The Ruby Dice (34 page)

"I thank you for bringing me home," he told Corbal. "May the gods of Eube smile upon you."

Corbal bowed, and Jaibriol caught the flicker of relief in his eyes. He hadn't wanted his son discredited, but neither had he been willing to back down in front of Tarquine.

Jaibriol took leave of his cousin and returned to the flyer with Tarquine. They boarded with all eight of their oversized bodyguards. Inside, she waited until the molecular air lock solidified, hiding them from Corbal's yacht and undoubtedly from his spy sensors as well. Then she jerked her hand out of Jaibriol's hold as if he had developed a plague.

She spoke icily. "Never speak to me that way again."

"Damn it, Tarquine, I need my Intelligence Minister." He was painfully aware of their guards listening. Most Aristos assumed the Razers thought only of military matters, but he knew better. "And I need Corbal's good will."

He expected her to tell him why he needed neither. Instead she just shook her head. "Let's go home, Jai. I'm tired."

Concern replaced his anger. "Are you all right?" She never admitted anything she considered a weakness.

"Of course." She waved her hand. "We have better matters to concern us than your inconsequential cousin."

He wasn't fooled. If she considered Corbal inconsequential, she wouldn't devote so much effort to monitoring his activities or spying on his spies.

"I would have rather awoken on your yacht," he said. His smile quirked. "In your cabin." And bed.

She gave him a quelling look, but it wasn't convincing, given the spark of desire in her mood. "Then where would I have slept?"

He pulled her toward him. "I can think of someplace."

She tensed in his hold, and at first he thought she would pull away. Then she exhaled and relaxed into his kiss.

After a moment, Jaibriol drew back, though he kept his arms around her waist. "I was surprised to see Corbal," he admitted. He would have expected Tarquine to reach the SSRB ahead of even his shrewd cousin.

She started to speak, then shook her head.

"What is it?" he asked

"I was—preoccupied."

His unease stirred. "By what?"

"It isn't important." She took his arms and pulled them away from her waist. "We should go."

It isn't important
was as bad as
Don't worry.
And her rebuff stung. He turned away and went to a passenger seat at the front of the craft. Hidaka took a seat against the hull that faced inward. Two of Tarquine's guards took the pilot and copilot's seats, and the others settled into passenger chairs.

Tarquine sat next to Jaibriol. "Don't sulk," she murmured as if he were a boy. At least she said it too softly for anyone else to overhear. Then again, all their bodyguards had biomech-augmented ears.

"You tell me not to give you orders," he said. "You don't like it. Fine, Tarquine. Don't treat me like a child."

He expected her to respond with a convoluted Highton remark that meant,
Then don't act like one.
Instead she said, "You know, for all that Corbal offends the bloody hell out of me, he's right. Both he and I are old. Maybe too old." She glanced at him. "I can't help it if you seem young to me. But I don't mean to offend."

It was a fair comment, and more than he had expected. "You seem pensive today."

"No. I just—" She shook her head as if to discard the mood. An aloof smile came to her face, and she was Tarquine again, Empress of Eube, and Finance Minister of the wealthiest empire in human history.

"It is interesting the news one hears," she said.

He regarded her warily. "I'm afraid to ask."

"The Diamond Minister has suggested, rather obliquely, that we consider Skolians as a possible market for Eubian products."

Jaibriol stared at her. "You talked to Gji?"

"I talk to him often. We are both Ministers, after all."

He remembered now why her clothes tugged at him. She had been wearing that same outfit the night she hadn't shown up for his failed dinner with the Diamond Minister. "That time Gji and his wife dined at the palace and you didn't show up—was it because you were up here?"

She gave him an odd look. "Why would I have been here? I had a meeting in the city." She stretched her arms. "Minister Gji actually has the notion that opening trade negotiations with the Skolians is a good idea."

He couldn't help but smile. "How did you convince him it was his idea?"

"You know, Jaibriol, you waste many of the resources at your disposal." She wouldn't look at him, which was odd, because she could stare him in the eye even when she was committing financial fraud on an interstellar scale.

