by K. B. Wagers
My captor smiled—a white flash of teeth against his dark skin, just enough to bring a dimple in his right cheek fluttering to life. The fingers around my wrist tightened, stopping my movement and adding a high note of pain to the symphony already in progress.
“Your Imperial Highness, I have no wish to hurt you. Please let go of the knife.”
Oh, bugger me.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied easily. “I’m just a gunrunner.”
He tapped a finger next to his eye, just missing the tattoo, and now I could see the silver shadow of augmentation in their dark depths. “I see who you really are. Don’t try to fool me.”
A stream of filth that rivaled any space pirate poured out of my mouth and blistered the air. The modifications I’d paid a fortune for after leaving home had stood up to every scanner in known space for the last twenty Indranan years, but of course they wouldn’t stand up to this one.
Trackers were fully augmented. Their smatis were top of the line. The DNA scanner had probably activated the moment he grabbed my wrist, and that, coupled with the devices in his eyes, had sealed my fate.
Bluffing wasn’t going to get me out of this. Which meant violence was my only option.
“Highness, please,” he repeated, his voice a curl of smoke wafting through the air. “Your empress-mother requests your presence.”
“Requests!” My voice cracked before I composed myself. “Are you kidding me? She fucking requests my presence?” I wrenched myself from his grasp and kicked him in the chest.
It was like kicking the dash when Sophie’s engines wouldn’t power up—painful and unproductive. Fucking shields. The Guard stepped back, his suit absorbing my blow with a faint blue shimmer as the field around him reacted to the impact.
Hard hands grabbed my upper arms.
There was the other Tracker.
I snapped my head back, hoping this one was as helmetless as his partner. The satisfying crunch of a broken nose mixed with startled cursing and told me I’d guessed correctly.
I spun and grabbed the man by the throat with one arm as I flipped the knife over in my hand and smiled a vicious smile at Tracker No. 1. “You come any closer and I’ll cut his throat from ear to ear.”
“Highness.” The Tracker took a step forward, a hand up; but my hand was already moving and the coppery bite of fresh blood joined the stale charnel-house reek of the cargo bay.
“No!” I jerked my hand away, falling out of my chair, scrambling to get away from the horror I’d just been presented with. “Dark Mother, no.”
“Majesty.” Emmory caught me under the arms in my mad scramble away from the Farian and followed me to the floor, completely unaware that she’d just shown me cutting his husband’s throat in our first meeting. “Fasé, what is it? What did you show her?”
“She’ll be fine,” Fasé replied. “I showed her another option, another choice she could have made but didn’t during that first meeting on her ship. I’m afraid none of us survived it. Cressen Stone was badly wounded in the fight but managed to escape. You are truly a terror when your life is at stake, Your Majesty.” She climbed out of her chair and knelt on the floor next to me. “I stopped watching after a while because it was a dark future. You died a drunk in some desolate space port while most of the rest of the galaxy was at war.”
“I wouldn’t have—I didn’t—” I pressed a shaking hand to my mouth, unable to say the words, and Emmory’s fingers tightened against my sides.
If I had killed Zin out there in the black, Emmory would have died. Trackers were bonded from young ages by a special talent; so partner became lover or siblings grew so close they could practically read each other’s thoughts. The cost of it was that they couldn’t survive without each other, and the death of one led to the death of the other. I’d almost lost Zin when Emmory had been shot on Red Cliff, and Fasé admitted it was his cry that pushed her to save my Ekam on the floor of Hao’s ship.
“The you in that future made the choice to kill Zin in the cargo bay of your ship. She did so without hesitation or remorse and changed the history of the galaxy forever.”
There was a quiet inhale from my Ekam as he finally pieced together what was happening.
“You chose not to kill Zin. Maybe it wasn’t a conscious choice.” Fasé continued, ignoring him and tapping a finger against my forehead for emphasis. “However, it doesn’t change the fact that the choice was there. That’s my point. You made the choice to come home, to give your life for Indrana; conscious or not, it was made.”
