Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5 (39 page)

DIVA STARED AT the sorry group standing in the antechamber and her eyebrows nearly reached the ceiling dome.

“Honestly?” she said. “
Honestly?
You couldn’t manage to stay out of trouble for just one afternoon?”

Six was eager to tell her about it. “Yes, but you should see Tartalus, he—”

She narrowed her eyes. “You PROMISED!”

“Yes, but Diva—”

“Do you even know what a promise is, no-name?”

“He started it! It wasn’t my fault! What did you expect me—”

“I expected you to behave like a consort!”

Six stopped and fell quiet. He thought for a few moments, and then it was his turn to start to seethe. They could tell that a dark anger was surging through him by the slight tightening of his jaw. He took a deep breath. “Then you should have known better, shouldn’t you? After all, I’m only a Kwaidian untouchable, right?”

Grace, who had been standing to one side with Cimma, touched Six quietly on the sleeve to make him stop talking. This conversation was going nowhere, she felt, and was not the right topic immediately before the reinstatement ceremony.

“I gather it was unavoidable, Diva,” she told her friend. “From what I hear, Tartalus really did start it.”

Diva looked angry. “But they could have walked away, couldn’t they?”

Grace giggled at the expressions of disgust on all the men’s faces. “Would you have walked away?”

Diva looked torn, and then gave in. “All right, I suppose I wouldn’t.”

She gave a sniff. “But you had better all put those robes on. And pull the hoods up this time; it might help to hide some of the damage.”

Six tried to appease her. “You look very smart!”

“I wish I could say the same for you!” Her glance took in all of their battered faces, which now sported bruises of all sorts of colours.

“Yes, but Diva ... you should have seen the other guys!”

She looked at him. He was unrepentant.

“—What? You can’t be saying I shouldn’t have fought for you!”

She sighed. “I suppose not. But you might at least sound sorry.”

Six duly hung his head, exchanging grins and a grimace with Ledin behind his hand.

“Well, come on, we’re late for the ceremony,” Diva told them, not without a suspicious look in his direction.

They shuffled into the magmite chamber after her, Tallen falling in beside his sister, who was looking jealous.

“And I missed all the fun,” Petra whispered fiercely. “Next time,
you
can take the Mesteta bath!”

Tallen put his chin up, deeming her comment unworthy of reply. They both looked around the chamber with distaste. Any of the rich wall hangings around the walls would have kept one of the clans for a year.

THE MIXED GROUP who trailed in behind Diva were not the only ones who were reluctant to attend the ceremony, it seemed. Tartalus was sitting rigidly in his appointed seat, a large bandage covering his nose, and an expression of utter contempt on the rest of his face. Maximus was peering over at the various members of the group, clearly finding them lacking, and Indomita seemed absolutely horrified at their appearance, shooting a look of total incomprehension at her daughter.

Six stood beside Ledin, until Diva reached back and pulled him forwards until he was level with her, giving an exasperated shake of her head at the same time. Six gave a sigh of resignation, looked back to Ledin, and spread his hands. Then he turned to Maximus, who was reading from a long parchment, although Grace noticed that Six’s attention was more on his surroundings and on Tartalus than on Diva’s father.

Five minutes later, Six was shifting uncomfortably from one foot to the other, and Diva was looking sideways at him with a glare.

“How long is this going to go on?” he whispered.

“
Will
you shut up, nomus?”

“Hah! It’s not
me
who needs to shut up. I swear he’s already read this page twice. We could be here forever.”

“Shh!”

“Oh, very well.” Six subsided again, passing the time by imagining more ways of wiping that supercilious smile off Tartalus’s face. Diva wondered at the sudden still expression of pleasure which had come over him.

Finally the Coriolan leader came to the end of the litany.

“... Reinstating the said marriage, with all its obligations and benefits, and reiterating latent rights to the leadership of the meritocracy. May Sacras bless this union!”

There were half-hearted cheers from some of those present, but most kept a wary sort of silence. The new measures about to be announced were not popular amongst Diva’s peers, most of whom could see no reason at all to change any of their archaic privileges.

“You may kiss your wife.” Maximus sounded even less enthusiastic than before.

Six turned to Diva, and kissed her. This time he made sure that the kiss was a proper one, not just the peck on the cheek that he had given her last time they had stood like this before the head of Coriolis. For one moment, all the other people present disappeared into a faint hum of background noise, and he felt her respond. Then she pulled away. He sighed. She reminded him of quicksilver.

Just when he thought that the evening’s fun was over, Diva’s father turned back to the podium. The ripple of conversation which had started up died down again and people looked expectant.

Maximus cleared his throat, and turned a slightly indignant gaze upon his daughter, who stared back quite serenely.

“Unfortunately it has been pointed out that the new measures suggested by my daughter and her consort, which were to be announced today, may be unconstitutional.” Maximus’s eyes slid across to Tartalus, who seemed to be congratulating himself on something.

Diva’s jaw dropped.

Six half-turned towards Tartalus, before Diva’s slim hand on his arm stopped him.

