From Ruins

by M. C. A. Hogarth

  The Worldlord inclined his head and rose. "I go to do as you bid." At the door, he stopped. "Do you think she will consent to speak with me? If she survives."

  "Simone?" the Emperor asked.

  The Worldlord twitched once in assent, the movement raw. This was the secret male, the one Lisinthir had dragged into the open.

  "You named her Gentle," the Emperor said. "I think she will remember that. Whether it will offset the fact that you mewed her like an animal, I could not begin to guess."

  "They are unpredictable," the Worldlord said, but he sounded uncertain.

  "They are people," the Emperor said. "And each different, just as we are."

  The Worldlord dipped his head again and left.

  So much work to be done, and so little time to do it. The Emperor bent his attention to it and had just resumed reading the list of the missing when someone requested entrance, again. "Yes?"

  "It is the Admiral-Offense, Exalted."

  "Come," the Emperor said.

  The Admiral-Offense entered, bowing before coming to a halt before his desk. "Exalted."

  "I trust the duel played well?"

  The older male chuckled. "The entire fleet watched, if the activity on the flagship commband was any indication." Thoughtfully, "They've never seen history being made."

  "Is that what I'm doing?" the Emperor asked with a slight smile.

  The Admiral-Offense snorted. "As if you didn't know. You haven't given us much time to work with, Exalted."

  "I know. I need you in conferences now, huntfriend. We have much to coordinate, and time is not our ally."

  "I go. But I have brought you guests. I suggest you break from your tasks for a moment to greet them."

  The Emperor eyed him.

  "You see things differently from the rest of us," the Admiral-Offense said, surprising him. "And these people... they accelerate that process."

  "You brought aliens here, to the Apex-East naval base."

  "They are part of what you're building," the Admiral-Offense said. "They helped you win the duel. They deserve to be here. And we should see them at your side, or we will continue thinking of them as targets."

  "These words from the mouth of a male who confessed to a distaste for court politics...."

  "I know." The Admiral-Offense sighed. "Dying Air preserve me." He went to the door. "Send them in."

  The Ambassador... the Emperor had been expecting the Ambassador. But the second person who entered, and who came to him and embraced him... "Andrea," he said, startled. He looked past her shoulder at the Admiral-Offense before carefully resting his hands on her shoulders. "I didn't expect you."

  "The Admiral-Offense asked if I was willing to join you," she said. "I said yes, if that's all right?"

  "I've set up quarters for her," the Admiral-Offense. "On the flagship, and on the base. And for the Ambassador."

  "And I'd like to see where I'll be staying," Andrea said. "Then I need to go back to the Silhouette for a while, and help Dellen. The news... it's crippling."

  "News?" The Emperor glanced at the Ambassador, saw the rage flicker in vespertine eyes before his lover hid it behind that impenetrable mask, the one that had looked upon an Eldritch slave and suggested her imperfect before a court of rapacious spectators. "What news?"

  "We've received report of the attack on our space," the Ambassador said. "The Chatcaava have destroyed one of the Alliance's core worlds and wrought extensive damage in another core system before raiding three colonies."

  "Destroyed?" the Admiral-Offense said. "That makes no sense. Destroyed planets do not yield any of the rewards that would motivate us."

  "Your traitor at work," the Ambassador said, voice low.

  The Admiral-Offense glanced sharply at the Emperor, who said, "Second."

  "Second!"

  "Will we be too late to catch him?" Lisinthir asked. "Because without an appropriate target, the Alliance may not find its response nuanced enough to distinguish between one dragon and the next."

  "I don't know," the Emperor said. "We go from here to the throneworld, because there is evidence that the Usurper has drawn a significant force there to protect his claim. We can't leave him behind us or we will find a knife in our backs."

  "I know."

  "You're doing everything you can," Andrea said, drawing his gaze.

  "You will have to prove it," the Ambassador said. "Or they will have your blood for the acts of your enemies."

  "I know," the Emperor said again. To the Admiral-Offense, he said, "Go, huntfriend. Our need is urgent."

  The Admiral-Offense met his gaze, then left.

