The Ruby Dice (15 page)

Calani and Managers never do.
But he kept that thought shielded from her. "With you, I would rather work together."

She met his gaze. "So would I."

He stood and bowed. "We will play again."

Dehya rose to her feet. "I hope so." Her thoughts swirled with unasked questions, and he knew if he let down his barriers, they would flood his mind. But she didn't speak. Perhaps she knew he couldn't bring himself to answer.

Not yet.

Jaibriol unexpectedly found Sunrise.

He went to the opulent wing of the palace where Corbal lived. His cousin stayed there when he wasn't seeing to his business affairs or meddling in Jaibriol's life. Hidaka came with Jaibriol, along with three Razers who were like extensions of the captain's biomech- enhanced mind.

His unannounced visit shook up the taskmaker who looked after Corbal's suite. She and her husband had served the Xir Lord for decades. She was trembling as she knelt to Jaibriol, and tendrils of her auburn hair wisped around her face.

"Please rise," Jaibriol said, far more gently than Hightons were supposed to speak to taskmakers.

She rose to her feet, her gaze downcast. "My honor us with Your Most Glorious Presence, Your Highness."

Jaibriol winced. He had managed to wean his staff from talking that way, but everyone else did it regardless of what he said. He just nodded and walked into the living room of Corbal's suite. Plush cushions were scattered across a carpeted floor that sparkled with holographic tips on the pile. Blue-lacquer tables gleamed and the walls gleamed blue. The room glistened.

With a start, Jaibriol realized someone was sleeping on a large pillow in one corner. It was Sunrise, Corbal's provider. She lay curled on her side with her eyes closed in her angel's face. Her hair fell across her body in glossy waves, as bright as a yellow sun. She wore nothing more than a scant halter of gold chains, with sapphires that barely covered her enlarged nipples. A gold chain around her hips held the gold triangle of her G-string. She was lushly, voluptuously desirable, full and round where Hightons were lean.

Jaibriol stopped, his face heating. Even while she slept, her contentment soothed. He blocked her, not because he didn't appreciate the healing balm of her mind, but because if she awoke, she might suspect him. Sunrise was a powerful empath, able to detect far more than most Aristos realized.

Jaibriol never knew how to act around her. He had spent the first fourteen years of his life with only his family. On Earth, he had been shy around girls, unsure how to behave. As emperor, he had slept with a provider once, a sweet, silver girl who had taken his virginity and left him with a treasured memory. Then he had married Tarquine, and he hadn't touched any other woman since.

He spoke self-consciously to Hidaka. "I'll come back later. Lord Xir doesn't seem to be here." Corbal obviously had been, though, given Sunrise's state of dress, or lack thereof. He felt like an intruder.

A deep voice came from behind him. "Your Highness?"

Jaibriol turned with a start. Corbal's son Azile was walking through the archway and unfastening a long coat, which he wore over a silk shirt and elegant slacks. His cheeks were red from the wind, which probably meant his flyer had just landed on the roof of the palace.

Jaibriol inclined his head to his Intelligence Minister, his closest kin after Corbal and Calope Muze. "Azile." He used the minimalist Highton greeting appropriate for family.

Azile bowed from the waist. "You honor my father's home."

"I came to talk to him." Jaibriol indicated where Sunrise slept. "But I didn't want to wake her."

Azile glanced idly toward the corner, then did a double take. His startled, instinctual response was so intense, Jaibriol felt it despite the muting effects of his shields. Azile sensed Sunrise's unprotected mind, but in a far different manner than Jaibriol. In that instant, the desire to transcend hit Azile so hard, an image jumped into his thoughts of Sunrise crying in pain.

Bile rose in Jaibriol's throat. How the blazes could Azile desire to hurt her that way? He wanted to throw his Intelligence Minister across the room.

The blood drained from Azile's face. Shock surged from his mind, and a deep loathing for himself. He spun around and strode from the room through a smaller archway. Jaibriol watched in amazement, not because it offended him to have his cousin walk out, not even because it was a crime to leave the emperor's presence in such a manner, but because he had never felt such remorse from an Aristo capable of transcending. Azile was only in his fifties, much younger than Corbal or Tarquine had been when they changed.