She got to her feet and held her hand out. I hesitated before I took it. With her help I got back on my feet, Emmory’s hands a comforting presence on my back.
“I’m still not sure I understand.”
Fasé smile was slow and she folded her hands together, pressing them to her heart, lips, and forehead before bowing to me. “You can’t change the future if you don’t know what moment needs to change.”
“What moment needs changing so desperately that you busted out of prison to come tell me about it?”
“You have to say no to the Farians. No matter what they offer, no matter what promises they make. Indrana cannot agree to join in this fight with the Shen. You cannot fight for either side, Majesty. You must remain neutral or the future that happens will make the one I saw a dream by comparison.”
“What future?”
Fasé shook her head. “You know I won’t tell you, Majesty. This is one of those moments. You’ll have to make the choice—trust me or don’t.”
“With the fate of the galaxy apparently hanging in the balance? That’s not much of a choice.”
“Of course it is, we just both know what choice you’re going to make.” She held out her hand again and this time there was no hesitation in me when I took it.
“Ambassador Notaras.” I inclined my head at the Farian as she came into my rooms the next day with Emmory at her side. Dio was conspicuously absent, but I contained my curiosity, gesturing for Adora to have a seat on the other side of my desk.
“Your Majesty.” She bent her head briefly. The gesture was awkward, unfamiliar to her and more telling than anything so far that this woman was not who she pretended to be. “I appreciate you taking the time to see me.”
Her unspoken finally hung heavy in the air, and I resisted the urge to suggest we talk about this tomorrow in front of the Matriarch Council.
We sat in silence. I was content to wait for Adora to start, especially since it was clear she expected me to ask what message the Pedalion had for me.
“Majesty, I have spoken with the Pedalion and they wish me to convey their respects. They understand your concerns and promise to take no more of your time than is necessary. That is the reason I was to bring you back on my ship; the flight would be considerably shorter. They don’t wish to interfere with Indranan affairs; however, this issue doesn’t only impact Faria. If it is not handled the repercussions could spread across the galaxy.”
Arching an eyebrow in the air, I offered up a cool smile. “So you said earlier. Ambassador Notaras, I have several other meetings today. Could you get to the point?”
Her metallic eyes narrowed and the muscles in her jaw twitched. “We have a problem, Your Majesty, that we are hoping you can help with.”
“You realize Indrana is not able to help anyone? We just fought a civil war. My noble families are decimated. We are rebuilding, but it will be a long road back. I don’t know what we could offer in assistance.”
“The Pedalion wants your help, not your empire’s, but we realize the two are rather tangled together. Even with her recent troubles, Indrana is a mighty force in the galaxy. Your own reputation is”—she paused, and a curious smile curved her lip—“impressive enough to give the Shen and their allies pause.”
“You want me?” I glanced at Emmory.
“The situation has escalated with the Shen to the point where we want Indrana to honor our alliance, but we understand you cannot provid
e monetary aid and that your military—though recovered—is no match for the Shen forces. What we will require is that you provide your personal knowledge and experience. It is not acceptable to send an ambassador or proxy in your stead; we will need to speak with you directly. This is important, not only for the fate of Faria but for all of humanity. The new leadership of the Shen are employing mercenaries. It is creating some difficulty for us. We are not able to follow their tactics. We need someone who thinks like them and maybe even could speak with them directly. You know these mercenaries. They might listen to you. It would give you a chance to get out of this quiet existence you’ve ended up in.”
I hid my shock. The Farians clearly thought I was still a gunrunner and that I desperately wanted out of this choice I’d made. How wrong they were.
