63

At last the majestic, soaring towers of Magna Alto came into view, but it did little to ease Sebastian’s troubled mind. Once they passed through the main gate and into the city, they were met by a large escort who took charge of the Raízians.

“What will happen to Captain Reyes and his troupe, sir?” Sebastian asked the general as he watched them marched off toward the brig.

Barone sighed. “I don’t know, Captain. Hopefully they will just be kept under watch in a comfortable environment until the empress is assured of their continued loyalty. But…” He shook his head. “These are complicated times.”

Sebastian did not find that explanation satisfying, but there was little he could do or say. “Yes, sir.”

Before dismissing the infantry, Barone addressed them from horseback.

“I know this was a difficult and discouraging mission. Rest assured that once peace and unity has been restored to the empire, we will return to Kante to continue the work we started. For now, get as much rest as you can. I expect we’ll have new marching orders soon enough.”

Once the infantry had been dismissed, Barone, Sebastian, Marcello, and the other captains took the spiraling road to the palace. Sebastian barely noticed as they passed through the Silver Ring, the splendorous neighborhood where some of the wealthiest people in the empire lived. Even entering the palace stirred little within him. He dully wondered if it was merely the exhaustion that tempered his previous wonder, or his growing disillusionment.

Once Barone dismissed the officers, Sebastian went straight to his mother’s apartments. He found her sitting in a chair, calmly drinking tea and ignoring the cookies, just as he’d left her. She seemed not to have changed at all.

“You’ve returned at last, darling,” she said. “I was…”

She trailed off as she got a good look at him. Her already pale face took on a deathly pallor and she came to her feet. “Sebastian! My God, what happened?”

“It’s okay, Mother.” He moved to her and took her hands, forcing himself to smile reassuringly.

She pulled one hand away and touched his hair. “So much gray, my darling… And your face…” She cupped his cheek with her cool hand and gently stroked the dark pouch beneath one of his eyes with her thumb.

“It looks worse than it is,” he said.

“It looks like you’ve aged twenty years in only a few months,” she said bluntly.

He winced. “Thank you, Mother. You always know just how to put things.”

“Sit,” she commanded.

He hardly needed convincing, and immediately sank into one of the chairs. He found he didn’t have much appetite, but poured himself a cup of tea. His mother sat back down beside him and took up her own half-full cup.

“It’s the magic, isn’t it?” she asked.

He nodded as he cupped his mug of tea with both hands, finding some small comfort in its warmth.

“If that is the case,” his mother declared, “clearly you must stop using magic.”

He smiled bitterly. “Galina said the same thing.”

“She always did have a great deal of sense.” His mother sighed. “I wish things had worked out between you. I was genuinely fond of her, despite the fact that she was a conniving bitch.”

His smile grew teasing. “Are you sure you don’t mean because of that?”

“Perhaps,” she conceded. “But betraying you was the one thing I couldn’t forgive.”

He stared down into his tea, watching the steam drift off the surface. He suddenly wondered what Galina would make of his current doubts. Would she be pleased? Would she see it as vindication for what she had done?

“There’s something else bothering you,” his mother said.

“You always know.”

“Of course. Now, out with it. I detest lengthy interrogations.”

“Do you think I made the right choice in joining the imperial army?”

She regarded him carefully for a moment before speaking.

“At the time you made the choice, yes. It was the only way to ensure our safety in such a precarious situation. And later, with all of Izmoroz as your enemy, what else could you do but flee to Aureum and the relative safety it offered?”

He looked up at her. “But now?”

She was again silent, as though weighing what she should say next.

“You’ve asked before what happened to your grandparents and your aunt, and I’ve always said I would tell you another time. Would you still like to know?”

“Of course.”

She nodded, then poured herself some more tea. She took a sip and her eyes drifted away, as though seeing old memories rise.

“I met your father shortly after the war. The attraction was mutual and instant. Ever a man of action, it did not take him long to ask your grandparents for my hand, and our engagement took place soon after.

“There were many among the nobility who disagreed vehemently with our engagement. Still hurting from their defeat and subsequent loss of power, they considered it tantamount to betrayal by the Turgenev family. I suspect it particularly rankled them because I chose the imperial commander who defeated them over Lord Prozorova, arguably the most respected and sought after young noble in the country. It was a telling indication of the dramatic shift of power in postwar Izmoroz.

“But your grandparents were thrilled with the engagement. They understood that Izmoroz had been irrevocably changed, and by allying themselves through marriage to the most powerful imperial personage in the region, they were ensuring their own standing within the new order. Your aunt was not old enough to become engaged, yet she already had several extremely influential suitors, noble and imperial. The future looked very bright indeed for the Turgenevs.”

She looked down at her tea. After a moment, she placed it carefully on the table, then folded her hands together on her lap. When she looked at Sebastian, he was stunned to see her eyes now brimming with unshed tears. He had never seen such open emotion from his mother in all his life. But her voice remained clear and firm as she spoke.

“Unfortunately, your grandparents underestimated the lengths to which people would go to appease their resentment. In those days, the Turgenevs had two homes. The townhome on North Veter Street that you have seen many times, and a large manor just outside the city. On the night of our wedding, your father and I retired to the townhouse, while your grandparents and your aunt, who was not yet fifteen, returned to the manor.”

