The Ruby Dice (41 page)

When Iraz Gji, the Diamond Minister, stood up behind his console, Jaibriol thought he meant to speak in support of the tariffs. Gji had actively lobbied for their passage. Given Gji's stature as a Minister, the comm officer jumped him ahead in the queue, and the
active
light glowed on his console. The rumble of voices quieted; it was unusual for a Minister to address the proceedings, and delegates stopped their maneuvering to listen.

Gji's voice rumbled as spheres carried it throughout the hall. "I wish to enter a new form in these proceedings."

Jaibriol scowled. "Enter a new form" meant Gji wanted to call for a vote on a ballot that had neither been on the agenda nor discussed on the floor. No one had informed Jaibriol, and he never liked surprises, especially from his Ministers.

Tarquine inclined her head to Gji. "Proceed."

"The exaltation of Eube rises each summit," Gji began.

Jaibriol silently groaned. He might be dying in pain, but he swore, half of it came from the interminable ability of Aristos to speak for hours without saying anything. Given that this was an economic summit, Gji's "exaltation" undoubtedly referred to the wealth of the empire.

"It is our desire to see the rise continue," Gji said.

Jaibriol watched Tarquine, noting her perfect composure, and he suddenly knew she expected this. A tickle started in his throat. She claimed Gji had softened to the idea of trade with the Skolians, but that was only a first step. Surely Gji wouldn't put the matter to a vote now; without extensive preparation, probably over a period of years, such a vote would never pass.

"At its highest," Gji continued, "our exaltation will spread throughout settled space."

A ripple of chimes came from the amphitheater as Aristos tapped their finger cymbals in approval of his implicit suggestion that Eube should conquer the rest of humanity, as if owning two trillion people wasn't enough.

"Many avenues of commerce exist," Gji said. "Some venture into exotic realms. Fertile realms rich with resources."

More cymbals chimed, and Aristos discreetly opened their hands on their consoles with palms facing upward, expressing their curiosity. Jaibriol just wanted him to get to the flaming point. So far it sounded as if he were suggesting the usual, that they conquer those exotic realms, which was no more obtainable today than at the last two hundred summits.

"New avenues can mean new means of travel," Gji added.

No cymbals chimed.
New
was not a favored word among Aristos. They sought to operate, think, and act as one mind. Variation was anathema.

On the dais, Tarquine gave the appearance of listening with a posture that suggested wary attention. She no doubt fooled everyone else, but Jaibriol knew better. Gji had said exactly what she wanted to hear.

"New is always a risk," Gji said, acknowledging the unease in the amphitheater. "Unless, of course, it adds to the exaltation of Eube. It might then inspire a call for concord."

Ah, hell. Jaibriol clenched the edge of his console. A "call for concord" meant Gji wanted to vote
now.
Surely he didn't mean the trade expansion. They had no preparation. It would fail miserably.

Jaibriol stood behind his console, and the rumbles died in the amphitheater. Tarquine looked up at him with a calm face, but he sensed her alarm. He wasn't certain himself what he intended, he only knew he couldn't sit here while events spiraled out of his control.

Jaibriol spoke, and his comm sent his voice out to the spinning orbs. "You orate well, Minister Gji." In truth, Highton discourse annoyed Jaibriol no end, but what the hell. It was true Gji had mastered the style. "We are, after all, the Eubian Concord."

Gji bowed to him. Every screen in the amphitheater showed him as an inset, with Jaibriol as the main figure. Jaibriol hardly recognized himself. He stood tall and somber, broad-shouldered, dressed in black with his black hair glittering, his eyes like rubies, his face with the bone structure that supposedly made him one of the most handsome men alive. He hated what he saw, the Highton emperor.

"You honor our proceedings with your voice," Gji said.

Tarquine said nothing, but she lowered her barriers and let a warning fill her thoughts. She had no reason to hide her efforts; no one but Jaibriol could sense what she was doing.

"It pleases us," Jaibriol said, "that you wish for more concord in our exaltation."

"I am honored, Your Highness," Gji said.

That was certainly different from Gji's chill disinterest when Jaibriol had met with him over dinner. Jaibriol didn't want to remember what had changed the Minister's attitude.

