38 The Last Effort
THE LAST EFFORT
REACHING THE EMPEROR’S main column, I was astonished to see Princess Marie, dressed in a Stelsylvanian hussar’s uniform, carrying a zeroblade swordstaff and surrounded by a small company of blue-coated Stelsylvanian guards.
“I thought I ordered you to hold the Federation delegation in their suite,” I said.
The princess shrugged. “There’s only one door. I disarmed the nobles and left thirty soldiers on guard, which should be enough. When we heard the Emperor’s troubles, I could not stand by.”
“They came just after you left, hit the insurgents in the flank. Combined with you slaying their general, it broke their spirit. You should have seen the cowards run,” Lyudmyla said.
“Your flight was beautiful. Where’s Tilly? I wish to congratulate her,” Princess Marie said, looking around for my faithful hoversteed. She must have noticed the somber mood, because her eyes returned to mine, and they filled with tears. “Oh no, Captain. Is she…”
The princess moved to console me, but I shrugged her off. “We’ll find out after we kick Selnikov’s teeth in. You with me?”
I didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, I started giving orders.
The surviving mounted guards would provide reconnaissance and air superiority.
We didn’t have enough cavalry to engage in ground attack as well.
I re-formed our infantry into a battering ram.
The dissidents may have retreated, but I doubted they had given up.
We would need to hit them hard. Astrid watched me, her eyes shining, but she stayed quiet, never countermanding my orders, giving her support by silently standing by my side.
I called Darius on the commlink. “Archduke, where are you?”
I could hear the sounds of battle through his return. “We encountered a large force of usurpers heading towards the main hall. We took them in the flank and dispersed the lot, but now we’re in a two-sided firefight.”
“Hold fast, we’re coming to you,” I said, then I spun my hand in the air. “It’s time to move, Emperor.”
Astrid nodded, then reached to her belt and unsheathed a large zeroblade cutlass with a double-barreled lancer built into the hilt.
It was a compromise weapon, considerably heavier than an ordinary lancer, with a blade no longer than a short sword, but it offered her ranged firepower and melee defense which could be wielded in her one good hand.
Waving the cutlass-pistol over her head, the Emperor called, “All units, advance!”
We caught up with the dissidents soon after as we entered the palace. They were facing the wrong way, focused on Archduke Darius’s column, not watching for our approach. I silently ordered a charge with bayonets and broadswords. We were on them before they could scream.
The enemy retreated before our onslaught, fighting as they withdrew, but always falling back.
In the large corridor outside the main hall, we rushed in, only to find hastily constructed barricades and concentrated lancer volleys.
We could have overcome that, but the dissidents had mounted a heavy repeating lancer in front of the Great Hall’s main doors.
We tried rushing them. The entire force was cut down.
Soldiers took cover behind the corridor pillars.
The repeater shredded them. Sharpshooters tried to edge around corners to get a shot, but the repeater blasted their cover to rubble.
So we hunkered in the adjacent hallway while I ordered the mounted unit to find another way in.
“I see you’ve met our friends,” Archduke Darius said through my commlink. I looked across the entryway to see Darius similarly hunkered down with his Yezhidians, Imperials, and surviving Despotate officers.
Astrid cracked a grin and replied, “Charming fellows, but I think they’ve outstayed their welcome. Any ideas on how to evict them from my palace?” She jiggled her bladed lancer pistol as a recommendation.
Darius shook his head, but I had a plan. I keyed my commlink to my secretly prearranged frequency and said, “We’re right outside the doors. For transhumanity’s sake, if you’re going to act, then do it now!”
There was no reply. For a few minutes, nothing happened.
Then, suddenly, the main doors burst open, and I could hear the sound of battle within.
Instinctively, I knew the heavy repeater would be turning to face this new threat from the rear.
Before they could acquire a target, I signaled, and an Imperial sharpshooter leaned out from cover to swiftly shoot the gunner through the head.
Another loyalist plugged the loader as he scrambled for the repeater’s controls, and with that, the way was cleared.
The other dissidents were confused, facing different directions, no longer offering a united front.
We charged.
The barricade was overwhelmed by our screaming assault, fleeing demons falling to our vengeful blades. Together, Archduke Darius, Princess Marie, Lyudmyla, the Emperor, and I burst into the hall, followed by five hundred loyal soldiers, shooting, slicing, and stabbing as we went.