  "I'm glad you're here," the Emperor said, addressing Andrea first. "If surprised. The Admiral-Offense asked you to come?"

  "He's been kind," Andrea said. And added, softer, "That fight... you were magnificent."

  "I did what needed to be done," the Emperor answered. "You need not stay, you know. If it discomfits you to be surrounded by aliens."

  "Honestly I think they're far more discomfited by me than I am by them." She smiled. "It confuses them, having a human here, because the Admiral-Offense made it clear that I'm under your protection, and normally that would make me one of your harem slaves? Except I'm obviously not. They don't have the first idea how to treat me."

  Well he could imagine that bafflement. He was grateful she'd come among Navy males, who were accustomed to obeying their superiors' whims, no matter how inexplicable. "I can guess."

  "But I do have to go back up. Dominika's handling some of the talks, but she could use the help. You said we'd be leaving in a week? By then I think I'll be free to decide to go with you or stay on the Silhouette."

  "Whatever you choose," the Emperor said. "I'll be glad of your company, however it comes to me."

  She cupped his cheek with a smile. "Me too. I'm glad I came down... I had to see you after that fight. You really were amazing. All the things you said. It was beautiful."

  "I was taught well," the Emperor answered, accepting her compliments with ambivalence. He did not deserve them, but he had no choice but to become deserving. "Shall I send for an escort?"

  "The Admiral-Offense assigned me a rating." She grinned, a lopsided quirk of her mouth. "I don't know what he said to the poor thing, but he's completely cowed by me."

  No doubt it had been something along the lines of ‘this female belongs to the Emperor and if anything befalls her it will be your wings.' "Then I will see you again."

  "Soon," she promised, and departed, leaving him to the marvel that was a human female walking through a Chatcaavan naval base's door as if she belonged there. That glimpse of a future within their grasp...

  "You'll have full half the Navy wondering if she's your newest pet," the Ambassador observed, drawing him from the vision.

  "More than that," the Emperor said. "Even the Admiral-Offense seems convinced I am going to keep her."

  "Are you?"

  The Emperor walked around the desk to look up at his lover. "I hardly know what to do with a human nestfriend. What do you recommend?"

  "You are doing fine." The Ambassador closed his eyes. "I apologize, Exalted. There is so much I want to tell you, and yet."

  The worlds burned between them, and the Emperor could not save them. Couldn't make up for those deaths. He gathered the Ambassador's long hand in his to grant his lover access to his feelings: the regret, the grief, the resolve. Slowly, the Eldritch let his head dip until it rested against the Emperor's hair, near the horn where four rings gleamed reminders.

  "Uenuevin," Lisinthir whispered.

  "Was my accent too wretched?" The Emperor leaned into the Ambassador, hoping for and receiving the halting laugh.

  "You acquitted yourself magnificently, given the number of vowels involved."

  "Your language is all open throats and mine is all teeth," the Emperor answered. "Perhaps they need one another."

  "Kauvauc."

  "Lisinthir." The Emperor looked up. "All of it is bad. Your news.
Mine."

  "Which is that...?"

  "The reinforcements the Usurper has drawn to him are significant, and so are the missing ships. We are going to pay too much for our peace."

  "One week," the Ambassador said. "And then we take the throne back. And from there...?"

  Such a delicate pause. "We go to the Alliance's aid," the Emperor said. "If we are able."

  "Does doubt serve us at this point?"

  "It will have to," the Emperor said. "As I no longer function without it." He touched the butt of his thumb to the delicate skin under the Eldritch's eye, tilting the talon well out of the way. "You grieve."

  "You read me even without my shape, Exalted."

  "I like to think I know you somewhat well by now."

  Lisinthir's smile was gentle, and the Emperor wasn't sure how he could tell there was no joy or humor in it. That it was lost on the way up his cheek, perhaps. That it only dented the smallest corner of his mouth. "If you know me so well, then, tell me what ails me."

  "A test?" the Emperor said, and there was no humor in that either. Only a nod to the length of their relationship, and all the intimacies it encompassed.

  "The tests are part of the court, are they not?"

