“I don’t think I need to explain to you that you can’t sail too far from the coast. The world ends a few miles from the shore, and the ocean waters don’t descend into the abyss only thanks to the invisible walls of the cup.”
“If they are invisible, then how do you know it’s a cup?” Luca asked.
“I was there,” Hustig asserted. “There’s an invisible and impenetrable veil there. It is hard and indestructible. Ships break against it, birds that fly into it fall stone-dead in the water, and even fish can’t get beyond it. My people have dived down, but the wall drops down far deeper than man can dive. Whether it’s a cup or something else, I can’t understand it. Only those spongers at the university know anything about it, but the fact that the edge of the world encircles the Empire is proven without a doubt.
Luca decided not to share what he knew of the existence of the greater world. Once people such as the khhar Terant got involved, he’d have to deal with it then.
They sat until daybreak, but as soon as the first rays of the sun came, they each rushed out to carry out their own part of the plan they’d developed.
Luca himself stayed on the terrace to use his traveler’s legacy and come up with something new. He came up with a way to deal with infectious illness (by deciding to immediately tell Lentz everything he’d managed to get from the legacy about penicillin mushrooms and their effects on infections).
Then Keirinia woke up.
By that time, he’d saved up enough Wheel energy to block his pheromone production, but she still dragged the emperor to the bed. His masculine nature reacted to the alluring curves and cambers of her body as it should.
From the many dozens of Esk’Onegut’s lives, there was a fixed axiom emblazoned across his mind: refusing a woman sex was the same as mortally offending her. Therefore he had to lie next to her so as not to offend her with a refusal, and for the first time in his life, Luca gave himself away to that intoxicating act that some call lovemaking. He felt no love for Keirinia, but his full lips made him believe in it. Which made it all the more upsetting when he finished it all before anything serious had started.
“It’s fine,” Keirinia whispered hotly, licking her lips. “You’ll be ready again in a few minutes...”
Her head dropped down again, but Luca was not judged to become a real man on that day. As soon as he started to feel a rush of blood, and the girl spread her inviting open gate before him as she lay on her stomach, a strange noise started from behind the door, and an unfamiliar voice kept repeating his name. Considering the circumstances, this had to be dealt with as quickly as possible. And many plans required his attention.
Luca had to use all his willpower to not start something that he wouldn’t want to stop. He had to send the annoyed and protesting Keirinia to sleep, but even as slumber overtook her she still wanted to meld with him, placing her head on his chest, embracing him with her arms and legs.
And so began his second day in the emperor’s body. Luca climbed out from under Keirinia’s heavy thighs, jumped up from the bed and went in search of something to quench his thirst. His throat was dry, and his ability warned him that he was getting dehydrated and cried out for water. He found nothing in the bedroom except some dregs of wine at the bottom of a jug by the bed. He headed for the door.
His chambers were already livening up. The servants dismissed yesterday by first advisor Naut had returned to their duties, cleaning up the aftermath of the night’s council. They moved soundlessly like shadows, bringing order in their wake, and their commander was a thin lady, dressed severely and with a perfectly even haircut.
Her slightly tremulous voice broke off mid-sentence as soon as she saw the emperor emerge from his bedchamber. She faltered in surprise, her face tightened, but she quickly got a grip on herself.
“Wow, look who’s up so early! Good morning! Did you have a bad dream? A nightmare? Should I call Lentz? You could sleep more, you said yourself that the first half of the day is the most boring part, and that’s why you never get up before midday...”
Luca got flustered. What was her name? The Crane? Herdinia? She matched the description, but he felt uncertain. The careless tone with which she spoke to him told him that there had been a certain kind of relationship between her and his body’s true owner that left no room for formality.
Luca decided to answer with more ceremony.
“No, don’t call Lentz, I feel fine. Order a light breakfast brought, I invite you to dine with me.”
“Dine with you..? Why so formal all of a sudden?” the lady said in surprise and frowned. “And for what purpose, if I may ask, do you want to dine with me? Or has your night cuckoo Keirinia been crowing at you again? I’m afraid I must say that she can’t rely on any more benefits for her family! I find it quite shocking that she’s decided to abuse her, if I may, special position at the palace to free the Vizenschnatz family from taxes! I know all about such special positions, and all of them involve spread legs!
Ma Ju Ro studied the angry Herdinia attentively, his gaze pausing below her skirt, on her long tanned legs and finely defined calves. Then he looked at her long crooked nose, which along with her legs made her look like the bird she’d been named after in the palace. He moved closer to her. A discrepancy caught his interest. According to the tales he’d heard, the woman was around forty years old, but she looked no older than twenty five.
He touched her chin, lifted it, gave into his curiosity and looked into her dark blue, purple-tinged eyes.
DNA sample received and saved to database.
Biological age of subject: 39 years.
Name: Herdinia (taken from carrier’s working memory).
It was entirely possible that the lady had used her influence to undergo a transfusion and preserve her youth. He’d have to ask Lentz.
