Empire of Rust

by Chambers, V. J.

  “Then what does it mean?”

  “Nothing,” said Gabriel. “It doesn’t mean anything at all.”

  “So you think everything’s meaningless? I don’t want to live in a world like that.”

  “Well, I don’t want to live in a world where all my tragedies are also punishments. I suppose you’d say that the reason I no longer have the empire is because God is punishing me for straying from his path.”

  Ezekiel swallowed. “I hadn’t thought of that.” He looked down. “Maybe it’s true. If that’s the case, am I here because I’m already damned with the lot of you, or because I have the ability to get you back in line with the will of God?”

  Gabriel stood up. “You give me a headache sometimes, Ezekiel.”

  Nathaniel looked up at the former emperor. “So, why is that you two are attracted to each other again?”

  Gabriel looked down at Ezekiel. The two locked gazes for a minute, and there was a moment of heat between them. But then Gabriel turned and walked away.

  Ezekiel sighed and got up too.

  Leah surveyed the remnants of breakfast. “I suppose I’ll have to clean up. Considering I’m the woman.”

  “I’ll help you,” said Nathaniel.

  She eyed him.

  He tried a smile.

  She turned her attention to the pots and pans.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Darius paced in the emperor’s study. “I don’t know about this, Michal. I don’t see what I’m supposed to do in here.”

  Michal was sitting on top of the emperor’s desk. She was just as confused as Darius, but she felt as if she must pretend as if she knew what they should do. She was trying to be reassuring, to be a pillar of stability. But the truth was that everything was different, and everything was precarious.

  They couldn’t get rid of the revenants for fear that they wouldn’t be safe without them. They enjoyed their position only because they inspired terror, and they had to maintain the threat at all times. There were no revenants in the room with them now, but there were some posted outside the door. And Darius wouldn’t let her go anywhere without a revenant escort. They were surrounded by death all the time.

  “You don’t have to do anything,” she said. “You just need to be here. This is where everyone will expect to find you. If you’re needed, you’ll be sought after in this study.”

  “And what will I be needed for? What do I do now that I’m the emperor?”

  Michal chewed on her lip. The truth was, she didn’t quite know. She hadn’t spent a lot of time analyzing her father’s activities. She knew that the emperor made laws and occasionally gave an audience to the common people so that they could voice concerns and have him settle disputes. But beyond that, she was very much unsure what it was that the job of emperor entailed. Still, she didn’t want Darius to know that she was flying blind. Taking over the throne had been her idea. She needed to be the pillar of stability here. “You rule.”

  He glared at her.

  Her feet dangled over the edge of the desk. She watched them instead of her husband.

  “This wasn’t a good idea,” he muttered.

  “Don’t say that.” But she didn’t meet his gaze.

  He was quiet. The only sound was his feet against the floor as he paced back and forth.

  “Is it hard?” she whispered.

  “Is what hard?”

  “Keeping control of the revenants all the time. Is that distracting?”

  He stopped pacing. “No. That’s not difficult. Not at all. It took me a little bit to get the hang of it, but it’s as natural as breathing now.”

  She looked up at him.

  He came to her, cupping her face with one hand. His hands were so big, his fingers thick. Inside his palm, his skin was as pale as the revenants. She shut her eyes, loving the feel of his cool skin against her face.

  “It’s not me that I worry about, sweet one.”

  She sighed softly. “I worry about you.”

  He kissed her forehead. “I don’t deserve you.”

  “Yes, you do.” And she wrapped her legs around him, pressing her body against his.

  He let out a rumble of approval, his fingers traveling back to hold the back of her head, to pull their lips together.

  There was a knock at the door.

  They let go of each other.

  Michal got off the desk. “I told you people would seek you here.”

  Darius’s gaze darted over the room, as if he didn’t know what to do or where to be.

  She pointed at the desk. “Sit there.”

  While he got situated behind the emperor’s desk, Michal went to the door and opened it.

  The head of the council was there. He was white-faced and trembling.

  “Sir, please come in,” said Michal.

  “My lady,” sad the head, “is it really necessary that these… these monsters be here constantly?” He cringed away from the revenants as he hurried inside.

  “You know it is,” said Michal. She shut the door behind him. “How can the emperor help you?”

  The head swallowed. He turned to face Darius, and bowed his head in deference.

  Darius looked at Michal in confusion. He wasn’t sure what to do.

  She shrugged at him. He didn’t need to do anything.

  The head raised his eyes. “Sir, I come to bring you news of the council meeting today.”

  “Oh,” said Darius. “Very well, you may proceed.”

  The head cleared his throat. “Er, well, Your Eminence, the council is, quite honestly, rather concerned about the current state of affairs here in the capital.”

  Darius shot Michal a glance. I told you so, it said.

  “It’s a time of transition,” said Michal quickly. “They’ll need to adjust.”

  “Of course.” The head clasped his hands together. “Well, many members of the council have their families here. Some of them have young children. Some their wives.”

  “Yes, we know this,” said Michal. “It’s always been this way.”

  “They are concerned about the revenants so close to their loved ones,” said the head.

