugged a shoulder. “You know as well as I do, Your Majesty, that emergencies are taxing. I thought calling you into a crisis of this magnitude would only complicate matters and it was better left to the heir.”
“Don’t try to drag me into this,” I said before Mother could reply. “Let’s get a move on here.”
The other three members of the Raksha arrived only minutes later. The Raksha was the military council of Indrana, consisting of the heads of the armed forces, the Tracker Corps, and the BodyGuard Corps.
“Your Royal Highness, we haven’t met. I’m Esha Suvish.” The commander-general of the BodyGuard Corps was a no-nonsense-looking woman with a shaved head and piercing dark eyes. She nodded briskly at Emmory and Bial after shaking my hand.
Mila Vandi, the head of the Imperial Tactical Squads, was the only woman I’d had a lot of contact with before my flight. My father’s old friend extended her hand with a smile, bowing at the same time.
“Your Highness, it’s a pleasure to see you again.”
“You’re the first person I think who’s actually meant that, General.” I shook her hand, feeling more than a little guilty that I didn’t trust her.
“Have you met Generals Saito and Prajapati?” Mila gestured at the two women next to her.
“Yes. They were at the briefing I was at the other day. Generals.”
“Good to see you again, Highness.” General Saito bowed.
“A pleasure, Highness.” I didn’t know Prajapati at all, but the tiny dark-haired general couldn’t quite meet my eyes every time we’d been in the same room together, putting one more mark in the case against her.
“Admiral Hassan is joining us on-screen. Ambassador Yen has been notified, but obviously with message times what they are, it’ll be tomorrow most likely before we hear from her. If you’ll all have a seat.” I leaned on the table, wishing briefly I wasn’t dressed in such a gods-awful color. Thankfully no one had said a word about it. Admiral Hassan nodded and cleared her throat. “As you all know, Saxon Shock troops hot dropped into the capital of Canafey Major at 0300 hours local time. The governor’s palace security was overwhelmed. Governor Phillus issued the lockout order for the forty-seven ships of the Vajrayana Initiative in dock before he took his own life.
“Canafey Minor suffered a simultaneous assault, and Governor Ashwari was taken alive. Caspel tells me he has an operative on the ground and they are attempting to retrieve her.”
No one stated the obvious. If Caspel’s agent couldn’t get the governor out, he would need to kill her and dispose of her head so the Saxons couldn’t access the lock codes.
“How many ships do they have in the area?” Mother asked.
“Unknown, ma’am. Admiral Shul and the 2nd Fleet are two systems away. I could have him move and be at Canafey the day after tomorrow, but we have no idea what he’d be wading into.”
“A slaughter most likely,” I murmured, not mentioning out loud that we probably couldn’t trust Shul, and heads nodded around the table.
“I shouldn’t have moved that battle group. I’m sorry, Hail, you were right,” Mother said.
“I wish I hadn’t been.” I knew there wasn’t anything I could do to lessen the guilt my mother was feeling. “General, do you have contact with the troops on the ground at Canafey?”
According to my smati, there was a large contingent of Army personnel on Major and a smaller outpost on Minor. All told, we were looking at close to half a million soldiers.
Trapped on the ground with enemy forces. Bugger me.
“We’ve gotten running commentary; that’s about it,” General Prajapati replied with a shake of her head. “There have been pitched battles in both capitals and probably throughout most major townships.”
“If you can get in touch with your people on the ground, you tell them to keep fighting. Protect the civilians. We haven’t forgotten about them. They have the right to keep themselves safe by any means necessary.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Highness—”
I held up a hand, cutting Caspel off before he could get started. “We can’t go toe to toe with the Saxons,” I said. “Everyone is thinking it, but no one will say it out loud.”
“We got hurt badly in the war,” Hassan said cautiously. “Then came the treaty talks, the Conglomerate’s interference, and your empress-mother’s failing health. The naval budget has been slashed for the last five years running by the Ancillary Council. I was lucky to keep the Vajrayana Initiative on the table.”
“I know.” It didn’t escape me that this was the second time she hadn’t disagreed with me outright over this, but it just made me feel sick to my stomach rather than vindicated. We were in trouble, serious trouble, if I couldn’t convince the Saxons to back off.
Which was the reason for the Vajrayana Initiative in the first place. These state-of-the-art ships would help narrow the imbalance with the Saxon Alliance. But now they were all locked down in dock above an enemy-controlled planet.
“We’ve got three ships that were out on maneuvers. I sent them messages to bug for home as fast as they could. Hopefully they did.”
“Your Majesty, Ambassador Toropov is here,” Emmory said quietly from behind me.
