Astrid smiled and kissed my cheek. “Never mind. I’ll have the hordlings replicate some furs for you.”
I grimaced, hoping Wiktor wouldn’t find out.
“Anyways,” Astrid continued, “surely you brought your bathing suit.”
“Bathing suit? Whatever for?” I asked.
Astrid shrugged. “Another article to replicate, I suppose.”
“Yes, indeed, I don’t think I own a bathing suit. What in Fall’s name do I need a bathing suit for?” I asked.
It turned out I needed the bathing suit for the day’s activities. After breakfast, the Emperor gaily announcedshe would be spending the day in the thermal lake at the mountain’s peak. All dignitaries who wished to partake in the hot springs were welcome to do so while those who did not were invited to remain at the Crystal Palace until the Emperor returned near dusk. Her announcement created a stir among the Allied notables, but the Emperor and I did not stick around to watch. She took my arm and strode from the main hall.
Once we were out of sight, Astrid broke into a wide grin. “Come on. I want to show you something,” she said excitedly. I trotted to keep up with her long strides. We rode a lift to the top of one of the Crystal Palace’s main towers, where Astrid pulled me onto a private airpad.
“Look! Isn’t it beautiful?”
Astrid pointed to a sleek silver skycar, a side-by-side two-seater coupe with a long nose, folded aerovanes, and a pair of vertical engines podded at either side of the stern. It looked lean, swift, and stylish, perfect for racing around a track or cruising the high-class district of a major city.
Back at the Academy, Astrid had liked skycars more than I, sneaking out to participate in underground airlane races. I was a hoversteed aficionado even then, but there were enough similarities in the two technologies that I could help Astrid hot-rod her beat-up racer and repair it after she’d wrecked. Sadly, ten years of war had left me somewhat out of the loop when it came to top-of-the-line skycars. “Very nice. I don’t recognize the make. Is it a new model?”
“It’s custom,” Astrid said proudly. “I had it specially made after my coronation. One perk of being Emperor is you can indulge in your hobbies.”
I ran my hand along the sleek bonnet. “It certainly would cut a pretty sight slicing through the sky, but how does it handle?”
With a grin, Astrid popped the cockpit’s gull-wing doors. “Get in. I’ll show you.”
I paused. “Won’t we have a chauffeur? An escort?”
Astrid giggled. “Of course we’ll have an escort, if they can keep up. Now get in, you coward.”
I clambered into the oversized passenger seat. The entire skycar was sized for demons, not humans, and I felt like a child sitting in my parents’ vehicle, but the skycar’s computer must have read my body because the seat quickly molded itself to my form, pushing me up and giving me a contoured racing seat. I buckled my restraints before Astrid revved the engine. The whole skycar vibrated, and combined with the sculpted suede seats, it was like being cuddled by an angry leather teddy bear.
“Ready?” Astrid asked.
“No?” I replied, suddenly remembering Astrid’s reckless daredevil flying at the Academy.
“Too bad,” she said, and floored the accelerator.
The skycar shot into the sky with frightening speed. The acceleration pressed me into my seat, but the inertial compensators prevented me from blacking out as Astrid pulled us into a crushingly tight turn around the Crystal Palace.
“It certainly corners well, but shouldn’t we be heading to the thermal lake?” I asked, noting the Imperial guards on hoversteeds rising to meet us.
“Not just yet. Let me enjoy this moment,” Astrid replied.
“You’re the driver, and the Emperor. Your wish is my command,” I said.
Astrid’s grin grew wider, and we dove to the ground. Astrid took us all over the mountain, winding through valleys, weaving between trees, barrel-rolling over ridges. She was a skilled pilot, putting the vehicle through maneuvers I had not seen outside of combat, and the bone-crushing, hair-raisingflight was exhilarating. Astrid laughed, and for a moment, we were back at the Academy, outrunning prefects to sneak back to our dorms after a party. There was no diplomacy, no war, no familial or patriotic duties to tear us apart. We were just two kids enjoying each other’s company again.
Then I saw the Imperial cavalry escort flying overwatch, and reality returned.
Eventually Astrid turned the skycar’s long nose up the mountain. It climbed like a beast, eating up the altitude with ease. In no time at all, we reached the volcano’s snow-capped peak.
As the silver skycar rose over the lip of the volcano’s crater, I got my first glimpse of the geothermal lake. It was a shocking shade of turquoise, with steam rising from its surface. Snow covered the caldera’s rim, but a thin belt of green surrounded the pool where the water’s heat fed plant life. Astrid guided us towards a snow-covered pebble beach where several skycars and ground shuttles were already parked and set us down in a cleared area. As she cut the skycar’s engine, her guards began landing their hoversteeds around her. We emerged from the heated cockpit into the freezing air, thick with the smell of snow and sulfur, the shock of which hit me like a wall and drew the breath from my lungs. I was grateful for the thick fur cloak Astrid had provided, but I knew my face would swiftly freeze red.
The demon guards did not wear any more than usual. I was stunned by their willingness to ride in the freezing alpine air at such speed wearing little more than boots, bracers, chest guards, and loincloths, but they sprang from their steeds without showing the slightest hint of discomfort. Various demon lords stood about, similarly scantily dressed, and nearly universally refusing to step into the steaming water, yet not one shivered or made any notice of the bitter cold.It went to show how tough demons truly were, the result of pre-Fall bioengineering projects designed to make the human race hardier so they could settle less habitable planets. Even thousands of years later, the results were impressive.
Most of the Allied notables did not look so impervious to the chill. Many shivered from the moment they removed their cloaks and quickly splashed into the steaming water for relief. Several wore expressions indicating regret at not remaining in the Crystal Palace.
