I slowly walk a wide arc around the Empress, into the greenery, not turning my back to her. There could be an exit on the other side. Vera would know, but she does look dead.
“Why you want to ruin the Empire?” I ask.
“The Tentacle Throne is powerful,” she says quietly, as if to herself. “It should not be in the hands of those who would only use it to build and add to the harmony of peace and order andhappiness. The galaxy was so good the way it was! The Syntrix was vibrating with discord and disharmony, with misery and death and attacks and defeats. That’snatural. That’s energy in its highest form. That’slife. It makes the Syntrix comealive. The Empire changed all that. The Tentacle Throne made the Syntrix all wrong. It was allharmony, allbright. All aligned, aimed the same way, dull, fluid, smooth. And we had to live with it. Itwent through us at all times, impossible to turn off or turn away from.”
I can’t say I know what she means. But the Syntrix that she herself exudes is chaotic and dark, so I suppose that anything else will feel as bad to her as her crackling Syntrix feels to me.
I shift my grip on the knife. Juriniel seems to have lost her mind, and I may have to use it.
“Oh, how we fretted and fought each other because of it!” Juriniel goes on. Nobody knew how to fix it, to make the Syntrix natural again. Except me. I knew. And I sought out the weak point. An Emperor without a wife! Simply asking to be exploited. I found a good wife for him, don’t you think? Everything went so well!”
“Who are you really?” I ask the obvious question.
“But then the Emperor got his bright idea to force Mareliux to get married,” Juriniel seethes, ignoring my question. “That didn’t come from me. He did it all in secret! Well, I wasn’t worried in the beginning. It was a good way to place a big hurdle between Mareliux and the Throne. Perhaps he would refuse it, distrusting women too much to want to marry at all! Perhaps he would step aside and let Nerox be the heir apparent, preferring to fight on the fringes of the Empire instead of coming to Khav and claiming the Tentacle Throne! I knew how skeptical Mareliux is of courtiers, and especially of women who aren’t soldiers. I helped make him that way. And then…”
I put more distance between us. I can hear the Empress grinding her teeth.
“Then he returns withyou,” she goes on, fury rising in her voice. “And the Emperor really likes you, so he completely ignores allthe reports about your wedding being an obvious sham. And you have Syntrix like nothing anyone has ever seen before. Yes, I got the reports of your fake wedding on Grefve, with Syntrix rings that shone like the sun and swords sent flying. And Mareliux loves you! Helovesyou!Mareliux!The coldest, most aloof, least trusting man in the Empire. He loves analien!A small, round, andgrotesquelittle alien! I could notbelieveit.”
“Bad luck,” I reply, trying to figure out how to get away. This greenhouse-like room is big, but there’s only one exit, and Juriniel is between it and me.
“And now,” she says, voice shrill and trembling, “there’s nothing between Mareliux and the Tentacle Throne, a throne that he can now completely dominate with the help of your Syntrix!”
“Uh-huh.” I keep my hand on the handle of the knife gun. “It may not be as easy as that.”
It’s as if Juriniel doesn’t hear me. Her body shivers in rage. “He can turn the tide, don’t you understand? He can destroy everything I worked for, ruin the plan! He can return the Empire to strength! Again the Syntrix will be shrill with Khavgren resonance. It will be ruined! Because ofyou!”
The last word comes as a piercing scream. The Empress rushes towards me, fury on her pale face.
I pull the knife out of its sheath, stretching it out in front of me as a warning. “Stay away!”
She towers over me, a thin, ghostly figure that reminds me of the Grim Reaper, trembling with rage and barely keeping it together. “Everyone knows that ridiculous marriage of yours is fake! But the Emperor approves, and that’s the end of it. We all have to pretend to think it’s real! I can’t believe it! The first timeMareliux tries to play a court game, and it’s such a transparent, obvious sham that the whole court is shaking their heads in disbelief. And then itworks!”
I keep the knife stretched out. The Empress seems completely out of control. “I don’t know what you mean. The marriage is real.” It could just be that this is a trap to get me to admit to the fake marriage. Although I have much bigger problems now.
“Oh, you think you canstabme?” Juriniel laughs and grabs my upper arm in a move as quick as a reptile.
The little blades on her fingertips cut through the fabric and into my skin, making me groan in pain.
She snatches the knife out of my grip and tosses it into a bush. “You won’t be needing this.”
Her hand shoots to my throat, sharp blades digging in. “This could already have been over. If only you’d stay in one place! If only you’d let my tame Calanian Guards blow you up in that ridiculous apartment! Mareliux thought he was being so clever hiding you. It shows how little he knows about the palace after he’s been gone for so long. The Calanians are mine! After decades of work with the Tentacle Throne, I claimed them as my own. They have no will now except mine.”
I don’t know what to do. Her little blades digging into my arm hurt more, but her grip around my throat is more dangerous. She can kill me just by moving her hand. She’s obviously lost her mind. But her eyes are as cold as always. Cold and alien, so different from Mareliux’s and Nerox’s that it’s impossible to believe that they’re her sons. Or that they are related in any way.
“Now,” she says, staring down at me in a way that sends coldness all the way through me. “The least you can do is give me someentertainment before you go.” She takes her hand off my throat and grabs hold of my hand. She turns it palm up and curls up her own fingers except the index finger. The blade at its tip is short, but it looks razor sharp.
“No!” I desperately try to pull my hand out of her grip, but she’s stronger than any empress as skinny as that should be, and she easily keeps hold of me.
46
- Umbra-
The blade hovers over my palm, and I know this is going to hurt a great deal. I clench my jaw and focus on her hand, wanting itgone.
“Oh!” Juriniel exclaims as if amused. “You’re trying to stop me. Shall we see who’s stronger, my hand or your Syntrix?”
The blade touches my skin, one sharp corner slowly piercing it. The pain is excruciating.