The hall was in utter chaos. Princess Marie had been right – the Empire and Noble Federation had met early to ratify their treaty before we could prevent their signing.
They had even dragged the Royal Commonwealth delegation along to ensure its legitimacy.
I knew it was so because I had arranged it with Boleslaw before going to rescue the Emperor.
At Boleslaw’s insistence, every Royal officer, diplomat, and dignitary had worn their zeroblades to the emergency midnight meeting, and on Boleslaw’s signal, they had turned those zeroblades on their oppressors.
The translucent floor was slicked with transhuman blood.
Demon and human corpses lay vivisected where they’d been carved, and the battle still raged.
On the raised Imperial dais, Prince Selnikov was making his last stand, supported by a shrinking cadre of rebel guards.
They resisted bravely, but they were entirely outmaneuvered.
They were dead, but hadn’t realized it yet.
A group of dissidents charged us, trying to cut their way to the Emperor and end the fight with a stroke.
I lunged at them, thrusting and parrying with my broadsword.
Lyudmyla fought with a near-mythical fury, literally locking horns with one demon while she gutted another with her zeroblade.
Despite our ferocious defense, a dissident slipped past us and thrust his swordstaff straight at the Emperor.
She parried his blow down, but the tip of his blade slid straight through her leg.
Astrid fell with a cry. The traitorous guard raised his blade for another strike. I leapt to defend my love, but before I could reach her, Astrid fired her cutlass-pistol into the demon’s groin. What was left of him fell dead, his lower torso twisted and burned.
I slid to my knees next to Astrid. “Are you all right?”
“I’ve had worse. Now go kill that traitor Selnikov for me,” she replied, gritting her teeth through the pain as she tore off a strip of her skirt to bind her wound.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” I said, then turned my attention to Selnikov and his remaining pocket of resistance.
Selnikov laid waste around him with a swordstaff until the guard to his right fell. The rebel prince turned and skewered the Commonwealth major-general responsible, but from behind, Boleslaw appeared, and with a quick twirl of her saber, neatly lopped off Selnikov’s right hand.
Selnikov was not done. He backhanded Boleslaw with his good limb, sending the spymaster flying. Snatching a dirk from his belt, Selnikov began stabbing another assailant.
That’s when Astrid shot him.
The lancer bolt went through his hip, flashing through the shield, but failing to deliver its full energy. Rather than killing him outright, it brought the monster down, and he collapsed onto his back. A loyalist Imperial guard stepped up to deliver the killing blow when I yelled, “Stop!”
The entire hall froze, a tableau of waning violence and carnage, waiting to see what I desired. The power was intoxicating, but I had focus.
“Bring him to me.”
Nobody cared that I had no official power. I was the Emperor’s Consort, and I had the Emperor’s consent. My voice was backed by her quiet support, and none questioned my authority. It took three demon guards, but the loyalists lifted the struggling, wounded demon prince and brought him before me.
“Boylan,” Selnikov spat. “Look at you, the blood-soaked warrior. This is you, not the powdered, perfumed diplomat you pretended to be. It’s nice to finally meet the real Consort. I’d almost mistake you for a demon, if you weren’t so frail.”
I ignored the demon prince’s taunts. “Prince Selnikov, you stand accused of assault, battery, inciting insurrection, attempted regicide, anti-Imperial behavior, and treason.”
Selnikov spat in my face. “Accused by whom? By you? You have no authority here.”
“I am the Consort. At her command, I speak with the Emperor’s voice.
In this instance, by her order, my authority is the Emperor’s authority.
” I turned to Astrid, who nodded, confirming my actions even though she was too weak to easily speak, and I returned to Selnikov. “The court has found you guilty—”
“Court? What court? I see nothing but a shivering coil of human shit standing before me. I demand my rights.”
“The court sentenced you in absentia due to the clear danger you pose to all around you by your history of unpredictable and violent actions,” I continued calmly, delivering the speech we had agreed to on Darius’s cruiser.
“You are guilty of treason, attempted regicide, and anti-Imperial behavior, and have been sentenced to be shot.”
“Where’re you going to find the firing squad—” Selnikov began, but stopped as I leveled my lancer between his eyes.
I had the momentary satisfaction of seeing fear in a demon lord’s eyes before I pulled the trigger and those eyes popped, his boiling brain spilling from every hole in his skull a moment later.