Confluence

CHAPTER TWO: DOMINIQUE RADKO

The Radko estate looked the same as Radko remembered it. Kilometers of vineyards, deepening now into purple as the leaves darkened for autumn. She hadn’t told Ean that most of the wine he drank on the Lancastrian Princess came from her family winery.

Golden Lake, named for its color, sat like a massive gem in the heart of the estate. Hectares of trees and gardens set around smaller lakes made a gracious panorama as the car flew in. The morning sun caught the rose quartz and mica in the granite of the stone blocks of the house, making it sparkle and glow.

It had been afternoon when she’d left Confluence Station. Radko sighed. On top of everything else, it was going to be a long day.

She received three messages from her mother in the time it took to walk from the parking station to her apartment, and another one as she dropped her kit onto a shelf in the nearly empty wardrobe room. This time, Hua Radko leaned on the signal until her daughter answered.

“Mother.”

“You’re late.”

She wasn’t. She was seventeen minutes earlier than she’d told them she’d be, but there was no point saying that. “When you’re traveling with Michelle, you travel on Michelle’s time.”

“I suppose you can’t argue that. Although you’d think she’d try to be on time for her own father.”

“Are we going to hold this whole conversation through the comms?” Radko asked. Her mother was perfectly capable of doing that though her apartment was just down the corridor from Radko’s. “Why don’t I come and talk face-to-face?”

She dropped her comms back into her pocket and moved swiftly down the corridor to her mother’s claustrophobic quarters. Hua Radko had collected jeweled eggs all her life. The heavy black timber cupboards that were de rigueur for displaying them lined the walls. That, combined with the individual display lights to show off each egg, always made Radko think of a cave alight with phosphorescent growth.

Her mother hadn’t changed. A tall, elderly woman who held herself as straight as a soldier on parade, Hua must have spent time in the military; for how else could she hold that posture so long? Radko had never asked, for her mother didn’t encourage personal questions. They’d never been close.

The long entertaining room was crowded with people. That was normal. Hua entertained as much as her sister Jai—the Emperor’s mother—did.

There were new faces. After years serving under Abram Galenos, checking out potential threats to the Crown Princess of Lancia, Radko recognized many of them.

Prominent among them was Tiana Chen, a minor functionary in the Emperor’s outer circle. She didn’t have much influence with the Emperor himself, but she had a knack of ferreting out secrets from those who did and using those secrets to control them. She had no reason to associate herself with an out-of-favor branch of the Yu family like the Radkos. Nor did Ethan Saylor, the slender youth sitting beside her, whose family were part of the Emperor’s inner circle.

Saylor leaned his head close to Chen’s, curled his lip, and said in an undertone meant to be heard. “Look what just walked in.”

Chen rapped his fingers with her comms and said something too low to hear. Given Chen’s lower standing in court, an action like that should have been social suicide. Instead, Saylor scowled at Radko, as if she were to blame for the reprimand.

Radko moved around to get close enough to hear them.

Both of them fell silent.

Her time in the fleet had made her suspicious of everyone. She had to remember that people behaved strangely without ulterior motives.

Hua saw her then. “Surely you could have changed out of that dreadful outfit before you came to me.” If her mother had been given to histrionics, she would have put her hand to her forehead in an overt display of the hopelessness of the task.

Out of the corner of her eye, Radko saw Saylor nod. Chen rapped his fingers again.

Hua beckoned two of the guests toward her with an imperious snap. “Messire Zheng, Messire Tse. Do what you can.”

Tse and Zheng circled Radko.

“At least she has the family looks,” Tse murmured.

“But her hair,” Zheng said. “What a disaster.”

Hua beckoned again. “Messire Coles.”

Pieter Coles had been doing the hair for the Radko family ever since Radko could remember. He’d been the first and only person to cut her hair until she’d left to join the fleet. He’d been simply “Pieter” back then. Messire was an old term, once used for a master of a craft but now mostly fallen out of favor. Maybe it was coming back into fashion, for Ean’s voice coach insisted on the title “Messire” Gospetto, as well.

It wasn’t hard to tell what the other two were, with their striking outfits and their comms extended to full slate mode. Clothes designers.

Radko stood patiently while the designers made their sketches. She’d done this often enough as a child to know they would have come in with their designs mostly complete. After all, what designer threw something together in half an hour when it would be worn to an audience with the Emperor of Lancia? This part of the designing was for show.

