The Far Bank of the Rubicon (The Pax Imperium Wars: Volume 1) (23 page)

Stephen’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly, letting Jonas know his point was made. “
Touché
.” Stephen returned the smile. “Admiral Dawson and I were just discussing our preparations for my return home this morning. You are welcome to sit in. We’re almost finished.” In one of his first acts as King, Stephen had rescinded Dawson’s pending resignation.

A rather grim and exhausted Dawson looked back at the new King. Jonas saw that the stress of the last two days had affected more than the family. Dawson had deep circles under her eyes. “As I was saying, Your Majesty, I believe we are well prepared for your arrival. We have the carrier Yamato and her task force placed directly above the capital. Frankly, nothing could get through.”

“All right, but both you and I know that it is a bit of a crap shoot to defend ourselves. That bomb could have fit in a backpack. Even if we put every ship we had in orbit over the planet, we couldn’t guarantee that we could stop something like that.”

“That’s true, Your Majesty. We’ll have a fighting chance, but things can get through. However, our buildings are hardened against such an attack, so our casualties will be minimal, nothing like New Zurich. Yet, it is because such an attack poses a real danger that I had been urging your Father to increase our research budget. While interstellar gates provide our chief protection against attack, they are not foolproof, and we need to prepare our population centers for matters just like this.” Stephen nodded his agreement.

“You have my support, Admiral Dawson. Get Dora a proposal by the end of the week.”

Dawson bowed her head in deference to the King. “Thank you. I mean no disrespect to your father. He was a great man and a courageous King. In the new reality of our cold war, it was difficult for any of us to foresee what we needed to do. If I had payed closer attention to the information I had, none of this would have happened.” Obvious grief, and Jonas thought, shame momentarily appeared on Admiral Dawson’s face.

Stephen dismissed the comment with a wave of his hand. “We have been over this previously, Penny. Thank you for your service. We are blessed to have you. You have my full confidence.”

The grim-faced Admiral stood before the King, bowed her head slightly at the compliment, and left the room.

“Well done, brother,” Jonas said in a low voice. This wasn’t the Stephen he knew.

“Thanks,” Stephen said, as he continued to watch the middle-aged Dawson walk away. “I have to keep her going for a little while yet. As far as I can tell, she’s been the only voice calling for the kinds of changes in security policy that now seem obvious. I am thinking of making her Prime Minister.” Stephen shook his head and spoke again. “She gets one vague warning about some kind of ‘who knows what’ super spy in New Zurich, and now she blames herself for Dad’s death. It’s not her fault, but I can’t convince her. She has to believe it herself.”

Jonas just smiled.
Stephen wears the kingship well
, he thought.

Stephen turned away from the retreating Dawson and looked at Jonas. “Sorry about earlier, little brother.”

Jonas dismissed the apology with a shake of his head. “No worries. I wish I could sleep.”

“Well, the government seems to be recovering from the shock. Today should be the last day of winging it. Something like a schedule is coming together for the next two weeks. Of course, we are going to do the funeral first. That will be three days from now. The day after the funeral will be my coronation. So if what the Privy Council decided last night holds, we will be changing things up for you starting today. A steward should be giving Dmitri a tentative schedule shortly.” Stephen paused for a moment before going on. “You’re heading off to flight school, brother. The House of Athena will do its bit for the war effort.”

Jonas didn’t know what to make of that. It felt a little like whiplash. He was becoming used to being the face of the House of Athena, and to tell the truth, felt himself sinking into the role.

Seeing the expression on Jonas’ face, Stephen seemed amused. “Don’t worry, little brother, your role will continue to be a public one, especially until after the funeral. For the next few weeks, if not months, I am going to be stuck trying to keep the government together and moving it to a wartime footing. I am not going to have a chance to represent our people like you will. You really have done an excellent job with the press and the staff in the last two days. I need you to keep being the face of the House of Athena for a while. There are plans for interviews, even while in training. Your job will be to bring us volunteers for the war.”

