Jaibriol unexpectedly found Sunrise.
He went to the opulent wing of the palace where Corbal lived. His cousin stayed there when he wasn't seeing to his business affairs or meddling in Jaibriol's life. Hidaka came with Jaibriol, along with three Razers who were like extensions of the captain's biomech- enhanced mind.
His unannounced visit shook up the taskmaker who looked after Corbal's suite. She and her husband had served the Xir Lord for decades. She was trembling as she knelt to Jaibriol, and tendrils of her auburn hair wisped around her face.
"Please rise," Jaibriol said, far more gently than Hightons were supposed to speak to taskmakers.
She rose to her feet, her gaze downcast. "My honor us with Your Most Glorious Presence, Your Highness."
Jaibriol winced. He had managed to wean his staff from talking that way, but everyone else did it regardless of what he said. He just nodded and walked into the living room of Corbal's suite. Plush cushions were scattered across a carpeted floor that sparkled with holographic tips on the pile. Blue-lacquer tables gleamed and the walls gleamed blue. The room glistened.
With a start, Jaibriol realized someone was sleeping on a large pillow in one corner. It was Sunrise, Corbal's provider. She lay curled on her side with her eyes closed in her angel's face. Her hair fell across her body in glossy waves, as bright as a yellow sun. She wore nothing more than a scant halter of gold chains, with sapphires that barely covered her enlarged nipples. A gold chain around her hips held the gold triangle of her G-string. She was lushly, voluptuously desirable, full and round where Hightons were lean.
Jaibriol stopped, his face heating. Even while she slept, her contentment soothed. He blocked her, not because he didn't appreciate the healing balm of her mind, but because if she awoke, she might suspect him. Sunrise was a powerful empath, able to detect far more than most Aristos realized.
Jaibriol never knew how to act around her. He had spent the first fourteen years of his life with only his family. On Earth, he had been shy around girls, unsure how to behave. As emperor, he had slept with a provider once, a sweet, silver girl who had taken his virginity and left him with a treasured memory. Then he had married Tarquine, and he hadn't touched any other woman since.
He spoke self-consciously to Hidaka. "I'll come back later. Lord Xir doesn't seem to be here." Corbal obviously had been, though, given Sunrise's state of dress, or lack thereof. He felt like an intruder.
A deep voice came from behind him. "Your Highness?"
Jaibriol turned with a start. Corbal's son Azile was walking through the archway and unfastening a long coat, which he wore over a silk shirt and elegant slacks. His cheeks were red from the wind, which probably meant his flyer had just landed on the roof of the palace.
Jaibriol inclined his head to his Intelligence Minister, his closest kin after Corbal and Calope Muze. "Azile." He used the minimalist Highton greeting appropriate for family.
Azile bowed from the waist. "You honor my father's home."
"I came to talk to him." Jaibriol indicated where Sunrise slept. "But I didn't want to wake her."
Azile glanced idly toward the corner, then did a double take. His startled, instinctual response was so intense, Jaibriol felt it despite the muting effects of his shields. Azile sensed Sunrise's unprotected mind, but in a far different manner than Jaibriol. In that instant, the desire to transcend hit Azile so hard, an image jumped into his thoughts of Sunrise crying in pain.
Bile rose in Jaibriol's throat. How the blazes could Azile desire to hurt her that way? He wanted to throw his Intelligence Minister across the room.
The blood drained from Azile's face. Shock surged from his mind, and a deep loathing for himself. He spun around and strode from the room through a smaller archway. Jaibriol watched in amazement, not because it offended him to have his cousin walk out, not even because it was a crime to leave the emperor's presence in such a manner, but because he had never felt such remorse from an Aristo capable of transcending. Azile was only in his fifties, much younger than Corbal or Tarquine had been when they changed.
When Hidaka motioned for two of the Razers to go after Azile, Jaibriol held up his hand, stopping them. Then he followed his cousin into a small alcove stocked with liqueurs. Azile was leaning on a counter, his face ashen. As Jaibriol entered, the Intelligence Minister jerked up his head and comprehension of his trespass against the emperor flooded across his face.