  "So they are." The Emperor studied his lover's face. In truth, he didn't need to reach far to source the shadows in the Ambassador's dark-sky eyes. When they'd first met, he'd been able to predict the Ambassador's actions, but not understand them; now, he understood. Such bitter fruit, knowledge. And yet so precious. "You feel guilt. For the deaths we have not prevented."

  "That I have not prevented."

  "No," the Emperor said. "I know that you want the entirety of that mantle for yourself, but it is not yours alone, the responsibility of ending this. It is ours. And the Alliance's as well. But mostly ours."

  "They sent me to keep this war from erupting," the Ambassador said, low. "They sent me to keep them safe."

  The Emperor sorted through his reactions to that statement. In the past, he would have found such sentiments baffling. To blame oneself for the suffering of others? Fascinating, but unproductive. The Emperor who had been Dainty might have wallowed in the guilt, believing that to experience misery was to deserve it.

  He was neither of those people anymore, but some amalgam: the Emperor Kauvauc Ueneuvin. What he said, then, was, "We are not done." Waiting until the Ambassador lifted his head to meet his eyes, Kauvauc said, "No matter our doubts, our shame, our secret darknesses, we believe that we will Change things, not just to suit ourselves, but for the betterment of those who can't do what we do. And since we believe it, we continue."

  "Every day," the Ambassador said, quiet, "I think of my cousins. Our Queen. And now the dead."

  "Every day, you must," the Emperor said. "It is what drives you onward."

  Lisinthir sighed. His smile was still sad, but less internalized somehow. "Rage drives me, Exalted."

  "You are not so simple. Duty drives you. Horror and shame drive you. And love drives you." The Emperor smiled back, and wondered if his smile looked as complicated on his Chatcaavan face as it felt on the inside, and if it mattered when the Eldritch could read the truth through their skins. "That above all. It took me a long time to see, but I think my eyes are clearer now."

  Every smile he won from the Eldritch was incrementally better. This one was almost good. "You think."

  "I have always questioned the world," the Emperor said. "That was one of my strengths. Now I question myself as well, however. I have come to believe that this, too, will serve me." He lifted his head. "And now, Ambassador. There is work that needs doing that only we can do."

  "Is that so?"

  "If you are willing," the Emperor said. "I would have us resume our practices. In the base's facility."

  The Ambassador's brows lifted. "Among other Chatcaava, I assume."

  "Exactly."

  Lisinthir tilted his head. "You wish to make a statement."

  "About the efficacy of aliens? Yes. Don't you?"

  His Perfection laughed: a good laugh, finally. "Yes. Yes, I think I do." His eyes lost their focus. "And I too, have a statement I wish to make. Or at least, a promise I need to keep."

  Lisinthir thought of the stalker furs as theirs, not his, but he fully intended to return them to the quarters he shared with the Emperor once they'd served their purpose. As it was, he garnered quite a few stares as he walked through the naval base with them spread over his shoulders like a barbaric mantle. Nor did he immediately run down his quarry, but like the Sword who'd tarried at the hunt estate, he did his research and waited until he could beard both his targets in the same den. He requested entrance, and when the Worldlord asked after the identity of his visitor, said, "The Sword."

  "Come!"

  When Lisinthir entered, Deputy-East was rising from the chair facing the Worldlord's desk, and at the sight of him they both started. It was Deputy-East who said, "What joke is this?"

  Lisinthir drew one of Imthereli's swords and tossed it to the Worldlord, who caught it reflexively. "You wondered that I carried them. I did so because they were mine, and I would not be parted from them even to impersonate a dragon."

  The Worldlord looked down at the sword, eyes widening at the device on it. He lifted his face, eyes too wide. "You... it can't be."

  Deputy-East folded his arms, wings tightening against his back. "Because it's not. This is... this is an imposter!"

  "Who suffered your disquisition on air cars with great grace, and you already have enough of them," Lisinthir said. "I know not why you feel the need to add more. Shall I speak at length of your fondness for the female with the spotted back? Or your liquescence after the massage you received from the Hinichi the Worldlord named Bitter?" Lisinthir lifted a brow. "You worried that Manufactory-East might hurt me. And you pledged to my Emperor after discovering his identity on the craft you piloted for me to the rendezvous. Do you continue to doubt? I can trot out further evidence."