Bennel immediately moved closer to Diva, and Petra and Tallen took a step forwards.

Grace and Cimma looked at each other in dismay.

Maximus cleared his throat again, and looked momentarily towards his own wife, who was standing like stone on the other side of the ornate plinth. He exhaled, and then went on, “The ruling council has decided to postpone further discussions of these reforms until a full investigation into their possible illegality has been carried out. That may take some months ...”

Six felt a quiver of some strong emotion run through the body of the Coriolan girl standing next to him. He could see Tartalus’s faction grinning around at each other, and Tartalus himself was permitting a huge complacent smile to cross his face beneath the bandage. For a savage second, Six wished that he had broken more than the man’s nose.

“... Further promulgation of the new reform bill is forbidden by decree until the result of the legal investigation is announced ...”

Tartalus seemed to be restraining himself from clapping with some difficulty, and was commenting some witty aside to one of his cronies.

“... However, none of this affects the line of succession, and the right of one of the first-born offspring of the union just reinstated in this ceremony to the future leadership of the meritocracy is not at this time being challenged.”

Tartalus made another comment to his crony, who appeared to find it most amusing.

Without realizing it, Six clenched and unclenched his fists.

Now that Maximus had stopped talking there was a sudden burst of sound, but Diva stepped with huge dignity up to the plinth, and then turned to face her countrymen.

“There can be nothing illegal about these reforms. All civilizations must move forward, and changes are necessary to do so. I am confident that the legal investigation will find no grounds of unconstitutionality.” Diva looked around at them all, her gaze imperious and condemning, before stepping down again from the dais to make her way back to Six’s side.

Six looked around at the rest of his group, eyebrows raised. They all nodded slowly. It had become apparent to each of them that they had overstayed their welcome in Mesteta. Six nodded to his newly reacquired mother and father in law without much enthusiasm, and then he and the rest of his party abandoned the chamber. As soon as they were out, Six pressed the bracelet of orthogel on his wrist, his fingers flashing as he asked Arcan to transport them back up to the New Independence, which was docked at the orbital station.

Diva kept her glacial posture as they left the chamber, and her eyes met those of her mother. Indomita’s eyes were regretful, but cold. She made no attempt to say goodbye to her only daughter. Maximus simply looked away.

DIVA WAS STRIDING up and down the bridge of the New Independence, getting more and more irate. She was muttering to herself, and her eyes were flaring, daring the world to approach.

Six had settled himself comfortably at the main console and was ignoring his wife.

Cimma wandered up to him. “Aren’t you going to say something to her?” she asked him.

Six opened his eyes wide. “Are you crazy? I don’t want to get my head bitten off, thank you very much!”

“But I thought you and she ... that is, I assumed ...”

Six gave his usual feckless grin. “Doesn’t mean I’ve completely misplaced my brains, does it? No, the only thing to do is wait until she has calmed down a bit.”

Unfortunately Diva had overheard the last bit, and was now standing in front of both of them, glowering.

“Calm down! How can you expect me to calm down? I spent weeks getting them to accept the new laws. How could they do this to me?”

“Yes, yes,” said Six, “—very terrible.” He looked again at the console.

“Are you making fun of me?” Her eyebrows drew ominously together.

His mouth pulled down at the corners. “Just a little,” he acknowledged.

“You think it is funny?”

“N-o-o, not really.” Then he relented. “Well, a tiny bit, I suppose. We should have realized how ingrained the need to rule is in the meritocrats. They are really just like the Elders of Kwaide. I, at least, should have predicted what would happen.”

“If my suggestions are found to be unconstitutional, I would lose all credibility. Do you realize that means that we might never be able to go back to Coriolis?”

“Amazing how good things come out of bad, isn’t it?” Then he tried to rectify. “—Although, in your case that must be a very painful thing to have to face.”

“All you can think of is you’re GLAD you don’t have to go back?” Her tone was absolutely disbelieving.

Six moved his head from side to side. “Your father does go on and on for such a long time at those ceremonies of yours.”

“You are impossible!”

“Thank you, Diva. I do my best,” Six said modestly.

“Bah!”

“Well, really, your mulchiness, don’t you think you are overreacting a bit?”

Cimma almost ducked at the expression in Diva’s eyes.

“No I don’t,” The Coriolan girl retorted. “How would
you
feel if ...” She fell suddenly silent.

“Ah, there it is, isn’t it? Neither Grace, nor Bennel, nor Cimma has a homeland anymore. Ledin and I never even knew our parents, did we? So – in my humble opinion – you are letting this get the better of you. Calm down, accept it, and let’s move on. It isn’t as if you wanted to live on the planet, for Sacras’ sake! And they may decide to implement the new reforms, after all. Tartalus can’t be very popular amongst the meritocrats. I mean, just look at him!”

To Cimma’s great surprise, Six’s comments seemed to influence Diva, who exhaled slowly and tried to steady her breathing, before admitting, “You are right, we would just have to find another way to change things.”

Six nodded. “I mean, your father sent you away to your death when you were fourteen, if you remember?”