Chapter Thirteen: High Command
Small wonder, thought Ursula, that Yuna had had so much pull with the Emperor - he was a rare animal among the Imperial Ministers what with his obviously functioning brain. Of course to get this far they - or their relatives - had to have had a modicum of sense, but nobody said they had to show it.
The Ministers of Education, Agriculture, and Justice showed up on time - three out of six wasn't so bad. The Minister of Education was Lord Hikaru, who looked like he would always be on time because to do otherwise would kill him. Lord Hikaru was a little older than General Rhun had been; Ursula had grown up with the other two, Aurelius and Dorsey, though they'd never been friends.
Aurelius took the seat furthest from her, at the other end of the table. His eyes still watered, she noted, and he retained the annoying collection of twitches. She just hoped he hadn't taken up stuttering while he was at it - she'd had more than her fill listening to Scias.
Dorsey was the newest - his father, the previous Minister of Justice, had died of heart trouble, overwhelmed by recent events. While the post was not technically hereditary, those who made such decisions needed no official rules to consult. He arrived with a stack of paperwork and an abridged volume of law. "Our current system - it's in such a state, General Ursula," he said earnestly as he sat down across from her and attacked the first sheet with his pen. "The documented incidents… positively outrageous."
If he'd gotten the post and embarked on his campaign earlier, his days would have been numbered. As it was, he was fortunate.
The Minister of Trade, Lady Miyu, was next. She had with her a case of whirligigs, the purchase of which was probably the only thing she had to do with actual trade. She lined up the whirligigs before her and began to tinker with them, seemingly oblivious to her companions. Last were Diplomacy and Protocols - Lord Jia and Lady Livia. Lord Jia was even older than Lord Hikaru - he could have been General Rhun's father. Ursula gathered that he'd held what had been a sinecure for years before the current peace, and dealing with Ludia in peacetime had him tearing out what was left of his hair and beginning to rival Aurelius in twitchery. Lady Livia dressed in strategically ragged silks, affecting poverty - one of the things you could get away with when you were in charge of Protocols.
And she had to deal with this bunch. Small wonder that Captain Tang had cringed at the thought of it. Lucky him, he didn't have to actually do it.
"We've arrested the leader of the revolt," she began when they'd all settled down. "He's one of the thaumaturgists. Regarding Lord Yuna -"
Lady Livia perked up. "What? What have you heard of him?"
"It looks like he was imprisoned after the revolt-" If it was possible for someone to perk down, that was what had just taken place. "Then escaped-" Up. "And took the causeway to Kyoin." Down. "His whereabouts are currently unknown." Still down.
"They make such charming things in Alliance lands," said Lady Miyu. "I had imported this quaint little doll from Wyndia and its eyes-"
"Kyoin?" said Dorsey, without looking up from the paperwork. "Why Kyoin? Kwanso's less than a day's journey even without transport."
"Is he a fool?" Lord Jia did a quick twitch around the room. "There are still rumblings, are there not, regarding their missing princess? What would prevent them from trying to inflict an eye for an eye? Not," he rolled his eyes upward, "that we were responsible for whatever might have befallen the young lady."
"Young Lord Dorsey brings an interesting point," said Lord Hikaru. "Why did he venture to the other continent when there was certainly help to be had in the Empire?"
Ursula had brought her own sheaf of papers and stack of books - no competition for Dorsey's, but they would do. She passed them across the table, except for one slim volume she saved for later, for after she had gauged their reaction to this lot. "Maybe this will answer your question."
Dorsey skimmed the first page, and his eyes widened. He flipped ahead, skimming more at random, then passed it to Lord Jia. The papers and books circled around the table, leaving exclamations of horror in their wake as well as complaints of poor penmanship. They included, after all, signed statements from Yuna's assistants and tracked-down soldiers, describing what had gone on in Astana Base, with accompanying notes by Yuna himself.
Lady Livia was the last to get them and the one who read them fastest, after which she clung to them. "Are you absolutely sure this is authenticated, General?"
"Don't you recognize his handwriting?"
She looked at it again and pressed her fingertips across her lips. "My word! And he seemed such a gentle man!"
"The Alliance found the princess," moaned Lord Jia - she found herself feeling a bit sorry for him, having to eat his words in under an hour as he had. "We were responsible. They will tear me apart at the next talk, assuming that there will be another."
