The skin over the swell of her left breast and collarbone was unmarked. She appeared frazzled but within her own mind. Having his majordomo on hand would make passing orders along easier even if a dark little voice in the back of his mind wondered if he could trust her.
“We’re fine,” Vanya said.
Alida stumbled to a halt, staring at him before her attention was wrenched to whatever was happening in the bedroom. She paled before swallowing audibly and rallying to do her duty. “What would you have me do?”
It would be too much to hope the broadsheets wouldn’t report on the attempted assassination, but Vanya well knew how quickly rumor spread. Vanya would have to show himself in public the moment the sun broke the horizon to prove he still wore the crown. At least they had some time to prepare to mitigate this fiasco.
“Send an envoy to the Tovan Isles ambassador residence to confirm they are safe. Has the House of Dayal sent a representative yet?”
“No, but we should prepare to receive one shortly.”
“Prepare a statement of assurance that I do not blame their House for this.”
Alida bowed at that and left to do his bidding. Soren pushed away from the doorway and approached Vanya on silent feet. He was armed now how he would be in the poison fields—guns, poison short sword, and a host of other weapons—and Vanya felt steadier for it.
“Give me Raiah. The captain needs you in the other room,” Soren said.
Vanya handed his daughter over to the only person he trusted, and she went willingly enough, half-asleep and yawning. Vanya strode into the bedroom, seeing the dead had been wrapped up in the sheets from his bed and others from storage. The two legionnaires who had survived the attack were sprawled at Javier’s feet, their arms burned off and barely alive.
Javier had the tip of his wand pressed to one of the men’s burned forehead, the clarion crystal there glowing softly. His gaze was focused inward, but he came back to himself soon enough. He stood with a grimace, wand held tight in his hand.
“Their thoughts are not their own even if their personalities are,” Javier said.
Vanya stared at the vivisection scars that he knew hid clockwork metal hearts. “So theyarebeing controlled. Did they tell you who did this to them?”
Javier shook his head. “Those memories have been thoroughly erased in that area, as were the ones on who gave them orders. All they do know is that they are calledrionetkas.”
“Puppets,” Vanya said, translating the Urovan word into Solarian. He wondered if these men and women once loyal to the throne had asked for a new heart or been forcibly given one. “And what were their orders?”
Javier looked him in the eye, voice a harsh growl. “To kill you and take the princess.”
Nearly every House would’ve given an order to kill them both. He knew of only one who would target them so differently.
“Theserionetkaswill have clockwork hearts inside their chests. Remove the devices in all but one body and then prepare them for transport. We’re taking them with us to Calhames when we return to the capital.”
He’d keep the clockwork hearts this time, rather than give the remains to the wardens. He wanted Solaria’s own aetherologists to examine the devices.
Javier gestured with his wand at the two charred figures on the floor. “And these two?”
“If they’ve given up what secrets they remember, I have no further use for them.”
Vanya left Javier to handle the cleanup of the bedroom. He retreated to the antechamber, gesturing at Soren to follow him. The lieutenant and several others acted as an escort for them as he led Soren to his private office. No one followed them inside, and Vanya locked the door behind them. Raiah was sleeping in Soren’s arms and he took a moment to drink them both in.
“They’re calledrionetkas,” Vanya finally said.
Soren frowned. “There were rumors of the death-defying machine long before I stumbled over it. I haven’t heard anything about people walking around with clockwork hearts since we first discovered the one device two years ago. We didn’t hear any rumors before that either.”
“They’re being controlled, and no one knew.”
The implications of that were horrifying. How many people were out there walking around with gears in their chest and magic whispering through their mind, ordering them about like marionettes? How many senators had been targeted? How many Houses? Was Solaria the only country being infiltrated in such a way?
Too many questions and no easy answers.
Vanya pinched the bridge of his nose. “The Senate will need to be informed.”
“Okay.”
“And I need to send Raiah away.” He hated even speaking those words, but Vanya knew it was the only option right now.