“Ma Ju, are you sure you’re alright?” She kept her eyes on him and made no attempt to move back. “You look different than usual. Did you at least sleep?”
“Who are you?” Ma Ju Ro asked directly. “And why do you speak to me as if I am not your emperor?”
“I see... You’re definitely not yourself!” Herdinia exclaimed, then barked a sharp command to the servants. “Everyone out!”
She walked over to the door and locked it from the inside. Then she glanced into the emperor’s bedroom to check that Keirinia was asleep, returned to him and started hissing at him angrily.
“So that cretin Naut managed to share his Tassurian ‘spices’ with you before his failed attempt on your life after all, eh? Two-horns take him. How many times have I warned you about him?! That idiot is in league with your cousin, and you never wanted to believe it! You just got high as usual! No, it wasn’t Naut? If not him, then who? Ah, it must have been that sneak Reyk Vensiro? I won’t let him and his filthy ‘spices’ cross the palace threshold ever again! That disgusting creep!”
“Calm yourself, woman!” the emperor roared. “And answer my questions! Who are you?”
“I see,” she sighed tiredly. “Amnesia. The consequences of unrestrained drunkenness and narcotic abuse. Fine, it’s easier to answer than wait for you to sober up. I am Herdinia. Your idiot courtiers call me the Heron behind my back, but in person they never tire of sucking up to me and groveling, knowing that only I can solve whatever problems they have. You might promise them something, but the promise will remain mere words until I get to grips with it. While I, if you’ll forgive my candor, ignore your directions entirely, since they do no good whatsoever to the Empire.”
“What about my advisors? Do they obey you as well?”
“Your advisors, and not counting that fool Naut, there are three more of them — Rizmayer, Lodyger and Cross — answer only for their own specific responsibilities and have no influence on the others. Apart from, of course...”
“Hustig...”
“Hustig? Have you gone mad?” Herdinia laughed. “Hustig the brave knight has gotten all too carried away playing at soldiers and wants nothing to do with anything els
e. As for your countless whores and endless bedroom antics, whatever they ask you for, you order me to handle it. Do you know why, Maj? Because you don’t trust anyone as much as you trust me, your secretary Herdinia Cross.”
“And why do I do that?” the emperor asked.
“Because that’s what my husband Anthony Cross ordered you to do.”
“Cross? The fourth advisor?”
“Call him what you like, but our family, in case you’ve forgotten, is assigned by order of the genetically perfect queen Taira and in the name of the Holy Mother to manage life on the Syahr island, which you call the Empire, you drug-addled moron! Now go back to your room, climb back onto your libidinous Keirinia and let me work!” The Crane shoved Ma Ju Ro in the chest, pushing him away. “Rizmayer, Lodyger and Anthony will be here soon, and we need to choose who will be your first advisor in Naut’s place, and solve a bunch of other problems before the country irrevocably descends into hell!”
The emperor stood still. He realized now that the situation was far more complex than he’d thought during the night. And then he did the first thing that came to his mind — told his metamorphosis to stop blocking the uncontrolled excessive sexual magnetism virus.
Chapter 33. Who are you, you son of a bitch?
“HERDINIA...” Ma Ju Ro began, then hesitated as he waited for the virus to work.
The puzzle was coming together. Part of it from the khhar Terant’s tales of the Empire as the world’s discarded apple core or worse, with the majority of the population living on huge continents many times the size of all of Syahr. Part of it from the memory of the real Ma Ju Ro the Fourth, which included huge black warriors with weaponry to which nothing in the Empire could even hold a candle, and a tribute that the country paid to the Cross family who controlled this land of genetic refuse.
This final link connected it all — Herdinia Cross, the grey cardinal of the Empire, and her husband Anthony, whose role in the government Luca was yet to learn. The woman stood, leaning forward quizzically, waiting for him to continue.
“Well? What was it you wanted to say?”
“Could I at least have breakfast?” Ma Ju Ro coolly asked his almighty secretary.
“It will be brought to you. That’s it, begone!”
“There’s something else... I’d like to be present at your council. I hope you don’t mind?”
“Me?” Herdinia said in surprise. “I thought you didn’t want to take part in boring matters like that. Fine, I don’t...” But then her pupils expanded, her cheeks flushed and her breath quickened. She looked at the emperor with fresh eyes, and sincere interest shone through her gaze. “Forgive me, I must leave.”
She quickly ran away and hid in the lavatory. The sexual magnetism had worked its magic, but Herdinia Cross had enviable restraint.
Ma Ju Ro had time to order breakfast and even eat his fill before the woman returned. Her previously perfect hair was messy, her makeup was smudged, but she’d regained her composure. She sat at the table next to him, sent away the servants, poured herself a grain brew — a traditional and very expensive uplifting morning beverage, — but didn’t drink it. Instead, delicately sticking out her little finger, she placed the cup on the edge of the table and spoke.
“Maj...” Herdinia said in embarrassment. “Forgive me.”
“For what?” he asked.
