“I wish you were right, Your Majesty,” Perry-Kraye replied, slowly as if trying to prove he meant every syllable. “I wish I could say I had climbed the steps of power with the people’s welfare first in my heart, as you have. But at least you were half right. I haven’t squandered my second chance. My revenge is nothing petty, but a true apocalypse which will destroy, not only my destroyers, but the world that made them!”
His eyes opened, sharp as stars, to lock upon Madame, but Caesar stepped in front of her, a wall of iron gray shielding the salmon petals of her gown. “Be careful whom you include, Kraye. A large part of the world is mine. And you, Madame, and Spain, you should not have hidden such a dangerous situation from the rest of us, not even,” he caught the King’s eyes coldly, “in the name of mercy.”
Kraye laughed—I had not imagined any man could laugh in Caesar’s face. “Count yourself lucky, MASON, you’re hardly going to suffer, a little global turmoil, that’s all. You were party to it too; it’s less than you deserve.”
Wise men do not intentionally make MASON frown. “I was not party,” Caesar answered, “I was witness. Your violence was intolerable.”
“I was innocent.”
“That you were not.”
“I never raped her!” Kraye’s hand tightened around his sherry glass, as heavy as a sling stone, but Martin planted himself as a silent wall before his Emperor, as Dominic did before Jehovah. He was still with us, our disappointed God, silent in His Gravity, like a tombstone in the corner of a playing field. The rest ignored Him, or tried to. A glance at Him reminded us that we were fools to care about old scandal when we had just discovered humanity was beyond redemption. But He would not stop us. Rather, like a cliff in storm, He suffered silently as yet more proof of His conclusion played out before Him. This world is not good, reader, not as good as He deserves.
“I know you didn’t rape her,” MASON answered flatly.
Kraye staggered. “Wha—what?”
“You didn’t rape her. You beat her violently, and slandered her.”
“She slandered me! She accused—”
“She never said you raped her!” My heart skipped hearing Caesar raise his voice. “You assumed she would. You were so obsessed with expecting that accusation that you never heard the words any of us actually said to you. We said you assaulted her, and you did, with your fists. You fractured her cheekbone, gave her a severe concussion, and could have done much worse, and when we dragged you off of her by force, you said the worst things of her that can be said of a lady in this house. Blacklaws may do what they like here, but as a European you were bound by law, as well as decency, and you went far beyond the bounds of both. Your expulsion was just and reasonable, as prosecution would have been too, under the laws of your own Hive!”
Is that a flinch, Kraye? Is that seething brain of yours revisiting old memories, and finding certain keywords lacking?
“She did accuse me! She faked the test!” Kraye shrieked. “She told you all the child was mine. I never touched that whore, not once! It was Ganymede! Ganymede arranged everything to conceal the produce of their incest, and I fell into the trap!”
“Filth!” the Duke cried. “Villain!”
Andō’s grip on writhing Ganymede began to loosen, the Director running short, not of strength, but of reasons to keep the Duke’s weapon from tasting Kraye’s throat.
Kraye’s eyes hopped from Chair to King to Emperor. “How can you not see it? I was framed! Ganymede got Dana? pregnant and lured me in to take the blame!”
“Then my real father is Ganymede?” Stunned Carlyle barely had the strength to voice the words.
“Yes!” Kraye snapped. “Yes, you’re the poison that started all this.”
“No, Merion. This is our son.” Dana? stirred from her swoon at last, tresses spilling down about her shoulders, exquisite as when Helios pours gold across dawn waves from harbor to horizon.
Kraye’s eyes glowed with that maniacal, inhuman light which made past generations believe in possessing demons. “The queen of whores joins us at last.”
“Dana?…” Ganymede wrapped himself around his sister. “You don’t have to—”
She shook her head, blue diamond eyes almost black as she peered out through the jungle of gold let loose without her hairpin. “That is you, isn’t it, Merion? I should have known you at once, that gait, those hands. Monster.”
“Monster? Me? You’re the one who betrayed an innocent man.”
“Innocent?” Tears came to her, bright as dew. “Day after day you swore you would love only me forever, but the instant you thought another man had touched me, you tried to kill me! How is that innocent?”
“I did love you. You’re the one who cheated.”
“No!” Dana? wrapped her rose-gold sleeves about herself. “You never loved me. A feeling which dies that easily isn’t love, Merion, it’s lust. You wanted my body. If we had been united, how long would it have taken you to pass me over for something younger? Fresher? To tire of me as my good husband never has? You never loved me or you never would have stopped!”
He laughed. “And you think Andō loves you for real? You’re just a tool to them.”
“No, I am not.” She held her head high. “After the scandal I thought I was ruined, never to wed. Hotaka came to me. He said he did not care whether I was a virgin on our wedding night. He did not want a bride, he wanted a wife. My company, my counsel, my trust, my powers to draw in friends and lay waste to his enemies, that was what he wanted, a partner for his long journey to break the Chinese hold on the Chief Director’s seat and rule the Mitsubishi as they should be ruled. Madame and her tutors gave me this power over people, but Andō taught me to realize that I had it, and to use it, and trusts me to choose my own tools, and my own victims.”
Dark Kosala dug angry fingers deep into her skirts. “You mean me, don’t you? My CFB?”
Dana? smiled softly. “Later, dear Bryar, you, and the Count, and I can retire to settle that issue ourselves, but kindly grant me some moments more to deal with my betrayer.”
“Betrayer?” Kraye mocked.
The Princesse faced him boldly. “Lifelong trust, that is what a husband and wife give one another, Merion, not the heat of passion.”
“You expected me to trust you when you were suddenly pregnant with someone else’s child?”
“That shouldn’t have mattered if you truly loved me. You failed the test.”
“Test?” His words grew chill. “You had your brother impregnate you to test my sincerity?”
She squeezed her brother’s hand. “If you had loved me, you would have stayed by me, embraced any child of my flesh, whatever its sire. And then I would have loved you forever, just as you had promised me. What joy we would have shared! Instead you…” Her fingers strayed to her cheek, drawn by the tactile memory of old blows. “You never loved me. I should have realized it sooner. Ganymede warned me. Every day you smuggled in letters swearing to love only me forever, while every night you vented your impatient lust on my twin! You didn’t want me for myself, you just wanted my body, and you didn’t care what mind and personality were inside, mine or Ganymede’s!”
The Prime Minister seethed, hands twitching with the urge to seize and tear. “You’re angry because I slept with your brother? Your husband sleeps with your brother. Everyone sleeps with your brother. That’s what your brother’s for!”
Ganymede ran out of syllables, but, sparkling like sun gold on angry water, writhed and screamed.
“I should have listened to my brother,” Dana? continued, strong. “But I wanted to think better of you, Merion, to think that you only turned to Ganymede in desperation in your wait for me. But I had to be sure. The pregnancy was my test, to make you think that I had been with another man, to see how you’d react. And it was my escape too, so we could be together. I knew you could never pay Madame as much for my hand as other suitors could, but if I was spoiled, scandalously with child, then petty lovers would turn away, and only you, my true, true love, would stay. It was the only way that we could have each other. It was my brother who brought me your seed.”
“My … seed?”