Jamie Nicholas hefted the sealed package again, weighing its importance. We can only hope that the Word of Blake operates with greater wisdom and foresight.
The demi-Precentor had already lowered the hood of her robe, and now as she passed through the open door she shook her long red hair out across her shoulders. The Canopus lifestyle favored an informal atmosphere, to say the least, and Jamie Nicholas was always careful to honor those values in whatever small way she could.
The Magestrix' private sitting room was modeled after the formal reception chamber in the residence's main building, but the room's focal point was not the place of the Magestrix. Here the furniture was arranged to give everyone a pleasant view of a large fireplace where a fire crackled merrily, scenting the room with the faint but pleasant aroma of burning cedar logs. The hearth was flanked by beautiful marble statues. From her time in the Magistracy of Canopus, Jamie recognized them easily as images of Adonis and Aphrodite, time-honored representations of beauty and love. Their poses were as natural and sublime as any sculpture of the ancient Greeks.
"Hello, Jamie."
The words rolled smoothly in a rich contralto voice, and Jamie turned toward the room's other door to greet Magestrix Emma Centrella as she entered in the company of her two eldest daughters. The Magestrix wore a formal robe that blended dark blue silks with a molded halter-style chestplate of gold. A golden tiara studded with sapphires held her dark hair back from her face. Dusky complexion, full lips, and large gray eyes gave her something of an exotic look. Even in her late fifties, Emma Centrella possessed the sensual beauty that reminded others of Canopus' reputation for pleasure. "Wonderful to see you again," she said, her eyes showing both warmth and determination.
The demi-Precentor accepted the sentiment with a smile, reminding herself that Emma Centrella had been a formidable MechWarrior in her younger years. This is not a woman who practices idle flattery. "You and your daughters look lovely, Magestrix," she said, taking in the beautiful features Danai and Naomi shared with their mother. Both daughters wore evening dresses, Naomi's of Canopian high fashion, sequined and soft-colored, and Danai's a more daring turquoise and black combination with high leg slits and plunging back. "I am interrupting?"
Emma Centrella waved Jamie to a seat on the overstuffed sofa. "My daughters are going out this evening, but they have a moment or two." She seated herself in a large crescent-shaped chair at the sofa's left, tucking her legs up under her in a decidedly informal post. "And the message did seem to convey some importance."
Seating herself, Jamie placed the Liao package on the small table that separated the sofa from the Magestrix' chair. Danai, Emma's eldest daughter at twenty-one years and the current favorite to succeed her mother, sat to Jamie's right. Naomi, nineteen according to the new Word of Blake profile Jamie had seen, sat furthest removed, kneeling on the floor and leaning back against the sofa's edge.
Jamie frowned ever so slightly at the package, a gesture she knew the Magestrix was sure to pick up. "I believe it is, Magestrix, or I wouldn't have come so late. This package was entrusted to the Word of Blake's care on the Capellan capital of Sian, with instructions to deliver it to you as soon as possible. It is from Sun-Tzu Liao. We have performed the proper scan to ensure its safety, as did your own people when I arrived."
"And what do you think it contains, Jamie?"
Emma Centrella was far too accomplished a diplomat to give anything away by her facial expression, even in such an informal encounter, but Jamie heard the note of curiosity in the other woman's voice. Understandable. Most diplomatic messages were entrusted to ComStar or Word of Blake HPG communication, which could have brought a vid-recorded message from Sian to Canopus IV in five to ten days. Or less than a day at priority classification and rates. But Sun-Tzu had gone to the trouble and greater expense of sending a diplomatic package that had to be carried by courier along a path of DropShips and JumpShips in order to finally reach the Magestrix. Jamie knew it had taken just under a month and had cost the Chancellor nearly a hundred times what it would have taken to send an hour-long holovid by HPG.
And for all that time and expense, we have no idea what it is. And that worries me.
"Word of Blake was not made privy to the contents, Magestrix. Only that it was a gift for you in hopes of improving relations between Canopus and the Capellan Confederation."