“So excited to be a guest of honor at tonight’s party,” Hua said. “And Michelle will be there. I haven’t seen her in… oh, I forget how long.”

Radko could have told her mother that Hua had last seen her grandniece 287 days prior, at a function held the day before Michelle had left to supposedly investigate the confluence. She didn’t. Instead, she stood silent and thought about her own upcoming meeting.

Emperor Yu had a habit of springing nasty surprises when he called a member of his family in for a royal audience, and Radko’s invitation had come separate from Michelle’s, which meant the Emperor had plans for both of them.

She didn’t know which was worse. Worrying about what the Emperor wanted or worrying about what might happen to Ean while she wasn’t there to protect him.

“Dress her to show how important her family is,” Hua said to the designers. “After all, she is the Emperor’s cousin.”

A cousin the Emperor didn’t remember existed most of the time.

Radko’s oldest niece, Claudette, drifted over to talk to Chen and Saylor. Claudette was two years older than Radko. Hua hadn’t wanted a second child—after all, Henri was happily married and already producing grandchildren. But Hua’s nephew, Yu, insisted the family bloodline be carried by more than a single child. And who would argue with Yu, then newly ascended to the Lancian throne?

Saylor couldn’t hide his boredom although the occasional glare from Chen kept his acidic comments under control.

What had happened in the Radko family that made Chen desperate to stay on their side?

“Take off your jacket,” Tse commanded. “I need to see your arms.”

Radko did so.

Tse clapped her hand to her forehead. “Look at them. They’re… hard.”

“And she has no chest at all,” Zheng said. “Or nothing to speak of.”

Radko couldn’t tell if they were acting for their audience or genuinely upset. “Muscle tone never hurt anyone.” If they wanted curves, they wouldn’t get them from a Lancastrian soldier, especially not someone who worked for Abram Galenos.

Commodore Vega now, for Galenos had been promoted to admiral.

Zheng walked around Radko. “I could make her arms a feature. It would be unusual.”

“No,” Hua said, and her horror wasn’t faked. “It would be a show of strength. We don’t want to challenge anyone. Cover them. Cover them now,” and she picked up Radko’s jacket and thrust it at her. “I don’t ever want to see them again.”

Radko pulled on her jacket. She recognized genuine fear when she saw it. Had her mother always been so scared of the Emperor?

“Messires Zheng and Tse will come up with two designs each,” her mother said. “You must choose one of them. While it’s being made up, I’ll send Messire Coles in to attend your hair. In the meantime, do us all a favor and go and wash and change.”

“I wouldn’t mind some sleep.” Radko was a soldier. She could nap when she needed to. “It’s evening where I’ve come from.”

“You won’t have time,” her mother said.

Radko thought she might snatch a nap, anyway.

Claudette caught up with her outside the apartment. “Take the Tse outfit. Grandmama has promised that the designer you don’t choose can design my dress, and I already know what I want.”

Radko’s childhood had been made up of bargains and counterbargains like these. “Make sure Tse designs me something I want to wear, then. I don’t plan on looking stupid because you want the other designer.”

“I’ll find a way to send Tse along to your apartment,” Claudette said.

Radko missed her uniform already, and she was still wearing it.

“I want a dress I can move in,” Radko told Tse, when she was alone in her quarters with the designer. “And I want hidden strength.” She was a soldier. She was dangerous. Emperor Yu would do well to remember that. Then she remembered her mother’s obvious terror. “Maybe not the strength.” She didn’t want anything to reflect back negatively on her family.

“Clothes you can move in are not fashionable.”

“I’ll take a Zheng design then.”

“Your niece wants the Zheng outfit.” Tse took out her comms and extended it to a full drawing slate. “I can’t design a new dress in half an hour.” She paused, and looked at Radko. “You seem naïve—unusual for someone of your position—but your mother is a good customer of mine, so I’ll give you some advice for free. Don’t antagonize Emperor Yu. I’ve seen other people try it, like young Ethan Saylor back in your mother’s rooms. It gets you nowhere except out, and if your family want to retain any position they have, they would then have to disown you.”

“Is that what Saylor’s family did?”

Tse cocked her head to one side and studied Radko, then the design on her slate. She didn’t answer.

Radko looked at the design. A sheath dress, so tight she’d have to mince. “I can’t wear that. I need to move when I want to.”