When Hidaka motioned for two of the Razers to go after Azile, Jaibriol held up his hand, stopping them. Then he followed his cousin into a small alcove stocked with liqueurs. Azile was leaning on a counter, his face ashen. As Jaibriol entered, the Intelligence Minister jerked up his head and comprehension of his trespass against the emperor flooded across his face.

"Your Highness!" Azile straightened up abruptly. "Please accept my most humble apology."

"Accepted," Jaibriol said, sparing Azile an arrest. He had never seen his cousin disturbed this way. Sweat sheened Azile's forehead. Could he be more like his father than Jaibriol had realized? He knew Azile transcended; even now, with his shields full strength, he sensed the crushing pressure of Azile's mind.

"One might be distracted by many things," Jaibriol said, probing. "It is always my hope that my kin are well and serene."

Azile inclined his head to the right, indicating gratitude at Jaibriol's response. "Most serene, Your Highness."

"I'm pleased to hear it." Jaibriol studied him. "Tell your father I visited."

"Certainly. It will be my pleasure to serve the throne."

Jaibriol doubted it; he knew Azile disliked him. But maybe this was a start toward better relations between the two of them.

Jaibriol found Tarquine at a crystal table in the Atrium, surrounded by lush trees, with sunlight filtering over her from the polarized glass of the ceiling and walls.

"My greetings, husband." She was spearing sea delicacies in a porcelain dish using a sharpened ivory prong.

"Tarquine." He sat down, preoccupied with his thoughts.

She studied him for a moment. "Distraction becomes you."

Jaibriol had no idea how to take that. "I would never say incomprehensibility becomes you, my lovely wife, since you are always comprehensible, but should that ever change, I'm sure it would reflect just as well."

Tarquine smiled, a slow curve of her lips. "I do believe I've just been insulted."

Jaibriol grinned at her. "Never."

She blinked, staring at him.

"Astonishment also becomes you," he added amiably.

"'They say his smile is like the sun that rarely rises,'" she murmured. "Carzalan Kri wrote that in one of his poems."

"You think my sun doesn't rise enough?" Jaibriol supposed it was true. He rarely felt like grinning at anyone.

"It's another sign of your distraction," Tarquine decided.

He took a tobin-plum out of a bowl and bit into the pale blue fruit. "I thought I knew most Highton customs."

"Indeed."

He gave her a dour look. "If Highton words were a form of nourishment, that one would have no nutritional value at all."

She sat back, relaxed, regarding him as if he was a rare and valuable acquisition. "You look well today."

"Don't do that."

"What? Compliment you?"

"Look at me like I'm your dessert."

Her smile turned sultry. "My dessert was never so sweet."

Jaibriol wanted to groan. Sweet, indeed. He was an emperor, not a slice of cake.

"I've been wondering something," he said.

She regarded him curiously. "And what could that be?"

"Is it unusual for a man to feel affection toward his father's provider? I don't mean desire. More like kinship."

"Not particularly." She swirled a melon-shrimp around in the sauce on her plate and took a bite.

He sat back, thinking. "Perhaps Azile was affected by something else."

"An intelligence matter, I would imagine."

He knew she was fishing to find out if his comment connected to Azile's work as Intelligence Minister. Her mind never rested when it came to politics.

"It's Sunrise," Jaibriol said.

"Providers always affect Aristos."

Tarquine finished her melon-shrimp. "I'm told she has a high Kyle rating."

"I wouldn't know," he lied.

She spoke quietly. "Corbal values the dawn. He would never let its radiance dim."

Jaibriol knew she was right. Despite Corbal's attempts to disguise his affection, Tarquine had long ago figured out how he felt about Sunrise.

"It's always intriguing when people act out of character," Tarquine said. "Don't you think?"

Jaibriol stiffened. "No." She was probing, which meant she was thinking of looking into the matter. He didn't want her investigating his Intelligence Minister, at least no more than usual. He had no doubt she and Azile kept dossiers on each other. But he had managed to keep their mutual ill will at bay.

He sincerely hoped it stayed that way.

Sunlight flooded Selei City on the planet Parthonia. Skyscrapers pierced the lavender sky, which had never taken on the bluer hue intended by the world's terraformers. The mirrored buildings reflected clouds as if they were part of the sky. Kelric strolled across a plaza tiled with blue stone. Government officials walked in pairs and trios through the area, their executive jumpsuits glossy in the sunshine. They gave Kelric and his heavily armed guards a wide berth.