Stephen grimaced for a second. “If it’s going as badly as Admiral Hansen is hinting, we’ll need them.” He sighed and continued. “Today, we are moving you and most of the staff out of the bunker, and if I remember right, you will be doing a bit of a charity meet-and-greet this morning to announce my new initiative to take care of the survivors from New Zurich. I arrive home late morning, and this afternoon the diplomats start arriving from the provinces. We’ll be meeting with Bishop Dominic to plan dad’s funeral during lunch.”

Jonas was surprised to recognize that he didn’t have any reaction to what his brother had said. In times past, he would have felt incredibly anxious at having to take on the spotlight. Instead, it felt like the part of him that had always resisted his role as a Prince had suddenly died, or at least gone into a deep hibernation. It wasn’t that he was looking forward to the public eye. No, he still hated that. Rather, he understood and accepted the need to be the public face of the House of Athena at this point in time.

Jonas wondered if this was what it meant to become an adult, to willingly take on the unwanted responsibilities and demands of others. He looked Stephen in the eye, and in that moment, he realized that for the last few days he had done everything because he loved his brother. He knew then that he wanted him to succeed as King and that he was willing to sacrifice his own wants to make that happen. “That sounds good.”

The right side of Stephens lips twisted upward in a half grin. “I knew you would say that.”

“Really?” said Jonas. “I didn’t.”

The formal sitting room in the family area of the palace was little used. Anna had never seen it before. In truth, she had only been invited into the family living quarters a few times previously. She and the few others who lived in the palace had a separate guest wing for their quarters. The family was protective of their space, trying to preserve the remaining shreds of their privacy.

Dora whispered to her as the two of them walked down the hall. “I hate this room. It’s so fussy—weddings, holidays, and funerals, that’s what it’s for.” As a servant opened the great wooden doors for them, Anna understood her distaste. Full of wood furnishings, tapestries, and art from a bygone era or perhaps two, the room felt like a museum. Down the middle ran a long, wooden table with lit candelabras. A light lunch had been laid out.

The setting seemed grimly proper. They had come to plan a funeral—two, actually.

At that moment, Anna was struck again by the incongruities of her life. Born the daughter of a simple factory worker in the Unity, she had now become the unofficial representative of the Empress to the sane parts of the galaxy. How that had happened she hadn’t any idea, but she seemed to have acquitted herself well in the last four years. She was here today to represent the Empress and to support Dora, one of her closest friends and confidantes.

Today the princess seemed older somehow, as if time had swept past her, stealing her youth in the night. Her shoulders were rounded. Despite the rumors in the papers, she had loved both her brother and the PM. For her, the attack on New Zurich provided a double blow.

Anna hadn’t had a private moment with her yet. The princess had only been back on the surface for a couple of hours, but she was sure that when the time came, Dora would shed tears, and Anna would share them, but not now. Now there was the matter of a king’s funeral, and after that, a coronation to arrange.

That phrase seems to sum up the life of a princess
, thought Anna.
Not now!
She didn’t envy Dora one bit. In fact, she grieved for her.

Most of the other guests had arrived already. The new King was there, along with his brother, and a few other assorted dignitaries from the military and other branches of government.

Soon after they entered the room, the palace bishop surprised Anna by bringing things to order. “If we could get started, please. I would like to take as little time as possible on this very busy day.” He smiled blandly at the guests scattered around the room.

Well, he certainly doesn’t excel at tact, does he?
thought Anna, as she took her seat at the table along with the others. Hundreds of thousands of young people are in battle right now in space, many of whom will not make it home. Millions of civilians are either dead, missing, or homeless, and the best he can do is call it a ‘busy day?’ And who is he to order the family about like that?

Anna noticed that the family didn’t miss the blunder, either. The King’s brother in particular reddened with anger.

Anna had never met Bishop Dominic before. The Apollonian Catholic church didn’t have an official presence in the Unity. The official state church in the Unity was the United Evangelical Church. All other churches had been banned in the name of ‘true religion.’ Although she learned the basic tenents of the faith in school, she had never been to an official service at home.

