“IT’S GOOD TO HAVE YOU BACK, My Lady,” Bryon said, as Emily stepped into the office. His eyes moved to Imaiqah. “And you too, My Lady.”
Emily nodded. Randor had appointed someone to control Cockatrice, after she’d been exiled and Imaiqah had been sent to the Tower, but the newcomer hadn’t had the time or the inclination to really make his mark on the barony. Bryon had been demoted, along with a handful of others, and replaced by the newcomer’s cronies…yet he hadn’t been kicked out of the castle, let alone executed. The newcomer’s policies had been halfway towards triggering a revolt when Alassa had escaped the Tower, but he hadn’t even had the sense to make sure of the loyalty of the guards. There had been a very quick and bloodless coup when Emily appeared at the gates, and that was that.
Not that it will last forever, Emily reminded herself. Randor will have other spies and agents, less obvious ones, positioned within the barony.
“It’s good to be back,” she said, not entirely truthfully. “I trust things have run well in our absence?”
She sighed, inwardly, as Bryon composed his reply. She’d always been ambivalent about the barony, about her right to control the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. They might think she was the greatest landholder in the country, the one who actually allowed her people to earn money and profit from their ingenuity, but she had always dreaded the prospect of making a mistake that would get thousands of people killed.
“The barony has suffered no lasting damage from the usurper,” Bryon assured her, finally. “And I am sure his laws will be repealed once you have a chance to review them.”
Emily nodded, curtly. “We must prepare the barony for war,” she said. By now, the news was all over the country. Alexis hadn’t fallen, but open war had broken out between King Randor and the Noblest…while Alassa had escaped the Tower and was building up her own forces in Swanhaven. “We will be allied with Princess Alassa.”
“Yes, My Lady,” Bryon said. He sounded a little doubtful, although she knew he was willing to trust her judgement. He’d objected to some of her earlier reforms, but they’d all paid off–literally–for the barony. “Cockatrice is at your command.”
“Prince Consort Jade has been appointed Captain-General of Her Highness’s armed forces,” Emily informed him. “His deputy”–she indicated Cat with a nod–“will be responsible for raising, training and commanding forces specifically from Cockatrice itself. You will give him your full support, as well as a credit line from the Bank of Cockatrice.”
Bryon bowed to Cat. “As you wish, My Lady.”
“I may be required to return to Swanhaven and consult with Her Highness,” Emily continued. “Lady Imaiqah will run the barony on a day-to-day basis, as she did before.”
“Of course,” Bryon said. She’d expected a flicker of resentment, but there was nothing. She remembered that Imaiqah had been sweet on Bryon, once upon a time, and wondered if they’d been working closer together than either she or the king had realized. It didn’t really matter, she told herself firmly. She just hoped it didn’t end in a broken heart. “It would be my honor.”
Emily nodded, then walked to the windows and looked down. Cockatrice City had mushroomed in all directions, growing at a pace she would have considered impossible six years ago. It had tripled in size over the first four years, but now it was even bigger…she wondered, morbidly, just how many of the new apartment blocks had collapsed within a year or two after they were declared inhabitable. The demand for accommodation was pushing the builders to the limit, even after the financial crash. Her eye caught sight of a locomotive, puffing along the Cockatrice-Beneficence Line. The crash had hurt–no one could deny it–but the barony had recovered.
“This will be a very different war,” she said, as she watched the locomotive pull into the station and come to a halt. “The king and the aristocracy want to undo everything we’ve done over the last six years. They’ll burn books, smash printing presses and execute everyone who knows how to build a machine. They may even burn Cockatrice City to the ground and scatter salt over the rubble, cursing the land so nothing will ever grow here again. This is no mere border skirmish, no attempt by a nobleman to overthrow a king…this is a war for the very future itself.”
She turned to face Bryon. “We have to fight,” she said. “And if we lose, we lose everything.”
Bryon swallowed. “Yes, My Lady.”
“Lord Cat will take command of the preparations,” Emily said. “Introduce him to everyone he needs to know, including the guard and militia commanders. Make it clear to them that he’s in charge.”
She took a breath. “And on your way out, send in a messenger,” she added. “I need to send a message to Beneficence.”
Bryon bowed, then retreated. Cat shot Emily a wink before following Bryon out of the chamber. He didn’t have an easy job ahead of him, Emily knew. On one hand, he was a man; on the other, he wasn’t a local. Cat had seen war, real war, but he was still a stranger to everyone in Cockatrice. They might not assume that he knew nothing, yet…they wouldn’t be human if they didn’t resent him being placed over them. She made a mental note to keep their relationship secret. Too many people would wonder if he’d slept his way to the post.
She smiled, tiredly. That was almost funny.
Jade doesn’t have that sort of problem, she thought. But then, everyone expected him to command Alassa’s guardsmen anyway.
“This is a great place,” Imaiqah said, as they stared out of the window together. “I never really appreciated what you’d done until I found myself in charge of it.”
“I tried to do as little as possible,” Emily said. “All I really wanted to do was enforce fair play.”
She had to smile. There was no such thing as fair play outside Cockatrice, let alone any concept of equality before the law. She’d had to fight hard to introduce the concept and it was still hard, even though everyone liked it in principle. There had been times when she’d thought that people didn’t want to reform the system, they merely wanted to climb to a level where they could make the system work in their favor and pass whatever they’d earned on to their sons. It was odd to realize that much of the opposition had come from wealthy merchants who’d made their fortunes before the New Learning…
Or perhaps it isn’t odd at all, she thought. They’d already learned how to survive and prosper before I changed the rules.
“You did well,” Imaiqah said. “I don’t blame you.”
Emily didn’t want to look at her face. The bruises had yet to fade. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to damage your family…”
“You didn’t,” Imaiqah said. “My father…my father did what he thought he had to do, without encouragement from you. You gave us the tools that made us wealthy, but you didn’t make him commit treason or risk everything on a desperate bid to overthrow the king. I don’t know what was going through his head, but…”
She wrapped an arm around Emily’s shoulders. “It was not your fault,” she said. “I wish you’d told me, just so I could decide what to do, but…don’t go beating yourself up over it.”
“There will be plenty of other people wanting to do that for me,” Emily said. “I know that here”–she touched her head–“but I don’t believe it in my heart.”
“I know,” Imaiqah said. “But it wasn’t your fault.”