Shades of Empire (ThreeCon)

by Carmen Webster Buxton

  Lothar smiled and let go of her. “Let that be a lesson to you, Thalia. And if I ever find out you assisted our son in his plot, I’ll summon you one night. You might not enjoy the experience nearly as much as you did twenty years ago, you know? I’ve grown terribly jaded in the interim, and you might find yourself obliged to do things you quite dislike doing.”

  She sat stiff and uncowed, resisting the temptation to rub her shoulders where he had almost certainly left bruises. “I’m not the least afraid of you, Lothar.”

  “No?” He bent over her shoulder and slipped one hand inside the bodice of her dress. Thalia sat rigidly while he fondled her breast and then gasped in pain when he pinched the nipple cruelly.

  “You should be, Thalia,” Lothar said softly in her ear. “You should be.”

  Thalia held herself motionless until he moved away. When he left the room by the door that led to the terrace, she let her breath out in a deep, vengeful exhalation that would have made any of her servants quake with fear.

  She waited a second to be sure he was out of hearing, and then stood, glanced around the room, and snatched up a tall, delicate vase filled with fragile flowers. She smashed it to the floor, and then trampled on the pieces until they were ground almost to powder.

  “Good morning, Mother,” said a voice from the terrace doorway.

  Thalia looked up as her only son came into the room. Antonio du Plessis looked enough like his father to make any suggestion of a need for genetic testing ludicrous, which was fortunate, as his parents had so many ancestors in common that sorting out their DNA would have been quite a feat. Nevertheless, astute observers of the imperial family had noted his likeness to his mother in the cold line of his mouth and the haughty arch to his brow.

  “Has Father been visiting you so early?” Antonio said. “Don’t tell me the two of you have had a romantic tryst already today?”

  Thalia didn’t lower herself to glare at him, but the smile she gave him was glacial. “Good morning, Antonio. How kind of you to honor your mother with a visit.”

  His answering smile was just a trifle strained. “I came to ask if I can go out today, just for a bit. You do know it’s the opening of the racing season? I’ve never missed it.”

  Thalia didn’t bend to the appeal of this logic. “Well, you’re going to miss it this year. You’re not going anywhere. Do you think you father’s forgotten that he caught you trying to instigate a coup?”

  Antonio’s frown held more annoyance than worry. “It’ll cause a lot of talk if I don’t go to the races. People will notice it, and then they’ll begin to wonder what’s happened. Father doesn’t want that kind of talk, does he?”

  “He won’t like it,” Thalia said. “But he’s still too angry to let you out. You’d better resign yourself to a few more weeks of confinement here.”

  She was pleased at her son’s look of discontent with this answer. There was little in Antonio’s life that was that was a secret to his mother. She was well aware of how he spent his copious leisure time, as the bills for the steady stream of prostitutes that he hired were often flaunted in her face when her husband was indignant about his heir’s behavior. Now she gave Antonio a thin, contemptuous smile, as he looked unhappy with her pronouncement of further incarceration. “If you’re restless, I’m sure your father can be persuaded to import some entertainment for you.”

  She was disconcerted when his answering smile held a glint of something truly frightening.

  “I don’t think that’s necessary as yet, Mother. I’m sure I can find someone to entertain me.”

  She frowned. “Don’t think your father won’t object if you help yourself to one of his toys. He can be quite selfish.”

  “I know that.”

  He sounded so sure of himself. She pondered the possibilities and her frown deepened. Her tone grew stern to the point of resolute disapproval. “If I catch you molesting your sister again, I’ll tell your father this time, instead of merely dealing with the matter myself.”

  He lifted one hand languidly. “I had no idea you were so concerned about Cassandra.”

  She let her angry frown relax into indifference. “Oh, Cassandra. For all I care, you can use that whore’s brat any way you like. In fact, I should very much enjoy watching you do it.”

  “Now, that,” Antonio said, “is more like you.”

