Carnelians (45 page)

Tide’s fingers played across his gauntlet and its lights flashed blue. The doors swung open like portals into some unknown land. Their escort took them into a suite where chandeliers dripped diamond teardrops and floating orbs shed pearly light. Aliana couldn’t take it all in; the wonders slid off her mind like rain sluicing off waterproof clothes.

The living room was full of people. Several tech-mech types were gathered around an extravagant media center. The life-sized holo of a man stood on the holo-stage, a Skolian it looked like, judging from his uniform. He was speaking to a Eubian woman in this room while other people at consoles monitored the exchange.

Then it hit Aliana: the
emperor
was in the room, surrounded by men in grey uniforms with red braid on their sleeves. The woman next to him mesmerized Aliana. As tall as the emperor with a leanly beautiful face, she had flawless skin and her black hair glittered in a waterfall to her shoulders. She exuded a sense of power simply by standing there. The Empress Tarquine. Both she and the emperor wore clothes that looked like dark gems spun into fabric.
Black diamond cloth.
Aliana had heard of it, but had never touched the fabric or expected to see it up close. Only Aristos could wear such garments.

The Razers stopped Aliana and Red a distance away from the emperor. Aliana needed no prompting; she went down on one knee with her head bowed, aware of Red doing the same. The other Aristos she had met had blatantly projected their own belief in their importance, their conviction that they deserved reverence. The emperor neither cared about his power nor needed anyone to worship him, yet somehow, that only made him seem more deserving of such respect.

One of the Razers touched her shoulder. Looking up, she saw the emperor and empress watching them. Apparently Jaibriol had given the signal they could rise, because Red was standing up. So she did, too, her head swimming from the astringent atmosphere.

Jaibriol spoke to a man at his side. “Robert, have them wait at the back of the room. When I call for the boy, bring them both to the holo-stage.”

The man, “Robert” apparently, nodded. “I’ll take care of it, Your Highness.”

The people at the holo-stage had finished whatever they were discussing. The Eubian official, a willowy woman with dark brown hair, came over to the emperor and bowed deeply. “We are ready, Your Highness.”

As the Razers drew Aliana and Red back in the room, the emperor and his retinue went to the holo-stage. The taskmaker woman continued speaking to Jaibriol. “You and Pharaoh Dyhianna will appear simultaneously. Due to your relative ages and length of rule, you are expected to speak first.” She hesitated. “If that is unacceptable, Your Highness, we will demand another arrangement.”

Jaibriol spoke in his impeccable Highton. “It will be fine. Skolians need these protocols.” With those few words, he granted them a wealth of knowledge; the Skolians were weaker, needing such protocols to bolster their confidence in the presence of a god-emperor. Aliana didn’t know if that was really true, but it was impressive how easily he made it sound that way.

She spoke in a low voice to Red. “That’s amazing how he talks.”

Red jerked at the sound of her voice, then shook his head at her. He mouthed the word
Highton.
He seemed otherwise frozen, barely even able to breathe. That was when she realized another Highton was present.

Admiral Erix Muze.

Aliana felt as if the air left the room. This was the man who had tortured Red. He was standing at the back of the media center, watching the proceedings with an intent gaze that she suspected missed nothing. Red’s fear was like an elastic sheet stretched tight, ready to snap into ragged pieces. Aliana imagined her mental fortress growing stronger, protecting him even more.

Jaibriol stepped onto a dais with screens around its back and settled in a chair there, facing the now empty holo-stage. Robert stood next to the dais. The techs were working at consoles arranged in an arc behind the holo-stage so they wouldn’t be visible to any Skolian who appeared on it. As they toggled panels, the emperor’s chair “changed” into a white throne inlaid with carnelians and diamonds. The holo was so well done, Aliana would have thought it was real if she hadn’t just seen them turn on the projection.

“Ten seconds,” someone said.

Aliana wondered if the pharaoh would kneel to Emperor Jaibriol. Probably not. Skolians seemed to think they weren’t slaves. It had shocked Aliana at first, but after what she had seen of Aristos, she rather liked the way Skolians thumbed their noses at them.

“Five seconds,” the tech said. The curving screens that backed both the holo-stage and the emperor’s dais rippled with abstract swirls, gold and black.

Someone else said, “We’re running—now!”

