26 Realignments #2
I whispered into her ear, “My government wants me to use my position as Consort to spy on my allies.”
Astrid nodded. “Smart. It’s what I would do.”
“And you don’t mind?” I asked, astonished.
“I knew you would leak some information back to the Royal Commonwealth when I chose you as Consort, but it was a risk I was willing to take to have you back in my life. Your government is making the same gamble. It only makes sense that Lynwyzc would try to get something from the arrangement.”
I caught sight of Lady d’Lyre chatting amiably with a Despotate lord commander. “They think I can seduce classified information from the honeypots sent after me, like they think you’re doing to me and I to you.”
“And will you?”
I gave Astrid a sharp look. “Would you?”
“Absolutely I would, were I half as attractive as you,” Astrid replied as she took a forkful of white chocolate cake.
I didn’t have a good reply. In my own eyes, I was aggressively average-looking, nowhere near as attractive as Astrid. “I think you’re stunning.”
“That’s sweet of you, but you’re the only one who thinks so.” Her face was calm, but I could hear the bitterness in her voice. “Even your Duke of Lynwyzc, famous rake that he is, barely made an effort before deciding to spend his evenings with Allied diplomats instead.”
“Lynwyzc is upset I cut in line to sleep with you. His anger at me has nothing to do with your physical charms,” I explained, opting to forgo the prince’s disparaging remarks regarding her looks and his comparisons of her to an exotic treat.
Astrid snorted. “A likely story.”
“Well, you’re beautiful to me,” I said, feeling helpless.
Astrid smiled wanly. “The question is how to use your beauty to its best advantage?”
I put down my fork. “I’m sorry, do you want me to seduce Allied spies?”
“Not all of them. Only the attractive ones with good style and valuable information,” Astrid said, a naughty glimmer returning to her eye as she finished her slice of cake.
I quickly downed the rest of my drink. “Well, I’m afraid we’re out of luck because I have no idea where to start.”
“Fortunately, I do,” Astrid said. “I’ll pursue a few leads. You start with people you like.”
I grabbed her wrist. “I’m sorry, but no. This is too weird. I can’t have my beloved running off to find me an evening partner to bed.”
“You act like seduction is not a part of diplomacy. Half the pacts in the Empire are sealed with sex,” Astrid explained. “Besides, who said I was going to leave the two of you alone? I want to learn what the other Allies are up to as much as you do.”
My mind whirled, trying to make sense of what Astrid was saying. “The Imperial court expects you to set up a diplomatic ménage à trois?”
“Of course. Well, either that, or confine my licentious liaisons to you alone. It’d be scandalous if I took someone to bed without my Consort so soon after declaring you.
It’d cast doubt upon the validity of your position.
Meanwhile, if you were to bed another woman so soon without my obvious direction, it’d be taken as treason. I can’t endanger you that way, can I?”
Once again, I had no response. Astrid smiled and kissed me on the nose. “Go, enjoy yourself. See who comes your way. I’ll see if I can find anyone valuable, and we’ll pump them for information tonight.”
Astrid stood, signaling the end of the meal, then walked off to socialize.
I called for Ingvar and asked for something to fortify my courage.
He brought me a thimble-sized cup full of tak and a tankard of soothing blue-green chaser.
I downed both, knowing that despite Astrid’s words, I was entering a dangerous arena, as fraught with danger as any battlefield.
I was beginning to think I preferred the battlefield.
Groups began to drift onto the dance floor as the band switched from dinner music to dancing tunes.
I spied Darius walking from the Imperial side of the room and, despite my orders from Prince Aureli and the Emperor, I made for him.
He saw me coming and changed directions to intercept me, grabbing a pair of champagne flutes on his way.
“Captain Boylan. Or should I call you Consort now?” he said, handing me a glass and flashing me a winsome smile, but I could see he was uncertain how to treat me.
“Not unless you want me to kick your teeth in and call you Archduke,” I said, one soldier to another. Darius laughed, the tension bleeding away. I stepped in close, intimately close to the casual observer, and whispered, “Never mind about that. Do you know why we’re all here?”
“You mean at the ball?” Darius asked.
“At the whole thing. The ball, the Crystal Palace, why we’re quaffing champagne instead of fighting out the last few sieges of this miserable war?”
Darius took a step back and considered my question. “Well, ostensibly, the Emperor’s jubilee, but everyone knows this is a clandestine peace negotiation. What no one knows is why…”
“Someone detonated a Fall device,” I bluntly answered his unspoken question.
