The man had a cruel mouth. That had been Casey’s first impression of Senator Horvat, at that very first, informal meeting, when she had arrived with Jessica several weeks ago and been privately introduced to the power players of the Republic.
Horvat had wanted to discount her. Not because she was a woman, although Casey had spent her entire life fighting that battle. No, he just didn’t think an eighteen-year-old was capable of moving mountains.
Ask Sigmund about that, if you both end up in hell, Senator.
Casey walked slowly, regally, to the little podium, Captain Wald’s briefing packet in one hand, a five-ring binder as thick as some of her favorite novels. Her mother had taught Casey how to enter a room and compel every person there to acknowledge you.
And the Empress was compelling at it. Casey might not have her mother’s coloring, but she had that same long build, plus the muscles from father’s side of the family, as evidenced by both Dad and Uncle Em. And she had committed fully to her training on the flight to Ladaux.
Jessica might not have fore-seen this particular scenario, but Casey had not been fooled. The Empire had been winning the war, at least until Jessica Keller arrived. And then they had started losing. Slowly, to be sure, victorious on other fronts.
But Jessica Keller had upset the apple cart in other ways, inspiring a whole generation of young women to ask their fathers why they couldn’t do things.
Young women like Casey.
zu Wiegand, Ritter of the Household, about to speak with her father’s voice, binding the Empire itself with her words.
She took the one shallow step up and rested the book on the inclined surface. Yan Bedrov had worked without notes for forty-five minutes, but he had not been called upon for arcane miscellanies. And Casey suspected he might have been able to answer those off the top of his head, as well.
Yan Bedrov was a man who ran deep.
Casey glanced to her right first, acknowledging her uncle’s greatest foe in the days before Jessica, Nils Kasum, with a smile. The remaining five Lords were strangers to her, but she did not sense any great animosity from them.
Down front, Jessica and Moirrey, with Colonel zu Arlo and Captain Wald supporting them. Casey had taken on the entire Fribourg Fleet with their help.
And won.
The Premier and the President farther down. Casey could only dream of the day a female led the House of Dukes. Perhaps she needed to suggest that one of the empty duchies be granted to Queen Jessica. Casey could imagine her friend retiring to a life of Imperial politics, a shark encountering a school of sleepy tuna.
The Committee. An exotic thing. The closest equivalent might be Staff High Command, the group led now by Uncle Em in his black uniform, and only open to Princes of the Blood. She thought that they might have to relax their recruiting standards a bit, with Sigmund Dittmar dead in the coup, and Artur Marquering executed for treason not long afterwards. There weren’t that many competent, seasoned commanders with the right heritage, these days.
Casey suppressed a grin at the thought of Jessica taking that room by storm, as well.
So, nineteen men and women of power, prestige, and old hatreds of Fribourg.
Jessica had told her that the Peace between nations rested on her words. She understood that now, looking at the many hostile faces.
At least Senator Horvat was neutral. Visibly.
“Raise your right hand,” he commanded formally.
Casey did, pulling her shoulders back and down, and jutting her jaw, just a bit. These people would not intimidate an Emperor that had seen off a coup attempt and the first raid on St. Legier in three centuries.
“Do you swear under penalty of perjury that the testimony you are about to give is the full truth as you know it?”
“I do,” Casey swore simply.
“Lady Casey,” Horvat began slowly, taking her measure carefully. “You have witnessed the presentation given by Sri Bedrov, regarding several new warship designs he proposes that the Republic of Aquitaine construct. Did you have any questions for Sri Bedrov?”
“I did not, Senator,” she replied.
Casey and Captain Wald had spent many hours poring over the designs with the pirate. And the implications.
Her father had suggested an absolute revolution in the Peace between Fribourg and Aquitaine, and entrusted her and Jessica to execute it.
Her biggest obstacle so far was seated before her, a graying Senator Jessica trusted, one of the woman’s so-called Guardian Angels, along with Nils Kasum.
Senator Horvat picked up a piece of paper and pretended to study it for a second. Casey was not fooled by the mannerisms, although she suspected many would be.
“I have a letter from the Fribourg Emperor, Karl VII,” Horvat said in a grand voice. “Offering to fund the construction of a number of naval vessels, on two conditions. One: that they be crewed exclusively by the Republic. And Two: that they be allowed to serve with the Fribourg Fleet on a neutral, distant frontier.”
Casey could tell how many people had been privy to that secret communication, before now, by the location of the gasps, murmuring, and shouts emerging around her. Or rather, the gaps. About half the Committee had not known, but most of the other key players had: Kasum, Chavarría, Szabolcsi included.
Casey updated her mental notes regarding the still, dark waters that flowed in the Republic Senate. Father and Uncle Em would find her observations priceless when she got home. Perhaps she would need to write some non-fiction for a bit.
Senator Horvat actually had to reach out, grab, and slam the gavel down once on the table, a hard, ringing thump that cut through the rabble.
“There will be order,” he called in a voice that would not be brooked.
Casey suspected that Horvat was keeping score right now, as well.
Silence eventually snuck into the room.
“Now then, Ritter Wiegand,” the Senator continued, his tone ever so exasperated by the interruption. “Pardon me, zu Wiegand. You are familiar with the contents of the letter?”
“I am, Senator,” she said. “And the implications.”
Let them chew on that one. Remind them that Fribourg, while younger than Aquitaine, was much larger, and largely an unknown to these people. There would be wheels turning within wheels.
“To put it simply, then,” Horvat stared at her. “Why?”
He really did have a cruel mouth. Thin lips pressed together, rather like a librarian about to shush someone. Beetling eyebrows drawing slowly together in the middle as he awaited her. Hot, dark eyes that had seen it all, done it all, and were not convinced that an eighteen-year-old Princess Imperial had anything new to show him.
Jessica had warned her that Tadej Horvat was something of a control freak. Casey could see that as she moved to introduce a whole new playing piece onto his otherwise-carefully-crafted chess board.
“There is Peace between our nations, Chairman Horvat,” Casey replied simply. “Karl VII will see that it runs the entire length of the treaty, while looking for excuses to extend it beyond the quarter-century originally agreed to. We would enlist the aid of Aquitaine’s First Expeditionary Fleet to help us address what we believe to be a threat to all humanity. Jessica Keller has assembled one of the best fighting organizations in a century, but Buran is something entirely new to all of us.”
“Buran?” the man asked, still following a formal script in his head.
“The Eternal,” Casey replied calmly. “The so-called Lord of Winter. One of the ancient evils from humankind’s past, in control of an entire star empire that rivals Fribourg for size and power. Citizens of Aquitaine, hear me: Buran is a Sentience, a deathless artificial intelligence, of the kind that destroyed the homeworld and nearly our entire species. It is one of the Destroyers, threatening the modern age. Fribourg will not allow that.”
Bedlam.
Casey shut her mouth and serenely rested her hands on the podium. It would be minutes before Horvat managed to regain control, as the entire room was consumed.
One Senator, an older man at the far end of the table, had apparently passed out, although medical staff were on hand and quickly moved the man to one of the audience seats, rather than transporting him to a hospital, so it must have been shock and not a heart attack.
Not that Casey was above using that as a weapon.
She hadn’t told Jessica the complete truth, but Father and Uncle Em had instructed her that regardless of the outcome of her mission, they would fight. On two fronts, if necessary.
Without Aquitaine, though, they only expected to damage the beast while in the process of dying themselves, leaving Jessica to finish it off.
If she could.