“I’m thinking.” Tse changed the image. The new design was much better. “This I designed for the Crown Princess herself. All designers do, you know. In case they are ever asked. Not that we’re ever likely to, of course—Her Royal Highness has her own designers. But we all have half a design ready to build on. A classic, just in case.”

Tse modified the design and held up the final image. Tight-fitting leggings with a swirling, full-length tunic over the top. The tunic had side slits that went up to the waist. “You’ll be able to run in this.”

Not without pulling it up, but at least you could pull it up. If she was desperate, Radko could fling the cloth over her shoulders.

“The beauty in this is the cloth it’s made from,” Tse said. “It took me five years to come up with the design. But a soldier like you wouldn’t appreciate the finer things in life.”

“Even soldiers like to dress well.”

Tse sniffed. “I’d believe that more if you’d stopped to change before you went to your mother’s rooms.” She held up the design.

Radko nodded approval.

Afterward, Tse lingered.

“Is there something else?”

Tse still hesitated. Finally, she said, “Your mother is one of my best clients. I hope whatever you’re involved in doesn’t endanger her.”

“What I’m involved in?” How much did Tse know about Radko’s job? How much did she know about Ean?

“Your mother has a lot of new friends. All acquired after we heard you were coming home.”

Radko had only been summoned ten days ago.

“You don’t need friends like Tiana Chen or Ethan Saylor. They’ll discard you as soon as you’ve finished being useful. As will their mentor, Sattur Dow.”

“Thank you,” Radko said. Her mother knew better than she did what a minefield Lancian politics could be. She would know this already.

The swirling design on the outfit Tse produced reminded Radko of the creation scene on the wall in the large crew room on the Eleven.

Pieter waited with his gels and brushes. “I hardly know what to do with it,” he said. “The dress takes over.”

“What about an electrostatic halo,” Radko suggested. If she was to wear an outfit based on an alien design, she might as well wear her hair the way it often was when she was around lines.

“It’s plain,” Pieter said, doubtfully, when he was done. “But it’s striking enough, I suppose.”

It felt like home. “I’m used to its being like this.”

Pieter looked appalled. “Isn’t it dangerous to be close to so much static all the time?”

Radko smiled, thinking of Ean, who could throw a man across a shuttle bay with the help of the lines. “Of course it’s dangerous.” But perfectly safe, too.

Hua Radko kept up a constant, strained chatter in the aircar on the way to Baoshan. Radko thought the chatter covered nervousness and a bit of one-upmanship.

There were six of them in the car. Radko, her mother, Claudette, Tiana Chen, Ethan Saylor, and another close friend of her mother’s, who’d been around seemingly forever.

“It will be nice to see Michelle again,” Hua said. A subtle reminder to people like Chen and Saylor that Michelle was a relation. “She dresses so beautifully.”

Her mother hadn’t commented on Radko’s dress. Claudette hadn’t either, but Radko had seen the expression on her niece’s face. Tse had gotten herself another client out of this and probably started a new fashion.

“You work with Her Royal Highness,” Chen said to Radko. “You must see her every day.”

“No.” If Chen thought Radko had easy access to the Crown Princess, it was time to disabuse her. “I’m part of a team. We have other duties as well.” She could get to Michelle more easily than most of her team could, through Ean, but that was none of Chen’s business.

“Like guarding the linesmen on the alien ships,” Saylor said.

That wasn’t general knowledge. “Occasionally,” Radko said. “Her Royal Highness has a linesman on her staff.” That was known.

It was night on Confluence Station. Ean would be in bed.

“And we’ll have access to that linesman.” Saylor rubbed his hands together. “Imagine. We’ll own the universe.”

Lancia was never going to get free access to Ean. Not without Michelle as intermediary. Nor without Radko at Ean’s back to protect him. Yet most Lancastrians assumed that because Ean was Lancastrian, they had an advantage over the other worlds. Radko wouldn’t have thought anything more about his comment except that Chen jabbed her fan into Saylor’s leg as he opened his mouth to speak again.

It was supposed to be unobtrusive, but any trained observer would have picked it up.

Why did Chen want Saylor to shut up?

“Have you ever been on one of the alien ships?” Chen asked, in what Radko thought was a deliberate attempt to change the conversation.

“Captain Helmo arranged for the crew of the Lancastrian Princess to see the Eleven.” She’d been plenty of times before that visit, of course, and afterward, but she knew how to deflect this conversation. “We wore suits and UV goggles. You couldn’t see much.”

