Ten
The imperial summons came almost as a relief. Peroen and Yslie didn’t have the connections needed to find answers among the court. Pianti and Qilar were no longer welcome after the part they played in the revolution. But maybe a meeting with his father would give Peroen the answers they needed.
At the very least, it would distract him from the fact that Yslie wasn’t in the palace that afternoon. In only a few short days, he had grown used to spending almost all his free time with her. He still saw the other oracles during their designated portrait sessions, but the afternoons and evenings? Those he no longer spent alone. Today, however, Pianti had claimed Yslie for a gathering among the elementals. Peroen had been gently, but firmly, told his presence wouldn’t help for that meeting.
So, Peroen trekked from the nearly forgotten wing of the palace that housed his rooms, studio, and several storerooms over to the bustling area where his father spent his days. The room they were to meet in was set apart from the large chambers used by the court. A place for the Emperor to assert his will without being observed. The location told Peroen this wouldn’t be a simple scolding or tirade over his sudden interest in politics. If his father wanted to yell at him, he would have done so in front of the court.
Peroen was the first to arrive. For a moment, he considered taking the single seat in the room and forcing his father to stand. But he knew better. Such a petty move would only make things worse. The Emperor might no longer have Qilar in his service, but he still had men who wouldn’t hesitate to toss Peroen to the floor if he dared to claim what amounted to a throne.
Instead of sitting, he crossed his ankles and leaned against the wall perpendicular to the door. He was done letting his father cow him. If Peroen could mingle with Assembly members, dealing with them on his own terms, then he could face the Emp—Envaho.
Qilar was right. The title gave his father too much power.
Long minutes passed before the door opened. No doubt Peroen was supposed to have spent the time working himself into a lather, wondering what his father would do or say to him this time.
A guard came in, then Lhashiki, then Envaho. His father noticed Peroen’s nonchalant pose and glared as he made his way to the miniature throne. Lhashiki waved the guard back out of the room, ensured the door was latched, and went to stand at her customary place behind Envaho’s left shoulder.
Silence reigned, but it was Peroen’s father who became more uncomfortable the longer it did.
“You will marry Odela,” he finally barked without preamble.
“No.” It took effort to keep his shoulders loose, his posture relaxed.
“This is not a choice.”
“Actually, it is. I have four oracles to choose from. I am not required to marry Odela.”
“The choice isn’t yours. I am the Emperor. I say you will marry Odela.”
Peroen shrugged and discovered that he actually was calm. There was no subtlety in his father. This was a direct clash of wills, and for the first time, Peroen had the will to defy him. “I’d tell you to take it up with the Assembly, but they’ve already considered taking away my choice. Considered, and then abandoned the idea, once they realized they didn’t have the votes to pass the motion. The choice is still mine.” That was a slight exaggeration. The Assembly could still decide to vote on that measure, but it was looking less and less likely. Of course, if they told him to marry Odela—or anyone other than Yslie—Peroen wouldn’t listen. He’d accept the consequences for his defiance, but no matter what, he had made his choice.
“Remember who you are talking to,” Lhashiki warned in a silken voice. Her beauty and apparent delicateness might fool others, but Peroen knew the First of the Emperor’s Will was no wilting flower.
But neither was she a physical threat. Without the guards in the room, only words would be sharpened at this meeting. And Peroen was done letting Envaho and his sycophants sharpen them on him.
“I remember.” He pushed off the wall. “I’m talking to a man who no longer has power. What did Odela promise you, Father? A future that was a return to the past? Do you really think she’ll do anything to give you power if you make her the next empress?”
“The power is already mine,” Envaho roared. “The Assembly will crumble and everyone will remember that!”
“If the power were yours, it wouldn’t matter if the Assembly crumbled.” Peroen moved to the door. “You put yourself in this position. Now you must live with it.”
He didn’t wait for a response, wrenching the door open. The guard on the other side didn’t react when he stepped into the hall. He had orders to keep people out, not to keep Peroen in.
Peroen made his escape before his father recovered from the shock of being disobeyed and ordered the guard to stop him. He didn’t return to his studio, instead leaving the palace altogether. He’d go to Pianti and Qilar’s house. They’d want to hear about this meeting as soon as possible.
All he truly cared about, though, was seeing Yslie.
???
“Peroen!” Yslie ran into the courtyard the moment she saw him. He met her halfway, his kiss just shy of being too much for a space that not only wasn’t private, but also wasn’t theirs.
“I missed you,” he whispered as he pulled back.