"Your Highness!" Azile straightened up abruptly. "Please accept my most humble apology."
"Accepted," Jaibriol said, sparing Azile an arrest. He had never seen his cousin disturbed this way. Sweat sheened Azile's forehead. Could he be more like his father than Jaibriol had realized? He knew Azile transcended; even now, with his shields full strength, he sensed the crushing pressure of Azile's mind.
"One might be distracted by many things," Jaibriol said, probing. "It is always my hope that my kin are well and serene."
Azile inclined his head to the right, indicating gratitude at Jaibriol's response. "Most serene, Your Highness."
"I'm pleased to hear it." Jaibriol studied him. "Tell your father I visited."
"Certainly. It will be my pleasure to serve the throne."
Jaibriol doubted it; he knew Azile disliked him. But maybe this was a start toward better relations between the two of them.
Jaibriol found Tarquine at a crystal table in the Atrium, surrounded by lush trees, with sunlight filtering over her from the polarized glass of the ceiling and walls.
"My greetings, husband." She was spearing sea delicacies in a porcelain dish using a sharpened ivory prong.
"Tarquine." He sat down, preoccupied with his thoughts.
She studied him for a moment. "Distraction becomes you."
Jaibriol had no idea how to take that. "I would never say incomprehensibility becomes you, my lovely wife, since you are always comprehensible, but should that ever change, I'm sure it would reflect just as well."
Tarquine smiled, a slow curve of her lips. "I do believe I've just been insulted."
Jaibriol grinned at her. "Never."
She blinked, staring at him.
"Astonishment also becomes you," he added amiably.
"'They say his smile is like the sun that rarely rises,'" she murmured. "Carzalan Kri wrote that in one of his poems."
"You think my sun doesn't rise enough?" Jaibriol supposed it was true. He rarely felt like grinning at anyone.
"It's another sign of your distraction," Tarquine decided.
He took a tobin-plum out of a bowl and bit into the pale blue fruit. "I thought I knew most Highton customs."
"Indeed."
He gave her a dour look. "If Highton words were a form of nourishment, that one would have no nutritional value at all."
She sat back, relaxed, regarding him as if he was a rare and valuable acquisition. "You look well today."
"Don't do that."
"What? Compliment you?"
"Look at me like I'm your dessert."
Her smile turned sultry. "My dessert was never so sweet."
Jaibriol wanted to groan. Sweet, indeed. He was an emperor, not a slice of cake.
"I've been wondering something," he said.
She regarded him curiously. "And what could that be?"
"Is it unusual for a man to feel affection toward his father's provider? I don't mean desire. More like kinship."
"Not particularly." She swirled a melon-shrimp around in the sauce on her plate and took a bite.
He sat back, thinking. "Perhaps Azile was affected by something else."
"An intelligence matter, I would imagine."
He knew she was fishing to find out if his comment connected to Azile's work as Intelligence Minister. Her mind never rested when it came to politics.
"It's Sunrise," Jaibriol said.
"Providers always affect Aristos."
Tarquine finished her melon-shrimp. "I'm told she has a high Kyle rating."
"I wouldn't know," he lied.
She spoke quietly. "Corbal values the dawn. He would never let its radiance dim."
Jaibriol knew she was right. Despite Corbal's attempts to disguise his affection, Tarquine had long ago figured out how he felt about Sunrise.
"It's always intriguing when people act out of character," Tarquine said. "Don't you think?"
Jaibriol stiffened. "No." She was probing, which meant she was thinking of looking into the matter. He didn't want her investigating his Intelligence Minister, at least no more than usual. He had no doubt she and Azile kept dossiers on each other. But he had managed to keep their mutual ill will at bay.
He sincerely hoped it stayed that way.