  “The revenants are safe,” said Michal. “They are controlled.”

  The head nodded at her. “If you’ll pardon me, my lady, I did come here to address the emperor.”

  Michal clenched her jaw. Oh, that was rich. He was insulting her because she was a woman. But she was quiet, so he had gotten what he wanted.

  “My wife and I are of the same mind,” said Darius in a low voice. “It is not your place to speak to her in that way.”

  The head bobbed his chin. “Of course, sir. I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t realize…” He looked at Michal.

  She gazed at him coolly.

  “Does the council wish me to do something about their concerns?” said Darius.

  “Er, actually, Your Eminence, the council has voted to go on recess.”

  The council wasn’t due for their annual recess for months. Michal glared at the head.

  “In this way,” continued the head, “they can go home and take their families away from the danger. Then they can have a clearer head for their duties here.”

  If the council left court, everyone left court. She and Darius would be reigning over nothing. This was a ploy to get the other nobles out of the city to set up a government somewhere else.

  Michal walked over to stand behind Darius. She placed her hand on his shoulder.

  “So,” said Darius, “everyone at court would leave. Is that what you’re saying?”

  “Well, not everyone,” said the head. “Just the council and their families.”

  “The council is the court,” said Michal. Her voice was an icy whisper. “You know it, and so do I.”

  The head laughed nervously. “Well, the emperor does have the ability to overturn the decrees of the council, but I must say that I don’t think—in this case—it would be wise. The council members are very—”

  “The council
is disbanded,” said Michal. “Permanently.”

  The head’s eyes widened.

  “But no one leaves the city,” said Michal. “We’ll have revenants on every gate.”

  “B-but…” The head looked straight at Darius. “Your Eminence, I beg you—”

  “You heard her,” said Darius. “No one leaves.” He gestured to the door. “Now, if you have nothing further?”

  The head scurried out of the room.

  The door shut after him, leaving them alone together in silence.

  Darius placed his hand on top of hers. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

  Michal hoped that too.

  * * *

  Gabriel felt completely out of sorts and lost. He didn’t have a plan. If it had been left up to him, they would have wandered around in the wilderness for days, even weeks. But Leah wisely pointed out that they had a very limited amount of provisions left, especially for four people. However, Gabriel did have quite a bit of coin. He’d brought it on the vain hope of trying to buy Ezekiel back from the gypsies, which hadn’t happened, of course. So, their best bet wouldn’t be to keep camping, but to find a close village and stay in an inn.

  They were pretending to be nothing more than traveling nobles. No one could know who he was.

  As a short term plan, it was solid, but Gabriel knew that they couldn’t stay in an inn forever. Eventually, he was going to have to figure out what to do with himself, and he had no idea what that might be. He didn’t even want to attempt to think about that right now.

  Ezekiel was keen on the idea of taking back the empire. He seemed to think that it would work out simply because Gabriel was the true-born emperor. He thought that God would restore the throne if it was his will, and that they should try their luck.

  Gabriel explained to him that it was suicide. They’d need an army—an enormous one. And even with an army, they’d probably fail, considering that Darius had an unlimited supply of revenants.

  Besides, Gabriel felt defeated and heartsick about his loss of the empire. Though he’d told Ezekiel he didn’t believe he was being punished by God, he did feel as if he must have done something that led to this loss of power. He didn’t blame it on a deity, though, but rather on his inability to save his sister. He and Michal had grown up so close, and now she had turned against him. If he hadn’t been so distracted, maybe he could have done something about the necromancer—kept Michal away from that monster. Hell, maybe he should have killed Darius himself.

  Darius had seemed like a decent enough fellow, true. But he’d also taken over Gabriel’s empire, so that tended to put a damper on their burgeoning friendship.

  Whatever the case, Gabriel wanted to wallow. He didn’t want to make crazy plans to try to take back his throne.

  But he had to listen to Ezekiel prattle on about it the whole time that they rode. Ezekiel wouldn’t shut up. He talked about it through the morning, the afternoon, and the early evening. Finally, they reached a village, and the only thing that shut Ezekiel up was the fact they were trying to keep a low profile and hide Gabriel’s identity.

  That, and the fact that they hadn’t spent much time thinking about how they were going to divide themselves up for lodgings. Like most village inns, this one had limited space. There were only two rooms available on the top story of the thatched-roof, squat stone house. Gabriel’s initial thought was to have him and Leah share a room. They were married. But then he realized that would leave Ezekiel and Nathaniel together. And the two of them didn’t seem to get along at all. Ezekiel might very well strangle Nathaniel in his sleep if he allowed them to share a room. So, he lied to the innkeeper and said that Nathaniel and Leah were married, and that they would have a room together—the bigger one—and that he and Ezekiel would take the smaller one.

  No one looked happy with this arrangement when he said it out loud.

  All three of the others turned to look at him with expressions ranging from disgust to outrage.

  He cringed and ignored them. “I can pay ahead of time if that’s helpful.”

  “How many nights will you be with us?” said the innkeeper.

  Gabriel didn’t know. “It’s, um, to be determined.”

  The innkeeper wasn’t used to that answer, apparently. He raised his eyebrows. “Well, I could charge for two nights, then?”

