“I don’t have any family,” he said, looking at her with amusement. “Didn’t Guildmistress Karya give you any background on me before sending you to spy on me?”
Her breath caught.
“You were monitoring our conversation?” she asked tightly, fear filling her. What would he do to a woman he’d caught spying?
“Of course,” he said, his tone mocking. “I have to be very careful, you know. I find myself in a delicate position dynastically. My brother is dead, killed in the war against the Saurellians. I was his only heir, and now I’m alone. He served on the front, at the Emperor’s personal request.” He paused for a moment, allowing his words to sink in.
“If I were killed now, this entire system would be forfeit to the Emperor,” he added.
She had no idea what to say in response to this revelation. Surely Karya had known that, but they hadn’t had time to discuss the situation in depth. After all, she was a courier and courtesan, not a spy. Her only experience was bringing pleasure to others she thought frantically.
“I see,” she said, stalling for time. He turned away from her again, and her eyes flew around the chamber, looking for an escape route, or something to use as a weapon.
“I doubt very much that you do see,” he said, his face dimly lit by the lights of the city. There was bleakness in his voice that made her heart twinge. He looked so alone, standing there above his home.
“These people are utterly dependent on me,” he said quietly. “There are more than 40 billion of them living in my territory, between the various planets, moons and stations. It’s not a large system, but we’ve always enjoyed a high quality of life. There’s no slavery here. My people are happy and healthy—hardly any choose to emigrate to other worlds. We were even spared the worst of the war. My brother and his men paid a high price to keep our young men out of the hands of Imperial recruiters.”
She nodded, starting to understand.
“You’re afraid that if something happens to you, your people will suffer,” she said softly.
“Afraid?” he asked, laughing with a harsh, barking sound. “Afraid doesn’t begin to express how I feel about the Emperor taking control of this system. If I die, it passes into his hands directly. Then he can start slowly milking my people of everything we’ve worked so hard to accomplish. Of course, if he decides I've committed treason, things will get far worse. He has the option of liquidating the entire population, you know.”
“No,” she whispered a wave of nausea washing over her. “He wouldn’t do that.”
“Oh really?” Drake turned back to her, and for the first time that night she could see some real emotion in his face. “You don’t know what he’s capable of doing. I am. I was raised with him, attended school with him in the Imperial Capitol, Tyre. He counts me as a friend, at least for now. That’s why I’m still alive. But he won’t tolerate my refusal to cooperate with him much longer. I’ve refused to go along with his plans; I’m the only one of his nobles with the courage to stand up to him. He’ll kill me just as easily as he had my brother killed.”
“What plans?” she asked, afraid of the answer.
“Well, he feels that the Saurellians have gotten too much power. He wants to start fighting them again, to end the truce," he said. "That would be a disaster for our people. We don't have the strength, or the right, to continue fighting. Do you know how the war started?”
“I’d heard the Saurellians attacked several systems in the disputed region,” she replied. “That they were seeking new territory.”
“No, that’s just imperial propaganda,” he replied quietly. “I think you know better than to believe that.
Didn’t you hear another story while you were in Saurellian space?”
“Yes,” she said quietly, looking out over the city. “I’d heard that the Emperor had liquidated an entire planet because their assembly refused to pay a new tax, and that the systems in the disputed regions asked the Saurellians to protect them. I didn’t believe it, though, at least not the whole story. The Saurellians are very aggressive, and I had trouble believing the Emperor would kill billions of people over taxes.”
“The Saurellians are aggressive, but they aren’t greedy,” he said quietly. “They started fighting the Empire because those people came to them, pleading for their lives. They knew they’d be next if the Emperor had his way. He’ll do it to Von'hotten, too, if he feels we're defying him. I have to stop that from happening.”
“And how do you plan to do that?” she asked, turning to look at him directly. There was a sorrow there, and deep compassion in his face. Compassion for her, she realized. A new wave of horror and nausea swept over her, and she fell to her knees. She suddenly realized that the only way he could afford to tell her this much was if he planned to kill her.
“Oh, no, I don’t want to know,” she whispered. He came and knelt before her, tilting her chin up with on finger. He leaned forward and gently kissed her, then sat back on his heels.
“It’s too late, Dani,” he said quietly. “I think you already know that.”
“Why did you tell me?” she asked. To her surprise, the horror was passing. In its place was a new emotion, anger that he would drag her into this. Her voice grew stronger. “Is it because I dared to come here and spy on you? Are you out to destroy the Guild, in addition to committing treason against the Emperor? We’re not part of your Empire, we don’t want anything to do with this. Take care of your own problems.”
“Oh, it’s a Guild problem, too,” he said.
“How do you figure that?” she asked, her voice cold with disgust. “We’re neutral. We don’t need your crap.”
“No, you were neutral,” he replied. “Until 25,000 licensed Pleasure Guild workers were killed when the Emperor liquidated the planet of Kelvani. The action took place without warning, and they weren’t given the option of using their diplomatic immunity to escape.”
She gasped, shaking her head in disbelief.
“I didn’t hear anything about that,” she said. “If that was true, I would have known. The Guild takes care of their own. Our Council wouldn’t just let the Emperor get away with killing our people.”
“They don’t intend to,” he said, his expression growing fierce. “Don’t you realize that even the Guild isn’t strong enough to confront the Emperor directly? Neither are the nobles of the Empire. Do you think we like seeing him do things like this? Our civilization has flourished for a thousand years, and now one crazed idiot is going to bring it crashing down around us. The Saurellians aren’t going to stop him. They don't want to break the truce. It’s up to us.”