21 Hunting For Clues
HUNTING FOR CLUES
THE PRINCE DISMISSED me with a wave. I stood, my joints locked in shock, as he turned away from me.
Wiktor immediately stepped to the prince’s left shoulder, extolling my virtues and requesting His Highness to reconsider, but the prince ordered him silent.
Colonel Boleslaw stepped in front of Prince Aureli, whispering furiously in his ear, but His Highness was unmoved.
“My decision is final. Mister Boylan chose the Emperor’s bed over his duty to Queen and country. Let him lie in it.”
My lip curled in fury. That insufferable toad.
I had done nothing but what he commanded me to do.
Had he not urged the entire delegation to befriend the Imperial nobility?
To grow intimate with the Empire’s decision makers?
Yet when I stood before him, having succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, he as good as called me a traitor.
Damn the man. I would write to the high marshals and grand marshal who’d sent me here. I would write to the Queen herself if I had to. Her uncle’s prejudicial lunacy would not stop me from helping my country.
Setting my jaw, I pivoted on my heel. “Let’s get Tilly and get out of here.”
I pushed my way across the stable floor to Tilly’s stall, Ankhelina following behind. A Royal Commonwealth mechanic stood before it, holding a datascroll. “Excuse me. I need to get my steed.”
“Sorry. I’m afraid that won’t be possible,” the mechanic said.
“What?” was all I could think to reply, my anger growing into a burning sun of rage.
The mechanic gestured to her datascroll. “Just got notification you’re not allowed access to Royal Commonwealth property. Your hoversteed is Royal Commonwealth property, and as such—”
“Property?” I said, my voice echoing around the garage as my anger found a viable outlet.
“Tilly is an independent, autonomous Synthetic Intelligence. She is a Royal Commonwealth citizen. You have no right to keep me from seeing her, and should she wish to fly off with me, you have no right to stop her from doing so.”
The mechanic took a step back in the face of my furious onslaught. “But, that could be considered treason…”
“We are at war!” I bellowed. “The acts which comprise treason include those which intend to aid the Commonwealth’s enemies, cause harm to the Commonwealth, or impede the Royal cause.
Since the Emperor wishes to talk peace, and since I just saved her bloody life, and since the other Imperial nobles desire to glass our capital and parade our Queen in chains before striking her head from her shoulders, I think a Commonwealth hoversteed assisting me in preventing such a future would be far from treason.
Or you could ignore all this, and in eight months’ time when the capital burns and Imperial jackboots tromp down the Auroral Lane, you can feel happy that you denounced my steed as a traitor. Now get out of my way!”
The mechanic’s terrified eyes flicked up to Ankhelina, perhaps to seek support, but she found none there. “Move, little human,” the Emperor’s Champion growled, and the mechanic fled.
I watched the mechanic scurry off, nursing a combination of immense satisfaction and unresolved anger.
I was still banished, still considered a turncoat by my prince, and still caught in the middle of machinations I barely comprehended.
But I needed to see Tilly. I always felt better mounted on Tilly.
“You should wait out here,” I told Ankhelina. “Tilly isn’t fond of demons.”
“I should protect you, but if you get murdered by your pet fiend, that would solve two problems for me, and it will not be my fault,” Ankhelina grumbled.
“Well, good. I’m glad I can help,” I snapped sarcastically.
As I opened the stall door, a dreadful realization hit me like a boulder hitting an ant. What if Tilly chose not to come with me? It was a possibility almost too horrible to bear. Still, nothing would benefit from leaving the confrontation until later, so I stepped inside.
Tilly chirped happily when she saw me. I knelt down, placing one hand on her smooth, shining chassis.
Someone had polished her since I’d last seen her.
That was unusual. Tilly never let anyone polish her.
Most mechanics satisfied themselves with a quick pressure wash and then turned her over to me.
Who had Tilly decided was trustworthy enough to polish her and provide a fresh coat of wax?
That didn’t matter now. I needed to focus on the task at hand.
“Hello, old friend,” I began, running my brown-gloved hand over the gleaming surface of her forward cowling. “It seems I’ve run into a spot of trouble. You know the woman I’ve been seeing? The Imperial demon?” Tilly gave a disparaging blat. “Don’t talk about my girlfriend that way,” I chided.
Tilly warbled unsurely. “Don’t worry. She’s not going to harm you, and she won’t come between us. You’re still my best friend,” I said, knowing it was sad that my closest attachment was to my hoversteed, but still taking comfort in it.
I took a moment to try and word my question to Tilly.