  “Unfortunately,” Thalia said with genuine regret, “your father plans to marry her off as part of his consolidation plan. You may amuse yourself to a certain extent, Antonio, but it would be extremely unfortunate if her groom were to find her less than intact, if you understand me.”

  It was her son’s turn to scowl in anger. “Marry her off?”

  “Yes. He seems to feel that it would convey honor on some young sprig of the nobility to marry his bastard.”

  “I have plans for Cassandra,” Antonio said.

  Thalia was neither sympathetic nor concerned. “You’ll have to change them.”

  Antonio assumed an abstracted look. “A good general always makes new plans when the old ones go awry. And I mean to be a good general.”

  “How inspiring.”

  Her son bent over and kissed her cheek with delicate but arctic precision. “I knew you’d appreciate it. Good day, Mother.”

  The Empress sighed as she watched him walk through the door to the gardens. Really, she had a lot to bear.

  • • •

  The palace gardens had several nooks and crannies that were considerably more private than the open spaces found by the terrace outside of the Empress’ quarters. Antonio walked the path unconcernedly, certain that in such fine weather he would eventually encounter one or the other of his sisters.

  Sure enough, as he passed a small garden lined with flowering native plants, he saw Cassandra Fitzlothar sitting in a covered bower. Her head was bent over a book reader, and she had tucked both feet up under her while she read. Antonio stared at her for a few moments.

  His half-sister bore only a passing resemblance to the du Plessis; she had light brown hair instead of coal black; her face was more a square than a classic oval; and her eyes were dark brown instead of pale gray. Still, she had inherited the straight nose and high, flat cheekbones seen in both her half-siblings and in so many family portraits.

  Antonio stepped softly. Absorbed in her reading, Cassandra kept her head down. Before she could escape or stop him, he had caught her in his arms.

  She dropped the reader in her struggles to get away. “Stop it!” she ordered. “Let me go, Antonio, or I’ll scream!”

  His only answer was to take hold of her hair and pull hard, forcing her head back so that he could kiss her. When she opened her mouth to carry out her threat, Antonio took advantage of the opportunity to kiss her ruthlessly. A moment later he cried out in pain and released her. He spat delicately into his hand, saw blood and swore, half in anger and half in admiration. “You little harlot! You bit me!”

  She spat on the ground, a good deal less delicately, as if to rid herself of the taint of his mouth. “I’ll do worse if you touch me again, Antonio,” she warned him, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “If you continue to behave like this, I’ll tell Father.”

  Antonio smiled unconcernedly. “I don’t think you will. If Father knew I wanted you, he’d give you away immediately to some decrepit, old noble whose support he needs. You don’t want to push him to do that, do you, dear sweet little sister?”

  She looked at him with revulsion. “How can you speak that way? I’m your sister. Have you no sense of shame?”

  “Yes. I do.” He glanced around to be sure no one was near. “It mortifies me that I find your peasant blood so appealing. Vinitra is mine by right because she’s all my blood, but I want you, too—not in spite of your mother but because of her. It’s too bad she’s dead, or I might be able to satisfy my lust by having her—for a while at least.”

  Cassandra stepped back from him. “You disgust me!”

  “Do I?” he said, hi
s tone mocking her. Her revulsion heightened the challenge and thus his arousal. Her struggle would make his eventual triumph even sweeter. “That’s too bad, because you won’t have any choice but to accept me once I’m your emperor as well as your brother.”

  “That won’t happen for quite a long time,” she said. “I’ll be old by then. I’ll probably have six children and be fat and dowdy.”

  He gave her a confident smile. “I don’t intend to wait that long. Even if I don’t succeed in spilling your maiden’s blood, one day soon your flesh will be mine to devour as I choose. And I won’t ever let you spoil that delicious body by bearing children.”

  Cassandra’s eyes widened with alarm.

  Antonio saw it and exulted. “You’re wise to believe me, Cassie,” he said in a silky tone, much like the one his father often used to his mother. “I’m much cleverer than my parents, you know? Father has no idea how I feel about you and about Vinitra, and even Mother doesn’t understand what motivates me.”

