Chapter 4 #2
That couldn’t have been an easy decision. A House’s Nexus played an integral part in their existence. It wasn’t just the House’s brain. It was its heart and spiritual center as well. A place of communion and healing. Just as much as it was its sword and shield.
The loss would affect Roake gravely.
Torvald nodded in approval. “That might pacify the other Overlords in the interim.”
But it wouldn’t do so for long. They needed a scapegoat for their rage. If they couldn’t have the real culprit, Caius and Roake would do.
They’d overlook their own culpability and oversights in favor of their own interests. And since Roake was the only one to draw blood, the other Houses’ attempt at assigning blame would likely succeed.
It was all very political and so very predictable.
“My people are investigating. We have a few leads regarding Caius’s last known whereabouts. We will find him,” Harlow promised.
“You’d better.” Torvald held Harlow’s gaze, not needing to enumerate the consequences should he fail. “My storm, anything else?”
“Although Caius’s copy was dispatched before he could complete his mission, the same can’t be said of all the other copies that invaded Kashori and Asanth. Some fled the planet during the aftermath’s confusion. I had my people trace their ship signatures.”
Graydon displayed a star map for the others to see.
On it, several ships left a planet that was easily discernible as Ta Sa’Riel.
The map moved as those ships made their way out of the solar system and across the black of space until arriving at a section of the galaxy that most Tuann never had occasion to visit.
“Consortium territory,” Harlow named.
“Specifically, the outer edge of it.” Graydon expanded the map. “This,” he nodded at a blinking dot, “is the station where I first encountered Kira. That,” he nodded where the ships were heading, “is where she used to operate out of.”
Silence greeted Graydon’s explanation.
Harlow’s jaw ticked as he glared at the map.
Torvald’s exhale was heavy. “Someone is setting up Roake and your heir.”
They were doing a very good job of it too.
The other Overlords would take this information and run with it. They’d use it as proof that Roake and its heir were the architects behind this incident and that the self-destruct was an attempt to throw off suspicion
They wouldn’t care about truth or facts. Only what they could gain from the situation.
Graydon dismissed the map. “Now for the forty-three’s proposition.”
Torvald’s eyebrows twitched. Graydon hid his smile, knowing he had the emperor’s attention.
“A small number of them have agreed to an exchange of sorts.”
“Interesting timing on their part,” Torvald commented, his gaze wandering toward where Pallas and Alexander waited like sentinels on the other side of the sound proof barrier.
“I had a feeling you’d think so.”
Torvald relaxed into his seat. “I can guess their price.”
“Guarantee the safety of the two youngest.” Graydon didn’t react to Torvald’s scoff. “Barring that, they wish to buy Roake time to solve their problem.”
Torvald narrowed his eyes. “Before, they refused to act even with Jin in danger. Why the change of heart now?”
This was where Graydon had to be very careful, walking a tightrope between his loyalty to his emperor and the love he had for the woman who set his soul alight.
“They suspect that the traitor who helped the Osiri was not acting alone.”
“They think one of their own was involved in this attack,” Torvald corrected, the only sign of his agitation the way he was tapping the arm of the throne with a finger.
Graydon kept his expression blank under the emperor’s heavy gaze.
“You’re treading dangerously close to forsaking the vows you took,” Torvald warned in a low rumble. “I warned you when you took the vow. Me above all else. That’s the only way this can work. My Faces cannot afford to have their loyalty divided. Don’t force me to remove my favor, my storm.”
He didn’t have to say that such a loss would likely result in Graydon’s death.
As the emperor’s Face, he’d made many enemies over the years. Powerful, influential Tuann who wouldn’t hesitate to eliminate Graydon if the chance arose. Some might even try to part him from those secrets he’d gleaned while in service to the emperor and the empire.
Without the emperor’s protection, his chances of survival were slim.
It was rare for a Face to retire from service while their emperor still sat on the throne. There was really only one way out in that situation.
Death.
Graydon knelt, bowing his head in a show of fealty that he hadn’t bothered with since ascending to the position of Torvald’s Face. “My loyalties remain as undivided as ever, sire.”
Torvald rose from the throne, looming. His stare a heavy weight on Graydon’s shoulders. “A man can’t have two masters, my storm. You have to choose.”
“I don’t believe that.”
Kira was a woman of contradictions. As fiercely protective of her own as she was, she’d never ask him to do something that went against his code.