She smiled for the first time all afternoon. “It has only been a few hours since we saw each other.”
“I know. Far too long.”
Pianti walked past them to the table in the corner of the courtyard. She poured herself a goblet of mango juice and settled on a cushion. “Maybe you should have come with us today. It certainly would have put to rest the rumors flying about.”
Peroen glanced between the women. “What rumors?”
Yslie led him toward the table. Better they were sitting before she explained.
Qilar entered the courtyard, a servant with a tray of food behind him. It took several minutes for the servant to unload the food onto the table, leave, and then for everyone to get settled.
Peroen didn’t reach for a plate. “Yslie? What rumors?”
She looked at her plate, a single golden pastry sitting on it. “That Brevin is seducing me away from you.”
“Was he there? I thought you were meeting with elemental sprites, not incubi.”
“It’s because of what everyone saw when he had Yslie look into his past,” Pianti clarified for her. “She was with you, but touched him. Of course they assume his lure proved too tempting for her.”
“Everyone kept their distance from me, afraid of my power, but the one time I actually used it, they assumed I was the one being magicked, not the other way around.” Yslie bit into her pastry with unnecessary savagery.
“The rumors will stall the next time you and Peroen make an appearance together,” Qilar assured her. “It is obvious to anyone who looks that you two are devoted to each other.”
Pianti sighed. “I suppose we will have to abandon all efforts to make it seem a rational, political alliance. Making it clear that Brevin hasn’t driven a wedge between you takes priority. Of course, it would have been nice to know before we arrived today what everyone was saying. Our efforts were practically useless with all focus on the rumors.”
Peroen suddenly straightened. “Your afternoon might not have netted any answers, but I had an interesting meeting with my father. That’s why I came down; I thought you’d want to hear what he said.”
Qilar raised a brow. “You mean you didn’t make yourself comfortable in our home just to wait for Yslie?”
“I only knocked on the door so I could leave a message that I was waiting at the cafe a few blocks away. Your servants are the ones who insisted I come in and make myself comfortable.” He slid an arm around Yslie’s waist. “And of course my real reason was Yslie. But that doesn’t change the fact that my father did summon me today.”
Leaning into him, Yslie nibbled at her food with a bit more decorum. The worries that had plagued her all afternoon disappeared. Peroen wasn’t bothered by the rumors. He trusted her.
“What did Envaho have to say?” Qilar prompted.
“He demanded I marry Odela.”
Yslie set down her pastry again as Peroen recounted his meeting with his father. The Assembly might have claimed most of the governing power in the empire, but Emperor Envaho was still Peroen’s father. Yet, Peroen didn’t seem worried about his father dictating whom he married.
“He thinks the Assembly will fall apart,” Peroen concluded. “I don’t know if it is his own delusion or what Odela promised him, but that’s his motivation.”
“Maybe it is a good thing you weren’t with us this afternoon after all,” Pianti said.
Yslie tried to understand. “Because otherwise he wouldn’t have spoken to his father?”
Pianti shook her head. “No. I’m sure Envaho would have said his piece before long, no matter what. But Odela must be playing a deep game. If we let the rumors that Brevin has seduced you gain steam, then Peroen can pretend he believes them and turn to Odela for comfort. Maybe he can learn what she is up to that way.”
“No.” Yslie didn’t hesitate, the answer as natural as breathing.
“It would be a few days, maybe a week, of watching him with her, Yslie. Isn’t it worth it in the long run? You’d know it was an act.”
“It’s not about watching him flirt with Odela. If I’m going to marry Peroen, then I can’t be known as a woman who lets an incubus’s lure distract me. We have to show that we are partners from the beginning.”
“But—”
Qilar cut his wife off, laying his hand over hers on the table. “Some things should never be games, love.”
She looked up at him, and everything about her softened. “You’re right, of course.” She turned back to Yslie and Peroen. “You two will have to work harder to win over the humans, in that case. We need to figure out what Odela promised them so that we can see if you can make a better offer. Peroen, you don’t need to flirt, but try to use your portrait sessions with her to learn something.”
???
“Why did we switch times?”
Peroen was spending so much effort preparing himself to steer his conversation with Odela later in the morning that he almost didn’t realize Sophenie had spoken to him. She never spoke to him beyond saying “good morning” before she settled on the cushions with her book. She was seated in her usual spot, but the book in her lap was still closed.
“What?” he asked, trying to figure out what she had said.
“Last week, you asked Odela and I to switch our portrait sessions. Why?”