Anna didn’t have anything against religion,
per se
. She just had no place in her life for the institution of the church. When she was a little girl, her dad used to tuck her in at night and say prayers. She remembered that fondly. He had been devout. It expressed itself naturally in the way he lived his life, the way he had loved her mother, and the way he had bravely accepted his illness when his time had come. That’s how she liked to think about faith, something pervasive, flowing in the underground streams of a person’s life. Whatever her dad’s faith represented, Bishop Dominic, puffed up on the authority of his office, seemed to represent the exact opposite.

“I’d like to begin with a reading from the book of Romans…”

Oh, don’t do that! Anna blushed, embarrassed for the bishop. She watched the room turn from cool, to frosty, to glacial in a matter of seconds. The King stared icily at Dominic, making clear that this was not the time for a homily. Jonas looked down, his face flushed. Dora gripped the table. The bishop didn’t notice.

Anna’s pulse raced a little. Something was going to happen here. The tension in the room would have to break somehow.

“And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew…”

Jonas looked up and spoke, each word a dart of quiet venom. “How dare you…”

The bishop stopped, looking up from his prepared notes.

“How dare you tell me that my father died because it was part of God’s plan.” Anna watched as Prince Jonas mustered all the dignity half a millennium of royal blood offered. He spoke quietly. “Murder isn’t good.”

Anna watched the prince stand from his place, knocking over the chair behind him.

Without another word, he walked out of the room.

The prince’s adviser Dmitri stood to follow and then thought better of it. He sat down again, cheeks flushed with anger.

The room became so silent that Anna could hear her pulse racing in her ears.

Much too late, the bishop recognized the danger. His face colored. He looked down at the notes in front of him. Then looked at the King. “I’m sorry. I thought…” Seeing the King’s murderous look, he stopped cold.

The King spoke slowly, enunciating every word. “I think my brother speaks for all of us. Now, may we get on with the business at hand—planning a funeral.”

Anna reached into her attache and got out her tablet. Discretely, under the table, she used her device to write a text. Before she hit send, she showed it to Dora.

The princess thought it over a moment, and then nodded her approval.

Sophia Malek knocked on Jonas’ bedroom door. At least she thought it was the right door. It had been over four years since Jonas had walked her through that part of the palace. Even if he was in there, she didn’t expect him to answer.

Thinking she saw something move out of the corner of her eye, she jumped and looked over her shoulder. The corridor was empty.

Discretion was a mantra buried in her soul by years of living in her father’s house. Standing outside the door to a prince’s quarters without a disguise or an escort violated several personal rules. She wondered what her mother would say.

She had no right to be in the family wing of the palace, but apparently, Anna had more pull with the family than Sophia realized. No one had tried to stop her when she entered the family area. The guards just pretended like she didn’t exist, just as Anna’s text had said they would.

She spoke as quietly as she could to the wooden door. “Jonas, it’s me, Sophie.” Her voice felt impossibly loud. She heard movement inside and stepped back.

Jonas opened the door a crack and looked out.

The beautiful, blond-haired boy she loved, with the sweet smile and generous heart, had tears on his brown cheeks. His eyes were bloodshot and black underneath from exhaustion. He looked a wreck.

He stepped back, motioned for her to come in, and then looked out in the hall to see if anyone was watching. When he seemed satisfied that no one was there, he closed the door.

As he led her across the room to a small love seat and high-backed wing chair, he asked, “How did you get to my door without anyone intercepting you?”

“I got a text from Anna Prindle saying I should come find you, and that you were probably in your room. She said I wouldn’t have any trouble if I entered the family area.”

Sophia saw Jonas was puzzling that over for a minute. Whatever his thoughts on the matter, he didn’t give them to her. Instead, he glanced at her from under furrowed brows and said, “I’m glad you’re here.” He tried to smile. It didn’t last.