“Only that they are Rhimodians. What has happened to them, I have been unable to find out, no matter how much I dig in the files.”
Caoimhe shook her head. “Maybe Freya would be able to learn something about those poor men.”
“Since when are cyborgs men?” Bianca said from across the room. She had been quiet, drinking her tea. And she was supposed to just watch and listen, but sometimes she had to interject something. “They killed your mother without any regard—”
“You were not there, Bianca. I was.”
“And you were a child,” Bianca countered. “You did not understand what you saw.”
“I was not a baby. I was eleven.”
“Not yet, you weren’t. You had four months to go if my math is correct.”
Jeke shifted back and forth from one foot to another and looked very uncomfortable.
“Your Majesty, if I may, I have—”
“Fine. You’re dismissed, Admiral.”
The officer nodded and left the room as Caoimhe and Bianca stared at each other.
At least, until the door was sealed behind him.
“And he’s gone,” Eleanor said as she came in from her bedroom. “I swear, you two are getting better and better with the play-acting.”
“We are both so full of passion,” Caoimhe said.
“Of course,” Bianca said.
The two of them were diligent about who heard what they said. They could never be too careful, for the Emperor would be told. And regardless of what Bianca believed about the war, the Emperor needed to think she supported him absolutely.
A wife in every way except name.
His mistress.
“Now, where were we?” Caoimhe asked. “The plans for the negotiations. I do believe we have all the details accounted for in the eventual bartering items?”
“Yes, I believe so.”
“The prisoners of war need to be returned, regardless of how the negotiations unfold,” Caoimhe said.
“So, you have decided that for certain?”
The princess nodded. “I cannot stand that we have Rhimodians here, being held against their will and likely being tested on and tortured—”
“We have no confirmation of that,” Eleanor said.
Caoimhe glared at her sister. “You’ve met our father. Do you really think he would pass up an opportunity to torture and dissect an enemy?”
“Good point,” Eleanor said.
"I do believe Admiral Jeke is doing his best to find out, at the very least, where the prisoners are and what state they are in," Bianca said. "He is compassionate toward them."
Caoimhe nodded. "I need them to secure the negotiations."
"Let the Admiral take care of it," Bianca said. "You have many other things to be concerned about."
"I know," she said, tossing her dark hair over her shoulder. "I think I have my first gray hair." She picked at a long hair in the middle of her dark ones. "It is not blonde, in any case. I am sure it is white."
