The Ruby Dice (16 page)

"The assassins could never have reached you," Qahot said as he paced. "Their clothes were shrouded against sensors, but the moment they drew their weapons, it triggered alarms all over Selei City. Their shots would never have hit home."

Roca spoke, her voice like tempered steel. "They should never have gotten close enough to shoot."

Perspiration beaded on Qahot's forehead. "It won't happen again, Your Highness."

"Imperator Skolia." Strava spoke from her seat at another console. "We've identified the security hole that let the assassins slip their guns by our systems."

"A hole?" Kelric said. "How did that happen?"

"It migrated from another system." She was reading from one of her screens. "The Hinterland Deployment."

Kelric froze. The Hinterland Deployment guarded Coba. "How could it affect us? That's a different region of space."

She rubbed her chin as she studied the data. "It's odd. A few bytes are missing from a security mod in the Hinterland codes. Almost nothing. But the hole propagated to other systems." She looked up at Kelric. "The mesh-techs couldn't locate the cause, but they're patching the hole."

It was all Kelric could do to remain impassive. One little hole in Hinterland security. Just one, but it had spread. Because it hadn't been properly coded. Because it should never have existed. Because he had made it in secret.

Kelric had told Dirac to "forget" Coba was the focus of the Hinterland Deployment. He should have known better. The deletion had ended up drawing far more attention than if he had done nothing. Hell, it had nearly killed him.

"Keep me apprised of their progress," he told Strava.

"Will do, sir."

He swiveled his chair to Axer, who was standing by a console with his hand cupped to his ear as he listened to his comm. "Do you have anything on the three assassins?" Kelric asked.

A frown creased the broad planes of the guard's face. "They were delegates in the Assembly. The police found records in their quarters."

His careful expression didn't fool Kelric. His guards shielded their minds and didn't talk much, but he knew them well. Axer was worried.

"What do you have on them so far?" Kelric asked.

"They feared what would happen if Councilor Roca lost the vote." He glanced at Kelric's mother. "I'm sorry, ma'am."

"Why would they fear the vote?" she asked. "Their seats aren't hereditary."

"Apparently they thought it gave Imperator Skolia too much power and you too little."

Kelric stared at them. "They would assassinate me to support my mother?"

Roca's voice hardened. "Then they deserved to die."

Don't, Kelric thought to her.

No one tries to murder my child and gets away with it.

Kelric recognized her cold fury. Normally she was a gentle woman, but threats to her family brought out a ferocity that startled even him. He thought of his ordeals on Coba. Had she known, she would have retaliated against the Cobans. And if today's assassination had succeeded? Roca was next in line to become Imperator. It was among the more bizarre ramifications of their extended lifespans, that a parent could be her child's heir. She didn't want the title; she was trained to succeed Dehya as Assembly Key. But she was better qualified as Imperator than Kelric's siblings, and only a Ruby psion could join the Dyad.

Had Kelric died, the Closure document would have released to the authorities as soon as the news became public. ISC would have gone to find Ixpar and his children. He had always known that could happen, but when he had written his will, he had seen no other choice.

Kelric?
Roca's forehead furrowed.
You think I will retaliate against the families of the assassins?

Startled, he strengthened his shields. At least his defenses had been strong enough that she misread his thoughts. Let the courts deal with it.

She regarded him impassively.

I mean it, Mother. Let Legal handle this. He was aware of his guards watching. They had probably figured out he and Roca were mentally conversing. As Jagernauts, they were psions, but if even Roca picked up so little through his shields, it was unlikely they would get anything. They had nowhere near her mental strength. Kelric had become a master at hiding from his family, but he was worn out by cutting himself off that way.

Security suspected something was up,
Roca thought.
But not this.

So you really were trying to start a rumor yesterday.

Yes. To trace its source.

Apparently its source found us first, he thought dourly.

Roca exhaled.
It seems so.

Kelric glanced at Qahot, who was leaning over a console to read its screen. "Major, do we have leads on who the assassins were working with?"

