The Moon's Shadow (34 page)

R
obert gave him the news.

Jaibriol and his aide stood together on the shore of Lake Mirellazile, its surface a mirror of the sky.

“They agreed?” Jai had to hear it again. He couldn’t yet believe this incredible news. “You’re certain?”

Robert nodded with no hint of joy. “Yes, sir. The Ruby Dynasty has agreed to go forward with the talks.”

Jai closed his eyes, giving himself over to gratitude. Whatever happened to him, however little time he had left, he at least had a chance to try. It was better, so much better, than nothing at all.

Opening his eyes, he smiled at Robert. “They agreed.”

“Your decision to free Ardoise apparently made the difference.”

“This is good.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Jai wished his aide didn’t look as if he were going to a funeral.

The console curved around the control chair where Jai would sit. He stood next to the chair while his staff fussed over him. Several other Hightons also waited in the chamber: the Protocol Minister; Azile Xir, the Intelligence Minister; High Judge Calope Muze; Corbal; and, of course, Tarquine.

Jai’s head ached. He longed to submerge himself in the virtual reality console, which would put physical as well as psychological distance between him and the others. Their consoles were well separated from his, by his deliberate choice.

A tech approached and went down on one knee.

“Please stand,” Jai said automatically.

She rose to her feet. “We’re ready, Your Highness.”

Jai nodded, aware of everyone listening. So this was it. Several techs fastened him into his console chair. The VR mesh folded around his body and inserted prongs into the sockets in his wrists, ankles, and spine, connecting to the newly implanted biomech web in his body so the console could communicate with his brain.

“Are you comfortable?” the tech asked.

“Yes, very good,” he said. She had no idea how much she and the other techs were helping him. Their minds made a bulwark between him and the others in the room, easing the pressure.

She tapped the console. “This will connect you into the Kyle web, what Skolians call the psiberweb.”

“They have a node available for our use?” Jai asked, yet again. He knew the Skolians had assured his staff they would create Kyle webnodes for the talks, but even after having used such a node before, he found it hard to believe his transmission would take only a few seconds to travel the light-years from Glory to Earth. Until it actually happened, it wouldn’t seem real.

The tech smiled. “Yes, sir,” she said, as patient now as the first time he had asked. “It is all set up.” She checked the readouts on his visor. “Ready?”

His pulse jumped. “Yes. Go ahead.”

She lowered the visor, enclosing him in darkness. A voice said, “Initiate,” and another said, “Activating VR.”

The voices faded. Jai waited, his hands clenched on the arms of his chair. The world brightened, until a white mist surrounded him. When it faded, he found himself standing in a white room. A
square
room. The strange angles disoriented him.

After a pause, he said, “I’ve arrived.” In fact, he had gone nowhere; he was still in his chair at the palace.

A rectangular door opened and a woman entered, an officer in uniform a blue skirt and blouse with gray hair cut stylishly around her face. She bowed deeply and spoke in Highton. “Welcome to Earth, Your Highness.”

“Hello,” Jai said in English.

The woman smiled. “Hello, sir.” She spoke English as perfectly as Highton.

“Are you an EI?” he asked.

“That I am. Would you like anything before we continue?”

Jai looked at himself. As always, he wore elegant black garb. He sighed. “I wish my clothes had color.”

The Evolving Intelligence paused, needing enough time to process his comment that it registered in real time. “You wish to change the protocols worked out by our staff and yours?”

“No. No, don’t do that.” Jai pushed his hand through his hair. It felt real. “I’m fine.”

The EI smiled. “Shall we proceed?”

“Yes, let us go.”

She ushered him into a corridor with marble columns for walls. The airy spaces gave Jai a sense of freedom. A group of people waited down the hall, men and women in uniforms. As Jai and his host approached the group, Jai recognized the woman in its center—Hanna Loughten, president of the Allied Worlds of Earth. Two honor guards waited with her, one of Allied dignitaries and the other with Eubian Razers. The computers had created the honor guards; Jai and Loughten were the only “real” people here, and even they were actually in consoles far away.

Loughten bowed to him. Disquieted, he realized he was becoming accustomed to Highton expectations; it felt strange to have her bow rather than kneel. Instead of the formal nod he would have given to another Eubian, he returned the bow, one leader to another.