"It would please us even more," Jaibriol said, "to hear how we might achieve this greater exaltation."

Gji raised his head. "The exotic realms of humanity control much wealth. To bring that wealth into concord with our own goals might be achieved by means other than Annihilators."

A shocked, discordant clamor of cymbals broke out. Often the cymbals expressed approval, but the syncopated beat the Aristos were using now told a different story. They were angry. It had taken Gji forever to get to the point, but when he finally reached it, no one missed his meaning. He had just called for a vote on opening trade relations with the Skolians.

Tarquine's voice rang out over the clamor. "Minister Gji, the Clerk in Session will attend your call."

Jaibriol stared at her. Her response was required; as the Minister who presided, she had to attend such details as whose clerk did what. But he knew her too well; she had set up this vote. Why? It was certain to fail. Perhaps that was the intent. She might have never wanted him to succeed.

Jaibriol had to make a decision. Only he could stop the call. No one would object if he made that choice, but it would do great damage to his hopes that it might pass another time. If he let the call go forward, it would also fail. Either way he lost. He watched Tarquine, wondering why she had done this.

He made his decision. As a clerk approached Gji, Jaibriol resumed his seat. That he hadn't objected didn't mean he agreed with the call, but it allowed the vote to proceed. For a ballot this outrageous, even if delegates suspected it had his support, that wouldn't stop them from voting against it. If anything, it would increase their determination to make their positions clear. Trade with the Skolians? Anathema. With carefully laid plans over time, he might have brought around enough Diamonds to garner the support he needed. This doomed the vote to failure, but at least he wouldn't go on record as opposed to the idea.

The clerk who took Minister Gji's call was a taskmaker and as such could present the ballot in direct language. It read simply:
Proposal: the Eubian Concord offer to open trade with the Skolian Imperialate for foods and curios.
Maybe Gji thought limiting the potential products for sale would make the idea more palatable. He might have been right if they had approached this in a rational manner. Nothing would help now.

As soon as the Clerk in Session read the ballot, Parizian Sakaar jumped to his feet. The Trade Minister's voice rang out above the turmoil. "Consorting with humanity's amoral dregs is no exaltation!"

Jaibriol had no doubt Sakaar meant the insult implicit in his blunt response. A widespread clash of cymbals indicated support for his outburst from the gathered Aristos. It sickened Jaibriol. He well remembered his meeting with the Trade Minister, when Sakaar had spoken about providers as if they were inanimate products. He called Skolians the "amoral dregs" of humanity because their psions were free rather than controlled by the brutal pavilions where his Silicate Aristos tormented providers.

Minister Gji stood again, another dramatic break with protocol, and regarded his Trade counterpart. "Indeed, Minister Sakaar, we would wish no loss of eminence due to consorting with dregs." He paused a beat. "Or due to other octet errors that create less exaltation."

Octet
errors? What the hell? It sounded as if Gji was referring to the evidence of fraud Tarquine had found against Sakaar. None of the gathered Aristos showed any sign they caught the reference; as far as Jaibriol knew, Tarquine had told no one else. Members of the summit were talking agitatedly among themselves or notifying the comm officer they wanted to speak. The Trade and Diamond Ministers could get away with breaking protocol because of their high position, but Jaibriol suspected Sakaar wished now he had waited. Although his face maintained the Highton cool, Jaibriol recognized his strain.

Jaibriol rubbed his temples. His vision was blurring, and he had to wait until it cleared before he could search the hall. Both of his joint commanders had attended. Barthol Iquar was in the section reserved for the highest members of the Iquar Line. He wasn't speaking to anyone, just staring at Tarquine. It gave Jaibriol pause; he would have expected Barthol to assert the lack of military support for the vote.

Admiral Erix Muze was talking with his aides, and Jaibriol could see one of them preparing a statement. His protest would come soon. Tarquine was speaking into the comm on her podium, probably responding to a demand or question. The comm officer worked frantically, queuing requests to speak. Given the stature of the delegates who probably wanted to make their views known, Jaibriol didn't envy the officer her job, having to rank them.

The officer finally decided, and the
active
light glowed on the console of the Janq matriarch of the Diamond Aristos. Although the Janq Line had lost stature because of their economic troubles, few Aristos cared that the Janq had pirate ships. If anything, they admired Janq for the size of their fleet and their daring in pushing so far into Skolian space. The outrage, in their minds, was that the Skolians had "stolen" them.

