Vanya stared at the painting on the wall depicting the side profile of a roaring lion that represented the House of Sa’Liandel, the animal head surrounded by golden starfire. His House had ruled for centuries and still ruled only because of divine intervention in the face of assassination attempts and treason. He hadn’t been strong enough to keep the claim on his own, and the results of the Conclave of Houses would be questioned if it got out that he’d promised a blood vow to a foreign prince, no matter the road Soren had walked as a warden.
“Tell me I do not speak the truth,” Taisiya said quietly.
He wanted to, but it would be a lie if he tried. Because—despiteeverything—he did. He loved Soren in a way he hadn’t ever learned to love his wife after a year of marriage before Nicca died in childbirth. And it was that love that made him never force Soren to pick a payment for the debt Vanya owed him. Like Soren, Vanya had never wanted to let the other man go.
Except he had.
Vanya looked at Taisiya, and whatever she must have seen in his face made her expression soften. “Oh, my child. The best kind of love will always burn like starfire. I only wish it wouldn’t hurt you so.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Vanya rasped. “I can never have him now.”
The confession felt dragged out of him, words brittle like summer-dry prairie grass, primed to burn with just one spark. Vanya dragged a hand over his hair, wrenching his gaze away from Taisiya’s too-knowing eyes. If Soren truly was the long-thought-dead Ashion prince, then being together was an impossibility. For Vanya couldn’t insert himself in some other country’s volatile politics for love, because love would not keep his country safe, and Solaria had to come first. His heart—fractured as it was—would always come second.
A cool hand touched his jaw, startling him. He looked down into Taisiya’s upturned face, unaware that she had moved to join him by the window. “We must get ahead of this. Once the Houses find out about Soren’s past, they will find a way to call for your abdication in the face of the sanctions we’re set to receive from the wardens. Solaria may be accused of breaking the Poison Accords, but so have the wardens, and that is something we can’t ignore.”
The wardens had already suffered enough at Daijal’s hands. Vanya didn’t want to strike another blow against them, but he knew he had no choice. Not if he wanted to keep the Imperial throne. “I know.”
“If you reduce the sanctions by using Soren, the Houses will come around to your rulership.”
He flinched at her words, but Vanya knew she was right. “I’ll call the wardens’ governor tomorrow, after my meeting with the Tovanian ambassador.”
What it all came down to was protecting Solaria’s borders, and Vanya’s heart had no place in those decisions. His heart would break before Solaria could.
It had to.
Two
VANYA
Vanya dressed with care the next morning for the meeting with the Tovanian ambassador and the Solarian diplomatic corps that had traveled west over the ocean to the Tovan Isles. The robes laid out for him were white and gold, the filigree on the crown he wore wrapped around large rubies. The vault where the Imperial jewels were held had been one of the few parts of the old Imperial palace that had survived, solely because they had been located underground. Taisiya seemed pleased with his presentation when he met with her after separate morning meals.
“Your ambassador said they would meet us at the dignitary room,” Taisiya said. She wore a shimmering blue-green gown today, with a sheer pale gray robe over it. The ensemble resembled the colors of white-capped waves in the harbor, a quiet nod to the guests who awaited them. Her hair had been tied up, hidden beneath the stiff blue-green headdress she wore, its flat top embroidered with silver thread.
Vanya offered her his arm, and she curled her hand around his elbow, allowing him to escort her down the wide hallway. “I’ve read the brief Ambassador Grethe delivered yesterday afternoon and spoke with her before dinner. What do you think of the report she delivered?”
“I think theUrihas made a wise decision, which we will do our best to reciprocate, but it will bring unwanted attention from the Daijal court.”
“We’ve uncovered manyrionetkas.” It had galled Vanya when he’d received the report on the numbers of Solarian citizens whose lives had been stolen and controlled by the enemy. Learning just how deeply therionetkashad entrenched themselves in the government and Houses had been a quiet sort of horror over the last many months.
The bitterest loss was Amir, formervezirof the House of Vikandir. Vanya had considered the man a friend, an ally, and a confidant. Knowing that Amir now lived with a ticking time bomb in his chest, unable to oversee his House anymore, was a devastating blow to the House of Vikandir and the counsel Vanya had sought.
“We don’t know if we’ve found all of them. I fear this alliance will cause Eimarille to attempt further infiltration.” Taisiya raised her free hand to briefly touch her chest, over her heart, lingering in the space where vivisection scars would cross if she carried them on her skin. “I would feel safer in a palace and the walls it comes with.”
Vanya grimaced, thinking of the timeline stretching out on the rebuild of the palace. “The Imperial estate here in Oeiras will have to do for now.”
Taisiya hummed at that but kept her peace. The rest of the walk to the dignitary room was made in silence, only the sound of their footsteps and those of thepraetorialegionnaires’ guarding them echoing in the air. When they turned the last corner, he saw a group of people huddled outside the door to the dignitary room, Caelum amongst them. One of them turned at the sound of their approach before bowing deeply.
“Your Imperial Majesty,” Grethe said. “The Tovanian delegation awaits you.”
“You’ve done well as my voice,” Vanya said.
Grethe was a decade older than him, tall and lean, with an oval face dominated by a strong nose. Her blonde hair was bleached white from the sun rather than age, and her brown eyes were creased deeply at the corners from laughter. She took the praise with a faint nod of acknowledgment. “I did what I could for Solaria.”
“As always.”
Last night, she’d handed back the Imperial writ he’d given her before she’d taken the voyage to Port Avi on the Tovan Isles. It had enabled diplomatic talks to finish quicker rather than sending ship-cities and airships across the seas between the two countries. Of the ambassadors he could have sent, Grethe had been the most trustworthy, and his faith in her had proved itself.
“Shall we?” Caelum asked, gesturing at the doors apraetorialegionnaire was pushing open.
