“You saw the Emperor last night?” Boleslaw asked. “Again?”
That’s right. I’d not been publicly invited. I decided not to reveal the fact that I’d been kidnapped. “Her servant found me in the chaos following Von Potiorek’s death.”
“What did she want with your fourth rendezvous?” Boleslaw’s implication was clear.
“She wanted to talk to someone she knew,” I replied lamely.
Boleslaw raised an eyebrow. “Just talk?”
I shrugged. “It’s possible she had more amorous intentions in mind, but, as I said before, I passed out rather quickly.”
“Passed out?” Boleslaw asked dubiously.
“I haven’t been sleeping well. With the strain of yesterday’s events, I was simply unable to stay awake. The Emperor had her doctors rouse me, but when they determined it was lack of sleep, they slapped me with a tranquilizer and laid me out on a couch in her parlor. Her servants only woke me a little bit ago. Fall of a stim injection,” I lied, rubbing my neck as though I’d slept on it funny.
Boleslaw looked unconvinced. “We all were worried sick about you. Lynwyzc was preparing to issue a diplomatic protest.”
“No need. Just a misunderstanding,” I said, perhaps a tad too quickly.
“Well, glad that’s settled. Wiktor would have been trulydistressed if you’d gone missing,” Boleslaw said, her disarming smile flashing again.
I snorted. “I think he’d dance a jig of freedom.”
“You wound me, sir,” Wiktor said in a droll monotone from his customary position at my elbow. I jumped, spilling tea all over my lap. Wiktor gave my trousers the barest of glances which, somehow, perfectly communicated his annoyance at having to clean yet another stain from my clothes. “How would you like your eggs this morning?”
“Over-easy on toast, if you would,” I managed to say, my shock fading.
“Very good, sir,” Wiktor said before gliding towards the kitchens.
“One Fall of a servant you’ve got there,” Boleslaw commented.
“He’s on loan. I don’t get to keep him,” I replied.
“Isn’t that a shame,” Boleslaw said, then leaned forwards on the table. “It’d be another shame if you fell unconscious before learning anything of value last night.”
“I know she didn’t expect to win this war,” I said, deciding that was safe, but useful information to give.
“She’s got a funny way of showing it,” Prince Aureli said as he entered the suite. It seemed he had spent his evening elsewhere. I wondered if his partner had been as energetic as mine. She could not have been as enjoyable.
Boleslaw enticed the prince to sit next to her with a plate of jammy doughnuts and other breakfast sweets. “How was your evening, Your Highness? Successful, I hope?”
Prince Aureli snagged a chocolate-covered biscuit as he sat. “Successful enough, I pray. Screwing sense into Despotate delegates is harder work than it seems. They’re so bull-headed. They get an idea in their head and they worry it like a hungry dog with a bone.”
“Are we sure they’re worth the effort? We’ve fought most of this war practically without them,” I said.
Prince Aureli fixed me with a disapproving stare. “The Despotate may be reduced to a sliver of its former territory, but those systems have provided millions of soldiers to help stem the Imperial tide.”
“Despotate soldiers are good fighters,” I conceded. “It’s the lords commander I have problems with.”
“You’ll just have to get over that. They’re our allies, and we need them to negotiate a unified peace with the Empire.” The prince dunked his chocolate biscuit in the tea handed to him by a valet. “But I can tell Boleslaw about my evening later. What is it you said about the Emperor not wanting to win the war?”
“Well, she wanted to win, but not quite so well. She expected a stalemate somewhere in the League, which she could use to negotiate for a few border territories to add to her Empire and prove herself a good choice to wear the Imperial crown. But then…”
“Then Yezhidia defected, the League dissolved, and the Despotate collapsed,” Boleslaw continued.
“Leaving only us left to conquer, and a horde of victorious demon lords to appease,” Prince Aureli concluded. He took a deep, cleansing breath before saying, “That explains why she’s been so sensible in discussions.”
“If I may, Your Highness, I don’t think it does. She’s on the edge of final victory. Whatever troubles would result from winning, I feel she’d incur worse by snatching that victory away from her warriors after they fought so hard to win it.”