  “Uh, all right,” said Gabriel.

  The innkeeper quoted him the price, and Gabriel began to count it out of his purse.

  “You,” said the innkeeper.

  Gabriel looked up, alarmed. He’d been recognized, already. This was bad. What was he going to tell the innkeeper now?

  But the innkeeper wasn’t looking at Gabriel. He was staring at Nathaniel. “You’re Nathaniel the Magnificent.”

  Nathaniel’s eyes widened. “Uh…”

  “Don’t deny it. I recognize you,” said the innkeeper. “You came through here six months ago doing your magic show. I see that you’ve managed to get the backing of some powerful noblemen.” The innkeeper turned to Gabriel. “You see who he is as well, don’t you?”

  Gabriel furrowed his brow. “Who is he?”

  “He’s the Son,” said the innkeeper. “The second coming of the messiah. He’s here to drive back the revenants and lead us into a glorious new life!”

  Gabriel looked at Nathaniel, feeling unbalanced. Had the world just been turned upside down?

  Nathaniel scratched the back of his head. “Um, sir, if you—”

  “I’m so honored that you’re staying with us.” The innkeeper snatched his hat off of his head and clapped it over his heart. “You do our little inn a tribute by being here. It is more than we deserve.”

  Gabriel couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Ezekiel seemed to be reacting similarly, looking Nathaniel over as if he hadn’t seen him before. Only Leah didn’t seem surprised by this turn of events.

  “Please,” said Nathaniel, stepping forward. “I’m not what you think I am. The things I do, they’re only tricks—it’s nothing from heaven. Please remember, the power is within yourselves. You don’t need me, you don’t need God.”

  The innkeeper shook his head. “I knew it was you.”

  Gabriel’d had enough of this. “Listen, we’ll just take our room.” He started to give the innkeeper his coins.

  But the innkeeper held up a hand. “Oh, no. We couldn’t accept payment for this. We would be happy to give shelter to the Son himself and his companions.”

  Nathaniel dragged a hand over his face.

  * * *

  Nathaniel finally managed to get the innkeeper out of his room, but he couldn’t convince the man that he wasn’t the second coming of the messiah. He was never sure why people started saying this about him every place he went, but he strongly suspected that Zachariah or one of the others had something to do with it. They’d had discussions about how much easier it would be to rally the people for a revolution if they thought that God was behind it. But Nathaniel had always been against the idea. He’d explained to them over and over again that the point of revolution was that the people did it themselves. It was about freedom from institutions like the nobility and the holy men. But he had to admit that some of his fellow gypsies were rather thick headed.

  He sat down on the bed, buried his head in his hands, and groaned.

  “What the hell?” said Gabriel. “Why is he saying that about you?”

  Leah’s voice. “Gabriel, how could you put me in the same room with Nathaniel? Why couldn’t I be in a room with you?”

  “You want to explain to me when it was that you got to be the Son of God, hmm?”

  Nathaniel raised his face. “I don’t know why they always say that. It’s obviously not true.”

  “Well,” said Ezekiel, “you are of humble origin, like Christ himself. And you do associate with tax collectors and sinners.”

  “What?” said Nathaniel.

  “It’s not appropriate for Nathaniel and I to share a bed. We aren’t in a relationship anymo
re. He abandoned me, and I’m not sure I want to be near him,” Leah continued.

  “I don’t know any tax collectors,” said Nathaniel.

  “Well, we can’t keep a low profile,” said Gabriel. “Not if everyone’s going to be fawning over you like that.”

  Ezekiel pursed his lips. “I didn’t mean it literally. Only that you associate with the dregs of society, that’s all. Our Lord did the same.”

  “I can’t believe you told the innkeeper we were married,” said Leah. “How am I going to get out of this room now? If I sleep somewhere else, I’ll be considered a whore.”

  “You are a whore,” said Ezekiel. “You managed to get pregnant out of wedlock, so it’s not as if you have ironclad morality.”

  “How dare you say that?” said Leah. “Gabriel, are you even listening to this?”

  Nathaniel held up both his hands. “Everyone, be quiet.”

  They all gazed at him expectantly.

  He massaged his temples. “Look, Gabriel, you’ve seen my show. You realize how the people react to it. It’s the reason that we were locked up by your father.”

  “Because you were doing magic.”

  “The common people think it’s miracles,” said Nathaniel. “But it’s just as you said. You called it electricity. They don’t understand it, but you and I do.”

  Gabriel rubbed his forehead. “So, you tell the people that. Tell them it’s a natural phenomena, and that you aren’t the messiah.”

  “You can see how well that goes over,” said Nathaniel.

  Gabriel turned to Leah. “You don’t even seem the slightest bit surprised by this. Is this why you wanted to be with him? Because he’s the Son?”

  “No,” said Leah. “And I don’t want to be with him. I want out of this room.”

  Nathaniel turned to her. “For heaven’s sake, I’ll sleep on the floor.”

  She folded her arms over her chest.

  Ezekiel held up a finger. “How do we know he’s not the messiah?”

  Everyone groaned.