"What resources?" he asked, which was about as direct as a person could get, and it wasn't an invitation to intimacy, but she had him worried enough to slip out of Highton.

Her eyes flashed at his unintended insult. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe all those providers you ignore."

Jaibriol suddenly felt ill. She couldn't mean what that sounded like. "We had an agreement."

"What agreement? I don't recall signing anything."

No. She
couldn't
had done what he thought. Neither of them touched their providers, and they never offered them to any other Aristo. They had kept that agreement for ten years. "You know what I meant."

"Sometimes," she said, "bargains must be rethought."

"You hosted Minister Gji and his wife at a dinner." He was having trouble breathing.

"A dinner, yes. I invited many of the Diamonds."

"Many?" Jaibriol knew what they would expect. "Tarquine, who served the meal?"

"You know, your providers lounge around all day, using your wealth and giving nothing in return."

He stared at her. According to the books, he had sixteen providers on Glory. They lived in a wing of the palace distant from where he spent most of his time, and he told Robert to give them whatever they wanted. He avoided them assiduously, not because he disliked them, but because they might recognize what no Aristo could know, that he was a psion. Like them.

Somehow he spoke calmly, though he was raging inside. "You had them serve at the dinner."

She met his accusing gaze. "As they should. I entertained the Blue- Point Diamonds in the most esteemed style of the palace. You made many allies that night, Jaibriol." Then she added, "Despite yourself."

She might as well have punched him in the stomach and kicked him while he was down. He had protected the providers entrusted to his care for ten years, and in one night she had destroyed all that. The Blue-Point Diamonds numbered more than fifty. God only knew what horrors that many of them could inflict on sixteen helpless slaves. He felt sick. He had to hide his reaction, lest the guards grow suspicious; that for some merciful reason Hidaka had chosen to protect his secrets was no guarantee others would do the same. But the anger that surged within him was almost more than he could contain.

He sensed no satisfaction from Tarquine, only fatigue. She didn't like what she had done, either. Why do it, then? Knowing her mood didn't reveal the reason for it, and she was guarding her thoughts even more than usual. Maybe she truly did want to increase Eubian wealth, even if it meant doing business with their enemies. She had always valued finance over war. But it didn't fit. Plenty of other methods existed that didn't require dealing with Skolians or hurting his providers. The only reason she had suggested opening trade negotiations was because she thought it could restart the peace process.

Jaibriol couldn't bear to reach for his dream at the price of committing the very crimes that caused hatreds between his people and the Skolians. Tarquine knew he would never do what she believed necessary to win support for his ideals. So she had waited until he was gone, and then she had done it herself.

He had known her nature when he married her, and yes—he had known it worked to his advantage. That he chose at times to forget that knowledge didn't make it any less true or him any less responsible.

God forgive me for the day I married you,
he thought.
For I don't think I can.

"It is like an enormous, glaring machine," Rohka said. "It flashes and rings, with too many parts to count, and it has so much light, it blinds you." Her voice had that same quality Kelric remembered in her mother, a sweetness and energy he had never forgotten.

They were sitting on the sofa in the sunken living room of his house on the Skolian Orbiter. The place had seemed empty in the year since Jeejon's death. Having Ixpar and the children here changed that, but it was hard to absorb. It always took him time to adjust to new circumstances. Yet for all that he struggled to adapt, it brought him great pleasure to know he would find them in the big stone rooms of his house when he returned at night.

"I've never heard Skolia described quite that way," he said, smiling, more for the joy of her presence than for her less than complimentary depiction of his civilization.

Rohka winced, with no attempt to hide her emotions. She was open and unjaded, like a fresh wind blowing through his life. "I don't mean to insult your home. It's all so much to understand." Her large eyes gave her a vulnerable aspect. "When you vanished down that corridor, we feared never to see you again. I thought your people knew so much, but no one could say what happened."

"I didn't mean to frighten you."

"I'm just so glad you came back."

He agreed heartily with the sentiment. "How did you know to send me the Quis images?"

"Jimorla suggested it. He said a Sixth Level Calani would have to respond to dice." She shifted her weight on the couch. "Ixpar told your military people, but I don't think they believed it. She tried sending the images, but she can't do it. Jimorla said he wasn't strong enough. Your family tried, but they don't know Quis. So I did it."

