Such spaces were the center of every home in Solaria, an area where families gathered for meals and company. They could be small and intimate, or vast and elaborate, depending on the household. The courtyard where Vanya andvezirAmir Vikandir, of the House of Vikandir, met brimmed with well-tended ferns and small trees in various-sized ceramic pots. The fountain was a soft burble of white noise easily tuned out.
Flowering vines hanging from the balconies overlooking the courtyard provided a living curtain. When Vanya looked up, he could see the clear blue sky past five stories of the palace. Part of the courtyard was still in shade due to the position of the sun, but they could not escape the heat. It was a near-oppressive blanket that not even the mechanical fans set up nearby could fully blow away.
The spread of food on the table was heavier than the light dishes Alida had served Vanya and Chu Hua well before dawn. The lack of sleep made Vanya’s eyes burn, or perhaps it was the scent of spices used in the tomato sauce and egg dish still bubbling away in the shallow iron pan that sat between himself and Amir.
The much older man’s elaborate robes were at odds with the white-and-gold robes and trousers that Vanya wore. The gray and dark blues favored by the House of Vikandir were offset by silver embroidery that picked out the constellations of the star gods across his shoulders. The House of Vikandir’s gold ranking medallion was pressed with the depiction of the callia wildflowers that grew in the hill country to the east. The mark of Amir’s rank glittered against his chest, denoting a position he’d held for nearly half his life.
Asvezir, one was expected to uphold their House’s worth, make alliances, and evade enemies, all in pursuit of a throne and a crown and the blessing of their star god. Houses, both major and minor, sought rulership, and few would have walked away from such a private meeting with the emperor everyone hoped to one day replace.
To that end, Amir’s entourage had been relegated to the public wings of the palace. The legionnaires he’d traveled with had taken up posts in the hallways beyond the courtyard, overseen bypraetorialegionnaires. None of them had initially been granted entrance to the palace until after they’d been ordered to strip and bare their torsos for inspection.
Amir had been incensed by Vanya’s demand. He seemed less disgruntled now after Vanya’s explanation. The food on his plate had remained untouched since Vanya finished speaking of the assassination attempt in Oeiras. Vanya had no compunctions about serving himself another poached egg drenched in spiced tomato sauce. He tore off a piece of flatbread from the platter and dipped it into the yolk, breaking it to mix it all together.
“Do you have proof?” Amir finally asked into the silence that had settled between them in the courtyard.
“Of therionetkas? I have bodies and shattered clockwork metal hearts. Javier will swear to what he found in their minds, and the high priestess can confirm his truthfulness. As to who is behind their orders?” Vanya shook his head. “That I have no proof of.”
Amir’s mustache twitched as his lips twisted in a grimace. “But you have your suspicions.”
Vanya reached for his glass of cold red wine. “Yes.”
He didn’t speak Joelle’s name, but there was enough bitter history tying their Houses together that he didn’t need to. Amir’s loyalty and that of his House was to Vanya through a past marriage and other political deals. That support was the strongest Vanya had, for he’d lost much after his mother’s death. She’d held the debts owed to their House, and many had been granted to her personally. Which meant not all had transferred to Vanya after she was buried.
The lack of support from critical Houses was a weakness he’d worked hard to offset. His efforts to date had come up hard against Joelle’s political pressure, a roadblock he’d not had to face head-on since Nicca’s death four years ago. That had very recently changed.
“If you accuse the House of Kimathi of such atrocities against Solarian citizens without proof, you will lose the support of every House you’ve managed to claw back to your side,” Amir warned.
Vanya arched an eyebrow. “Do you include yours in that assessment?”
“I would not be able to turn a blind eye to such an accusation.”
Vanya would take that as ayes, which was not unexpected. Every House did what was best for their House in the fight to take control of the Imperial throne. Alliances were easily made and just as easily broken, bought and sold like how Daijal treated their debt slaves. “I hope it will not come to that.”
Amir finally reached for the flatbread, tearing off a piece to dip into the food on his plate. “You are awarevezirJoelle and her House have returned to Calhames?”
“I am.”
“And are you aware of her outreach to the Houses under the guise of opposition to your right to sit upon the Imperial throne? She still mourns her granddaughter.”
Vanya nodded, the gold crown he wore not shifting with the motion. “She has always sought to turn the Houses against mine ever since Nicca’s name was added to their House’s memory walls. She’s always blamed me for my wife’s death and will not hear that I had no part in it.”
At the time, he’d hoped to build a relationship with Nicca, to mirror the one his parents once had. His efforts had been futile in the face of maternal tragedy. While Nicca had died, Raiah lived, and Vanya had refused all other offers of marriage since. He would not put a target on his daughter’s back and see her die before him.
“I would say it is grief that guides her, but that would be a lie. She removed Karima as her heir two years ago and tapped Artyom to inherit the House and rank ofvezir. As far as I know, Karima still grieves the loss of her daughter,” Amir said.
“And Joelle resents the loss of access to the Imperial throne.”
Amir leaned back against the cushioned bench, his robe pulling tight over the bulk of his frame. “Have you thought this could have all been averted if you had granted them the right to see the Imperial princess?”
Vanya had learned young how to control his temper, but the cold anger that rose in him at Amir’s words left him momentarily speechless. He swallowed a sip of wine in order to unclench his teeth. “If I had ever allowed Raiah to visit Bellingham without me, Joelle never would have given her up. I’d have been forced to set the Legion against that city to get my daughter back.”
In doing so, he would have risked losing the Imperial throne and his life. The Houses had not taken kindly to the eradication of the House of Laxsom by his mother all those years ago. Neither had Zakariya been pleased to be faced with an attempt at secession. In the end, the two choices could not be reconciled, and the effects of that choice and that loss still lingered.
To follow in the footsteps of Ashion and Daijal—to allow avasilyetto cleave itself into a new country—would weaken Solaria. Vanya had known that even at the age of eight, when he’d left with his mother to lay siege to a city and a House that refused to acknowledge the Imperial throne. They’d won with the backing of the other Houses, but that support from some had been reluctant.
Losing a House how they had, along with a city, was crippling in a way. Vanya still ruled in the shadow of his mother’s decision, and the wardens still guarded that border, ever watchful over the hundreds of thousands of revenants that wandered that city of the dead. But his mother’s way was not a road he could walk down during this fraught time.
Daijal moved on Ashion up north, intent on breaching the long border between the two countries and shattering the armistice that had been cracked from the Inferno. Vanya’s spies had reported back over telegraph wires that Crown Princess Eimarille Rourke had murdered King Bernard and her husband, Crown Prince Wesley. She’d taken over the Daijal throne and had stricken her son’s Iverson bloodline in the royal genealogies, replacing it with Rourke.