She did not understand politics, and I wanted her to make her choice with clear information.
Giving her too many details would confuse her, but not telling her enough would be deceitful, and as much as I wanted Tilly with me, I did not want to trick her into following me.
“There’s a problem. The prince doesn’t like my girlfriend.
” Tilly blatted in agreement, and I chuckled slightly.
“I get it. She’s an acquired taste. But I like her.
She gave me a present, and the prince doesn’t want me around because of it.
So, I’m going to go stay with my girlfriend for a while.
” Tilly beeped a question. I leaned over to see her heads-up display so I could read it, and replied, “No, I’m not joining the Empire.
I won’t leave the Commonwealth, not if I don’t have to.
I want to stay, but the prince is making that difficult.
He doesn’t see that my relationship with the Emperor could help us broker a peace. ”
Tilly warbled a worried question and I laughed fully.
“I’m sure there will still be a place for hoversteeds after the war.
I’d be lost without you, after all.” The joviality left my voice as I continued.
“That’s what I’m here to ask you. Will you come with me, leave the Commonwealth, to hunt with the Emperor? To be with the Emperor?”
Tilly beeped. For today?
I shrugged, truly not knowing how to answer. “I hope so, but maybe for longer. Maybe for forever.”
Tilly was silent for a while, then beeped again. But with you?
I smiled and suddenly felt a tear roll down my cheek. When had I started crying? “Yes, with me. I will be with you as long as you want me around.”
Tilly’s response was immediate and definite. Always.
“As you wish,” I said as more tears flooded my eyes. I took a few moments to bring myself under control and wipe my face dry before I mounted up, but soon enough I sat astride Tilly’s saddle and motioned her out into the motor pool floor.
I caught sight of Ankhelina, her hands on her weapons belt, deceptively calm, but worryingly close to the hilts of her weapons. I leaned down and whispered, “Oh, and watch out for demons.”
Tilly beeped an affirmative, then whistled a question. “Because most of them feel like the Emperor did, and they may try to hurt you.”
“So,” Ankhelina growled as we came alongside her, glowering at Tilly with disdain, “this is the monster I’ve heard so much about.”
Tilly growled, a low rumble from her machinery that vibrated through my legs and up into my torso. With satisfaction, I noticed Ankhelina tense, her pupils contracting in the slightest reaction of fear.
I patted Tilly’s cowling. “Now now, be nice. I don’t like her either, but she’s here to protect us. She’ll take us to the Emperor, and if she tries to stab you, I’ll kill her.”
Ankhelina’s eyes flashed at me, trying to intimidate me, but she must have seen the truth in my face, the resolve in the set of my shoulders as my hand dropped to the lancer at my hip. She could tell I would do it.
“Now, shall we be off?” I asked.
“Wait!”
I froze, my hand on Tilly’s throttle. Boleslaw was hurrying towards me. I had a brief opportunity to zoom away from the colonel, but I hesitated, and Boleslaw placed her hand on Tilly’s chassis, ending any plan I had of escaping without tearing her arm off.
“Why?” I asked. “What could the prince’s aide have to say to an exiled officer?”
“Don’t be dramatic – you can’t be exiled without a tribunal,” Boleslaw scoffed.
“I might as well be. Prince Aureli has cast me from his court,” I hissed over Tilly’s growls. “And for what? He ordered me to get close to the Imperial nobles, I got him access to the Emperor, and in return he accused me of treason.”
Boleslaw had the good grace to look ashamed. “Yes, I’m sorry. An inexcusable overreaction to your sudden elevation to the Imperial peerage. Still, it does put you in a legal quandary…”
I forcefully rubbed my forehead with the heel of my hand. “How many times must I say this? My position within the Empire is no different from Lynwyzc’s baronetcies in the League or honorary colonelship in the Urgan army. The Emperor’s Consort has no power.”
Boleslaw gave me a disbelieving look. “Captain, you can’t possibly be that na?ve.”
“How am I na?ve? I have no authority. I’m not the Emperor’s spouse. I cannot command princes to obey my whims or compel generals to follow my orders. I can’t even boss around one surly guard,” I snarled, jerking my thumb over my shoulder to indicate Ankhelina.
Leaning in, Boleslaw whispered, “Captain, you may not have any official authority, but unofficially, as the Imperial… the Emperor’s Consort, you are now one of the most influential people in the Emperor’s court.”
I laughed out loud at this. “That’s ridiculous. Let’s ask an Imperial. What do you think, Champion? Am I the most influential person at court?”