Sunlight flooded Selei City on the planet Parthonia. Skyscrapers pierced the lavender sky, which had never taken on the bluer hue intended by the world's terraformers. The mirrored buildings reflected clouds as if they were part of the sky. Kelric strolled across a plaza tiled with blue stone. Government officials walked in pairs and trios through the area, their executive jumpsuits glossy in the sunshine. They gave Kelric and his heavily armed guards a wide berth.
Kelric was always aware of the stronger gravity here and its effect on his heavy build. He slowed down, and he fatigued more easily. The beautiful weather contrasted with his mood. He had no desire to attend the Assembly after yesterday's loss. But the sessions continued regardless of his mood. At least he could escape during this break.
"Nice day," Strava commented as they strolled along.
"It is." Kelric needed to say no more. It was one reason he liked these guards. They were as taciturn as he.
He stopped at the plaza's fountain, a jumble of geometric shapes with water cascading over them. It looked like a big pile of wet Quis dice. What would happen if he introduced Quis into Skolian culture? It could just become a fad, but he knew it too well to believe that. Quis would fascinate his people. Scholars would write papers on it. Gaming dens would proliferate. Schools would teach it. The game was too powerful to fade away.
Maybe it would even spread to Eube. The Coban queens had sublimated their aggression into Quis. He doubted it could affect the Traders as much, but even a small change might get the stalled treaty negotiations back on track.
A silver spark flashed in Kelric's side vision.
Combat mode toggled, Bolt thought.
What the hell? Kelric thought, spinning around as his body toggled into combat mode and accelerated his motions.
Najo shoved him to the ground, and Strava and Najo threw themselves across Kelric as he hit the pavement. Axer stood over them with his feet planted wide, firing, his massive Jumbler clenched in both hands. He swept the beam across the plaza with enhanced speed, his reflexes powered by the microfusion reactor within him. Strava and Najo were shooting as well, even as they protected Kelric with their bodies. Sparks glittered in the air, and when the beams touched ground, it exploded in bursts of orange light. Debris flew and dust swirled around the fountain.
Kelric lay with his palms braced on the ground, tensed like a wire drawn taut. He wanted to throw off his guards and vault to his feet; it took a great effort to stay put and let them do their job. His enhanced vision picked out projectiles headed toward him and also their demise in flashes of light.
After an eon, his bodyguards stopped firing. The air had the astringent smell of annihilated bitons, and sirens blared throughout the plaza. Engines rumbled overhead as military flyers soared through the sky.
"Imperator Skolia?" Najo asked, getting to his feet. "Are you all right?"
Kelric pushed up on his elbow. "I'm fine. Are we clear?"
"Looks like it," Strava said. She was kneeling over him, her calves on either side of his legs while she surveyed the ruined plaza. Najo scanned the area with his gauntlet monitors, and Axer was speaking into his wrist comm.
Kelric stabbed a panel on his own gauntlet. "Major Qahot, what the hell is going on?"
The voice of his security chief came out of the mesh. "The shooters are dead, sir," he said. "It doesn't look like they expected to survive."
"Suicide assassins," Kelric said.
"Apparently. Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," he growled. "I want to know how the hell they got in here." The Assembly drew delegates from all over Skolia. Some attended through the web, but many gathered in Selei City. ISC had ramped up security so high, they should have known if anyone within a hundred kilometer radius even breathed oddly.
Strava climbed to her feet, freeing Kelric. He stood up and spoke quietly to his bodyguards. "Thank you."
Najo inclined his head, and Strava lifted her hand in acknowledgment. Axer was getting updates on his gauntlet and probably his ear comm, too. ISC police were already combing the plaza, and no doubt every nearby building. The flyers overhead gleamed gold and black, reflected in the mirrored skyscrapers.
Kelric finally let himself absorb that he had almost died.
"They never had a chance," Major Qahot said, pacing across the security office beneath the Assembly Hall. A stocky man with bristly hair, he moved as if he were caged, unable to break free until he solved the mystery of Kelric's attackers.
