Fortunes of the Imperium (42 page)

CHAPTER 37

As Janice had foretold, the Autocrat did indeed command my time at her first available opportunity. I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder before the sun had actually risen. Excelsis was there, with a warming cup of tea in his mechanical grasp.

“Her Serenity wishes you to breakfast with her,” he said. “The shower bath is running, at your preferred temperature. I have laid out the amber-colored suit, as the shade is one that she likes. The ambassador will be by in thirty minutes to pick you up. Do you prefer I shave you, or will you depilate your own face?”

At that unwholesome hour, even the sight of the nearly-empty streets in the more forgiving light of false dawn was not enough to wake up my poor, sleep-starved brain. I covered a wide yawn with one hand.

“I do beg your pardon,” I said, with a half bow to Janice at my side. The skimmer that conveyed us toward the palace flew by means of a robotic pilot. She accompanied me out of courtesy.

“No problem. We get these calls all the time.”

“I had better limber up my legs, if we are to spend forty minutes walking the maze.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Janice said, with a grin. “We’re going in the back way.”

“There is a back way in?” I asked, knowing that I blinked stupidly at the notion.

“Of course there is,” she said.

As if to underscore her assertion, the skimmer banked to the right, foregoing the avenue upon which we had walked the day before. Instead, it circled over humbler quarters and touched down in a garden that was as far from the playground of the idle as it was possible to get. Instead, Uctu gleaners in rough cloth smocks were digging roots and plucking bulbous fruit from the rows of food plants and trees. We touched down near a huge unadorned doorway. The stone step before it had been worn U-shaped over the ages.

I pulled myself from the air car and offered a hand to Janice.

“Why didn’t we go this way the first time?”

A twinkle lit the blue eyes behind the protective spectacles.

“Because everyone has to go in the front way the first time. You have to pass through the Room of Trust. But the servants would never get to work if they all had to go through the maze every morning. It was tried during the days of the Eighth Autocrat, when the maze was first constructed. Since then, well . . .”

“The person who first saw reason regarding subsequent visits has my eternal gratitude,” I said. I followed her into the building, and found ourselves in the kitchens.

We entered through the small door at the rear of the great chamber. Several ministers and servants clustered around the enormous divan with tablets and viewpads. The Autocrat, almost doll-sized in their midst, tapped a screen here, scrolled down a list there. The clamor was polite but insistent. As I knew from my occasional visit to my cousin’s office, the stream of matters demanding input was never-ending. Rimbalius was among them, but no amount of effort on my part could cause him to make eye contact with me.

“Thomasin!” Visoltia said. She set down the tablet she was reading and held out both hands to me. I approached and put my palms together. “Oh, don’t do that. We are friends now.” I took her hands. She squeezed them, her jaw dropping with pleasure. She patted the divan beside her. I removed my boots and hopped up. Janice retired to the corner with Ema and Tcocna. “I hope you are ready for breakfast, because I am
so
hungry!”

A gray-clad female set footed trays across our laps, and set up waist-high mobile trays at easy reach to the advisors around us. Mechanical servers brought in covered dishes. Each was offered to her first, then to me as the guest. I took small portions of each one. Everything was delicious. Not sure what most of it was, but when my hostess ate it, I felt obliged to do the same. I know the ministers were watching me, especially High Nourisher, who looked pleased when I praised the flavor and quality of the food.

Visoltia pushed aside a bowl now empty of slivers of sweet yellow fruit, and pulled a dish containing a white, quivering substance like an egg-white omelette onto her tray. The mechanical server brought me an identical dish.

“Tell me my fortune for today, Thomasin,” she said.

The plate before me provided me with the ideal field.

“Do you eat that unadorned, or with a sauce of some kind?” I inquired, indicating hers with the fork in my hand.

She gave me an odd look, and gestured to the line of small, clear glass bottles at the top of the tray waiting like soldiers to do her bidding. She picked up one that contained purple liquid.

“I can use any of these, but this is my favorite.”

“Very well,” I said. “I have invented a divination of my own, called condimentomancy. Put the purple sauce onto your food as you would normally do.”

She followed my instructions. Having had a good deal of experience with Imperium-born Uctu aboard the
Bonchance
, I was ready with interpretations I thought that I could tweak to fit the physiology. But she made it easy for me. Two lines of evenly-sized purple curlicues spanned the omelette from bottom left to top right, touching the plate on either edge of the food.

“You’re fair and methodical,” I said. “I believe you have confidence in your surroundings, if not yourself. It would seem to me that you should continue to think so.”

“That is wonderful!” Visoltia—Visoltiara—said. “I will keep that in mind today.” She cut the white substance into small squares, careful to have a bit of the purple sauce on each.

The ministers around her seemed to breathe a sigh of relief at my words and her reception of them. I soon understood why.

We were on the fourteenth course of breakfast when a gray-clad servant came to announce the arrival of Lord Toliaus. The High Wisdom burst in, clad in bright gold, a gleaming ball of fire in his hand.

“Your Serenity,” he said, swooping down upon us. He suddenly noticed my presence, and favored me with a haughty glare. I returned it with a smile.

“How are you today, High Wisdom?” Visoltia asked, with nervous respect.

“The fates have given me another day on which to serve you, dear lady.” He brandished the ball at her, making her recoil onto the base of her tail. “I have your luck and guidance for today.”