“Hail, you go. I don’t want to speak to the man.”
“Highness.” Caspel’s quiet voice broke into the uneasy silence that dropped as I got to my feet. “You will not be able to declare war. Until the coronation, the empress is still the only one who can do that.”
“I have no intention of declaring war. Despite whatever rumors you all might have heard, I have excellent control of my temper. I care about our dockworkers, our military members on those ships and the ground, and our citizens. Our priority, ladies and gentlemen, is to keep them safe. Right now that means we use diplomacy until there is no other choice.”
Emmory opened the door. Cas and Jet were on the other side, eyeing the ambassador and his men warily. I slipped between them, ignoring Emmory’s hissed protest and gestured for him to close the door.
“The Saxon Kingdom wants nothing more than peace with Indrana, isn’t that what you said, Ambassador?”
Toropov paused, mid-bow, and glanced up at me. “I expected a call from your mother.”
“She is indisposed, Ambassador, and as the heir, I have been tasked to handle such things.”
“Until your coronation, you are still under her authority.”
“So everyone keeps telling me. And yet the shit is conveniently hitting the fan before that can happen. Now tell me, Ambassador, did I mishear you when you said the Saxons only wanted peace?”
“I spoke truly, your Highness.”
“So why are there Saxon Shock troops on my sovereign soil?” Keeping my voice level and low was a challenge, but I managed it.
The ambassador straightened, his pale eyes still on mine, and he lied straight to my face, “I have heard of no such troop movements, Your Highness. All our ST battalions are accounted for.”
My hand flexed at my hip, looking for a weapon that was no longer there. Toropov saw it, and so did his guards. All three of them froze, though the ambassador didn’t look nearly as worried as his men.
I smiled coldly. “Be grateful, Ambassador. Today you got the princess instead of the gunrunner. My people are dying and someone is responsible. I suggest you call your king and find out just what in the fires of Naraka he thinks he’s doing attacking my people right before a holy day. Because next time it might be the gunrunner you’re staring down.
“As of right now, I’ve authorized my troops on the ground to return fire in the protection of themselves or civilians. Since it’s not Saxon troops they’ll be shooting at, I’m sure you don’t have a problem with that decision. I would love to resolve this as peacefully as possible, Ambassador, but I will not allow my people to suffer for the sake of diplomatic dithering.”
“Your Highness.” Toropov’s bow was a lot stiffer this time around. “I will beg your leave and consult with my king. Though I warn you, expecting the story to change will result in disappointment. The Saxon Kingdom signed a treaty; we would never violate that without expressly informing you of our intent first.”
“So good to hear.” I dipped my head. “I look forward to hearing Trace’s side of this.” I watched Toropov and his guards move off down the hallway before I turned and went back in the War Room.
The conversation cut off when I walked back through the door and I raised an eyebrow with an amused smile. “I don’t think Ambassador Toropov will be inviting me to dinner anytime soon.”
I recounted the conversation, leaned a hip on the table, and looked at Caspel. “He was lying to me. I just don’t know which part, if any, was true.”
He shook his head. “It would be hard for me to say for sure without having seen his face. I’ve gotten confirmation from my agents on the ground about the Shock troops, Highness. But I would hazard a guess that any decisions made were not passed on to the ambassador. Plausible deniability goes a long way.”
“Makes sense.” I nodded.
Now that the adrenaline rush was fading, the indecision struck hard and fast, paralyzing me like the venom of a Viperidae. I was ridiculously unsuited for this. I wasn’t fooling anyone. Any suggestions I had about this would probably be met with the same derision I’d faced at the military briefing.
Words dried up in my mouth. I lost a piece of my nerve, and watched it skitter over the floor, where it curled into the corner and died.
Bugger me, I couldn’t do this.
“Liar.” Portis wasn’t bothered by my glare, meeting it with a cheeky grin as he smoothed down the lapel of my jacket.
“I can’t do this, Portis.” I hated the panic in my voice, but the thought of walking through those doors was now more than I could stand. “I’m not diplomatic enough. I’m a gunrunner. This is important. I’ll screw it up. I’ll ruin everything. I’ll—”
“Cress, hey, look at me.” His smile faded and he took my face in both his hands. “Hao wouldn’t have suggested you for this, and Po-Sin damn sure wouldn’t have agreed to it if they hadn’t thought you could handle it. I know you.” His hands tightened briefly for emphasis. “And you can do this.”
“Highness?”
I blinked, realized that everyone was staring at me, and cleared my throat. “Sorry.” Forcing a smile, I sat down and said with a confidence I didn’t feel, “Let’s get a game plan together, people. I want every possible scenario discussed.”