“Emperor Jaibriol.” She spoke with the minimalist form of address Hightons used to indicate respect.

He inclined his head. “President Loughten.”

“Welcome to Earth, Your Highness.”

He answered in a modern form of Gaelic that derived from the tongue of her mother’s ancestors. “I thank you.”

She blinked. Then she smiled. He didn’t need empathy to see it pleased her that he had gone to such an effort to learn a greeting in her language.

The EIand honor guards escorted Jai and Loughten down the hall, which ended in a lobby bordered by an arcade. Above the balconies, sunlight poured through arched windows. The lack of right angles in the arches relieved Jai. It disquieted him to think how much he might eventually change, if after less than a year among the Hightons he had trouble adjusting to the geometry of Allied architecture.

They stopped before two great doors engraved with the Allied insignia, which consisted of concentric circles overlaid by a silhouette of the continents on the Earth.

Jai turned to Loughten. “Is everyone else inside?”

“Not quite,” she said. “Everyone but the Ruby Pharaoh, Empress Tarquine, First Councilor Tikal, and yourself.”

Puzzled, he looked around. “My wife isn’t here yet?”

President Loughten glanced at the gray-haired EI. “Has the empress arrived?”

“Yes, ma’am.” The EIindicated the hall behind them. Jai turned to see Tarquine approaching with her own honor guard. She wore trousers and a tunic similar to his, elegant and conservative, though with a more feminine cut. They made a matched pair, he and his empress, at least on the outside.

When she reached him, she bowed.

“My greetings.” Dryly, Jai added, “I am glad you decided to join us.”

She offered no explanations. “Shall we enter?”

Jai didn’t want to know why she had tarried. He didn’t want to hear that she had taken special efforts to prepare for this meeting that included Kelric.

The EI spoke. “First Councilor Tikal and the Ruby Pharaoh are ready to enter.”

“Very well.” Jai made a conscious effort not to look at Tarquine. He told himself he didn’t care about her former provider. He knew he was lying to himself, but too much was at stake to let Kelric Valdoria rattle him.

Their guards grasped the grand handles on the doors and heaved. The portals swung open, slowly, their height and weight making them impressive. Everyone walked forward, but most of them stopped just short of the door. Only Jai and Tarquine went on, until they were framed in the entrance.

The hall beyond dazzled Jai. Chandeliers filled it with light, tier upon tier of bright spheres. A round table took up the center, its white marble embedded with silver flecks. Many Hightons already sat there: Corbal Xir, High Judge Muze, Azile Xir, the Highton Foreign Affairs Minister, and several high-ranking ESComm officers.

Jai recognized the Skolians from holos he had seen: Roca Skolia, the Foreign Affairs Councilor—and his grandmother; General Naaj Majda, Matriarch of the House of Majda, the Skolian counterpart of Xirad Kaliga, and by reputation just as unyielding and conservative as he; Admiral Ragnar Bloodmark, roughly the Skolian counterpart of General Taratus, though ISC didn’t have joint military commanders. It had only one commander. The Imperator.

Kelric Valdoria.

He dominated the room. When Jai had met him in the Lock, his hair and eyes had been brown. Now he made no attempt to hide his metallic coloring. Gray streaked his hair and lines showed around his eyes. At two meters tall, over six feet six inches, he had broad shoulders, a massive chest, and long, muscular legs. This was no untried youth; his maturity added to his aura of power.

And he was looking at Tarquine.

Jai knew then that he could never compete with Kelric. He had no chance. Kelric could have enhanced his VR image or made himself look younger. Although all the parties had agreed to present their natural forms, anyone could have cheated if the enhancements were subtle enough. But Jai had met Kelric before. He knew the truth: his uncle had come as himself. That was more than enough.

Somehow Jai stopped himself from turning to see how Tarquine had reacted. He might be dying inside, but he refused to let it show.

Across the room, beyond the table, another set of double doors had opened at the same time as those where Jai stood with Tarquine. Jai finally absorbed who stood there: the Ruby Pharaoh and the Skolian First Councilor, respectively the hereditary and elected leaders of Skolia.