  Cassandra shivered. “It’s terrible the way you treat Vinitra,” she said with loathing. “She has looked up to you all her life, and you use that to manipulate her.”

  Antonio smiled with self assurance. “Vinnie doesn’t think it’s terrible. She knows I own her, and she’s happy about it.”

  Cassandra tried to speak confidently. “Your mother fixed it so she can’t let you abuse her.”

  Antonio’s smile grew contemptuous. No one really understood him, but one day they would all know better than to underestimate him. “Mother has no imagination. She thought that if she had Vinnie conditioned so that it pained her if she let a man touch her, that would keep her away from me. She forgot that I could still make Vinnie want me to touch her. No one but me will ever truly claim Vinnie. I own her and I own you, and nothing will stop me from having you both one day.”

  Cassandra held her breath for a moment and then let it out. “Father will either arrange a marriage for me or give me away as a reward,” she said, standing straight and looking him in the eye. “I don’t really care which happens, because either way I’ll get away from here.”

  Antonio frowned at this. It was unfortunate but true that his father held all the power. Still, the old man couldn’t live forever. “You’ll never get away from me, Cassie. Shall I tell you exactly what I’m going to do to you once I have you?”

  “No!” she said, backing up another step.

  He paid no heed and began to recount in graphic detail the steps involved in forcible rape. Cassandra wavered for a few seconds, and then finally broke and ran for the house, avoiding his grasp when he tried to snatch at her as she ran past him.

  “Soon, Cassie,” he called after her. “One day soon.”

  She didn’t answer. Pleased with himself, Antonio decided to go looking for Vinitra. A woman’s fear was a powerful aphrodisiac, but adulation had its place, too.

  He found Vinitra as he came around the curve of the walkway in the main garden.

  She sat on a bench, staring at some flowers while a middle-aged woman beside her stitched on a piece of embroidery. Antonio walked up beside his sister and gave her a swift kiss before she even saw him.

  Vinitra smiled happily but flinched from his touch as if it pained her. “Hello, Tonio. How are you today?”

  “Fine,” her brother said. “Send your duenna away. I want to talk to you privately.”

  His sister dismissed her attendant negligently, but the woman went only as far as the stand of trees on the other side of the lawn, following Empress Thalia’s order that Vinitra should never be left alone outside of her own rooms. Antonio clenched his jaw as he thought about his mother’s interference. The conditioning was worse, of course. It was true that it prevented some randy aristo from getting too close to Vinitra, but it also made it impossible for her to bear the slightest caress from her own brother. Which was the point of it, really, No one else would dare lay hands on the Emperor’s only legitimate female offspring.

  “Now,” Antonio said at once, “she can only see your back from there. Open your bodice, Vinitra.”

  She looked reluctant and a little afraid. “Someone might come by.”

  “No one’s going to come by. And if they do I’ll see them first and warn you. Open your bodice now, and let me see your breasts.”

  Hesitantly, Vinitra pulled open the fastenings of the bodice of her dress, and then of her underclothes.

  “Pull your dress open a little more,” Antonio ordered, feeling his breath coming faster.

  When she complied, he stared at her hungrily. A pretty young woman, she wore her black hair down to her waist. Her light gray eyes were set charmingly in an oval face. Sitting beneath the trees with her small round breasts exposed to the dappled sunlight, she looked rather like a wood nymph.

  “You’re beautiful, Vinitra,” Antonio said, his voice thick with longing. “And one day I won’t have to sit far away and just look at you. One day you’ll be mine.”

  Vinitra shivered, but she didn’t look frightened. Her eyes dilated in spite of the sunlight, and the tip of her tongue moistened her lips.

  “Did you do what I told you to do last night?” Antonio demanded.

  “Yes, Tonio.”

  “And did you enjoy it?”

  “Yes.”

  “And what did you say to yourself while you were doing it?”

  She shivered again, and let out a little gasp of anticipation. “I said I’m doing this only because Tonio can’t do it to me. I belong to Tonio, and no one but him has the right to touch me like this.”