Janq waited until the amphitheater quieted. Then she said, "The dregs of humanity have made clear their lack of eminence. It lowers us to consider them as a source of exaltation."

General Barthol Iquar rose to his feet.

Alarm flashed across the face of the besieged comm officer; she could hardly tell a joint commander to sit the hell down. Only Jaibriol could do that. She glanced up at him, almost imploring, but he didn't move. Barthol should have signaled the officer, but now that he was standing, Jaibriol had no intention of ordering him to sit. If he denied his joint commander the chance to speak against a ballot, especially one of direct concern to ESComm, it could backfire spectacularly.

The comm officer worked fast, and an
active
light glowed on Barthol's console. Even though he had violated protocol by interrupting the Janq matriarch, she offered no objection. He was a powerful ally. His protest added to hers would strengthen her position.

"Exaltation comes in many forms," Barthol said. "Dregs may be elevated through their association with superior life-forms."

Jaibriol gaped at him.
What the blazes?
Either he had lost his ability to understand Highton, or his bellicose General of the Army had just supported the Diamond Minister's call for trade with the Skolians.

For one moment, silence reigned. Then a roar of voices and cymbals erupted throughout the amphitheater. Tarquine would normally have called for order, but it looked as if she was swamped with messages blazing across her podium screen, the hologlyphs flaring like electronic fire.

Admiral Erix Muze, ESComm's other joint commander, stood up abruptly, the fourth time in moments that one of Eube's most powerful Hightons had broken the rules, this in an empire that prided itself on its lack of variation. The comm officer shot a panicked look at Tarquine, but she was too busy organizing the flood of messages she was receiving to respond.

The officer jabbed her console, and the
active
light blazed red on Erix Muze's console. The admiral's voice rang out. "It has been suggested here today that Eube may gain advantage by bringing rabble into concord with our goals. This, using means other than Annihilators and their kin." He fixed his gaze on Barthol. "However, it should be stated that fleets outfitted with such kin sail exotic seas far more profitably."

Jaibriol's shoulders relaxed. Although Admiral Muze had just declared his opposition to the ballot, he phrased it without offering challenge to his counterpart in ESComm. He seemed puzzled more than anything else, no doubt wondering what could possibly motivate Barthol to support the measure. Jaibriol had exactly the same question.

Barthol met Erix's gaze. With icily perfect intonations, he said, "And such profitable ships shall ride in the new dawn."

Jaibriol felt as if he were reeling. To anyone else, it must have sounded as if one joint commander had told the other that whatever their differences in this ballot, he expected to continue working profitably with him. But Jaibriol knew now what Tarquine had warned him about. Barthol had just hit Erix with a threat so huge, it could tear apart the Xir and Muze Lines. He could reveal Azile's daughter— Erix's wife—as the granddaughter of a provider.

Erix probably had no idea what it meant, but Jaibriol had absolutely no doubt Corbal knew. When Corbal rose to his feet, Jaibriol wondered if he should just kill himself now, because he didn't see how he would escape this madness unscathed. It was going to blow up in their faces rather than pass any vote. He glanced at Tarquine, but she was leaning over the comm officer's console, for all appearances doing her best to help sort the deluge of messages. The desperate officer turned on the active light of Corbal's console, her face flushed. Jaibriol sympathized. He had never seen even two speakers active at once, let alone five. It wasn't done. Period. Aristos were a great machine that operated in synch. They never deviated. If someone tossed a bolt into the proceedings, they scrambled in chaos.

Corbal's voice rang out. "Let us remember that those who ride in profit do so for the glory of the emperor."

Jaibriol felt like putting his head in his hands. Corbal had just invoked his royal heritage, that he was the son of Eube Qox's sister. On the surface, his statement was a suitably phrased Highton pledge of the loyalty they all gave to the Carnelian Throne, a reminder they were of concord and should behave accordingly. It sounded impeccably appropriate, but Jaibriol knew exactly what he meant. Corbal had just told Barthol Iquar to back the bloody hell off or Corbal would use his imperial connections to destroy him.