People filled the room, officers, aides, guards. And Roca. Kelric had arranged to have Dehya and his brothers transferred to safe houses, as well as the First Councilor and Inner Circle. Roca, however, refused to leave. His people would take her if he ordered it, but he knew it would antagonize her. For now, in the depths of this secured command center, he let her stay. She stood by a wall, listening while his officers investigated the attempt on his life. Kelric sat at a console that monitored the Assembly Hall, Selei City, the countryside, even orbital traffic. From here, he could access any system on the planet.
"The assassins could never have reached you," Qahot said as he paced. "Their clothes were shrouded against sensors, but the moment they drew their weapons, it triggered alarms all over Selei City. Their shots would never have hit home."
Roca spoke, her voice like tempered steel. "They should never have gotten close enough to shoot."
Perspiration beaded on Qahot's forehead. "It won't happen again, Your Highness."
"Imperator Skolia." Strava spoke from her seat at another console. "We've identified the security hole that let the assassins slip their guns by our systems."
"A hole?" Kelric said. "How did that happen?"
"It migrated from another system." She was reading from one of her screens. "The Hinterland Deployment."
Kelric froze. The Hinterland Deployment guarded Coba. "How could it affect us? That's a different region of space."
She rubbed her chin as she studied the data. "It's odd. A few bytes are missing from a security mod in the Hinterland codes. Almost nothing. But the hole propagated to other systems." She looked up at Kelric. "The mesh-techs couldn't locate the cause, but they're patching the hole."
It was all Kelric could do to remain impassive. One little hole in Hinterland security. Just one, but it had spread. Because it hadn't been properly coded. Because it should never have existed. Because he had made it in secret.
Kelric had told Dirac to "forget" Coba was the focus of the Hinterland Deployment. He should have known better. The deletion had ended up drawing far more attention than if he had done nothing. Hell, it had nearly killed him.
"Keep me apprised of their progress," he told Strava.
"Will do, sir."
He swiveled his chair to Axer, who was standing by a console with his hand cupped to his ear as he listened to his comm. "Do you have anything on the three assassins?" Kelric asked.
A frown creased the broad planes of the guard's face. "They were delegates in the Assembly. The police found records in their quarters."
His careful expression didn't fool Kelric. His guards shielded their minds and didn't talk much, but he knew them well. Axer was worried.
"What do you have on them so far?" Kelric asked.
"They feared what would happen if Councilor Roca lost the vote." He glanced at Kelric's mother. "I'm sorry, ma'am."
"Why would they fear the vote?" she asked. "Their seats aren't hereditary."
"Apparently they thought it gave Imperator Skolia too much power and you too little."
Kelric stared at them. "They would assassinate me to support my mother?"
Roca's voice hardened. "Then they deserved to die."
Don't, Kelric thought to her.
No one tries to murder my child and gets away with it.
Kelric recognized her cold fury. Normally she was a gentle woman, but threats to her family brought out a ferocity that startled even him. He thought of his ordeals on Coba. Had she known, she would have retaliated against the Cobans. And if today's assassination had succeeded? Roca was next in line to become Imperator. It was among the more bizarre ramifications of their extended lifespans, that a parent could be her child's heir. She didn't want the title; she was trained to succeed Dehya as Assembly Key. But she was better qualified as Imperator than Kelric's siblings, and only a Ruby psion could join the Dyad.
Had Kelric died, the Closure document would have released to the authorities as soon as the news became public. ISC would have gone to find Ixpar and his children. He had always known that could happen, but when he had written his will, he had seen no other choice.
Kelric? Roca's forehead furrowed. You think I will retaliate against the families of the assassins?
Startled, he strengthened his shields. At least his defenses had been strong enough that she misread his thoughts. Let the courts deal with it.
She regarded him impassively.
I mean it, Mother. Let Legal handle this. He was aware of his guards watching. They had probably figured out he and Roca were mentally conversing. As Jagernauts, they were psions, but if even Roca picked up so little through his shields, it was unlikely they would get anything. They had nowhere near her mental strength. Kelric had become a master at hiding from his family, but he was worn out by cutting himself off that way.