A woman appeared on the holo-stage, seated in a gold chair inlaid with red gems. The Ruby Throne? It looked as real as the Carnelian Throne where the emperor sat. All these chairs named after jewels. As furniture went, they didn’t look particularly comfortable.

The pharaoh was a delicate woman with black hair piled on her head and tendrils curling around her face, as shining as Highton hair but without the distinctive glitter. She had large eyes, green maybe, but with a translucent rosy sheen. Aliana had expected someone hard and stern, not this ethereal beauty. The pharoah had the softness of a provider, but her gaze showed strength rather than vulnerability, contradicting her fragile appearance.

The emperor and the pharaoh regarded each other. The strained emotions in the room built until Aliana felt ready to snap.

Emperor Jaibriol spoke in Highton. “The Line of Qox acknowledges the Ruby Dynasty.”

The woman answered in a melodic voice, speaking Highton with a lilting accent. “The House of Skolia acknowledges the Qox Dynasty.”

“We are gratified to hear of your nephew’s good health,” Jaibriol said.

“It is indeed fortunate,” the pharaoh said, her voice and expression neutral.

For flaming sake,
Aliana thought. They had gone to all this trouble and preparation so the emperor of Eube could tell the pharaoh of Skolia that he was glad her nephew wasn’t sick?

“News of his health will gratify my people,” the pharaoh said.

Jaibriol studied her. “I imagine they will also have an interest in news of how he recovered.”

“Perhaps,” she said. “But such a matter is private.”

Well, sure, Aliana thought. Despite the odd subject, the pharoah’s response seemed reasonable. It wasn’t anyone’s business how the doctors treated whatever had been wrong with her nephew. Yet for some reason everyone in the room had come to attention, as if the pharaoh had just made a vital offer rather than a bland comment. Then again, Hightons never seemed to say anything like normal people. If Skolians were similar, who knew what this conversation actually meant.

“A worthy sentiment,” Jaibriol said. “It could be intrusive on his privacy to make his treatment public.” He paused. “Or the condition it treated.”

The pharaoh spoke carefully. “Some cultures require confidentiality agreements protecting the privacy of their patients.”

Aliana was enjoying the bizarre exchange. Now they had a confidentiality agreement, and why ever would the emperor care about Skolian medical practices? Maybe they were talking about the loud Skolian prince, and he had lost his voice so he couldn’t sing about Hightons anymore. She discovered she was disappointed with that thought.

“I imagine the terms of such an agreement would be of interest to all those involved,” Jaibriol said.

“A proposal might be considered.” Quietly the pharaoh added, “Even welcomed.”

Someone in the room exhaled. Aliana looked around, noting the relief among the people here. Knowing the pharaoh might welcome a proposal from her nephew’s doctors on how to keep his health a private matter apparently made a lot of Eubian people happy. She tugged on Red’s sleeve. When he glanced at her, she gave him a questioning look. He responded with the barest shrug. He didn’t understand what was going on, either.

The emperor glanced at Robert, who seemed to know exactly what the look meant. Robert bowed and left the dais, walking toward the back of the room. Aliana watched with mild curiosity—until she realized he was headed straight to her and Red. As she stiffened, Robert stopped in front of them.

The aide spoke to Red in Highton. “You will stand on the dais by Emperor Jaibriol. Don’t speak unless he asks you to.” He glanced at Aliana. “You may come, but stay back.”

“Why would they want us up there?” Aliana asked.

Red shot her a warning glance. Then he bowed to Robert. “Yes, sir. Is my honor.”

Aliana closed her mouth and followed them, wondering what she and Red could possibly have to do with a nephew of the Ruby Pharaoh and his doctor’s confidentiality agreement. The pharaoh and Jaibriol continued their exchange as she and Red came up to the dais. Aliana hung back, unsure how to act.

Robert nudged Red forward. As Red stepped onto the dais, he averted his eyes, looking at neither the emperor nor the pharaoh.

The pharaoh spoke gently. “Young man, can you hear me?”

Red looked up. “Yes, Your Glory.”

Robert spoke in a low voice to Red. “The pharaoh is always ‘Your Highness.’ ”

Red spoke quickly. “Yes, Your Highness.”