“Suits?” Chen asked. “So the air isn’t breathable?”

Radko shrugged, like a junior guard who didn’t know much about the atmosphere on the spaceship and didn’t much care. “Orders,” she said.

The Eleven was fully oxygenated now, not a trace of alien atmosphere left. The Confluence only had oxygen to the small area between the regular shuttle bay they used and the bridge, plus a few other areas they had explored thoroughly.

“What was it like?” Chen asked. “The ship, I mean.”

Everyone was interested in the ship. “Big,” Radko said. “You walk a long way to get anywhere. There wasn’t much to see, really.”

“And the equipment?”

Radko shrugged. “It was alien.”

“But linesmen can read the boards?”

Chen seemed to know a lot about the alien ships. The question made Radko uneasy.

“That’s the theory.” It was common knowledge that linesmen were required for the alien ships.

Hua Radko said, “We’ve a Lancastrian in charge of the project, but what have we seen? No alien technology. Not using the ships to attack Gate Union. When does Lancia get some benefit from this?”

Civilians always expected things to happen immediately. And to happen solely for their own world’s benefit. “One ship has been crewed.” Or partly crewed, anyway. “These things take time.”

“We’ve been at war months. We should have blasted Gate Union out of space by now. We’ve seen what the ships can do.”

“Maybe the New Alliance is preventing Lancia from acting.” Chen watched Radko carefully, as she added, “After all, Galenos has only recently been promoted to admiral. Maybe he finds himself outclassed.”

No one had ever accused Abram Galenos of being outclassed before. He’d worked with the admirals on Lancia as an equal, even when he’d only been a commodore.

It was time Radko started shutting Chen down. She laughed. “I doubt it. I’ve seen some of the trials. The ship is dangerous. The New Alliance doesn’t want civilian casualties. They’ll bring the ship out when they need it.”

They landed then, to her relief, for she didn’t want to spend hours talking about the alien ships. Not with these people.

They waited in a private room off the public concourse of the palace. Radko saw four cameras. The people who were watching them would be part of her own unit. The Royal Guard.

The Royal Guard was split into three branches. The largest was the division that dealt with the security for the Emperor himself and was headed by Commodore Sergey Bach. As a child, Radko had been scared of him. Thinking about it now, she realized it was her mother’s fear, for her mother had impressed on her early that Bach had the power to kill them if they so much as looked at Yu the wrong way.

Her mother must be terrified of Emperor Yu.

The Crown Princess’s division was headed by the recently appointed Jiang Vega.

The third division, the group that looked after other members of the royal family, was run by Captain Ah Ning, who answered to Commodore Bach.

Finally, it was time.

Emperor Yu was a striking man, genetically tweaked to be handsome and powerful. He was approaching sixty years of age but looked half that. Two Royal Guards stood inside the door, on either side, another two on either side of the throne, and two more partway between, close to where the visitors would stand when they had their audience.

Aside from the throne, there was only one other seat in the room, a long chair placed at right angles to the throne. The seat was already occupied by Sattur Dow, a close friend of Emperor Yu’s.

Sattur Dow’s presence was worrying.

Radko bowed low and held the bow for as long as protocol demanded, and a bit longer. After all, she didn’t plan on disgracing her family.

She kept her face expressionless. “Your Imperial Majesty.”

He said nothing.

The Emperor was famous for keeping his visitors waiting. Sometimes, he’d make the visitor wait ten or fifteen minutes before he spoke.

Radko knew how to deal with that. She stood at ease, hands behind her back, and stared ahead as if she were at parade assembly. She could stand that way for hours. Although she would have preferred better shoes to do it in.

Maybe it worked, for the Emperor broke the silence in less than two minutes. “Cousin.” Or maybe the short time was for Sattur Dow’s benefit.

“Cousin.” Radko bowed again.

Emperor Yu steepled his hands. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking. “I trust you are well.”

“Thank you, I am. And yourself, likewise?” Dow hadn’t been introduced yet, so she didn’t inquire after his health.

“Of course,” the Emperor said, as if there was never any doubt. “I hear you are protecting my daughter.”

“It is an honor to serve as one of Her Royal Highness’s guards.”

“Yet you are not guarding my daughter at all.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You are bodyguard to Linesman Lambert.”

