by Radu Aldea
“So what do you propose? Your clients may not obey you, but, by law, we must obey our leader. And neither of us has the influence to challenge my mother.”
That was a problem. Kara wasn’t familiar with sorceress politics, so she wasn’t sure how to solve it. Yet some things were true regardless of the race. “Who can?”
“Yvonne,” the sorceresses answered. “She controls the imperial sorceress guard.”
“Can she be trusted?”
Again, Tamzin and Alexandra answered at once, but this time they did not agree. “Yes!” Alexandra. “No!” Tamzin.
“So she can’t be trusted. That’s all right. Pit them against each other. The Reverend Mother can’t be challenged, but the election can. If the Conclave is compromised, then the election cannot be valid. Only the immune sorceresses should be allowed to vote. Don’t be so direct. Just suggest that the Conclave is compromised, which is very likely true, and let Yvonne take it from there. I’m sure she will. And if it doesn’t work, bring up Ennara. Don’t take sides, you are the voice of reason, trying to bridge the gap and keep the sisters together. Hopefully, the sorceresses don’t want a civil war and will support you not the belligerents.”
“I’m not sure I can do that. Yvonne is my friend.”
“I can! She isn’t my friend. Actually this is a pretty good plan. You must be very good at playing political games,” said Tamzin.
“Political games? That’s what you call them? We don’t have elections, Tamzin. You are powerful enough, you get the position. You want to climb higher, you kill the person above you. You are not competent or powerful enough to keep your current position, somebody will kill you. It’s that simple. That’s senatorial politics.”
“All politics is bloody. If we do this, sorceress blood will be spilled.”
“There’s a war coming. More than sorceress blood will flow.”
“I’m sorry that I asked Lena to destroy your family. If I thought I could negotiate with you I wouldn’t have done it.”
“Don’t worry about it. Lena planned to do it regardless. And I’m all about negotiating. Don’t you know they call me the negotiator?”
Tamzin laughed. “I doubt that. You are too powerful to ever negotiate. You must know that was part of my payment for divorcing my husband. Lucian gave Lena the idea she should make him her consort and acquire all the imperial lands in the process.”
“Good! Do that! It might be a good idea to divorce him anyway.” Kara whispered something to Tamzin and the empress turned even paler than she already was.
“I know your law. If he becomes Lena’s consort she could claim all the land.”
“She has a claim. Unfortunately for him, your husband’s claim that he is emperor is tenuous at best. There is no law or custom that says the emperorship is hereditary and goes to the oldest son. If anything, it’s elective, and it was born from the office of first wizard. It will not be difficult to find another heir who is loyal to me and make my own claim. Do you know what will prove which claim is true? The battlefield. But if Lena Casta ties herself to Sem’Dhar, that gives me the justification I need to attack and obliterate her.”
“That’s clever and I think you are right. Can’t wait to tell them he is not really the emperor. I just want to see his face,” Alexandra said smiling
“I think it’s time for us to leave. We’ll just have to say goodbye to our host. Good luck to you two! Michael is not really under your control, is he?” Tamzin shook her head and Kara decided to keep a blank face. “You are crazy. And you and Lucian are like two tigers circling each other, not sure when to strike. I would’ve loved to see that, but I understand that nothing will happen while we are here and I don’t want to inconvenience you.”
“You are mistaking. He’s a tiger, I’m a dragon!”
When they were alone Michael said. “Do you realize you just caused the Conclave’s implosion?”
“They were going to do it anyway. Alexandra has too much resentment and Tamzin was trying to do everything to protect her sisters. And the empress knows what is coming.”
“If you hadn’t said anything, nobody would’ve found out and the secret stays secret.”
“It’s too late to stop it. It was going to come out regardless. This way, maybe less blood is spilled and the right person would get to be in charge.”
“Do you think they will succeed?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. But if the Conclave is severely compromised, well, that’s a totally different conversation.”
Chapter forty
Maya didn’t expect Christian would track her down, but she hoped he would. Not only was he very attractive, he also had a wicked sense of humor that sang to her. He couldn’t be more different than Philip, who lusted after her and made her skin crawl. That was why, against her better judgment, Maya couldn’t stay away. This was going to have consequences, she thought. She tried to visualize all the possible ramifications. Too many! Which meant this was a truly bad idea. She should stop this, but it was he who came seeking her.
“This is a lovely morning. You couldn’t sleep either?” Christian asked her.
“I don’t sleep in other people’s houses. Can’t be sure somebody won’t take the opportunity to slit my throat. What can I say, people simply adore me.”
“I get the same reaction out of them sometime. They just don’t recognize greatness.”
Maya laughed softly. “My mother warned me about boys like you. Stay away from those charming devils. They will steal your heart and break it into a thousand pieces. That’s what she used to say. A smile and a meaningful glance and girls swoon all over you, don’t they?”
“You’re just as bad as Aleyna. She thinks I have a harem hidden somewhere.”
“And do you?” She knew she shouldn’t have asked the question, but she had taken the bait anyway. She started to understand how Christian’s charm worked.