It didn’t escape my notice that Adora had messed up and said we when speaking of the Pedalion, proving Fasé’s statement that she wasn’t just an ambassador but a member of the Pedalion. I glanced quickly at Emmory before I replied. “I can’t fight a war for you, Ambassador. I’m not sure how many different ways I can say that. I am the Empress of Indrana, not a gunrunner for hire. Furthermore, I am no longer a gunrunner; any connections I may have had out in the black—” I spread my hands wide. “They will not speak with me now.”
Adora sighed, her face pinched as though the entire thing were distasteful to her. “Your Majesty, the Farians are prepared to compensate Indrana for their help.”
The figure she named had me whistling, but I still shook my head. Fasé’s warning was ringing in my ears. “I’ll speak with the council. I can’t promise you they’ll agree to this. In fact, I can almost promise you they won’t. I have an empire to think of and people to answer to.”
Adora started to respond, thought better of it, and nodded at me. “I’ll wait for your reply, then. Thank you, Majesty.”
“You’re most welcome, Ambassador. Please don’t hesitate to let Alba know if you need anything.”
Nodding again, Adora let my chamberlain lead her from the room.
“So Caspel was right,” I said to Emmory as soon as the door closed behind them. “Not that I doubted him.” Sighing, I rested my chin in a hand and stared at the spot Adora had occupied. Emmory was quiet, and I appreciated the space he seemed to know I needed.
The Farians wanted Indrana, or rather the Empress of Indrana, purely because they thought I could help them understand how mercenaries fought? Or was it because of Fasé’s rebellion? I wondered if Adora knew Fasé had escaped and what the repercussions of that would be once the request for asylum went through. Fasé seemed convinced the councils would approve it despite the obvious difficulties it could cause for Indrana. It should be such a simple choice—the Farians were our allies and had never done anything but help Indrana. But the more I learned, the more I started to worry that what Faria wanted might not be in our best interests.
“What is it, Majesty?” Emmory asked after several minutes of silence.
“I’m staring down a charging Hagidon.” The massive beasts of Nugwa XIII were reminiscent of the mastodons of Earth’s Pleistocene period, but with more teeth. Faced with an attack, you had two choices: Try to outrun it, or stand perfectly still and hope it got confused enough by your bravado that it wandered off in search of better sport. Both options had a fifty-fifty chance of death.
Movement seemed necessary and I shoved out of my chair to pace the room. “You’d think I would be concerned about refusing to help an ally and harboring fugitives. But I’m not.” I turned to look at him, throwing my hands helplessly into the air. “And ironically that concerns me. This whole thing smells like a three-day-old corpse, Emmy.
“I don’t care what anyone tries to claim—if I get involved in whatever cowshit is about to go down between the Farians and the Shen—my empire will be involved.
“Are the Shen moving now because of Fasé? Can we risk another massacre like the Solarians saw at Colony 17 if we don’t act to put a stop to this?” Hissing air between my teeth, I shook my head as my thoughts collided. “That’s a lot of money, Emmory. We could put it to good use.”
“It’s not worth it, Majesty. You heard what Fasé said.”
“I know. Bugger me, I know. I won’t lie and say it’s not tempting. But my gut says I’d be better off taking the money Hao offered me before I take anything from the Farians.”
“Hao offered you money?”
“Yes.” I laughed. “Hai Ram, Emmory, don’t look at me like that—it was just an offer to pay for the palace reconstruction. I turned him down. As much as I adore Hao, I’m not about to let it cloud my judgment and do something like take money from Po-Sin’s second-in-command.”
The look on Emmory’s face was a mix of surprise and what I was reasonably sure was pride. It made me laugh again. “You’ll notice I also didn’t let him in on what has been going down with the Farians, even though I’m going to catch Naraka from him for it later. Look at me, growing up and being a dutiful empress.” I punched him in the shoulder as I headed for the door; lifting my face to the ceiling, I sighed. “Mother would be proud.”
“She was proud of you already, Majesty.”
I pretended not to hear him. “Did you catch that insinuation from Adora that I’d be happier away from here? Everyone apparently thinks I’m still going to run away.”