Emma Centrella's eyes swept over the package again, her lips pursed in thought. "Childish games," she whispered, shaking her head lightly.
"I do not think that is the case here," Jamie replied, though she did not keep all doubt from her voice. Play both sides, the directive from Precentor Aziz had said. Jamie's first impulse had been to destroy the package, worried at Sun-Tzu's sudden interest in Canopus. But Demona Aziz led the Toyama, and Blake's will be done. Jamie believed in her almost as much as did Cameron St. Jamais. "Sun-Tzu also sent verbal instructions. The Word of Blake is to inform you that the Confederation is sending along a new ambassador to the Magistracy of Canopus. With this gift comes a request that you grant him audience."
The previous Liao ambassador had been a belligerent, brusque military man who the Magestrix had finally dismissed from her realm. From the narrowing of Emma Centrella's eyes, Jamie knew that she was not recalling him fondly. The fools are sending another male, Jamie thought with some relief. Praise Blake the Capellans do not learn from their mistakes. Not that male officials weren't welcome in the Magistracy. Indeed the newest Taurian Concordat ambassador was a male, but if Sun-Tzu was trying to reconcile with a matriarchal state like the Magistracy of Canopus, where women held the dominant positions, wouldn't it make sense to comply more closely with Canopian custom?
"Turn him back, Mother." Danai Centrella's advice was as sharp as it was abrupt. "It hasn't even been a year yet. I doubt they've had time to learn proper manners, much less respect for you and the Magistracy."
The hard set of Danai's features reminded Jamie of holos she'd seen of Kyalla Centrella, Emma's mother and the previous Magestrix of Canopus. Knowing Danai to be an accomplished Mech Warrior and commander of a battalion of Royal Guards, Jamie could understand why the young woman might have little patience in dealing with Liao. Suddenly even Danai's choice of dress made more sense, the turquoise and black of her gown the exact colors of the MAF uniform.
Emma Centrella's face revealed no emotion as she looked at her younger daughter. "What is your opinion, Naomi? Do I receive the new ambassador?"
Naomi shrugged even as she apparently gave the question some thought. Jamie knew that the younger daughter had more skill in public relations than as a warrior, despite her official post as a company commander in the Royal Guards. Would that make her less likely to want to rebuff the Capellans?
"I'd say you should examine your present," Naomi said finally. "If nothing else, it might help you decide firmly against Sun-Tzu Liao."
Jamie tried not to show her relief at these words. Sun-Tzu Liao wasn't known for being particularly subtle. If he didn't trip himself on his own, the Toyama or 6th of June movement could simply throw a few extra vibrabombs in his path.
Emma Centrella reached over and lifted the package onto her lap. She pulled at the tab, a thin wire that sliced through the seam to open easily what could not have been tampered with any other way. Then she lifted the lid of a polished wooden box. "My. How very intriguing."
Fighting against an urge to jump up and peer into the box, Jamie remained seated as Naomi rose and moved to take the box and wrapping from her mother—leaving in the Magestrix' hands a large, leather-bound book.
Danai was the first to say it. "A book?"
The Magestrix opened the volume and sat quietly thumbing through its pages. The dry whisper of rustling paper nearly drove Jamie mad. All that effort for a book? It didn't make sense to her either. The Magistracy of Canopus had one of the poorest educational systems in the Inner Sphere or Periphery. Was this a subtle dig at their efforts to solve that problem? And to send it in this format? Sun-Tzu could
have sent a vidbook that would have survived handling better. As it was, the large volume of leather and thick pages looked very delicate even in the Magestrix' fine hands. Better yet, he could have scanned the pages into a file and had Word of Blake transmit the entire text faster and for less money than it took to have the thing carried here.
With a smile of amusement Emma Centrella closed the heavy volume and handed it to Jamie. Though the rough tooling of the soft leather felt strangely pleasant to the touch, she immediately passed it on to Danai at her right. Don't seem too interested, she reminded herself. You're supposed to be a simple messenger. Watching over Danai's shoulder as the young woman flipped through some pages, Jamie felt a shiver of anger. Blake's blood! How we underestimated him.