She’d cut off her arm first.
Torvald’s sigh held weary resignation. “As always, you are the most stubborn of my Faces.”
Knowing the danger had passed, Graydon lifted his head. “I just see what others can’t.”
Torvald regarded Graydon with a steady gaze. “Can you honestly tell me if it ever came to a choice between me and her that you would choose correctly?”
“Let’s be honest, Sire. Such a time will never come.”
Torvald was the most powerful Tuann alive. He relied on his Faces not because he needed them but because their presence enabled him to widen his focus.
The scenario he’d just named would never come to fruition for the simple fact that Graydon doubted anything could ever truly threaten him.
“But if it did, there wouldn’t be a choice at all,” Graydon added. “The chaos dealer who is my lover would be fighting alongside me to protect you. In her own way, she is as loyal to this empire as you or I.”
As long as Roake remained part of it, that wouldn’t change.
Long moments passed before Torvald relented. “Okay, Graydon, I’ll let you win this round. You’d better be right about this.”
Graydon exhaled a breath of relief and rose. “More importantly, this is the first time the forty-three have been open to the idea of rejoining our society. I think it would be a mistake to turn them down.”
Torvald reclaimed his throne, slouching in it to lean his cheek on his fist as a slight twinkle entered his eyes. “And the fact that their offer buys your chaos dealer time to fix this mess has nothing to do with anything.”
Graydon allowed himself the tiniest smirk. “There’s nothing wrong with a solution having multiple purposes.”
“This is why you’re my Face.” Torvald straightened on his throne and glanced at Harlow.
“The other Overlords will demand Roake keep its distance from this investigation, and I will have to outwardly support their stance. That said, I know you won’t listen.
That’s why I want your niece leading Roake’s side of the mission. ”
“You can’t be serious,” Harlow objected.
Torvald’s lips developed a dangerous curve as he quirked an eyebrow at the Overlord. “You and Graydon keep assuring me of her abilities and sense of duty. Let her prove them then. If you must, consider this just one more test for Roake’s future Overlord.”
Careful, Graydon mentally warned Harlow.
To his relief, the Overlord kept his mouth shut and his thoughts locked behind an impenetrable mask.
Torvald gave them a lu-ong’s smile. Sharp and terrifying and full of teeth. “Good. Now, I’d like to hear the forty-three’s proposition for myself.”
Graydon snapped out a salute. “Understood.”
Harlow’s formal salute was slower in coming—but it did eventually appear.
“Oh, and Graydon—don’t screw this up.” Torvald glanced at Harlow. “Either of you. It would be a pity if I had to order the execution of my oldest ally and my favorite Face. But if it comes to it, I won’t hesitate.”
Kira
Kira was dreaming. It was the same nightmare she’d been having for months now.
She stood on a wide, flat plain that extended as far as the eye could see. The ground so dry that it had cracked.
In the far distance, a scorching golden figure blazed. The corona around them blurring their features and body.
The only thing Kira could make out was their impossible height. They were several stories tall. Their limbs thin and long and wrong looking.
Every night they crept a little closer. The heat from their blaze got a little hotter.
Kira couldn’t move. Her legs and feet were locked in place. She was helpless. Fear, a wild thing in her breast.
Then as it did every night, a lu-ong streaked down from the sky, bringing needles of rain. Despite its lack of wings, its serpentine form writhed as if it was swimming through air.
Great scars decorated its sides, snout, and face. Its horns were broken. What remained was jagged looking. The mane around its face bedraggled and stringy.
Its body was massive and impossibly fast as it crashed into the ground between Kira and the golden blaze with the force of a megaton blast.
A wave of dust and dirt erupted outward.
Kira shielded her eyes as the dust cloud swallowed her. Pinpricks of pain as tiny rocks sliced into her skin wrung a scream out of her.
Her feet slid as she was pushed back.
One step.
Two.
Pieces of her soul broke, flying away with the dust.
Then she was gone.
With a gasp, Kira woke, her heart racing in the aftermath of the nightmare. It was several seconds before the adrenaline and fear started to fade.
With a heartfelt groan, Kira rolled from her side and onto her back. The base of her skull and shoulder throbbed as they made contact with the cold hard ground.
"That bitch knocked me out," Kira whispered in realization.
Impressive.
Though… "What is it about inquisitors and attacking from behind?" Kira grumbled.
A dry rasp of sound, like a page being rustled, announced the presence of another.