The Moon's Shadow (Saga of the Skolian Empire)

by Asaro, Catherine

  The Grand Ballroom—ceiling, floor, walls, and columns—was made from glittering white stone veined with black. Jai stood with Tarquine while Highton after Highton filed into the reception. Everything glittered: their black clothes, their black hair, and their diamond finger cymbals, one on the thumb and one on the index finger. The only color in the room came from their red eyes.

  Each Highton walked along a line of Razers to the emperor and empress. The Razers never moved. Jai wasn’t even sure they were breathing. Were they more machine than human? They never gave their names. He didn’t even know if they went home at night or just turned themselves off. They could stand this way for hours, always vigilant.

  When the Hightons reached the end of the Razers, they bowed to Jai, then to Tarquine. They tapped their cymbals twice, sending chimes through the hall. Then they walked along another line of Razers away from the emperor and empress. No one spoke. The process made Jai’s head hurt. This reception was meant to be a party, but as far as he could see, no one was having fun. The Hightons didn’t dance; they didn’t eat; they didn’t drink. After they went through the line, they stood in groups and watched Jai greet other Hightons.

  Finally the procession ended, and the Razers dispersed throughout the ballroom. Scanning the room, Jai saw Corbal standing by a column. When the Xir lord nodded, Jai raised his arm and, for the first time that night, tapped his finger cymbals. A melodic note vibrated in the air.

  Providers filed into the hall, carrying trays with crystal goblets and decanters of a clear liquid. Jai froze. Although he knew his staff had arranged refreshment, he hadn’t realized providers would serve it. They flustered him. They wore no colors. In fact, they wore almost nothing at all, neither the women nor the men. Their G-strings were chains of diamonds, and diamonds studded their slave restraints. The women had diamond chains slung low on their hips and diamond rings in their nipples. All of them had the same pale platinum hair. The only color came from their eyes, a vivid blue.

  He didn’t know which appalled him more, the display of providers or that he enjoyed watching the women so much. He tore his gaze away from one girl, praying Tarquine hadn’t noticed him looking. As the providers circulated, Jai and Tarquine split up and moved among their guests. The Hightons finally began to converse, though their discussions were more like duels than small talk. Jai took refuge in silence. It worked surprisingly well; Aristos used silence as a form of manipulation, so his lack of response made him seem in control rather than at a loss for words.

  Corbal maneuvered people around the room like chess pieces, gradually bringing together Jai, Admiral Kaliga, and General Taratus. A pleasure girl served them drinks. As Kaliga stared at her, she flushed, her mood a hazy blend of fear and unwilling desire. Her gaze had a glossy sheen. With a start, Jai realized she was drugged with aphrodisiacs. Looking around the hall, he realized the other providers had the same look. Well, surprise. Apparently the emperor’s hospitality extended beyond food and drink, regardless of whether or not the emperor knew.

  As Kaliga took a goblet from the tray, he brushed his thumb across the girl’s nipple. She averted her gaze, her face turning red.

  Kaliga nodded to Jai. “You are a most gracious host, Your Highness.”

  Jai gritted his teeth. He knew why Corbal had sent over the prettiest pleasure girl; it was an apology, supposedly from Jai, for having taken Kaliga’s favored provider that night in Kaliga’s home. Although Jai understood better now how he had offended the admiral, he couldn’t regret his actions, not when he knew what Kaliga would have done to Silver that night.

  Taratus surveyed the hall, less circumspect than Kaliga about leering at the servers. He raised his goblet, his florid face ruddy from the liqueur. “The Line of Qox entertains well.”

  Jai inclined his head. It both mortified and aroused him to realize why the ballroom had so many alcoves hidden behind those stately columns; tonight, the providers would also be dessert. If Jai really intended to win back the support of ESComm, he had made a good start, judging from Taratus’s and Kaliga’s moods, but plying his Joint Commanders with expensive liqueur and beautiful pleasure slaves had hardly been his intent. As much as he knew he had to concentrate on their minds and discover their secrets, he couldn’t make himself do it. Even with his defenses fortified, he could barely keep from leaving the hall.

  “A serene gathering,” Kaliga commented.

