21 Hunting For Clues #3
Marie looked aghast, but I waved the comment away. “Forgive the demon’s manners. She thinks Tilly’s a violent beast.”
“It’s an abomination, unpredictable and murderous,” Ankhelina clarified.
“How could you say that? Tilly’s a big sweetie once you get to know her. Isn’t that right, Tilly?” I’d never heard anyone baby-talk my war machine before, but judging by the pleased beeping Tilly emitted, I decided I might have to start.
“I don’t know how sweet she is, but she is a work of beauty,” Darius said. “It would be a shame to destroy such a magnificent machine just because it thinks a little more than we’d like it to.” Tilly rumbled appreciatively at that, too.
Ankhelina scowled at the unified opposition to her views. “Come, we must join the Emperor,” she said to me, then stomped away.
I looked at the two enemies, united in their concern for me, and nudged Tilly after the Imperial champion. “Don’t worry. I’ll see you both at tonight’s ball,” I called back over my shoulder.
“You’d better. I expect to hear everything that happened,” Darius said.
“You can tell me during a dance,” Marie called as I began gliding after the Imperial champion.
“Me, too,” Darius shouted with laughter. Marie giggled slightly at the thought, and I smiled to see the two in detente.
“I hope you’ll have room on your card for me,” a voice purred nearby.
I whirled to my right and saw Lady d’Lyre floating not a full arm’s length away from me, dressed in impeccably tailored blue and tan flying leathers.
She had an artless grace about her posture, lounging upon more than straddling her hoversteed.
Even in the bright sunlight, Lady d’Lyre seemed designed to recline in smokey shadow, sensuously sipping champagne while seductive songs slithered over from a nearby ballroom, beckoning me to pull her into the dance and press her body to mine.
She looked like an invitation to do something dangerous and delightfully fun.
I distrusted her immediately.
However, I could not think of a polite way to turn her down, so I merely took her proffered hand, brushed my lips across her knuckles, and said, “Of course. I’m certain we can find at least one dance to share.”
Lady d’Lyre gave me a smile which spoke of salacious joys yet unrealized and said simperingly, “Until then.” Then she flew off, curving away in such a way as to give me the best angle from which to admire her.
I noticed the motion and the intent behind it, and stared after her, trying to discern her goals.
Lady d’Lyre had ignored me for a week, and now she was turning on the seduction full blast. What was she after?
Ankhelina cuffed me upside the head. “If you’re done flirting with every half-pretty passerby, we should go join your true love.”
“I wasn’t flirting,” I protested, but Ankhelina snorted, smirking in a self-congratulatory way. I gave up on convincing her and zoomed away fast enough to make the demon sprint to keep up.
The call of an Imperial hunting horn made me stop, slewing around to see the Emperor atop a nearby hill surrounded by her retinue.
Astrid looked resplendent in her flying leathers astride a gleaming gilded hoversteed.
The hunting horn’s call drew everyone’s attention, and chattering conversations died as every head turned to regard the Emperor.
Squeezing Tilly’s flanks, I moved to join her, leaving Ankhelina to run after me.
The Emperor raised her hands. “Honored guests, you have enjoyed Imperial cooking for several nights, but today, you shall provide your own dinner. Tonight’s main course shall be braised Imperial swiftling.
It is a rare delicacy, a treat to consume, and a challenge to hunt.
” She gestured behind her, and several demon princes stepped forwards, each one dragging a cage almost ten feet square.
Inside each cage stood a single brightly plumaged bird, looking something like an ostrich crossed with a parrot, but with the predatory beak and eyes of an eagle.
They glared out at the demons surrounding them, almost as if they considered their captors as potential next meals.
The Emperor gestured to the swiftlings. “The swiftling hunt is an Imperial tradition. Ordinarily, we would hunt with steel blades and without shields, to prove our prowess. However, in deference to the gentler sensibilities of our guests, shields shall be allowed. Lancers, however, are still explicitly forbidden for all except approved Imperial personnel, including my guards, myself…” Astrid caught my eye as Tilly drifted into position next to and behind her, and she smirked “… and my Consort.”