“But, what a nice change,” Visoltia said, indicating me. I noticed that her hand trembled slightly. “Lord Thomas has given me my luck already.”

Lord Toliaus turned a full and unreserved glare on me. I emulated the absent Parsons and regarded him with a blank stare.

“How could he know what the fates hold for you? He does not understand Uctu culture. Who knows what utter nonsense he is telling you?”

“Well,” I said, the coldest of cold eyes fixed upon the minister. “I know what I am saying is utter nonsense. Do you?”

The rest of the cabinet stirred silently behind him. I guessed that most of them would have liked to talk back to him, as I had, but they did not dare, all but Lord Rimbalius, who looked faintly amused. By the frightened expression on Visoltia’s face, he had an unbreakable hold on her. I expect that he managed to get revenge upon those who crossed him by manipulating her.

“Please, do not argue, my friends,” she pleaded.

“Of course we won’t,” I said, lifting the tray off my lap. “We both care deeply for your well-being, don’t we?”

“I care about Her Excellence and the well-being of this entire nation,” Toliaus intoned. He thrust the flaming ball toward us again. “The state of business will be precarious today and for the foreseeable future. It is best to hold the reins tightly in your hands!”

“Yes, High Wisdom,” Visoltia said. “High Finance, please give me your report now. Do you see signs of what Lord Toliaus has predicted?”

A thin-faced female with an unusually high crest on her narrow head stepped forward and gave her tablet to the Autocrat.

“As you see, Your Excellence. And the reports from High Production will show growth that might lead us to a better financial forecast, if you will permit loosening bonds on certain commodities?” She beckoned forward a stout Uctu with almost gray-red scales. He glanced at Lord Toliaus as though requesting permission. Other ministers came forward with their tablets, pleading for attention, both from the Autocrat and Lord Toliaus.

High Wisdom wore smugness like another robe. He made certain of his power over the others before swirling his long skirts and striding out of the room. Once the door closed behind him, the entire party of ministers surged forward.

“Your Excellence!” “Your Excellence, the governor of Dneucia needs permission to undertake full infrastructure repairs on the eastern continent of Balawe Five.” “Hospital supplies are low in the flood zone in Nendoma City.”

She began to read tablet after tablet, all the time looking over at me. There were so many other matters awaiting her attention, and I was distracting it.

“With many thanks for an excellent meal,” I said, slipping off the divan, “I must remove myself from your august company and check upon my cousin and her friends.”

“Oh, don’t go, Thomasin,” she pleaded.

“I cannot in good conscience interfere with the sailing of the ship of state,” I said. “But I will come back later.”

“Join me for lunch!” Visoltia said. She glanced at Ema, who nodded vigorously. “Our food is your food.”

“I am honored. May my cousin and her friends return to you? Jil so enjoyed meeting you.”

“Oh, yes, yesterday was the Day of Grace, but today is ordinary. Come at noon.”

“Oh, this is so much better,” Jil said, stretching comfortably on the divan beside Visoltia. She and her friends had dressed to the nines and beyond in their new friend’s honor. They had also brought chests and bags of their own jewels for Visoltia to try on. Jil helped the Autocrat fasten a complicated chain anklet through her round-tipped toes while we waited for the fifth course to be served. “I would have been too exhausted to eat if I had to walk the maze again! Although passing through the kitchens was much closer to food preparation than I normally get. But your garden is just drenched with light! My goodness, do you ever get enough of that marvelous sunshine? I long to bask in it.”

“Truly, I don’t get much time to sit out in the light,” the girl said, admiring the glittering aqua-colored gems studding the gleaming gold chains around her slender legs. “I have so many duties.”

“You are a darling to be so
responsible
,” Jil said, “but it rots your brain to do nothing but work!”

“I don’t work all day and night,” Visoltia admitted, with a sly look at me. “I do watch
Ya!
, for example. Usually at night, after Ema and the other night servants put me to bed.”

I clapped my hands.

“I thought you must be a fan,” I said. “I am delighted to know it.”

“I cannot help it,” Visoltia said, her eyes full of mirth. “My ancient ancestors were the basis of the royal family,” she said. “But based only. It is scandalous that today’s viewers think that what they see is true history.”

I leaned close, to impart the special knowledge that I possessed.

“I have recently acquired the first three seasons in a boxed set,” I said, in low, thrilling tones. “The genuine article. A real collectible.”

“The first three?” Visoltia almost whispered, awed. “I have never seen those!”

Jil’s eyes twinkled. She knew what that usually meant, from a high official or an honored guest. I fetched a deep breath, but personal possessions were fleeting. The honor of the Imperium was forever. I placed my palms together under my chin.

“May I offer you the set, Your Serenity? It would give me great pleasure if you would accept it from me. I will find another. Allow me to send someone to our ship to retrieve it for you.”

“Oh, I could not, no,” Visoltia said, with a laugh. “It is too grand a present. But we must watch the episodes together, while you are here. That would be a greater gift to me.”

I must admit, I emitted a deep sigh of relief. Jil laughed, knowing what was in my mind. But I took her generosity as an opportunity to broach another matter close to my heart.

“I wish you would reconsider your attitude toward my friend, Redius,” I said. “He is also a devotee of
Ya!
, and he is not responsible for having grown up outside the Autocracy.”