Kelric was always aware of the stronger gravity here and its effect on his heavy build. He slowed down, and he fatigued more easily. The beautiful weather contrasted with his mood. He had no desire to attend the Assembly after yesterday's loss. But the sessions continued regardless of his mood. At least he could escape during this break.

"Nice day," Strava commented as they strolled along.

"It is." Kelric needed to say no more. It was one reason he liked these guards. They were as taciturn as he.

He stopped at the plaza's fountain, a jumble of geometric shapes with water cascading over them. It looked like a big pile of wet Quis dice. What would happen if he introduced Quis into Skolian culture? It could just become a fad, but he knew it too well to believe that. Quis would fascinate his people. Scholars would write papers on it. Gaming dens would proliferate. Schools would teach it. The game was too powerful to fade away.

Maybe it would even spread to Eube. The Coban queens had sublimated their aggression into Quis. He doubted it could affect the Traders as much, but even a small change might get the stalled treaty negotiations back on track.

A silver spark flashed in Kelric's side vision.

Combat mode toggled, Bolt thought.

What the hell? Kelric thought, spinning around as his body toggled into combat mode and accelerated his motions.

Najo shoved him to the ground, and Strava and Najo threw themselves across Kelric as he hit the pavement. Axer stood over them with his feet planted wide, firing, his massive Jumbler clenched in both hands. He swept the beam across the plaza with enhanced speed, his reflexes powered by the microfusion reactor within him. Strava and Najo were shooting as well, even as they protected Kelric with their bodies. Sparks glittered in the air, and when the beams touched ground, it exploded in bursts of orange light. Debris flew and dust swirled around the fountain.

Kelric lay with his palms braced on the ground, tensed like a wire drawn taut. He wanted to throw off his guards and vault to his feet; it took a great effort to stay put and let them do their job. His enhanced vision picked out projectiles headed toward him and also their demise in flashes of light.

After an eon, his bodyguards stopped firing. The air had the astringent smell of annihilated bitons, and sirens blared throughout the plaza. Engines rumbled overhead as military flyers soared through the sky.

"Imperator Skolia?" Najo asked, getting to his feet. "Are you all right?"

Kelric pushed up on his elbow. "I'm fine. Are we clear?"

"Looks like it," Strava said. She was kneeling over him, her calves on either side of his legs while she surveyed the ruined plaza. Najo scanned the area with his gauntlet monitors, and Axer was speaking into his wrist comm.

Kelric stabbed a panel on his own gauntlet. "Major Qahot, what the hell is going on?"

The voice of his security chief came out of the mesh. "The shooters are dead, sir," he said. "It doesn't look like they expected to survive."

"Suicide assassins," Kelric said.

"Apparently. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," he growled. "I want to know how the hell they got in here." The Assembly drew delegates from all over Skolia. Some attended through the web, but many gathered in Selei City. ISC had ramped up security so high, they should have known if anyone within a hundred kilometer radius even breathed oddly.

Strava climbed to her feet, freeing Kelric. He stood up and spoke quietly to his bodyguards. "Thank you."

Najo inclined his head, and Strava lifted her hand in acknowledgment. Axer was getting updates on his gauntlet and probably his ear comm, too. ISC police were already combing the plaza, and no doubt every nearby building. The flyers overhead gleamed gold and black, reflected in the mirrored skyscrapers.

Kelric finally let himself absorb that he had almost died.

"They never had a chance," Major Qahot said, pacing across the security office beneath the Assembly Hall. A stocky man with bristly hair, he moved as if he were caged, unable to break free until he solved the mystery of Kelric's attackers.

People filled the room, officers, aides, guards. And Roca. Kelric had arranged to have Dehya and his brothers transferred to safe houses, as well as the First Councilor and Inner Circle. Roca, however, refused to leave. His people would take her if he ordered it, but he knew it would antagonize her. For now, in the depths of this secured command center, he let her stay. She stood by a wall, listening while his officers investigated the attempt on his life. Kelric sat at a console that monitored the Assembly Hall, Selei City, the countryside, even orbital traffic. From here, he could access any system on the planet.