“We’re asking the questions here,” Ankhelina yelled.
Zukov put a clawed hand on her upper arm and gently pulled her back. “That’s enough,” he said, and the Emperor’s Champion calmed herself at his words. She let herself be pulled away to take a few deep breaths. Meanwhile, Zukov gestured to a demon at his side and said, “Examine him.”
The demon stepped forwards and roughly grabbedmy chin. He shined a light into my eyes one at a time, then wrenched my head up and ran a gloved claw down my jawline.
As his fingernail inspection proceeded up past my ear and along my hairline, I protested. “Watch it. That’s my face.”
“I’m checking how fresh it is,” the demon doctor said in accented Commonwealth Basic while pinching my cheeks.
“I know I’m not twenty anymore, but I’m not that worn. What the Fall is this?”
“We’re going to prove you’re not the real Levar Boylan,” Ankhelina said, pleasure dripping from her tongue.
Despite the danger, I chuckled as the demon medic checked the pads of my fingers. “That will be a trick, as I am Levar Boylan.”
“You cannot be,” Ankhelina said. “Levar Boylan is dead.”
I gave another chuckle, this one cut short as the demon tore open my shirt. “Steady on, that was tailored.” The medic ran a claw down my chest as he leaned in so close his nose nearly brushed my skin. Then he backed away and pulled out a portable med scanner. “You demons have been trying to kill me these last ten years. You’ve not succeeded yet, but give it a few months. I’m sure one of you must know how to aim a lancer.”
Ankhelina snarled, but Zukov ignored my taunt. In Imperial, he asked his medic if he’d found anything yet. “Skin and eyes are unmarred beyond the expected blemishes, but nanites could conceal surgical scars. I am checking for recent bone growth. Much harder to hide that.”
“So you think, what, that I’m some actor surgically altered to resemble the Emperor’s dead lover? Seems a little complicated, doesn’t it?” I asked.
Zukov lowered himself into a kneeling position before me, staring deeply into my eyes.
“We are on the edge of victory. One more majoroffensive, and the Commonwealth capital is in our hands. Without the Commonwealth, the Allies collapse. The war is over. Then, on the eve of victory, the Emperor calls a halt to this war in order to throw a party with her enemies. And at that party, suddenly, her long-lost lover appears amongst the Allied ranks, and although the Emperor has never taken a consort in her twelve years on the throne, this once-dead lover seduces his way into the position. You can surely see how it must look to us.”
“My relationship with Astrid is a matter of public record, as is my identity as a Royal Commonwealth citizen,” I argued.
“Precisely how your government knew to arrange this particular gambit,” Zukov said. “And it has worked terribly well. Now, as Consort, you can convince the Emperor to spare your nation. A last-minute play resulting in overwhelming victory.”
“Don’t you think it a rather dangerous game?” I asked. “If I was fake, which I’m not, you’d think the Emperor’s rage upon realizing she’d been duped would be towering.”
“Would that matter to a nation near defeat? When faced with extinction, would not any opportunity, no matter how slim, seem worth pursuing?” Zukov said.
I gave Zukov a level look. “The mayhaps and might-bes are immaterial in this case, as I am the genuine Levar Boylan.”
Instead of responding, Zukov turned his attention to the demon doctor. “Is he?”
“If he is a doppelganger, he is the best I have ever seen. There is no new bone growth, and aside from his demon heart, everything looks properly abused. His scars even match his profile.”
I suppressed a shiver as the Imps discussed classified Commonwealth information as casually as I would discuss the weather. I knew they had broken our codes. How deeply had theImperial information apparatus penetrated our data systems?
Ankhelina crossed her arms, shaking her head. “No. He must be a fake. If not a doppelganger, then a flesh golem.”
It was the demon doctor’s turn to shake his head. “He can’t be a golem. Our scanners would detect that much cyber, even concealed beneath biomatter.”
“A clone, then,” Ankhelina argued.
“Why is it so hard for you to believe I’m the real Levar?” I asked.
“Because I was there when you died.”
I cocked my head. “Clearly, you’re mistaken.”
Ankhelina grabbed me by the throat, her arm striking like a viper. “Do not tell me my errors. I watched the Emperor grieve. I listened to her wails, held her while she cried. It took her weeks to return to governance. It took her years to smile, and she still does so but rarely. I’ll not allow a false actor to shatter her heart again.”
Zukov placed a gentle hand on Ankhelina’s wrist, slowly prying her fingers from my neck. I appreciated the return to normal aspiration. “The Emperor’s Champion is her greatest confidante, barring her eventual spouse and consort. She was with the Emperor when I gave them the news you had perished in the initial attacks.”