“For what I said before... and just for everything. My ruler, I have realized how wrong I was. Allow me to make up for it!”
“How?”
Without answering, she put her hand on his leg, ran it along his thigh and tried to reach somewhere else, but Luca hurriedly crossed his legs and pushed her arm away. It seemed the pheromones had already done their job. He mentally willed that the pheromone production be stopped again, but it didn’t help.
Herdinia kept looking at him with eyes full of passion. Her chest heaved as her breathing quickened, but the woman maintained her self-control in everything else.
“So what about my involvement in your meeting, my dear Herdinia?” Luca smiled warmly and extended a hand. “This one and all those to come? I have a range of ideas for reforming our system of government, and I’d like to keep you on as a secretary, with your no doubt priceless skills, knowledge and qualifications.
“Well... Maj.... Your imperial majesty,” she began, obviously having trouble talking to him so respectfully. “Your assessment of my skills is most gratifying, and I will be very glad if what you say is truly the case, and not merely a dream. How did I not see you for who you are sooner...”
She made another attempt to reach into his trousers, but Luca intercepted it, gently holding the woman back by the wrist. Don’t underestimate the power of compliments! Esk’s legacy insisted, and he gave in.
“Herdinia, you’re an amazing woman! I’m sure that together, we can bring the Empire to true magnificence! And when that happens, if you are still interested in me and your husband is not opposed... I will give you what you so strongly desire. I will allow you to make it up to me. You have my word as emperor!”
It seemed to Luca that of everything he’d said, all she’d heard were the words of her husband.
“Anthony? Of course he’ll be against it! Unfortunately, I’ll need the blessing of the Sacred Mother Taira to get a divorce, but I don’t have to do that to...” She licked her lips and winked invitingly. It was such a contrast with her appearance that Ma Ju Ro barely held back a smile that could have ruined everything. “Do you understand me, sire?
The emperor nodded slightly in favor, and it occurred to him that he had yet to see how the UESM virus would work without further replenishment.
* * *
Subsequent events started careering out of control, carrying Luca away like a crazed horse at the sight of a mutant werewolf. Just has he’d solved the problem of Herdinia, the Imperial Council session began. At Ma Ju Ro’s suggestion, it had been expanded to seven people and now included Lentz, Hector and Hustig. The current advisors all voted in unison against a ‘pointless expansion of the state’ and a reduction in their own spheres of influence, to which the emperor reacted by suggesting that they leave the conference and willingly retire from office. He promised not to stop them.
All were amazed, particularly Fourth Advisor Anthony Cross, when Herdinia supported the emperor instead of obeying her husband as she always had. But the entire morning was one of shocked surprise, from the fact that Ma Ju Ro the Fourth came to the council at all, which caused a furor, to the sharply altered relationship between him and Herdinia, who had started saying “your imperial majesty” and “ruler” so often that even her husband accepted the new rules of the game, deciding to deal with all this later when alone with his spouse.
All the advisors judged Naut loudly and harshly for heading up the attempt on the emperor’s life, but they were again amazed when Ma Ju Ro called on them not to rush to hasty demands to hang the traitor, but to give him another chance, although of course not in such a responsible position as before.
“Naut’s knowledge could still come in handy to us, respected advisors,” he summed up. “Do you agree, Mr. Rizmayer?”
Rizmayer, the counsellor for culture and public relations, didn’t realize at first that the emperor had addressed him personally. At the time, he was deeply engrossed in whispering something to Lodyger about a certain actress in the imperial theater who had given him an unforgettable night, but then he realized that the hall had fallen silent and everyone was looking at him. Confused, the advisor looked around in search of clues, then said, to nobody in particular:
“Perhaps.”
“‘Perhaps’ what, Mr. Rizmayer?” Ma Ju Ro frowned.
“Your majesty... Forgive me, I did not understand the question,” the second advisor finally said, surrendering to the emperor’s amused smile. “Have we decided not to cancel the upcoming gladiator games? Or were we talking about the premiere of my new play in the imperial theater? Yes, of course, the ticket sales are still far below what might be c
alled sizeable...”
“I asked you whether you agree with me.”
“Agree with..? Forgive me, my emperor! I was incautious enough to be distracted while telling Mr. Lodyger of some new gifts to the stage...”
“Tell me, Rizmayer...” Ma Ju Ro stood up and leaned toward his second advisor. “Do you recognize the importance and critical necessity of the tasks that your post and the Empire lay before you?”
“Without a doubt, my emperor! But these are difficult times, and the people have stopped appreciating high culture. You see,” Rizmayer took courage as he saw that the emperor wasn’t interrupting him, “the people are frightened, your majesty! The entire capital! They are afraid of what your cousin will bring with his army of fearsome veterans and the troops of the southern barons! They are barbarians! Vandals! Boors! There are rumors that Rezsinius has personally promised each soldier three days of looting in the capital! The citizens are whispering, and the mood in the city is entirely pessimistic! There’s nothing I can do about it!”
Blood of Fate Page 22