The laughter immediately left Darius’s face, and I could see an archduke’s authority in his stance. “That’s not funny.”
“I’m not laughing,” I replied.
Darius scrutinized my eyes, his expression melting from annoyance to horror. “Oh, stars, you’re serious.”
“So you didn’t know,” I confirmed.
“No, Stars no. How would I know? How do you know about this?” Darius asked.
“Know about what?” Princess Marie asked from beside me. She’d approached without my noticing, but I’d wanted to talk with her anyways. I took a small step back to let her join the conversation.
Darius closed the little circle. “Know the Emperor assembled this jubilee because somebody set off a Fall device!”
Princess Marie always held an air of delicate nobility about her, but I’d never thought she looked fragile or weak. When she heard the archduke’s hissed half-question, though, her face blanched, and she staggered slightly.
I’d seen the same thing happen to soldiers who stood up after losing a lot of blood. “Grab her,” I ordered Darius as I took the princess by the elbow. “Easy, easy. Focus on my voice.” I guided the princess around to press her back against a crystalline pillar.
“She should sit down,” the archduke said.
“No, no, I’m all right. I just need a moment,” Princess Marie said.
An unwelcome voice penetrated our little circle. “As would I, Princess, being courted by these two handsome men. An archduke and the Emperor’s Consort, no less.”
I turned. Bridgette d’Lyre stood behind me in a shimmering ruby dress, a glass of brandy lazily cupped in a black-gloved hand as she grinned from beneath a waterfall of hair.
She was somehow elegantly draped over nothing at all as she stood, her enticingly bared leg balancing on the toe of her high heel.
“Whatever are you three doing, skulking in the corner like a bunch of thieves? One would think you were hatching some dastardly plot,” Bridgette said, trying a second joke after her first failed.
The three of us stared wordlessly at Lady d’Lyre, refusing to give her an opening to our conversation. Bridgette waited expectantly, but grew visibly unsettled as the seconds passed without a word. Finally, she composed herself and turned directly towards me.
“Captain Boylan, I’m so happy to see you. Please allow me to apologize for my behavior this afternoon.”
“You were ill. There is nothing to apologize for,” I brusquely replied.
Must she turn up every time I tried to speak with Marie and Darius?
Damn the Duke of Lynwyzc, I couldn’t ignore my personal allies forever.
I wondered if d’Lyre was trying to isolate me from the former League members.
In an attempt to dismiss Bridgette, I rotated my shoulder to more squarely face Darius and Marie.
Somehow, d’Lyre managed to wedge herself between me and Marie, gently placing her free hand on my shoulder. “Nevertheless, I hope you will forgive me. A lady should be able to handle a little altitude. I promise you, I am not so delicate in other situations.”
“So I’ve heard,” Archduke Darius said. Princess Marie gave a little giggle, which Lady d’Lyre ignored with a flip of her blue-black hair.
Bridgette pivoted, trying to move so she and I would be separated as a couple from the other two.
“I rather hoped to speak with you up by the lake. I was so relieved to see you again after your disappearance last night. I thought you must have returned to the Emperor, but you were nowhere to be found. I was so worried. Where did you go?”
“I had a sudden engagement I was unable to break,” I said, not wanting her to know about my twin kidnappings.
“Well, shall we pick up where we left off?” she said, slinking her arm around mine.
“My apologies, Lady d’Lyre, but since I was unable to fulfill my promises to my allies on the beach, I must prioritize them now,” I said, but I was at a loss as to how to extricate myself from her grasp.
“Surely you do not blame me for your misfortunes. I was as concerned as anybody else,” Bridgette protested.
“Regardless, I’m afraid you must wait your turn,” Darius said, grabbing my wineglass, tossing back the drink, then taking my hand and yanking me bodily onto the dance floor. Instinctively, my right hand wrapped around his waist as my feet methodically began to waltz.
“Thank you,” I said, bewildered by the motion. “That woman’s been on me like a tick.”
“I’ve noticed. Between her and the Emperor, your attention has been thoroughly monopolized,” Darius said as he gracefully rotated, his half-cape flaring dramatically with every turn. It still surprised me he knew both sides of every dance, but it proved useful tonight.
“I am sorry. It was not my intention…”
Darius shook his head in sympathy. “It’s not your fault. You were thrust into things beyond your understanding. I’m just happy you remembered us after your meteoric rise.”
I smiled my thanks. “Speaking of, we should rescue the princess.”