  “Very good,” he said. “Do it again, tonight Vinitra. Do it and think about me the whole time.”

  “Yes, Tonio.”

  “Do you know what I’d really like to do right now, Vinnie?”

  “What?”

  “I’d like to lay you on the grass, rip the clothes from your lovely body, and claim you in the way that I promised. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

  “Yes,” she said breathlessly. “Oh, yes.”

  “Do you know why I can’t?”

  A frown marred the rapt expression of her face. “Mother and Father are keeping up apart.”

  “Yes,” Antonio said. “Mother had you conditioned so deeply that you can’t let me touch you, and Father plans to marry you to someone else. Do you know why that’s wrong?”

  “Because,” Vinitra said promptly, “I belong to you. I’m a du Plessis, and no one else is worthy of me except you.”

  Antonio was pleased. Her intellect might not be strong, but she could learn a lesson well if he repeated it often enough. “Very true. But I’ll show them one day, Vinnie. Even if Father succeeds in giving you to someone else temporarily, I’ll get you back once I’m Emperor. You won’t let yourself love anyone else, will you?”

  “No. Only you, Tonio. Only you.”

  “Good,” he said approvingly. “Now stroke your breasts until your nipples get hard.”

  She obeyed without protest this time, rubbing her palm back and forth over first one nipple and then the other. Antonio watched her covetously for several minutes.

  “That’s good,” he crooned. “You’re so beautiful, Vinitra, and I want you so badly.”

  She sighed, her breasts rising and falling, taunting him. “I want you, too, Tonio.”

  “Tomorrow,” he said, “I want you to walk in the garden again, but sit on one of the benches farther away from the house. And when you dress for the day, don’t put on any underclothes and choose a dress that has a loose skirt.”

  She stared at him in surprise for several seconds while she thought it over, and then her eyes opened wide. “No!”

  “Yes,” he ordered. “I want to watch your face while you do it, Vinitra. I want to hear you moan and know it’s for me.”

  “Someone will see me!”

  “No one will see if we’re careful. You will do it, Vinnie. I order you to do it.”

  She hesitated, her head hanging like a child being scolded. “Please don’t
make me.”

  Annoyance at her resistance made Antonio frown at her. “Unless you want me to see if Cassandra loves me as a sister should?”

  “No!” she said, her head coming up. “I’ll do it! I’ll do whatever you want. Just don’t talk to Cassandra. Don’t touch her. It’s not fair because Mother won’t stop you from touching her, and she’s not really a du Plessis. You should be mine and not hers!”

  The little fool didn’t realize that Cassandra would never comply with his wishes willingly. “I am yours, Vinnie,” he said, soothing her with his voice. She really was lovely when she was excited—lovely and malleable as wax. “Just so long as you admit that you belong to me, and do exactly as I say, then I’ll be yours.”

  “Yes, Tonio. Oh, yes!”

  “Good girl,” he said approvingly. “Stroke your breasts one last time and then fasten your dress. I think that hag is getting suspicious.”

  Vinitra obeyed promptly, and was soon decently covered. Antonio came close to give her a kiss, but she started back reflexively.

  “Someday,” Antonio said under his breath, “I’ll have that undone. You’ll beg for me to touch you, Vinnie—I swear it.”

  She raised her eyes to his, and the adoration in them was plain. “I hope so.”

  • • •

  Thaddeus spent most of time in isolation in the brig. Maddy let him out once a day to go to the bridge to check their location, but other than that, she kept him confined to the brig—until the third night after they had left the rebel ship.

  Late that evening, Luong Khan unlocked the door of Thaddeus’ cell and called out his name.

  “Thad! Wake up, Thad! You’re going for a little walk.”

  Thaddeus came awake and sat up abruptly. “What is it? Something wrong?”

  “Nope,” Khan said. He sounded amazingly cheerful considering the late hour. “If it’s what I think it is, you’re about to pay me back for cutting in line.”

  Thaddeus stopped on his way to the door. “What?”