The guard shook his head. “They are alive. Injured but healing.”
“Get my daughters back here,” he said, and his entire posture changed. He stood up straight, his shoulders back. “And get me the Senate High Council. Now.”
“It is late, Your Majesty.”
“Get them here now! I want witnesses when I declare war in the name of the Empress.”
Tears poured down Bianca’s face.
She could only think of the girls. Were they going to be okay? How badly had they been hurt?
“Your Majesty,” Bianca said. “What about the girls? Who will care for them?” She crossed to him. “I can do it. I will care for them. Here at the palace. Make sure they have what they need.”
“Fine.” He pulled off his shirt and started to undo his pants.
“I will leave now--”
“No.”
She blinked. “Pardon?”
“You want to be their mother? Then get over here. On your knees.”
“I am not—”
“You want to be their mother? Then you will perform all their mother’s duties.” He pointed to the floor in front of him. “On your knees.”
The tears that poured down her face were for Fallon.
That her friend was gone. She'd never see her smiling face again. That this was what she endured married to the Emperor. That he'd treated her so callously and horrid.
And for herself. For now, she made her choice. Bianca chose her duty.
All of her duty.
For the girls.
1
Now
“And those are the latest casualty lists?” Caoimhe asked, looking at the data card.
Admiral Jeke nodded. “Yes, Imperial Princess. Straight from the latest battle maps.” The attacks launched from the outlying most planets in the Terran Empire.
“How are the refugee camps?”
“Overcrowded and needing relief. Many women and children have lost their homes.”
She shook her head. “This has to end. This has to be stopped. Every planet in the Terran Empire is precious. We cannot do this to our people and expect them to accept it. Or to the Rhimodians.”
“They are the ones fighting back, Majesty.”
She waved her hand. “But they die too. Their people do not deserve to be massacred because my father wanted their system to add to his own.”
The Admiral looked down but said nothing.
Caoimhe ran her hand over her brow. “What about the prisoners of war? Have we learned anything about them?”