  Jai blinked. Serene? Hardly. He tried to focus on Kaliga, easing his mental defenses, but his headache and anxiety increased immediately. As soon as he picked up what Kaliga meant by “serene”—the peace talks—he snapped on his barriers. If any Hightons felt the effects of his discomfort, Jai hoped they would attribute it to the presence of so many providers.

  “Serenity has its time and place,” Corbal said, neutral.

  “And its limitations,” Taratus muttered.

  “So it does,” Jai said. He hadn’t intended any hidden meaning with the remark, but he sensed wary approval from Kaliga. Damn. The admiral thought Jai was exploring the idea of limiting the peace talks. If he wasn’t careful, he might end up promising to give up the negotiations.

  Unfortunately, Jai couldn’t discern much else from Kaliga. To find the answers he sought, he would have to lower his defenses again, even more than before, and for longer. He couldn’t do it here; he would go catatonic from the pressure of so many Highton minds.

  Corbal sipped his drink. “Limitations can become opportunities.”

  “Opportunities are always appreciated,” Kaliga said.

  Jai could have throttled Corbal. His cousin was encouraging them to think Jai might cancel the talks. That Corbal put out the idea without consulting Jai didn’t bode well for the rest of the night. Jai drained his goblet and set it back on the tray. His hand shook slightly, but he managed to cover the motion. His urge to escape increased.

  Corbal lifted his goblet. “A long and successful evening, Your Highness.”

  Jai dreaded finding out what his “success” had been. Emotions swirled around him; Taratus and Kaliga remained guarded, but the visit was easing their enmity. Taratus in particular enjoyed Jai’s “hospitality.”

  “Long indeed,” General Taratus said. He thunked his empty goblet on the tray. If it hadn’t been for his Highton appearance, Jai thought he would have looked more at home in a holo-bar on Earth, swigging beer. The general considered the provider with undisguised hunger. “It will be good to rest.”

  Corbal gave him a cool Highton smile. “I have heard it said the wicked never rest.”

  Jai almost choked on his wine. What was Corbal doing, insulting Taratus? But rather than taking offense, the general guffawed. “Then surely we deserve a long rest, eh?”

  “Surely,” Kaliga murmured, with a ghost of a smile.

  Corbal motioned toward an arch behind several columns. “Perhaps you would enjoy a tour of the palace?”

  “A tour, eh.” Taratus took a full goblet off the tray. Then he tugged on the ring in the provider’s nipple. “Bring our nectar, doll.”

  Kaliga slid his arm around the girl’s waist. “Such a fine vintage.” As Kaliga pulled the girl along, her fear diffused through the drugged haze of her mind.

  Jai wanted to sock both Kaliga and Taratus. He barely held back the urge as he walked stiffly with their group toward the archway. If they didn’t stop pawing the girl, he might be tempted to do it anyway, Joint Commanders or no.

  When they reached the arch, another group joined them, four Razers escorting a Highton.

  Tarquine.

  Ah, hell. Jai was excruciatingly aware of the almost naked girl in their midst. Tarquine inclined her head to him, but her manner was chillier than ice, and sweat broke out on his forehead. Neither Kaliga nor Taratus seemed surprised to see her. Corbal hid his annoyance, but Jai felt it in his mind.

  They all left the hall together.

  Kaliga relaxed among the many cushions, lying on his side, his weight supported on his elbow. This circular chamber had no
furniture, nothing except the pillows and a blue carpet so thick it felt like a cloud. The walls and ceiling were tiled in shades of blue, making Jai feel as if he were inside a jewel box.

  They made a rough circle, with Taratus reclining next to Kaliga, and Jai sitting by Taratus. Corbal had left, Jai wasn’t sure why, but the others didn’t seem to mind. Tarquine was sitting cross-legged between Kaliga and Jai. She glanced at Jai, her face neutral, but he understood her unspoken question: Had he found out anything? Even if he could have answered, he had nothing to say. He couldn’t relax his barriers enough to spy on either Kaliga or Taratus.

  The provider was kneeling between Kaliga and Tarquine, her hair spilling over her lovely body. As she offered the admiral a drink, she averted her gaze. Jai didn’t blame her. He didn’t want to look at those icy red eyes, either. The girl also wouldn’t look at him, though, an unwelcome reminder that his eyes were just as disturbing. At least she didn’t seem to have picked up his differences. She wasn’t a strong telepath, and with aphrodisiacs muddling her mind, she would have trouble distinguishing individual minds. She probably couldn’t tell he and Tarquine didn’t affect her in the same way as other Hightons.