I could see the assembled Allied ambassadors.
The collective wave of shock which flowed over them was amusing, but more interesting to me was who was not astounded by the news.
The Urgan representatives were uniformly abashed.
Most of the League nations were not in the know.
The Commonwealth assembly knew, of course, but the Federation delegates, almost to a soul, remained calm.
Were it another delegation, the Imperials, even, I would have put their lack of reaction down to national stoicism, but the Federation nobles were a famously emotion-driven lot.
If they were not reacting now, it was because they’d already reacted earlier.
The Federation knew.
That was a tidbit Boleslaw would appreciate.
It implied a leak from Imperial to Federation circles, be it a spy or successful surveillance.
It also explained why Lady d’Lyre, who’d spent the last several days seducing Prince Aureli and making eyes at Prince Selnikov, had decided to give me the time of day. I filed the fact away for future use.
The Emperor gestured for silence once more. “Once the swiftlings have been released into the jungle, you shall have four hours to pursue them. How well you hunt shall determine how well you and I feast tonight, so for all our sakes, I wish you good luck.”
On the word ‘luck,’ a horn blared, the cage doors slammed open, and the hordling retainers began banging the back bars of the swiftlings’ containers.
The predatory birds screeched and squawked, but soon enough, one bolted from its pen into the dense jungle.
The others, seeing motion and sensing weakness, dashed after it, vanishing into the brush.
The Allied delegates milled about, confused, but soon enough, they drifted into the undergrowth to pursue their evening meal.
A few Imperial nobles flew in after them, and I frowned.
“Your Majesty,” I began, not certain how to address Astrid in an official capacity, but she turned to me with a pleasant smile, so I must not have overstepped any major bounds.
“Ahem, well, do you think it’s wise to allow Imperial and Urgan officers to hunt together?
In that dense forest, I could imagine the lords commander taking matters into their own hands. ”
Astrid’s grin turned positively predatory. “Not all of my princes have gone to the hunt, only those whose loyalty to me is less than certain. If they cannot protect themselves from an unaugmented human, then they did not deserve to attend my jubilee in the first place.”
My blood ran cold at the cool way Astrid described the death of her countrymen.
During the war, I’d done all I could to ensure my comrades’ survival.
However, this was the way things were in the Empire.
My fingers brushed the grip of my new four-barreled lancer. It also meant I should be on my toes.
I looked past Astrid. Prince Selnikov sat there, in the place of a senior advisor. Was he truly trustworthy, or was he trying to disrupt the negotiations? Of course, he could be both: a loyal Imperial urging the Emperor to cut off her negotiations and conquer the defeated Allies.
Ankhelina came trotting up to us, and dropped to one knee before the Emperor. Astrid sat aloof above her, peering down with questioning eyes. “Champion, did I not instruct you to protect the Consort with your life?”
“You did, my Liege, but he flew too fast for me to follow—”
“And you did not already have your hoversteed ready?” the Emperor interrupted. “Really, Champion, this seems simple enough a task. I am shocked you are unprepared.”
Ankhelina kept her gaze fixed upon the ground, but I knew her anger towards me must surely be growing. “Forgive me, Your Majesty. I do not know what came over me.”
“Fortunately, we had the foresight to bring an additional steed for your use,” Astrid said, motioning to a massive gunmetal grey monster of a steed. I knew the model. Count Petrokov had ridden a similar machine when I killed him.
“Thank you, my Emperor,” Ankhelina said, then mounted the offered steed, carefully avoiding my eyes as she did so.
Astrid leaned over to me. “Now, Levar, are you and your magnificent steed going to bring down the bird which I shall eat tonight?”
I looked at her, uncertain. “Would you like me to?”
Her grin widened. “Very much so.”
“Then it shall be done,” I replied and urged Tilly forwards into the undergrowth. Not a moment later, Ankhelina followed, crashing through the foliage on her oversized machine.