“Who is a member of Her Royal Highness’s staff, and Her Royal Highness herself has requested that protection.” Was this what he had called her home for? To reprimand her?

“You spend a lot of time on the alien ships.”

He’d better not ask her to spy for him because this conversation was going straight back to Vega and Galenos. “I have spent some time on the alien ships, yes.”

The Emperor smiled. “You see,” he said to Sattur Dow. “I promise, and I deliver.”

Saylor and Chen’s belief that they would soon get access to a linesman suddenly made sense. Especially given Tse’s earlier comment about their mentor being Sattur Dow.

That was going straight back to Vega and Galenos as well.

“But I have been remiss, cousin,” Emperor Yu said. “I summoned you here for a reason. Please allow me to introduce your future husband, Sattur Dow.”

It wasn’t a surprise. The Emperor didn’t invite relatives like her to the Imperial Palace for any other reason. Most of the family members Radko had grown up with had already received their summonses. Radko fully expected that when the time came, she would do her duty as well.

She went down on one knee and bowed deep—partly in acquiescence, partly to hide her dismay.

“My cousin accompanies the linesman to every function,” Emperor Yu said, above her head to Sattur Dow. “You will have ample opportunity to speak with him.”

How did Dow did think he was going to get access to the functions Ean attended?

“My cousin is a dutiful soldier. She is also a dutiful employee of the Crown.” He directed the next words to Radko. “Cousin, you will take every opportunity to allow your new husband to speak to your charge.”

Never. If she allowed Dow access to Ean, she was failing her job. She wasn’t going to be Yu’s pawn. But the Emperor had given her an order. If she refused, it was treason, and he had every right to kill her.

If she was going to die, she’d do it her way.

Radko looked up. “I wish you had spoken to me earlier, in private, Cousin.” Not the Imperial form of address, for this had to sound personal, not professional.

It was personal.

It was also her job—her right—to protect Ean. Giving Sattur Dow access wasn’t protecting him.

She stood, breathing deep to stop the tremble that threatened, and bowed to Sattur Dow. Lower than she might have otherwise. “No insult intended, Merchant Dow, but I have a career, a life. It doesn’t include a partner.” It might have included a partner, but not the one Yu was proposing.

Emperor Yu’s expression didn’t change, but his voice was cold when he said, “You insult me with your rudeness.”

“You insult both of us by not discussing this with me privately first.” She bowed to Sattur Dow again and hid her icy hands in the folds of material.

The stance of the guards changed subtly. None of them had moved, but Radko could see they were ready. She couldn’t take on six guards on her own. Not Royal Guards. Right now, she would have liked Ean and line eight backing her up.

“You forget yourself, cousin,” Emperor Yu said.

“No. You forget yourself, Cousin. There is nothing in the laws of Lancia that says another Lancastrian must marry a person of the Emperor’s choosing.” If she had to make such a futile stand, she might as well do it properly. “The only reason other members of the family have done so is because you are head of our family and have arranged the marriage.”

And because they were scared of him.

He was about to kill her, and she couldn’t do anything about that. Not that he’d kill her himself; he wouldn’t soil his hands. One of those guards standing tense with their hands near their weapons would do the deed.

She hoped Ean’s new bodyguard would look after him properly.

The Emperor looked at the guard to Radko’s left.

Radko looked at him, too. He’d better look her in the eye while he shot her.

“Wait.” Sattur Dow spoke with such urgency that the guard paused at his command. How much power did Dow have?

Emperor Yu’s eyes narrowed. He shifted his cold gaze from Radko to Sattur Dow, and maybe, just for a moment, Dow remembered how easy it was to fall out of favor with the ruler of Lancia. At least, Radko hoped he did.

“I will not have my orders challenged.”

“Your cousin is emotional and overwrought.” Dow held Yu’s gaze. “If we give her time to reconsider, I’m sure she’ll come around.”

The Emperor’s face darkened into a scowl.

“I have already made plans,” Sattur Dow said. “The wedding. Our future. I would hate to see them ruined.”

The emphasis was so slight that if she hadn’t been listening for it, Radko wouldn’t have heard it.

“Plans. Of course.” Emperor Yu waved dismissively at Radko. “Get out of my sight before I change my mind.”

She bowed to Dow, ignored the Emperor altogether, and kept her back straight as she walked to the door.

“And cousin.”

Radko looked back.

“Prepare for your wedding.”