She paused for a moment and took a slow breath. Her eyes continued to brim with unshed tears but she seemed able to prevent them from falling somehow, perhaps by sheer force of will. After a moment, she continued, though now her voice wavered.

“The next morning…” She took another breath. “I learned that the manor had been set on fire, and all within had perished in the blaze.”

She did not look at Sebastian as she spoke, but stared fiercely off into empty space. Her hands grasped each other so tightly they were white. But still she did not shed her tears.

After a moment, he asked, “The Izmorozian nobles did it?”

“Or they had the peasants do it. The details hardly matter.”

“But… aren’t you angry with them?”

She sighed, and all the tension seemed to drain out of her. She carefully dabbed at her eyes as she said, “With the Izmorozian nobility? Not particularly. They were small-minded, frightened, resentful, and petty. Like most people in this world. They had been brutally conquered by your father, a man who truly earned his savage reputation as Giovanni the Wolf. Did they not have a right to be angry as well?”

“I suppose, but still… what did their terrible actions accomplish?”

“Nothing of course. But if you think war is meant to accomplish something, you haven’t been paying attention.” His mother now seemed back to her old self and spoke with lucid clarity, as though giving him a history lecture like she had when he was a child. “War exists because weak and arrogant fools desperately try to prove their strength, and other weak and arrogant fools retaliate in kind. It is a never-ending cycle of reprisals, retributions, and sometimes naked vengeance.”

“Surely there must be some way to stop it,” said Sebastian. “To end the cycle.”

“Of course,” she said. “One side must stop retaliating, even in the face of hideous cruelty. And I’m sure you already have some idea how difficult it would be for even the most generous of souls to watch their loved ones brutally slaughtered and not lash out in kind.”

Sebastian thought of the wrathful peasants who had rebelled within Gogoleth. They had likely been retaliating against his actions in Les and elsewhere. He thought of Isobelle and her fellow Kantesians watching with satisfaction as their giant metal monster smashed through the enemy who had destroyed their town and killed so many of their people.

“Why do you tell me this?” he asked.

“Because, my darling boy, you aren’t really asking me if you made the right choice to become a soldier when your father died. You are asking me if you should be one now. While I would never tell you what to do, I thought you were ready to have a clearer, more mature picture of what it means to be a soldier in wartime.”

“But wouldn’t it still be a risk to both of us if I abandoned my post now?”

“Things have changed at the palace in your absence, Sebastian, and our position here is less secure. Our primary ally, Zaniolo, has been murdered.”

Sebastian stared at her. “How? By whom?”

“Stabbed to death in his own office, although the killer has not yet been found.”

“And it happened right here within the palace?”

She nodded. “And that’s not all. The Uaine forces have apparently vanished from Izmoroz. It’s suspected they are somehow making their move on Magna Alto. Any day now, the outer wall could be besieged by a horde of undead and we’ll be stuck in a siege.”

“My God. No wonder the empress called us back.”

“And hopefully you now understand why this place is no longer a safe haven for us.”

He leaned in close and said quietly, “Should we flee, Mother? Right now?”

“And go where?” she asked.

He thought of Isobelle. “I… know of some potential allies in Kante.”

“Do you have a way to contact them?”

He shook his head.

“Do you at least know where they are?”

Again he had to shake his head.

“We would have to be quite desperate to find ourselves wandering the Kantesian countryside looking for people who would only be potential allies.”

“I… see your point, Mother.”

“I have been forming some alliances of my own with the other expatriate guests here at the palace, so I am not without some support.”

“That’s comforting to know,” said Sebastian.

“For the moment, I think we should continue as we are, but we must remain flexible. Barone and his battalion will be sent south to deal with the Raízian uprising, but with any luck, you’ll remain here to help defend the palace in case the Uaine attack.”

“Yes, it would be best if I was here to protect you,” said Sebastian.

“For another reason as well,” said his mother. “I’m sure it won’t surprise you at this point to learn that your sister has gotten herself mixed up in the mess down in Colmo.”

“Yasha is working with the Viajero insurgents?”

“Apparently so.”

Sebastian’s mother was right. He wasn’t surprised. But he was worried.

“What if I do get sent to Raíz?”

His mother sighed. “It is a distinct possibility.”

“Mother… I don’t know if I can fight her again,” he confessed. “I don’t think I want to.”

“Well, that’s good to hear,” his mother said, looking unexpectedly relieved. “Perhaps you’re maturing more than just physically.”

“But I thought—”

“Sebastian, I am a simple woman.”

“Come now, Mother, you’re one of the most complicated people I’ve ever met.”

“Hardly. It’s the world that is complicated, and it is my steadfast commitment to simplicity that makes me such a confusing anomaly. I have never cared for politics, ideals, nations, cultures, or any number of ‘causes’ that people sacrifice themselves and their loved ones for. Since the moment I lost my mother, father, and sister to that fire, I have cared only for the remaining members of my family. Everything I have done, and everything I continue to do, is intended to ensure their continued survival. I care not one whit for any oaths you may have made to the current ruler of this arbitrarily drawn land. You and your sister come first. Always.”

He stared at her. As was often the case, he didn’t quite understand what she was implying. But at least now he had the courage to admit that.

“What do you think I should do, Mother?”

“If you are sent to Raíz, I say empires, armies, and righteous goals be damned. Do whatever it takes to ensure that both you and your sister come out of this conflict alive.”