  Intent on the girl, Kaliga took her tray and set it on the rug behind him. She continued to kneel, staring at the floor.

  “Platinum,” Kaliga said in a low voice. “Such a pretty metal.” He twirled a strand of her hair around his fingers.

  “Pretty,” Taratus mumbled. He finished off his fourth drink, then tossed the goblet behind them. When it hit the wall and shattered, he didn’t even look. Jai had to bite the inside of his mouth to keep from swearing. That one goblet was worth more than what some people in the Appalachians, where he had lived on Earth, earned in a month.

  As Taratus put his arm around the girl and kissed her, he played with her breast. Kaliga closed his eyes and stretched out his legs so he and Taratus were penning the girl inside the circle of Hightons. Taratus kept at her, pulling on her nipple rings. Every time the girl twitched, Kaliga breathed out as if he were the one caressing her.

  Jai clenched the carpet, almost pulling out the pile. He knew he was a prude by Highton standards, but gods, all five of them together? This was too much. He tried not to stare as Taratus fondled the girl.

  When Tarquine sighed, Jai almost jumped. She was lying on her side now, watching him from half-closed eyes, her red irises dramatic through the black fringe of her lashes. But behind her sensuous look, Jai recognized the warning in her gaze. She might be pretending to the languorous, hazy mood, but her mind remained as sharp as a trap.

  Taratus lifted his head and looked down at the provider. “Pretty,” he mumbled. Then he splayed his palm against her chest and pushed. She fell backward, landing on her back, the top of her head brushing Tarquine’s stomach, her silky hair flying across Jai’s lap.

  Tarquine laughed softly. “How kind of you, General.” With her head propped up on one hand, she stroked the girl’s hair. General Taratus grunted at Tarquine, kneeling over the pleasure girl now, his weight braced on his palms. Kaliga continued to lie on his side, his eyes closed.

  Jai wanted to leave. No matter how hard he tried to act blasé, their casual approach to intimacy shocked him. For all his dismay, though, he couldn’t help but notice the provider. Here she was, naked and nubile, ready for them. Filling his hands with her silky hair, he lifted it to his face and inhaled. It smelled like perfume. From the way his desire surged, he suspected it was also producing an aphrodisiac. He was beginning not to care. Straitlaced or not, he was growing dazed with pleasure.

  Taratus ran his finger along the chain of diamonds around the girl’s waist. She sighed, moving under him, pressing her hips against his pelvis. When Tarquine began to fondle the girl’s breasts, Jai flushed, unable to believe this was happening. His wife and the provider? He couldn’t do that. Really. All the time he kept telling himself he couldn’t make love to a pleasure girl and his wife at the same time, he kept caressing the girl’s hair. She was murmuring now, her eyes closed, her body undulating from their attentions. Then Tarquine gave Jai the full force of her sultry stare, and he thought he was going to perish right then and there.

  “Tarquine—” His voice came out in a husky whisper.

  As the empress leaned in and kissed him, his hand slid across the pleasure girl’s breast and he groaned. Vaguely, in his side vision, Jai saw Kaliga take something sharp from his belt, a syringe of some kind. The admiral reached for the provider. Jai wanted Kaliga and Taratus to go away, leaving the girl and Tarquine here for him—

  Then the provider screamed—and her agony blasted through Jai.

  32

  Siren Call

  Jai wasn’t sure how he left the blue-tiled room. He found himself in a nearby bathing chamber, kneeling over a gold-tiled pool, vomiting his guts out. He knew his bodyguards were hovering over him, that one of them started to talk into a comm, and that someone else stopped the Razer from making a report. Jai didn’t care. His mind had been blasted open, wide open, leaving him in agony.

  Raising his head, he spoke hoarsely to the captain. “Flood the blue room with gas. Knock out everyone in it.” His mind was raw to his bodyguards, undefended. If he hadn’t replaced some of his Razers with non-Aristos, the pressure they exerted on him would have been unbearable. Desperate, he shored up his demolished barriers.

