“I am not one to turn down the facsimile of an offered debt. We own such things and never owe them. Your mother should have taught you that,” Taisiya said in that raspy voice of hers. One would think she had carried a lifelong indulgence of tabac into her seventh decade. One would be wrong if they remembered the poison she’d drunk on her wedding day.
Not quiet killer, nothing so gentle, death a sigh on the tongue with that poison, as Vanya well knew. Fervere had scorched her throat, viciousness hidden in the wine she’d toasted her new husband with, and it very nearly stole her voice. It hadn’t killed her, but it might as well have. Taisiya had once been one of the most revered theater singers in the country until the day of her wedding. These days, she watched the sea, well removed from the games the Houses played but never fully free of them. She wasvalide, the matriarch of the ruling House that held the Imperial throne of Solaria, and here because of that.
Taisiya was shorter than Vanya, with shoulders rounded from age and a face more heavily lined than most of her contemporaries, mouth dragged down at the left corner. Her visage was a mask of subtle scars she wore out of spite, untouched by shades of rouge or lip paint, never hiding behind a veil. Her brown skin was dominated by darker freckles, curly auburn hair gone gray in streaks throughout.
The gown she wore was a dark green, the light robe layered over it a shimmery gold. Heavy gold cuffs inlaid with emeralds weighed down her wrists. The jewels matched the ones in the ranking medallion she wore, the flat oval links of the chain sparkling from the gas lamp lit overhead. She was slight-looking but not forgettable. Her sheer survival over the years was, perhaps, something to aspire to.
“If I had need of you, I would have called,valide.”
Taisiya’s hazel eyes were more green than brown, but there was no warmth in her gaze, only cold calculation. “I never took you for a fool.”
“I would not sit on the Imperial throne if that were the case.”
“You’ll lose it, and our House’s right to it, with your arrogance.Thatis why I am here.”
Taisiya crossed the library to stand before him, weathered hands weighed down by gold and emerald rings reaching for him. Vanya stood his ground, never flinching from the touch of her cool, dry fingers to his face.
“I do what I must,” Vanya countered.
“So like your mother in that regard. She thought she had to destroy Rixham to keep it. Tell me, will you do the same to Solaria?”
Vanya finally stepped back, spine rigid. “Secession is never the answer. This is not the Age of Separation but the Age of Progress.”
“One could argue the two are the same.”
“I am not the one perpetuating ruin upon our citizens. That blame is laid at the threshold of another House.”
Taisiya lowered her arms, clasping her hands together in front of her. “So Amir informed me. So I discovered when I arrived and was ordered to disrobe. I had hoped these stories ofrionetkaswere merely that.”
Vanya’s lip curled imperceptibly. “Did you now?”
“The House of Vikandir has married into ours many times throughout the centuries. It has not been officially indebted to us for generations. That House’s loyalty is one of the few we can trust to a certain degree. I see no reason forvezirAmir to lie. The story he spun was worrisome.”
“There is a death-defying machine that turns the dead into revenants quicker than spores. There arerionetkasmasquerading as people who are no longer themselves. You would never know they were against you until the bullet pierced your back. We play games of death in honor of the Dawn Star, but I think even she would question these sorts of prayers.”
“And you think to prove all this at the Senate today?”
“I am taking the bodies to the Senate today for the session. I hope the senators will see reason.”
“My child, that isn’t the proof you believe it to be.”
Vanya ground his teeth, pacing away from his great-aunt to the credenza that held a glass case. Inside was a leather-bound book, its pages aged to yellow and opened to one listing out names. It was a certified copy of the royal genealogies held by the Star Order in Solaria. His gaze rested on his daughter’s name inked onto the page. Of the names written out, there were precious few that did not have a date in the death column.
“It doesn’t have to be,” Vanya said. “That is not my intention with today’s session. I mean it as a warning.”
“What use is a warning if none will believe in the threat?”
“I’ll give it a face.”
“You should do that before she gives it yours.”
Vanya straightened up and turned to face Taisiya. “What have you heard?”
Taisiya tipped her head to the side, hair falling across one shoulder. “I know you took a warden to the crypts. I know Joelle has ever schemed for the Imperial throne. I know she would take Raiah if she could.”
He’d forgotten that Taisiya and Joelle were contemporaries. They’d have seen each other in the Imperial court growing up, on distant sides of a House divide—Taisiya never wanting to rule and Joelle aching for it.
“She tried in Oeiras.”