He’d hoped that by switching the order of his meetings with the oracles on both days, no one would look too closely at why he might have switched Triese and Yslie’s times. Neither Odela nor Sophenie had even mentioned the switch in all the sessions since then.
Until today. “I thought it best to make sure everyone had a few sittings in the early morning when the light is better.” That was the excuse he had given Triese.
Sophenie glanced at the window, then up at the firestones placed at regular intervals around the wall, their glow amplified by the mirrors behind them. The extravagant use of the elemental artifacts was one of the only ways in which Peroen had ever thrown around his theoretical power as prince. He had spent enough time in his studio over the years—at all hours of the day and night—to justify the expense.
“The amount of light is the same,” Sophenie pointed out. “If anything, switching our times means the shadows are different.”
“If you’d prefer to sleep in later, I can ask Odela to switch back with you.” Peroen tried to puzzle out what had prompted Sophenie’s sudden curiosity about how he was painting the portraits. Apart from always sitting on the same cushions, she had never shown any interest in maintaining a single pose from session to session. She didn’t change into the same outfit either. Why did she care about shadows?
“It has to do with Yslie, doesn’t it?”
Peroen set down his palette. “What do you mean?”
He and Yslie weren’t trying to hide their deepening relationship, but he hadn’t gone out of his way to point it out to the other oracles, either. He doubted most of the court had caught on, as they didn’t spend time among the courtiers. Triese was delusional enough to still think she had a chance, and boasted about her relationship with Peroen to anyone who would listen. Odela had to know the truth, thanks to her contacts among the Assembly, but he hadn’t thought Sophenie cared to know one way or the other.
“You are going to marry Yslie,” Sophenie said with a sigh. “In almost all the futures I’ve seen, that’s what happens. I may see too many possibilities to make useful predictions most of the time, but I can tell when the probabilities have shifted.”
“Forgive me if I’m wrong, but I was under the impression you didn’t actually want to marry me. Why does it bother you that I have chosen Yslie?”
“I don’t want to marry you,” she confirmed. “I only volunteered because I figured it would be worth it to gain access to the imperial archives. That’s why I was relieved when Odela approached me with a deal. But if you don’t marry her, then she won’t be in a position to grant me access. And lately I’ve seen more possible futures where she marries your father than you. Not that I think those paths are probable.”
“Why are you telling me this now?”
“As I said, the probabilities have shifted. If Odela won’t marry into the imperial family, and I’m certainly not about to, then I need either you or Yslie to help me. I want to make a deal.”
“I’m listening.” Peroen moved away from his easel, not wanting to lean around it to talk to Sophenie.
“I’ll tell you the futures I’ve shared with Odela. In exchange, you arrange for me to get into the imperial archives.”
“I can do that.” At least, Peroen assumed he could. He had never tried to bring someone into the archives, but he didn’t think it would be a problem. The archives were full of historical documents, but any secrets inside existed only because they had been forgotten, not intentionally hidden away from the public.
Sophenie set her book aside. “I can see anywhere from a few hours to a few years into the future, but the farther out I look, the more possibilities there are, and I have no way of telling which is the most likely except educated guesses. My visions are also based on location, not a particular person.”
Peroen would gladly help Sophenie get into the archives without any exchange, but he would not reject the offer of information. “What did your power offer that Odela wanted?”
“She only sees several years into the future, and can’t see the paths that lead to different outcomes. She wanted to use my visions to plan how to make the distant futures she preferred the most likely to come about. Apart from marrying you, she never told me exactly what her goal was, but she always wanted me to focus on the Assembly House when I read the future for her.”
Not surprising. Maybe Sophenie’s information would provide the clues needed to piece together what Odela had offered the Assembly members. And his father. “What did you see?”
Sophenie spent the rest of their time together telling him all the visions she had seen and which ones had caught Odela’s interest the most. Peroen had a good idea of what future Odela wanted to bring about, but he’d share everything with Pianti and listen to her insights before acting on what he’d learned.
“If you are willing,” Peroen told Sophenie after thanking her, “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell Odela what we spoke of.”
“Of course. I want to see the archives, not make enemies.” She gathered her book and stood.
“You could have asked,” he said softly as she passed him on the way to the door. “The very first day, you could have asked and I would have agreed to take you to the archives.”
She shrugged. “There were too many possibilities for me to take the risk. I thought Odela was a safer option.”
“We’ll go during our next session. If the guards won’t let you return without me, we can spend each of our remaining portrait sessions in the archives.”