“Of course! It is hard to deny them the pleasure of being with me.” When she heard him, Maya gave a throaty laugh. “You know, my mother warned me about girls like you too. The seducers, who make you fall in love and leave you the moment they got what they wanted.”
“Your mother is right. I’m a whole lot of trouble, too. You shouldn’t trust me.”
“So what do you want? You didn’t bring us here without a very good reason.”
What did she want? More than he could understand. Less than he would expect. There was no way she could explain it to him. “I spend most of my nights in deep holes where nobody can find me after I made sure I wasn’t followed. And these are the good ones. The rest of them I keep my hand on the dagger and wait, just in case someone decides I am too much of a liability. These nights are not so good. So what I want is a roof over my head, one or two servants, although I could survive without them, and to live my life the way I choose without having to worry for my safety.”
“That’s not a difficult request. I can get that for you in a heartbeat.”
She knew he wouldn’t understand. “You think it’s that easy. That I could just find a place to live and nobody would mind or bother me? And nobody would have questions about my powers or motives, because I am the nice girl who wants a simple life. Do you think they would let you get away with that? That they wouldn’t worry about how powerful you are? And if there is a crisis and they say you are needed and it’s your duty to help, what do you do?”
“I guess the simple life it’s not so simple after all.”
“The simple life, that’s the dream. The reality is I would probably be bored out of my mind after a few days of living it. So the moral of the story is we don’t know what we want.”
“I like my life the way it is and there are very few things I want. I mean, you can’t want something if you already have it. And I do think I have a duty to protect my family. You might think of it as an imposition, something to shy away from, but I don’t.”
“I guess even a prince of the Arvillii wants something, although he thinks he has everythi
ng. I heard that you southerners are all loyal and heroic.”
“And I heard you northerners are devious, untrustworthy and greedy.”
“Well, if you hadn’t hoarded all that wealth, perhaps we wouldn’t be.”
“You do realize that Robert and Philip are actually richer than I am.”
The Arvillii were much richer than the Casti, but Robert’s share of his family’s income was much larger than Marcia’s. Yet regardless of Robert’s efforts to outshine his southern rivals, the difference in wealth was almost negligible. Try as they might, no senatorial family could match the income the Arvillii and Metteli derived from Hilderfort and Wennfort. They showed their munificence by financing all kind of building projects. The other senatorial families, especially those from Cuttland, considered this a display of wealth and power they could not attain. And it was that too, although the southerners probably didn’t intend to rub salt on an open wound. The Casti weren’t exactly greedy, but they didn’t like being surpassed so clearly in wealth and power by another family, which was why they were always scheming if not to destroy the Arvillii completely, at least to make them less. Maya couldn’t help notice that in the last years the Arvillii had reduced their spending. No new public projects were started and the ones already begun received only minimal financing. The payments for the upkeep of the public buildings already erected had been reduced. One would wonder what they were doing with all that wealth, but Maya already suspected. They had been preparing for war for the last two years. Not that they’ve been unprepared before.
“Don’t be so defensive, I was only kidding. Although everybody knows how rich your family is. And now that you’ll be getting Kara’s share…”
“It’s not that simple. And I would rather have Kara, the gold is not important.”
“In the human world the gold might buy power, but not in ours. Do I detect that someone is not confident he will be the heir to the Arvillii chair on the Senatorial Council? Did an evil little senator, who answers to the despicable name Sarah, challenge you?”
Christian chuckled. “Sarah and I may sometimes have a difference of opinion, but we can always come to an agreement. She is as powerful as I am and none of us would accept the other’s patronage. Besides, Reyna and her daughter did pretty much what they wanted and not even Kara interfered with them. So I guess they’ll do what they’ll do from now on too.”
“And Kara and Rufus interfered with you and your mother?”
“Not as such. Mother will do what she’ll do as well, but Kara did take an interest in me. Like an older sister who tries to teach and help a younger brother, you know. She was great.”
“And she didn’t do the same for her cousin?”
“With Lucretia gone things had gotten chilly between Rufus and Reyna. So her aunt kept her distance from Kara and Kara stayed away from her cousin. It was just the way it worked out and it was not the best result. Sarah would’ve benefited from having a closer relationship with Kara and vice versa. In the end I got to spend time with Kara, live near her and Sarah didn’t.”
“Was she a good patron?”
“I’ve never thought of her as a patron. I guess the others did, though. But they knew that as long as they respected the rules nobody would bother them. There was nothing arbitrary about her decisions and she has never acted on a whim. I know it sounds like a novel idea to you, since in Cuttland the only rule is the patron does what he wants.”
“And I guess if you break the rules somebody will punish you?”
“Nobody has to punish me because I respect the rules just like everybody else. I cannot demand of my clients to abide by something while I trample all over it.”