  Tarquine knelt next to him. “It is your illness.” Her voice was low with warning. “Shall we go to your rooms?”

  Jai clenched the rim of the pool. “What, this is just the emperor being bizarre again? Blame his behavior on his ‘eccentricities,’ is that it?” Standing up, he pulled away from her. “Not this time.” He swung around to the captain. “Gas the goddamn room.”

  The captain’s usually impassive face was set in tense lines—and Jai finally discovered how far his authority went with his bodyguards. The captain made no move to carry out his order.

  “Do it,” Jai ground out. “Or you’re dead.”

  The Razer stared at him, obviously trying to decide if Jai was bluffing. Then he raised his wrist and spoke into his comm, giving the order. Jai watched, aware of everyone staring at him, Tarquine and his four bodyguards.

  Jai knew when the gas took effect. The screams of the provider faded in his mind. He inhaled, suddenly free of her pain. Taratus and Kaliga had been so deep in their brutal transcendence, they had barely realized he had left. But nothing would ever erase her agony from his mind. Even though she had known how their ménage might end, the shock of pain had caught her hard; multiplied by her undefended telepath’s mind, it had shattered Jai’s barriers as well, ripping his mind wide open.

  He wanted to die. Before Kaliga and Taratus had gone to work on her, he had been with them, wanting her for himself. He felt so ill he thought he would vomit again.

  Without another word, Jai left the chamber. As the Razers fell into formation, Tarquine caught up with him.

  “Jaibriol,” she said.

  “Go to hell.”

  She stiffened but didn’t answer. She and the Razers kept pace as he strode down an arched hallway tiled in blue and gold. The walls curved at the floor and ceiling, and no cross-hall came in at right angles. Nothing met anything else square on. Oblique and convoluted: Aristo built as they thought.

  Tough.

  In his side vision, he saw Tarquine turn to the captain. He felt her intent; she wanted the Razers to stop him before he trapped himself in a situation he couldn’t escape. Jai had no intention of changing his plans, regardless of what she told his bodyguards.

  He stopped abruptly. “Captain, where is Corbal Xir?”

  The Razer lifted his arm to speak into the comm embedded in his gauntlet. Then Jai realized he wasn’t wearing a gauntlet; his entire arm was cybernetic.

  Tarquine spoke in a low voice. “Be careful, Husband.”

  “Of what?” He turned a hard gaze on her. “Or should I say of who? Taratus? Kaliga? Corbal? You?”

  A flush tinged h
er cheeks, marring the snow-marble skin. His ice empress was losing her cool. “Do you have any idea the magnitude of what you have done?”

  He met her gaze. “I gassed my Joint Commanders.”

  She had the look of someone who had just seen a wild person jump off a cliff. “It’s called suicide.”

  The captain looked up. “Lord Xir is in his office, Your Highness.”

  “Good.” Jai set off again.

  Jai didn’t like Corbal’s silver and steel office any more today than the first time he had seen it. That day, the octagonal shape and domed ceiling had startled him; today, they were more symbols of Highton duplicity.

  As Jai strode into the room, Corbal stood up behind his desk, his white hair glittering in the harsh light. Jai stopped at the desk and rested his clenched fists on its surface. “I’ve made my decision.”

  Corbal met his bluntness with his own. “I have no doubt it is the wrong one.”

  “I’m sending Jacques Ardoise home to Earth.”

  A muscle jerked in Corbal’s cheek. “While you’re at it, why don’t you sign the death warrant you took out for yourself when you gassed your Joint Commanders?”

  Tarquine came to the desk and spoke in a measured voice. “Perhaps, as kin, the three of us might hold this discussion in a more appropriate setting.”

  Just say you want to get rid of the damn guards. Jai was sick to death of Highton speech. He was wound so tight, he felt like he would snap. He spoke to the captain. “You and your team may wait outside.”

  The Razers bowed and left, their footsteps muted on the carpet, like stealth robots. Jai turned to Tarquine and Corbal, but they still couldn’t talk, not without verifying security. Corbal met his gaze, then sat at his desk and went to work. Holicons appeared above the glossy surface, symbols for security systems in the palace. Jai didn’t even recognize some of them.