“Not everyone, Majesty.”
Leaning into him for just a moment, I let his solid warmth ease some of the tension in my chest. “Thanks,” I whispered, clearing the emotion stuck in my throat before I reached for the door.
The message from Caspel came in that afternoon while I was going over the tour details with Alba and Emmory, reading simply: Message sent.
After a great deal of deliberation with my intelligence director, I’d sent a message of my own to the Shen’s new leaders offering my condolences on the loss of their father and requesting that they tell us what in the fires of Naraka was going on.
I’d phrased it better than that at Alba’s insistence, but it was essentially the intent behind reaching out to the Shen directly. I was walking a fine line between empress duties and something that probably should have been discussed with the Matriarch Council; however, I was following my gut rather than wading through a debate about contacting the Shen.
We needed more information. With three sides to the fight but only two sides of the story, I felt like I was feeling my way around a pitch-black room. Fasé had been right; I didn’t have a whole lot of choice but to trust her about the dire prediction of a deadly future, and I understood her refusal to tell me just what that involved.
It just wasn’t going to stop me from getting all the information I could about this conflict—even if I had to do something as risky as contacting the Farians’ enemies directly.
“Majesty, are you listening?”
“No, sorry,” I admitted. “I got a message from Caspel.”
“Sixteen planets in eighteen months,” Alba replied. “You’ve got more than a few multiplanet systems where you’ll be doing day trips to every planet. And then a few long-haul trips through warp.”
“It’s like you’re all trying to get me to abdicate the throne. Do you have money on me bolting or something?” I didn’t try to hide the grin that accompanied my dramatic flop onto the couch next to her, since the only other person in the room with me besides Alba was Emmory.
My Ekam raised an eyebrow at me from his position by the door and chuckled. “You’ll do fine, Majesty.”
“You’ve got an awful lot of faith in me, especially considering how much you know I don’t like people.”
“I’m sure there will be a few you could safely punch.”
Alba choked on her tea. “Ekam, please don’t encourage her.”
Laughing, I patted her on the back. “I promise to behave myself as much as possible, Alba.”
“It’s the qualifier that concerns me, ma’am.” Alba sighed and set her cup down on the table. “Anyway, yes, sixteen planets in ei
ghteen months. Several of the planets are in the same systems, and we’ll just be spending a day on each, but there are multiple-week or longer transit times. I promise you’ll be able to recover between stops.”
“I’m teasing, Alba—mostly.” Looking at the schedule again, I rubbed a hand over the back of my neck. “I understand the need for this show of force. I just wish it weren’t necessary.”
In a month I was leaving for what was officially being called a tour of the empire but was in reality a reminder to those planets who’d picked the wrong side of the conflict that betting against the Empress of Indrana was a very bad idea.
Several planets where Phanin had laid the groundwork for revolt had taken advantage of the chaos of the coup and tried to break with the empire. While all of them had been brought to heel—either by the force of my military or by the local population—their disloyalty meant I got to spend the better part of a standard year away from Pashati.
The discussion over that three months ago had been ugly. It hadn’t been a matter of my Ekam being wrong about how dangerous some of the stops were, but more that we really had no choice in the matter.
Alba and the others responsible for the list had at least taken pity on me and my Ekam by tossing in more than a few easy landings on the tour. I was looking forward to visiting Admiral Bolio and 8th Fleet at Draupadi Station, as well as my trip to Mathura, a planet orbiting an F-class yellow-white dwarf that served as a major trading hub for Indrana.
Overall it seemed like an awful waste of desperately needed resources and money, but I was doing my best not to question everything those with far more experience in government had planned.
“I wish it weren’t necessary either, ma’am. That’s life, I guess.” Alba offered up a small smile as she got to her feet. “Do you need anything else from me this evening?”
“No, I’m fine. I’ll look over the schedule and do my homework on our itinerary so I don’t embarrass you out in the black.”