Jai recognized Barcala Tikal, the First Councilor, from the dossier he had studied. Tall and lanky, with dark hair, the Councilor projected confidence. But it wasn’t Tikal who riveted his attention. Jai thanked the saints he was in VR; he could never have hidden his gasp in real life, but the programs monitoring his simulation easily deleted it. So he stood, silent, staring at Dyhianna Selei, the Ruby Pharaoh, while he fought the hotness in his eyes.

She was a slim woman, petite, with a gaze that seemed to miss nothing. Although her dossier had included holos, the images hadn’t captured her essence, not for Jai. One aspect hit him above all else.

She looked like his mother.

The Pharaoh didn’t have his mother’s height or strength, but the curve of her face, her green eyes, the sweep of her hair—it was all painfully familiar. He had thought he knew what to expect, but nothing could have prepared him for this. He felt as if he were tearing apart inside.

The EI spoke over a comm in Jai’s ear, using a private channel open only to Jai and Tarquine. “The two of you will walk to the table at the same time as the Ruby Pharaoh and First Councilor. Are you ready?”

“No.” Pressing his thumb and index finger together, Jai activated the privacy shield on his VR console, so neither his words nor his frown showed in the simulation. “Where the hell is Admiral Kaliga?”

“I don’t know, Your Highness,” the EIsaid.

Tarquine spoke on the private link. “Do you want to wait until we find out why he hasn’t shown up?”

Damn.
Given the precarious nature of the talks, which very nearly hadn’t taken place, Jai feared to delay now, lest it scuttle the session altogether. By not showing up, Kaliga undermined the process. It also meant one of his Joint Commanders had openly defied him, an offense that verged on a declaration of hostility by ESComm against the throne.

Jai made himself stop gritting his teeth. “No, I don’t want to wait. The meeting goes on.”

“Without either Joint Commander?” Tarquine asked. “The officers here don’t have authority to speak for ESComm.”

“I speak for ESComm.” Jai knew if his decisions went against Kaliga’s plans, it would be close to impossible to implement them and would further weaken his support among the military. Kaliga knew it, too, the bastard. Jai hoped he rotted in whatever palace or pleasure dome he had gone to instead of showing up here.

The EI interrupted his thoughts. “The Ruby Pharaoh and First Councilor wish to know why we are waiting.”

Jai took a breath. “You may begin the count.”

“Very well. On three, you will all walk to the table. One, two, three.”

Jai and Tarquine entered the hall; at the same moment, the First Councilor and Ruby Pharaoh came forward. All four of them reached the table at the same time. Jai inclined his head, grateful they couldn’t see the sweat on his forehead.

Tarquine spoke on his private channel. “This is an outrage.”

Jai answered on the same channel. “Why?” He waited behind his chair while their honor guards joined them at the table.

“Tikal is a taskmaker,” his wife said. “That would be bad enough. But that woman is a
provider.
”

“You already knew that.”

“They ought to kneel to us.”

“Tarquine, for gods’ sake.”

“Well, they should.”

“Like Kelric kneeled to you?” It came out before he could stop it.

She didn’t answer. Whatever she felt in seeing Kelric, she hid it well. She was too far away in actual space for him to pick up her emotions.

The Razers pulled out chairs for them. Across the table, Skolian officers were doing the same for the Pharaoh and First Councilor. All four leaders sat down together. Technically, according to Eubian protocol, Tarquine should have waited until Jai sat. Neither the Pharaoh nor the First Councilor would wait, however, and they needed to maintain a balance in the proceedings. Nor was Jai insane enough to tell his empress she had to remain standing while a “taskmaker” and a “provider” took their seats.

They all watched one another, wary and guarded. No one let his or her simulacra give away anything.

At the head of the table, President Loughten spoke in a resonant voice. “We of the Allied Worlds welcome you to the birthplace of humanity.”

So began the peace talks between the Eubian Concord and the Skolian Imperialate.

“Nothing.” Jai was sprawled in a smartchair in his bedroom, brooding. “We achieved absolutely nothing.”

“It’s only the first day,” Tarquine said mildly, looking up from her palmtop. “If you expected more than formalities, you are far more optimistic than the rest of us.”

“Where the blazes is Kaliga?” Jai couldn’t believe the admiral had so blatantly challenged him. It verged on treason.