Page after page was filled with beautifully detailed drawings and color paintings of people engaging in various sexual exploits.
"A book of Chinese erotica," Danai said softly, tracing a finger over the Chinese ideograms running down the page. "But surely the book can't be as old as he made it look."
Jamie felt the flush rise in her cheeks as Danai paused over sketches of erotic devices, though neither of Emma's daughters seemed at all embarrassed.
"Sun-Tzu provided a loose page near the front with a preface in English." The Magestrix' reply was offhand. "The book is an exact replica of a fifteen-century Chinese text on the erotic. This copy happens to be only fifty years old. A well-preserved fifty," she said, voice trailing off in berausement. Jamie knew the Magestrix was comparing it to her own age, and she felt a well of despair rise within her.
In any Inner Sphere state, and among most Periphery realms, such a gift would be scandalous. That it came from such a repressive state as the Capellan Confederation bordered on the incredible. Jamie still found it hard to credit Sun-Tzu with such bold and insightful move. Only the Magistracy of Canopus, with its emphasis on entertainment and pleasure—a state that supported pleasure circuses throughout the Inner Sphere!—could recognize such a gift for what it was meant to be. Art. A unique treasure that showed an appreciation of the Canopian lifestyle.
Naomi asked the question forming with dread in Jamie's private thoughts. "You will see the Capellan ambassador?"
The Magestrix nodded. "I don't see how I could refuse after this. Chancellor Liao has earned it." Just hearing the Magestrix use Sun-Tzu's title made Jamie's blood run colder. "Perhaps this time he's sent us someone who can be dealt with in a reasonable manner. If not"—her voice took on an icy-cruel edge—"I can always revoke his diplomatic status."
Jamie knew that the Liao ship conducting the ambassador to Canopus IV would arrive in-system in a matter of days. It would then take two weeks for his DropShip to travel from the jump point to the planet. She hoped St. Jamais could respond by then with instructions, but if he were conducting another raid in the guise of Hegemony forces it could be a month before she heard from him.
"In the meantime," Emma Centrella continued in a decidedly more congenial tone, "we must plan a reception to return the courtesy of this gift." She eyed both her daughters meaningfully.
Jamie glanced from one to the other, already guessing who would be put in charge. As she suspected, Danai suddenly found more interest in examining the preface while Naomi brightened at the prospect of arranging a state reception.
There was never a command given, but Naomi knew the duty was hers. "Entertainers as well, Mother?"
The Magestrix nodded. "Make it extravagant. We will invite the other ambassadors, as well as any high-placed corporate interests who we wish to court. You will have this book placed in the gallery hall under glass, but I expect it to be prominently displayed at the reception. I want to see the Capellan ambassador's public reaction to Chancellor Liao's gift." She glanced over at the book. "And I want you to hand-pick a suitable escort beforehand, should the ambassador be unmarried."
Naomi smiled and nodded her understanding of the Magestrix' order.
11
Thistledown Fields Spaceport
Canopus IV, Magistracy of Canopus
The Periphery
9 May 3058
Word of Blake has little to worry about.
Jamie Nicholas stared through the rear window of the hovercar at the Lung Wang Class DropShip hovering over Thistledown Fields, Canopus' largest spaceport. It settled onto the assigned ferrocrete pad with a final burst from its landing jets, a great veil of dust swirling up in a tan cloud to blur the lower half of the craft. Emblazoned across the cowling just back of one of the giant air intakes was the brightly painted crest of House Liao's Capellan Confederation. A gauntleted hand reached out from an inverted gold triangle, holding a katana easily half-again the size of a BattleMech, all set against an emerald-green field that seemed to shine as if freshly painted.
Sun-Tzu sends an ambassador in one of the Confederation's newest DropShip designs? If the Chancellor wanted to rub the Magistracy's nose in its lack of technological advancement, Jamie couldn't think of a better way.