Qahot straightened up. "So far, it looks like only those three were involved. Records of their correspondence indicate they've grown disaffected over the years." Then he added, "Yesterday, one of them told another delegate you should be 'voted out' of your seat permanently."

It was a sobering response. Kelric had known the Imperator wasn't well-liked, but he hadn't thought anyone wanted him dead. Had he lost sight of his humanity in the performance of his duties?

Axer was watching his face. "Sir, they were fanatics. No matter what you did, they would have objected. It was the office of Imperator they opposed. Not the person."

Kelric knew Axer meant well, and it was one of the longer speeches his guard had ever made to him. But he suspected the assassins protested the man who held the title as much as the title itself. He had to do his job, even if people hated him for it. He nodded to his guard, then spoke to Qahot. "Do checks on all the Assembly delegates and their aides. Make sure no one else was involved."

"Right away, sir," Qahot said.

A door across the room opened to admit a Jagernaut in black leathers. Vazar. She strode to Kelric's console. "Primary Majda reporting, sir."

Kelric stood up, regarding her coolly. "Are my joint commanders safe?"

"Yes, sir." Her posture was ramrod straight. "General Majda and Primary Tapperhaven have left Parthonia. Admiral Barzun is on the Orbiter. General Stone is on Diesha. All are under increased security."

"Good," he said. Her tension practically snapped in the air. Yesterday she had voted against the Ruby Dynasty; today she was tasked with protecting their interests. Neither of them missed the irony. He went around the console to her and spoke in a low voice only she could hear. "You're on duty here until I get back. Don't disappoint me."

She met his gaze. "I won't, sir."

He felt her mood: regardless of her vote, she would protect his family with her life. As angry as he felt toward her, he had to respect the integrity that spurred her to choose what she believed was right even when she knew it would alienate him and imperil her own Assembly seat.

Kelric beckoned to Roca, and she left the command center with him and his guards. Her anger at Vaz simmered, but she said nothing. She rarely spoke aloud to him when he was dealing with ISC, and he had realized she didn't want to appear as if she were interfering with his authority. He doubted she would, but he appreciated the consideration. The Assembly needed more of that sensitivity she brought to the table, not less.

Her bodyguards were outside, three instead of the usual two. They fell into formation around Kelric and Roca, along with Najo, Strava, and Axer. They all walked down the metallic tunnel deep below Selei City.

"With supporters like those assassins," Roca said in a low voice, "I don't need enemies."

"It's not your fault," he said.

She glanced at him. "You're a damn fine commander, Kelric. Don't let what happened today make you believe otherwise."

He rubbed his neck, working at stiffness his nanomeds couldn't seem to ease. "Doubt is good for the soul."

"I'm just so immensely grateful you're all right."

"I, too," he said wryly.

Her normally dulcet voice turned icy. "Everyone involved with this attempt against your life will pay."

She reminded him of the clawcats that prowled the Teotec Mountains on Coba. "Let the courts deal with it."

"Of course."

Kelric didn't trust
that
answer. She never gave in that easily. He knew she wouldn't rest until they had caught everyone connected with the attempt on his life.

The assassins had forced him to face certain facts. If he died and Roca became Imperator, then at the same time she was taking command, the Closure document would come to light. And he would no longer be alive to protect Coba.

Most people left Selei City through Selei Interstellar Starport. Kelric went to Admiral Starport, a much smaller facility used by the military and government. He and his guards boarded a racer, one of the fastest starships known. They left Parthonia just after night's mid- hour, flying swift and silent.

Jaibriol sat sprawled on a sofa in the sitting area of his bedroom, his eyes closed. His mind brimmed with the bittersweet memories that crept up on him when he didn't fill his days with enough work to make him forget. Tonight he remembered how his mother had brought him and his siblings to Earth, deep in the night, to a starport in Virginia. She had asked Admiral Seth Rockworth to meet them, and he had been waiting.

Seth had looked after Jaibriol, his sister, and his two younger brothers for two years—while their mother waged war against their father's empire. They had lived in a gorgeous area of the Appalachian Mountains. Everyone had known Jaibriol as Jay Rockworth. He could have gone by Gabe; some historians believed his name derived from
Gabriel
. But it felt wrong to call himself after an angel when he descended from Highton Aristos. No one who knew him had dreamed he had a claim to both the Carnelian and Ruby thrones.