  Deputy-East's eyes had gone white around the irises.

  "Close your eyes," Lisinthir said, "And listen to the cadence of my voice. Or open them, and watch the way I move. Some things persisted through the seeming."

  "Accents, motions... those could be practiced," Deputy-East insisted. "A good enough actor..."

  "The Sword was friends with aliens," the Worldlord said slowly. "Too good a friend for a Chatcaavan. They trusted him."

  Deputy-East bared his teeth. "Impossible!"

  "Quite possible, I assure you." Lisinthir eyed the younger male. "I admit, of the two of you I expected the Worldlord to be more difficult to convince. But you, Deputy-East? Really? You are not as stupid as you pretend. Something in you sensed the truth. ‘Is it an Alliance ship?' you said. I asked if you really wanted to know."

  "And I said yes. And no." Deputy-East was staring at him now. "But you said you weren't an Alliance spy!"

  "He also said he was here to save the Empire," the Worldlord said. "And that he was more than he seemed."

  Lisinthir bowed extravagantly with a hand-flourish he'd used more than once as the Sword.

  "Dying Air," the Worldlord whispered. "It is you. But... how? Aliens do not shift shape!"

  "A bit of rarified technology lent me my Chatcaavan seeming." Lisinthir dropped into the chair beside Deputy-East's, though slouching in it proved difficult given the narrow back. He contrived. "Sit, please."

  They both began to do so before realizing they'd been commanded; it amused him, in a distant place he could still be amused despite the deaths weighing on him. Their pauses seemed calculated to stress their choice to comply, and that it was a choice. He allowed them the illusion. "I assume you know why I'm here."

  They exchanged glances. Deputy-East said, slowly, "I imagine you're interested in assuring our loyalties."

  "No," Lisinthir said. "I am here to reward you for them." He leaned forward, drawing from his coat pocket two jewels. They'd come from the bottom of two of his more elaborate strands of hair gems, and were inc
ised with the Galare unicorn: one ruby, one blue diamond. "Deputy-East, I asked you to gather the intelligence that opened this system to us, and you performed that task admirably. And you, Worldlord, sent your son to us, and all his ships." Lisinthir tilted his head. "A fine young male, your son."

  "I... I think so myself."

  "Bring these back to me, one day, or my family, and ask a boon." Lisinthir set them on the desk. "I have wealth enough and power to answer. So does this Eldritch reward those who serve his Emperor faithfully."

  "Is he?" the Worldlord asked, low. "Your Emperor?"

  Lisinthir smiled his smile full of secrets, and knew they saw the Sword's limitless confidence in his eyes. "In so very many ways. Yes. And he brings with him a world where an alien might say so without betraying his own people. I imagine you would find that world... intriguing... Worldlord."

  The Worldlord's jaw worked, but he didn't look away.

  "And me?" Deputy-East said. "I don't want to trade my alien slaves for alien companions."

  "You no longer have alien slaves," Lisinthir said. "I took them all off your hands, with your blessing."

  "And you're sitting in front of one of your alien companions," the Worldlord murmured, rolling one of the gems away from its sister with a talon.

  Deputy-East wrinkled his nose. "Ughn. Fine. More alien companions." He pointed at Lisinthir. "I knew you as Chatcaava first!"

  "So you did," Lisinthir said. "But you needn't court alien friends to enjoy the fruits of alien alliances, Deputy-East. Or do you think only Chatcaava make air cars? And liquor?"

  The male froze, wings sagging. Then exclaimed, "Unfair! You know my weaknesses too well, and I know none of yours."

  Lisinthir laughed. "I think you know mine well enough. I am an arrogant and violent prince who suffers nothing he does not find just."

  "That is a significant weakness," Deputy-East admitted. He plucked up the ruby, squinting at it, then made a fist. "Some people might call this bribery, you know."

  "Would you?" Lisinthir asked, interested.

  Deputy-East groaned as the Worldlord chuckled. The latter said, "You should know better than to prompt the Sword that way."