It was just as she thought. As long as what he was doing didn’t threaten her directly, Kara wouldn’t do anything. She might scold him and express her disappointment, but that would be the extent of his punishment. If Kara wouldn’t do anything, there was nobody else who could. “Your decision to abide by your family’s rules is every bit as arbitrary as Philip’s pursuit of his every desire. You must understand that there are no effective checks against your kind of power other than what you put on yourselves. The difference is that maybe you are a better man. The future of so many senators and humans in Western Suttland depends on you and Sarah being decent individuals. And that your children will be too. I think I need a drink.”
“Is that thought so depressing?” It was and it wasn’t. Mostly it wasn’t. “I don’t know if I should be insulted that the idea of me being in charge of a large part of Western Suttland is so upsetting to you or it’s a compliment, since your family doesn’t particularly like mine.”
“What?” It was as if his harsh tone awoke her from a dream. Christian misunderstood her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend. I deplore the idea of so many people depending on one, regardless of who he is. But our world is what it is and it’s not very likely it will change any time soon. Do you know the story of the kingdom of Enn?” Christian nodded. She was not surprised. Practically every child, human or senator, was familiar with the parable. The story went like this. The kingdom of Enn had seven good kings and it prospered during their reign. They were followed by a bad one. He was a tyrant. He killed the nobles indiscriminately, forced himself on their wives and emptied the treasury with his extravagant spending. The bad king had no choice but to raise new taxes and people revolted. Taking advantage of the infighting and the precarious situation a neighboring kingdom invaded and conquered Enn. The moral was, of course, it only took one to undo the work of seven. “And I am not in the Casti genealogies.”
“What?” It was Christian’s turn to be shocked out of a daydream.
“I’m not in the Casti genealogies. They are not my family.”
Legally, that was true. If you weren’t written in the genealogies you were not part of the family and you didn’t enjoy the protection, however meaningless that might be. Although it helped when dealing with other houses, it was useless inside the Casti family.
“Aleyna was right. You are screwing with the Casti just like you do with us.”
She was, but Maya didn’t like people saying it aloud. “That one is a ray of sunshine.”
“Aleyna wasn’t always like this. I mean she was all the things she is now: smart, capable, strong, ruthless, loyal… But she also combined sarcasm with an impish sense of humor. She used to tease me mercilessly.”
“She still does.”
“Not nearly as often and her heart isn’t in it. Sometimes I get a glimpse of how she used to be and I fool myself into thinking that things would once again be as they were. Then the spell is broken. I think is incredibly hard for her. She is the only one who survived and I can’t imagine how you can carry something like that. We grew complacent. Kara ignored her security. Powerful as she was, she didn’t think an army could get close to her. None of us did. If Kara had taken over more guards and used some to scout the area maybe she would’ve spotted her attackers and might’ve managed to escape. There’s a lot of blame to go around and everyone has made mistakes. We all wonder what we could’ve done to stop this. Aleyna decided she bears most of the responsibility, although we all know that’s not true.”
“There is nothing you could’ve done. Kara was too much of a threat and your family is simply too powerful. If someone is smart enough and motivated enough, he will find a way.”
“Thank you!” Christian sounded grateful.
“There’s nothing to thank me for. Your enemies are legion, mainly because they are scared Suttland is in the position to take over the Senatorial Council. With Kara and Julia in charge, I don’t think they are wrong. They must’ve figured that without Kara and Rufus, your family would be less threatening and become more manageable because it would break in several parts. They were right about the former and wrong about the latter. The Arvillii wouldn’t splinter until they found those responsible and punished them. And that’s the pure and simple truth, which is rarely simple and…”
“Never pure!
” They both laughed. It was adorable how he completed her sentence.
“And tell the ray of sunshine that yes, people have died, but she still lives. That’s not a curse, that’s a gift. And she shouldn’t squander it, she should use the opportunity to make a difference in this world. There are so very few individuals capable of that.”
“If I tell her that she is going to punch me in the mouth.”
Maya laughed. Finally, somebody was willing to punish him if he was being stupid. “I’m not screwing with you. I didn’t send Maeve to Hilderfort as a way to invite you here. I sent her there because I thought she could live a little longer. What happened in Therburg had been unnecessary. What happened to her had been unnecessary. My involvement only delayed the inevitable. They are going to die. Maeve is angry, unafraid and she is a fighter. Humans like that always die first. And that is a shame, because smart, capable humans are difficult to come by.”
“You really aren’t like the other Cuttland senators, are you?”
She wasn’t and that was a dangerous thing. Sooner or later the Casti would learn of her opinions. There was nothing she could do to stop that; she could only delay it. And when that happened they would start questioning her motives. It would be all over then.
“Your people will kill her too. No senator would allow someone like her to live.”
“You are a philosopher. I wouldn’t have guessed.”
“Believe me, I’m a doer, not a thinker and usually that’s to my detriment, because I should really think more before I act.”
“I don’t think so. I think you push and annoy people just to get an honest reaction out of them. It’s the fastest way to get to know somebody. You know Aleyna has a theory about you? I haven’t met a lot of people who could make her nervous, practically none, but you do.”
“Really? Do tell!” This should be entertaining. Maya didn’t really care about what Aleyna thought of her, but she was curious. The human was smart and could do some damage, because Christian and Marcia listened to her.