He spoke with gratitude. "I don't know if either I or the pharaoh would have made it back, otherwise."

"I don't understand." Her young face brimmed with emotions: uncertainty, curiosity, fear, relief. She didn't hesitate to let him know how she felt, and to Kelric, that was a gift. "I study physics with my tutors. But none of it sounds like anything your family tells me about space and time and these places where neither exist."

"You can learn." He was balanced over an emotional chasm. If he asked and she said no, it would be worse than if he never asked. But the words came out before he could stop them. "We have a school on the Orbiter. It's among the best in the Imperialate. If you would like—you could study here." Then he stopped, for fear of her refusal.

"Stay here?" Rohka seemed relaxed on the other end of the sofa, turned sideways to face him, one hand on a large cushion. But he saw the way her posture tensed. Nor did she know how to shield her thoughts. Her mind was a blaze of warmth, golden and untouched by the harsh universe beyond Coba. She was a miracle, and she had no idea.

"If you would like to stay," he said, self-conscious. "It's your choice."

"I don't know." Her smile flashed like sun breaking through the clouds. "It's so incredible! All my life, I've known my father was Skolian. But I never understood what it meant."

Kelric grinned at her. "Just think of what you could see."

Her mood doused as fast as it had flared. Her emotions changed so quickly, it was hard to keep up. It was like sunlight glancing off a sparkling lake, then suddenly banished by clouds.

"I have duties to my people," she said.

He spoke quietly. "You will someday rule Coba. You'll live through the era when your world becomes part of the Imperialate. What better way to prepare yourself for that responsibility than by getting an Imperialate education."

She regarded him with approval. "That's a good argument. I will try it on Ixpar."

That was so much like something Savina would have said, it made Kelric want to laugh and cry at the same time. "Does that mean you would like to stay?"

"Maybe. But I have to talk to Ixpar."

His heart swelled. Her response might not be a ringing agreement, but it was a start.

"Kelric?" A man spoke in a rich voice.

"Eldrin!" Kelric jumped to his feet and turned to look over the couch. "My greetings."

Eldrin stood in the wide entrance across the room. He was about six feet tall with broad shoulders but a leaner physique than Kelric. He wore an elegant grey and white shirt and blue trousers. He had violet eyes, and his lashes glinted with a hint of metal. Burgundy hair, glossy and straight, brushed his collar, longer than most Skolian men wore it, or at least those in the military, which defined Kelric's world. It was no coincidence Eldrin looked like an artist; he was known throughout settled space for his singing. His spectacular voice had a five-octave range that normal humans couldn't achieve, a gift he had inherited from his father, the Dalvador Bard.

Eldrin inclined his head. "It's good to see you."

Rohka stood up, watching Eldrin with wide eyes.

Kelric smiled at her. "This is my oldest brother. Eldrin. Your uncle."

Rohka bowed to Eldrin, charmingly awkward. She spoke Skolian Flag with a heavy accent. "I am honored, Your Majesty."

Although it pleased Kelric that she knew Eldrin's correct title, he didn't want her to think she had to address his family with such formality. He regarded Eldrin with an intent focus and tilted his head. His brother nodded almost imperceptibly and walked over to them.

Eldrin smiled at Rohka. "It is a pleasure to meet you. But please, call me Eldrin." He hesitated. "Or if you like, Uncle Eldrin."

Rohka's cheeks turned rosy. "I would like that."

Eldrin glanced at Kelric, but he sent no mental images or thoughts. Rohka might "overhear." He could tell Eldrin wanted to talk to him alone, but Kelric didn't want Rohka to think he was pushing her away when they had just begun to know each other.

Rohka glanced from Eldrin to Kelric. Then she spoke with courtesy to Kelric. "Is it all right if I go talk to Ixpar now? I would like to tell her what we discussed."

"Yes, certainly," Kelric said, touched by her sensitivity. In that way, too, she was like her mother, rather than blunt like him. "Ixpar went to the pharaoh's home to get Jimorla."