Security suspected something was up, Roca thought. But not this.
So you really were trying to start a rumor yesterday.
Yes. To trace its source.
Apparently its source found us first, he thought dourly.
Roca exhaled. It seems so.
Kelric glanced at Qahot, who was leaning over a console to read its screen. "Major, do we have leads on who the assassins were working with?"
Qahot straightened up. "So far, it looks like only those three were involved. Records of their correspondence indicate they've grown disaffected over the years." Then he added, "Yesterday, one of them told another delegate you should be 'voted out' of your seat permanently."
It was a sobering response. Kelric had known the Imperator wasn't well-liked, but he hadn't thought anyone wanted him dead. Had he lost sight of his humanity in the performance of his duties?
Axer was watching his face. "Sir, they were fanatics. No matter what you did, they would have objected. It was the office of Imperator they opposed. Not the person."
Kelric knew Axer meant well, and it was one of the longer speeches his guard had ever made to him. But he suspected the assassins protested the man who held the title as much as the title itself. He had to do his job, even if people hated him for it. He nodded to his guard, then spoke to Qahot. "Do checks on all the Assembly delegates and their aides. Make sure no one else was involved."
"Right away, sir," Qahot said.
A door across the room opened to admit a Jagernaut in black leathers. Vazar. She strode to Kelric's console. "Primary Majda reporting, sir."
Kelric stood up, regarding her coolly. "Are my joint commanders safe?"
"Yes, sir." Her posture was ramrod straight. "General Majda and Primary Tapperhaven have left Parthonia. Admiral Barzun is on the Orbiter. General Stone is on Diesha. All are under increased security."
"Good," he said. Her tension practically snapped in the air. Yesterday she had voted against the Ruby Dynasty; today she was tasked with protecting their interests. Neither of them missed the irony. He went around the console to her and spoke in a low voice only she could hear. "You're on duty here until I get back. Don't disappoint me."
She met his gaze. "I won't, sir."
He felt her mood: regardless of her vote, she would protect his family with her life. As angry as he felt toward her, he had to respect the integrity that spurred her to choose what she believed was right even when she knew it would alienate him and imperil her own Assembly seat.
Kelric beckoned to Roca, and she left the command center with him and his guards. Her anger at Vaz simmered, but she said nothing. She rarely spoke aloud to him when he was dealing with ISC, and he had realized she didn't want to appear as if she were interfering with his authority. He doubted she would, but he appreciated the consideration. The Assembly needed more of that sensitivity she brought to the table, not less.
Her bodyguards were outside, three instead of the usual two. They fell into formation around Kelric and Roca, along with Najo, Strava, and Axer. They all walked down the metallic tunnel deep below Selei City.
"With supporters like those assassins," Roca said in a low voice, "I don't need enemies."
"It's not your fault," he said.
She glanced at him. "You're a damn fine commander, Kelric. Don't let what happened today make you believe otherwise."
He rubbed his neck, working at stiffness his nanomeds couldn't seem to ease. "Doubt is good for the soul."
"I'm just so immensely grateful you're all right."
"I, too," he said wryly.
Her normally dulcet voice turned icy. "Everyone involved with this attempt against your life will pay."
She reminded him of the clawcats that prowled the Teotec Mountains on Coba. "Let the courts deal with it."
"Of course."
Kelric didn't trust that answer. She never gave in that easily. He knew she wouldn't rest until they had caught everyone connected with the attempt on his life.
The assassins had forced him to face certain facts. If he died and Roca became Imperator, then at the same time she was taking command, the Closure document would come to light. And he would no longer be alive to protect Coba.
Most people left Selei City through Selei Interstellar Starport. Kelric went to Admiral Starport, a much smaller facility used by the military and government. He and his guards boarded a racer, one of the fastest starships known. They left Parthonia just after night's mid- hour, flying swift and silent.