Aliana thought the pharaoh had an odd look about her. No one else seemed to notice. They seemed to see her as a beautiful object, like an exotic vase of great value. They appreciated her beauty but didn’t much like anything else about her. Their thoughts had a hard edge, their anger that this person sat on a throne. However, they had a grudging respect for her Highton speech, which apparently included her ability to say nothing much at all as if it were a profound statement.

Even so. Aliana still thought the pharaoh had an odd look. Maybe no one else saw it because the much greater oddness of having to treat her as an equal with the emperor swamped out everything else. But something was off about the way she and the emperor interacted. Strange, that. Aliana wished she could figure out what bothered her.

The pharaoh was speaking to Red. “You asked my people for asylum.”

“I not mean to offend,” Red told her.

“You gave no offense,” she said kindly. Turning to the emperor, she said, “I understand he has a high Kyle rating?”

“His tests put it at 7.6.” Jaibriol was speaking in Highton, but his style had changed, become more direct, as if they were now discussing business.

Aliana wasn’t sure what 7.6 meant, but the emperor had just lied to the pharaoh. As far as he knew, Red had lost whatever made him a psion, his brain burnt out by his trauma on Muze’s Helios, which as she understood it, would make him zero on this scale of theirs. Jaibriol was misleading the pharaoh and everyone here approved. Except, no, he wasn’t lying. Or she didn’t think so; it was hard to read him from within her mental fortress.

Jaibriol glanced at Robert with one of those silent communications they seemed to know so well. Robert nodded—and took Aliana’s elbow.

What the blazes? No, she couldn’t go up there; that wasn’t in the script. But Robert nudged her forward. With her heartbeat ratcheting up, she stepped onto the dais. She felt exposed up there. It gave her a better view of the media center, however, including screens that showed images of the emperor in his chair with Red next to him. She was standing slightly behind Red, a tall girl with yellow hair, blue eyes, a blue jumpsuit, and a narrow collar around her neck. She hardly recognized herself.

“This girl also asked for asylum,” Jaibriol told the pharaoh.

“I see.” Dyhianna regarded Aliana with luminous eyes. She looked so
real.
Even knowing it was a holo, Aliana felt as if she were in the presence of the actual person, as if she could reach out and touch the pharaoh. She struck a chord in Aliana, though Aliana couldn’t have said why she found a sense of familiarity with a Skolian.

“She is also a psion,” Jaibriol continued. “A rating of three or four.”

Huh. The emperor was being strange again. Tide said no one here knew she was a psion. So why say three or four? To convince the pharaoh to take her, probably. Aliana had thought Skolians didn’t buy providers, but that seemed to be exactly what they were doing. They would want more than a zero. Maybe the emperor knew the Skolians at the embassy believed Aliana’s rating was nine. If that was true, though, why undervalue it? On the surface, his reason for misleading the Skolians was obvious; they were Skolians, so they deserved to be tricked. Except the summit was about to start, and he would want them amenable to his wishes, not angry because he cheated them.

Of course, if he knew she was a nine and the other Hightons thought she was zero, then he looked good to the Hightons for putting one over on the pharaoh, but he would please the pharaoh by giving her a higher rated provider than he claimed. So he won all around.

Whatever his reasoning, Aliana wished he would finish. Her head
hurt.
Admiral Muze was watching them from behind a console. Just looking at him made her temples ache.

The pharaoh was speaking. “Two psions, five spies. That split would unbalance a scale.”

“That depends on what you’re weighing on each side,” Jaibriol said.

“Perhaps.” She contemplated him, her face composed. “Five spies who took a prince.”

Jaibriol spoke carefully. “The loss of the Eubian merchants weighs heavily with some, bringing demands of execution. Perhaps it is time to let that weight ease.”

The pharaoh inclined her head. “And in doing so, give more balance.”

Jaibriol returned her nod, which as far as Aliana could tell, meant they were agreed. But on what? Not to kill someone who had misplaced some Eubian merchants? For that and two psions, the pharaoh would give him five spies, all because her nephew had been sick and was well now. Sure, right, that made sense.

Even so, it amazed Aliana how well the pharaoh dealt with the emperor. They were two of a kind. Yes, she knew it was insulting to compare the emperor to a Skolian. But Aliana actually rather liked the pharaoh, at least more than she liked Hightons.