Unable to help herself, she opened her door and stepped from the car before the warm air currents had even subsided. The winds tugged at the hem of her robes and the flying dust dimmed their pristine white, but the lure of technology drew her outside. She had seen reports on the newest Capellan DropShip design, but this was her first chance to actually look on one. The Lung Wang was classified as a spheroid-type construction, but its elongated body and aft drive thrusters reminded her more of an aerodyne ship like the Leopard or even the Hamilcar. It boasted an impressive array of weapons for a DropShip of its size, most located in the nose, and she knew it could carry a lance of BattleMechs, plus two aerospace fighters and a platoon of infantry for support. An aggressive design. I like it.
As Jamie folded her arms deeper into the opposite sleeves of her white robes, hatches began to open and a team of technicians scurried out to check that the ship had settled evenly on her landing gear. Through the after hatch she could just make out a giant, hulking form back within the shadows. He's brought his own 'Mech.
A light smile played at the edge of Jamie's lips as three hovercraft slid out from the same rear bay and formed into a small motorcade, two of the smaller aircars framing a hover-limo. Ambassador, you make this easy for me. With the one message she'd received from the Toyama euphemistically placing St. Jamais "in the field," and Precentor Aziz on her way to inspect the Free Worlds League side of the operation, Jamie had worried over how to handle the Capellan emissary to Canopus IV.
It was the reason she'd offered to meet him at the spaceport and escort him to the Palace of the Magestrix— in hopes of finding out something that might help her decide on a course of action. She smiled at the memory of the report that the ComStar chief onplanet had also volunteered, and been refused. Technically ComStar and Word of Blake held near equal status in the Magistracy, competing for all business. It was probably more accurate to say that they were engaged in a subtle war for the Magistracy, with Word of Blake currently ahead of the game. Jamie possessed a much better rapport with Emma Centrella than stuffy old Precentor Klein—may the heretic suffer his final days in agony. That Sun-Tzu had sent his gift through Word of Blake didn't hurt matters either.
It still bothered her that Sun-Tzu Liao would develop an interest in the Periphery now, with the Toyama's operations proceeding so well. But she didn't let it worry her overmuch. The novelty of the Chancellor's gift would wear off soon enough. And by the way this meeting was shaping up, the ambassador would be ordered off Canopus IV by nightfall.
That thought must have been in the ambassador's mind as well. As of this morning the Capellan JumpShip had remained in position at the nadir jump point. In case the ambassador isn’t staying long. She was now doubly glad the Magestrix had agreed to let her accompany the ambassador to the royal residence. Seeing his presumptuous arrival, Jamie could now plan on how best to manipulate the man to guarantee his disfavor at court.
All in a day's work.
As the line of hovercars drew nearer, Jamie stepped
forward to catch their attention. The first one swung wide to take up a position on the far side of her own car. The hover-limo slowed to a stop just a few steps ahead of her and the third maintained a tight line with the second. The rear gullwing door on the limo hissed as its seal was broken and then swung up. Jamie started forward to greet the Capellan official. Two men immediately stepped out to flank the door, dressed all in black and with machine pistols holstered on their sides. She faltered in mid-stride, then stumbled to a halt as her gaze locked onto the bone-white death's head pins they wore on their collars. Death Commandos! But that could only mean—
Her mouth suddenly dry, Jamie bent at the waist, almost mechanically, to carefully peer into the hover-limo's dark interior. All she could think of, staring at the passenger within, was how very stupid she had been.
"You must be demi-Precentor Nicholas," Sun-Tzu Liao said in a mild tone, "my escort. I assume you have no objection to riding in my car to the Palace of the Magestrix?"
* * *
Emma Centrella drew in a deep, steadying breath as she gazed into the young Liao's impassive countenance.
She sat on the closest thing the Magistracy had to a throne: a large, rounded chair, well-cushioned and set on a small dais positioned off-center along the wall. A chair on whose edge she could perch comfortably or draw her legs up into a more relaxed position. Right now she sat on its edge. Her left hand relaxed at her side and the right toyed with a marble sphere being held up by a nearby statuette. On the same wall as her small dais, taking up a much larger space, was an indoor waterfall and pool formed from man-made rock. It was in keeping with the Magistracy preference for informal settings that the nature display was the focus of the room.
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