The loneliness of those days had weighed on him, for he could never acknowledge his parents. But it had also been a gentle time when he made friends, went to school, played sports, attended church, and had the closest he would ever come to a normal life. He and his siblings had cared deeply for Seth. Their mother had taken them to the retired admiral because he had been the Ruby Pharaoh's first consort, an arranged union that established a treaty between Skolia and the Allied Worlds. That he and the pharaoh later ended the marriage hadn't dissolved the treaty. Although technically Seth was no longer a member of the Ruby Dynasty, Jaibriol's mother had trusted him, enough to leave her children and their secret in his care.

Jaibriol didn't know what had happened to his sister and brothers; he had been offworld when he claimed his throne, and they had been on Earth. He had searched the meshes for them and found nothing. He feared to investigate too far, lest he endanger them with his attention, but he mourned the loss of their companionship as much as he grieved for his parents.

Tarquine had erased the few images of him on the meshes from that time on Earth. He hadn't looked Aristo then, with gold streaks in his hair and brown contacts that covered his red eyes. She wanted no questions. Not long after their marriage, she had cracked his secured medical files and discovered he had the same nanomeds in his body as Kelric. Roca Skolia had passed the meds to her children in her womb, and Jaibriol inherited them from his mother. From that, Tarquine had deduced the truth. Only she could have found that damning shred of evidence because she had owned, ever so briefly, a member of the Ruby Dynasty.

Tarquine had destroyed the files.

Why she protected him, Jaibriol didn't know, though surely it was because he held a similarly damning secret about her, that she no longer transcended. It seemed impossible it could be because she loved him.

Slumping back on the sofa, he put his feet on the table in front of him. Gold and midnight blue brocade glimmered on the sofa and the wing chair at right angles to it. Far across the suite, his canopied bed stood on a dais. The bedroom gleamed, gilt and ivory, with blue accents and tiered chandeliers.

His guards were outside. This bedroom suite was one of the few places with enough safeguards to allow him privacy even from his formidable Razers. They were infamous for their supposedly inhuman nature, but Jaibriol wondered, especially about Hidaka. He felt certain the guard knew when he wanted to be alone and when he wanted visitors, and did his best to ensure Jaibriol's wishes were met. Why Hidaka would care, he had no idea, but he appreciated the results.

His wrist comm buzzed. Lifting his arm, he said, "Qox."

One of his guards answered. "Robert Muzeson is here, Your Highness. Shall we let him in?"

"Yes, certainly," Jaibriol said.

As Jaibriol sat up, the arched door to the entrance foyer opened. Its corners were curved, avoiding the right angles Aristos abhorred. Squared-off corners, like direct speech, were for slaves. Aristos considered abstraction elevated; Jaibriol considered it maddening.

Hidaka escorted Robert inside and bowed deeply to Jaibriol.

"Thank you," Jaibriol told the guard. Then he added, quietly, "For everything, Captain."

For an instant something showed on Hidaka's face. Shock? Jaibriol wasn't certain. He tried to pick up a mood from the captain, but he couldn't read the Razer's mental processes, which had been substantially altered by the extensive biomech in his brain.

After Hidaka withdrew, Jaibriol motioned Robert to the wing chair. "Relax, please."

"Thank you, Your Highness." Robert settled in the chair and leaned back, though he wasn't truly relaxed. Jaibriol remained slouched on the sofa, his long legs on the table. He knew it wasn't regal, but he really didn't care.

Robert looked as professional as always, a fit middle-aged man with brown hair. He dressed in elegant clothes of muted colors with peculiar names like
ecru
. To Jaibriol, it just looked like pale brown. Robert didn't have the stunning appearance of his father, Caleb, but from what Jaibriol had gathered about Caleb's life before he came to the palace, those good looks had brought him only grief. He had been a provider for Robert's mother. Now Caleb spent his days painting, as he had done before he was sold as a slave.