“The Emperor died without issue,” Jarkiv replied. “The Cadre agent told our major that Countess Sefka Vol Nazarias has convened a Regency Council to exercise power pending a decision on the succession.”
“Sefka . . .” Lizanne whispered. To think I persuaded Caranis to let her live. The Blood Imperial won’t be happy about her elevation, if she hasn’t had him killed yet. “It was a coup,” she said, raising her voice to address the room. “I expect in a few days this Regency Council will find a convenient puppet to place on the throne or the countess herself will miraculously discover a blood line linking her to the Imperial family. Which doesn’t bode well for anyone with a legitimate claim.”
“Prince Reshnik is Caranis’s closest living relative,” Arberus said. “But he’s seventy years old and, reputedly, a simpleton.”
“Countesses, emperors, princes,” Korian said, voice rich in scorn and an excited gleam in his eye. “The great aristocratic circus doesn’t matter now. The nobility has always been a pestilential snake coiling itself around the heart of this empire, and now it’s headless. We have never had a better opportunity.”
“To do whad?” Varkash enquired. He stood at the Electress’s left, arms crossed and a stern frown on his brow.
“To win of course,” Korian replied, turning about to address them all, voice trembling a little. “Think of it, brothers and citizens. The road to true freedom lies open, we need only take it.”
“My men didn’t join up for a revolution,” Varkash pointed out. “They were promised ships and passage off dis blighted land. As for myself, I have bidness in Varestia and couldn’t give a sea-dog’s cock for your freedom.”
“Your homeland will be freed from the perennial threat of invasion once we are victorious,” Korian insisted then turned to point at Jarkiv. “This man and his fellows have shown how fragile the Regnarchy’s grip has become. They will not be the only soldiers to rise against their officers. This will not be the only town to wrest itself free of its chains. There were riots in Corvus before the Emperor’s death. Now the city must be in ferment. We should strike north in the morning, begin a march on the capital that will capture the hearts of thousands . . .”
“We come up against one decent-sized and well-organised force and we’re done,” the Electress broke in, speaking quietly but firmly as she stubbed out her cigarillo and immediately reached for another. “Right, General?” she added, raising an eyebrow at Arberus.
“In all probability,” Arberus said, face set in hard contemplation. “But that presupposes such a force exists to oppose us. If Citizen Korian is correct, the road to Corvus would be open.”
Lizanne found she didn’t like what she heard in Arberus’s voice, the echo of that revolutionary zeal that had birthed so many arguments. “And what would we do when we got there?” she enquired.
“What many of us have dedicated our lives to,” he replied, turning to meet her gaze. “We put an end to the tyranny that has been the bane of this empire for centuries.”
I thought you had progressed beyond this, she wanted to say. I thought I had made you . . . more. Instead she hid her disappointment with a shrug and turned her attention to the Electress. “There are too many unknown factors here,” she said. “Clearly there will be a measure of chaos, but to imagine that we could march all the way to Corvus unopposed is lunacy.”
The Electress glanced at her before clasping her hands together in a familiar contemplative gesture. After a long moment of calculation she turned again to Arberus. “What’re our numbers like now?”
“With the addition of Captain Jarkiv’s men, close on six thousand,” he replied.
The Electress nodded, face expressionless as she pointed a stubby finger at the door. “Everyone out, I need to think about this for a bit. Not you, dear,” she added, as Lizanne made to follow the others from the room. “We’re overdue for a proper chat.”
? ? ?
“The last woman to betray me begged for death.” Atalina had ordered a bottle of wine brought to her rooms and sipped at it as they sat opposite each other beside the fire-place. Lizanne noted that the tray holding the bottle held only one glass. “The last man who betrayed me couldn’t,” the Electress went on, “on account of how I’d stuffed his balls in his mouth.”
“Yes, you’re a very frightening person,” Lizanne said, offering a bland smile. “Consider me suitably intimidated.”
“’Cept you’re not, are you? Faced worse than me in your time, I’d guess. I’d also guess they’re all dead now. Am I right?”
Lizanne’s mind flashed to Madame Bondersil’s last moments, the helpless fluttering of her arms before the Blue drake jerked its head and swallowed her whole. “Is this relevant?” she asked.
“We need to properly understand each other, if we’re to forge a common purpose.”
“I thought we had already done that.”
“Hah.” The Electress gave a brief chuckle. “You think I don’t know that the moment you get a chance to sneak off with Tinkerer you won’t take it? You do a pretty good job of hiding your thoughts, but the mask slips a little when our radical friends start talking. Got no stomach for their babble, have you?”
“Wilful na?vety is irksome.”
“And General Arberus? He irksome too?”
“He has his ideas, I have mine.”
“Then I’m sorry to say I can’t see much’ve a future for you two. It’s how it was with my old man, before I killed him. We ran a profitable smuggling operation together in northern Kestria. We were young in those days, but we’d been brought up in the smuggling trade and knew the ropes well enough to get by. The purges after the First Revolution had killed off the older breed and much of the competition, so we had a pretty clear run for a few years and got very rich in the process. By the time I was twenty we lived in the finest house in town and had all the ornamentations to go with it. You should always be wary of wealth, my dear, for it’ll make you soft and brave at the same time.
“Came the day the Emperor saw fit to appoint a new Provincial Governor who had a mind to triple the annual bribe we’d paid his predecessor. My husband wasn’t having any of it, grown brave in his wealth, like I said, but arrogance is its own brand of weakness.” She paused to breathe out a nostalgic sigh. “If ever I actually loved someone, it was him. Broke my heart when I slipped the mandrake into his supper. Had no choice, y’see? We could fight another gang, but not the empire. So, I did what needed doing and paid up.”