Part 26 (2/2)
It wasn't until evening spread its shadows over Glory that the three Hightons took their leave of the pavilion. Their bids continued to rise, topped by 8.4 million from Quaelen.
Viquara glanced around her office. Her Razer bodyguards all stood at their posts, severe in midnight blue uniforms. She paged Security and another Razer soon appeared, Lieutenant Xirson, a recent addition to the force. Impressed with Xirson's military record, Ur had bought him from Corbal Xir and added him to the palace secret police.
Xirson bowed. ”My honor at your presence, Your Highness.”
”Bring me the girl,” Viquara said.
After Xirson left, she checked the auction tally. The bids were coming in slower now, as they reached levels that strained even the immense financial resources of their makers. Corbal put in one for 9.6 million and no others followed.
Xirson reappeared with Cirrus, the girl once again dressed in her halter and translucent skirt. As Cirrus knelt in the center of the room, Viquara dismissed the Razers, including her bodyguards. Then she closed the door and went to her desk to check her security systems. Finally she turned to Cirrus. Still kneeling, with her head bowed, the girl s.h.i.+vered in the chill air.
”You may rise,” Viquara said. As Cirrus got up, her arms hugging her torso, Viquara motioned to a velvet cloth on a table. ”You may warm yourself.”
The girl's arms shook as she took the cloth and wrapped it around her body. She spoke in a soft voice. ”You honor me far beyond what I deserve, Your Esteemed Highness.”
True, Viquara thought. She settled herself into the big chair behind her desk. ”What do you have for me?”
”Minister Vitrex wonders if you know about his son.”
Good. Let Izar sweat. No proof existed that he had contributed to Ur's death, but she had her suspicions. ”What else is he up to?”
”He is planting suggestions that your child is the b.a.s.t.a.r.d of another man rather than your husband's heir.”
It didn't surprise Viquara. Originality had never been one of Vitrex's strengths. His timeworn techniques would be easy to counter with her network of far more subtle mudslingers.
”Anything else?” she asked.
Cirrus nodded. ”Lord Corbal has finance problems. A long time ago he invested money in guilds that bought from frigates working Allied territory. Since the frigates have been forbidden to harvest providers from Allied s.h.i.+ps, he has lost a lot of wealth.”
That intrigued Viquara. Based on the size of Corbal's bids, she would never have guessed he suffered financial trouble. The besotted old Highton must really want Cirrus. She checked the tally. Only one more bid had come in, 9.8 million from Quaelen.
”What about Minister Quaelen?” she asked.
Cirrus tensed, her face turning red.
”Out with it,” Viquara said.
The girl wouldn't look at her. ”While he was with me, he was thinking of someone else.”
”Really?” Viquara smiled, fascinated. ”Who might that be?”
”He, um, he-I mean...”
”Come on, girl. Speak up.”
”You, Your Highness.”
Viquara blinked. Quaelen had fantasized he was making love to her? This was unexpected.
Cirrus had no more to offer on that, but she provided many other useful tidbits. The girl's ability to extract information impressed Viquara. Ur had done good work with this one. But then, Ur always did well. Viquara swallowed, remembering his laugh, his hooded eyes, his powerful voice. Gone. All gone.
One more bid came in, 10.1 million from Vitrex. She put out a call for final bids, but neither Quaelen nor Corbal responded. So she closed the auction and regarded Cirrus. ”You will go to Vitrex.”
Cirrus nodded, huddled in her blanket.
”You understand our arrangement?” Viquara asked.
”Yes, Your Highness.”
Viquara wondered if the girl could actually carry it through. ”Repeat it to me.”
”I'm to send psion transmissions about the Vitrex household to your provider Cayson. I should only do it when I'm secluded from other people, especially other providers. So n.o.body can eavesdrop.” She paused. ”And only at the times you said, so Cayson is also prepared.”
Viquara waited. Then she prompted, ”What about distance?”
”Oh. Yes.” Cirrus flushed. ”I'm to try no matter how far away I am.”
”Good.” The interactions fell off rapidly with distance, so Viquara doubted Cirrus would get much through. But any little bit might help. ”As long as you please the Throne, your son will be raised as befits a wellborn taskmaker. He will have an education and a home here.”
Cirrus's voice caught. ”Thank you, Your Highness. You are the most kind and benevolent of all human beings.”
Well, of course, Viquara thought. ”It is only fitting. He is the son of an emperor, after all.”
A tear rolled down Cirrus's face. ”Much to my honor.”
”Come.” Viquara stood up. ”You may tell the boy goodbye. Then we will get you delivered to Vitrex.”
They all sat at the conference table in the Strategy Room on the Orbiter: Web Key Eldrinson Valdoria, his son Eldrin Valdoria, First Councilor of the a.s.sembly Barcala Tikal, and the rest of the Inner a.s.sembly: Stars, Industry, Nature, Judiciary, Protocol, Life, Planetary Development, Finance, and Domestic Affairs. And Roca, the Councilor for Foreign Affairs.
”I understand your objections,” Tikal told Roca. ”But you're the only choice.”
Judiciary leaned forward. ”Councilor Roca, surely you see this.”
Roca felt trapped. Kurj had chosen three heirs to follow him as Imperator, and all were gone now, two dead and the third a prisoner of war. The Triad needed an Imperator. Roca knew she was no war leader, but who else in the Ruby Dynasty could a.s.sume the t.i.tle?
As First Heir to the Web Key, her son Eldrin had trained to follow his father and had even less experience than she with ISC. The twins Del and Chaniece, her next children after Eldrin and Althor, still lived on their home world Lyshriol. They watched over their father's farm in his absence and carried out his duties as the Dalvador Bard. At one time those duties included commanding the Dalvador regiment of the Rillian army, but after Althor had ended warfare on Lyshriol, the position became t.i.tular. Not that it mattered. Chaniece had no interest in warfare and Del's experience with sword and lance hardly qualified him to lead Imperial s.p.a.ce Command.
Havyrl, born after the twins, had a doctorate in agriculture. He had earned his degrees from Royal College on the planet Metropoli, without ever leaving home, by attending through the web as a holographic simulacrum, a method possible only to those who could access psibers.p.a.ce. Content to leave politics to his siblings, he spent the next fifty years farming and making babies with his wife. Soz had been born the year after Havyrl, and then Denric, who taught school to disadvantaged children on the planet Sandstorm. Deni's gentle nature worked wonders with his students but hardly qualified him to run ISC. Shannon ran off at sixteen with a band of Rillian archers, and Aniece had become the child bride of Lord Rillia by seducing him when she was far too young to know about such things. Kelric, their youngest, had died in combat sixteen years ago.
The only other choice was Taquinil, Dehya and Eldrin's son. A brilliant economist, he had once calculated futures with such uncanny accuracy that the dismayed Office of Finance actually pa.s.sed a law forbidding him to work the stock market. But he was already Crown Prince to the Ruby Throne, besides which he had no military experience. And a more serious problem existed.
When Dehya and Eldrin finally gave in to the demands of the a.s.sembly and had a child, their son Taquinil suffered the price of inbreeding. Born of two psions already at the limit of what humans could endure in empathic sensitivity, he couldn't block any empathic input. As a boy, he lived in an unending onslaught of emotions, until finally his personality shattered. Confused and terrified, he hid his many personalities from everyone, including other telepaths, even himself. He was in his teens by the time his condition became too severe to hide any longer. So began his long healing. Fixing his defective genes would have destroyed his Rhon ability, so instead he took biomech in his body, to synthesize the kylatine and neurotransmitters his brain lacked. With help he eventually reintegrated his personalities, but he was in no position to a.s.sume command of ISC.