For the first time, Sophenie placed her hands on her thighs and bowed to him. “Thank you, dyela .”
???
Yslie listened to Peroen recount everything he had learned from Sophenie. She had already heard it all, but had still wanted to come with him when he told Pianti and Qilar. There truly were too many possible futures to guess what would come next based on the other oracle’s visions, but it was obvious why Odela had found the visions useful. Picking through the more immediate possibilities was perfect for planning a long-term strategy to bring about what you wanted.
“She’s trying to pit humans against the magical races.” Pianti reached the same conclusion as Yslie and Peroen. “She wants the Assembly to split.”
“She probably told Father that a split would give him back his power,” Peroen agreed.
Pianti frowned. “It won’t. There are already factions within the Assembly and several of them fall along the human/magical races line. If the Assembly splits, I don’t think things would change that much so far as the practical business of making laws is concerned. The issue is that it reverses every attempt made since the empire was founded to become one people. The Assembly was supposed to be proof that we were finally making progress after the imperial family failed.”
“Which is exactly the argument Odela would use to dissolve the Assembly if she becomes empress.” Yslie pointed out. Pianti and Qilar looked at her as if she had uttered an earth-shattering prophecy, not a simple fact. Technically, it was a guess, but she had discussed the matter with Peroen and he agreed with her conclusions. Now he squeezed her hand, and she continued. “She doesn’t want Emperor Envaho to regain power, though she’ll tempt him with the possibility to secure his support and help. But she wants power for herself. This way, the crown remains ceremonial until she dons one herself. At which time, she starts talking about the old Imperial-Oracle Treaty and how it was meant to protect the magical races and make them feel safe under human rule. She points out how the Assembly has failed, that the division between humans and the magical races is wider than ever before. Then she reminds everyone that Peroen’s marriage to an oracle was meant to encapsulate how we are one people. If the Assembly can’t remember that, then maybe it is time for it to end, and for the imperial dynasty now infused with the blood of humans and the magical races to usher us into the future.”
Pianti and Qilar were silent for a moment. They exchanged a glance, then Qilar spoke for them both. “It is a good thing you aren’t Odela. I have a feeling you could make that ploy work even without forcing the Assembly to split first.”
“The question is,” Pianti continued, “what will she do now that it is obvious she won’t become empress?”
Peroen cursed. “I won’t marry her, but that’s not the only way for her to become empress.” He ran a hand over his head, fingers tangling in the tight curls. “Sophenie said she’d seen more possible futures in which Odela married my father than me.”
“What?” Pianti went pale. “Why didn’t you mention that when you told us the rest of what she had seen?”
“Because it wasn’t part of her report on what she had seen for Odela. She said it as an explanation of why she was talking to me—why she was convinced I would marry Yslie.”
Qilar cursed. “If she marries Envaho and bears a child, there’s a strong chance the Assembly would act to make that child the heir over you. A mixed blood imperial line is the entire point of you marrying an oracle—it would get them what they want a generation earlier.”
Everyone fell silent for a moment. Peroen was proof that a terrible parent—or parents—didn’t ensure a child would grow up to be the same. But the risk... no, it wasn’t even the risk that a child raised by Envaho and Odela would be another tyrant in the making that bothered Yslie. It was the knowledge that they’d never sit back and let the Assembly continue to gain power.
She didn’t want to become empress. Peroen didn’t want to become emperor. But the alternatives were far worse.
“I have to oust my father from the throne, don’t I?” It was a question, but everyone could tell Peroen already knew the answer.
“If you act now, before Odela offers an alternative, the Assembly will be on your side,” Pianti said with uncharacteristic gentleness.
Peroen exhaled slowly. “But the court won’t.”
“So we find a reason for the Assembly to force an abdication. It’s a topic discussed any time more than two members meet behind closed doors.” Pianti shifted back into brisk efficiency. She was once more in her element, as if the topic wasn’t borderline treasonous. Then again, she had taken an active role in the revolution. As long as her side won, it wasn’t treason. “We’ve assumed it would take a few years to establish the Assembly’s power securely enough to succeed in requiring an abdication. We’ll just have to work faster, find strong enough grounds for such an act, before Odela can ruin everything. The courtiers still won’t like you, but they won’t be able to blame you.”
Yslie did her best to emulate Pianti’s careless confidence. She and Peroen had already stymied several attempts to get the Assembly to vote on choosing Peroen’s wife for him. They could do this too. They would do this.