"Oh dear. I heard they're developing a new sort of amusing machine in Ludia. If we go to war again I'll not get one of them for ever so long."
He glared. "Lady Miyu, this is hardly a time to be concerned with child's toys." Lady Miyu pouted as if to say that she might as well be a child, why shouldn't she concern herself with toys?
Ursula grit her teeth. "If I may continue? It seems the allegations that caused the trouble in Astana were at least partially correct. There was a hex fired on Soma Forest, and he was responsible for the disappearance of the Alliance princess. So-"
"So he was scared we'd rescue him and then find what he'd done." Dorsey nodded fervently.
Aurelius's knuckles whitened as he gripped the edge of the table. "But why Soma Forest? Of all places? It's not two days from here."
Lady Livia said, "The First Emperor… arrived at the Imperial Castle only a day or two after the date of the hex, did he not?" To Ursula's relief, nobody said anything like, "Are we sure it was actually the First Emperor and not some lunatic thaumaturgist?" The time for that had gone by some days before and hadn't yet returned. She continued, "Perhaps he came here because of it. But still… why Soma Forest?"
In response, she gave them the last book. At first they read and passed it on in silence, for a while beyond exclamation. Certainly what he had done to an Alliance princess was terrible, especially seeing how much trouble it made for Lord Jia, but they saw no problem with what he'd intended to do with her after - they saw no problem with the Carronade, why would they see a problem with an immortal sacrifice for it? It was the kind of thing that they would be indignant about, then write off, water down. This - now this ought to hit them close to home.
Aurelius was the first to speak. "Then this means Lord Yuna attempted to destroy the God Emperor, may-he-rest-" He paused as he considered how appropriate this statement was. "Uh, may-his-memory-endure." Even as he spoke a new wave of gasps and horrified muttering swept the table.
"There is no doubt," said Lord Hikaru. "Lord Yuna must be found and brought to trial. Him, and this General Yohm."
Dorsey said, "There seems to be a problem there. We have never had a law against attempted deicide. Nobody has ever tried it before, you see."
Lord Hikaru glared at him over Lord Jia's head. "There is high treason, is there not? What else would you call an attempt to murder an Emperor? The God Emperor, at that."
"Yes… I think that could do it." He cogitated for a moment. "Of course, there is the matter of getting Lord Yuna back into the Empire."
"Well, that should be simple enough." Lady Livia laughed dutifully. "Has not our own General ventured forth into Alliance lands and lived to tell the tale?"
Ursula raised and lowered a shoulder. Dorsey said, "Can you have a force together by, let's say, tomorrow at dawn?"
Just when she began to have a little faith in their intelligence a statement like that blew it all to pieces. "You think they'll be ready with flowers and congratulations on the other side of the Causeway?"
Lord Jia blinked rapidly. "What do you propose then, General?"
"The main problem will be catching him. And a great clunking troop is not going to be able to do the job. I should be ready to go by tomorrow morning."
"Well said!" Ursula doubted Lady Miyu was even aware of what had been said.
Lord Hikaru nodded. "That is settled, then. Have you not other news, General? Regarding the Imperial succession?"
It was like she'd spun a bowl of goldfish about like a child's top and now was about to toss it over a waterfall. "Yes. There doesn't seem to be any."
In the silence that followed she fancied she could hear each of those assembled mentally counting to ten. Lord Hikaru was the first to finish. "How can there be none? The Imperial family is as a tree with a thousand branches."
"All the branches have been cut off. All of the ones in the records, at any rate."
"He had a cousin in Chiqua," said Lord Jia. "I remember meeting him a few years ago, at a ceremony. A respectful young man, if rather simple."
Ursula sighed. "He was strangled by a boat last year."
"Oh. How… unfortunate."
Around the table thoughts ran at full speed. Aurelius said, "I seem to recall an aunt in Pauk."
"Trampled by a Whelk."
Aurelius blinked. "I'm sorry? I was brought to believe Whelks… hadn't any feet."
"They don't."
"There was a branch of the family in Astana, was there not?"
"A bad blowfish." Expressions of relief - a few of them had themselves lost relatives to bad blowfish. Blowfish was by far preferable to strangling boats and rampaging Whelks - blowfish were within the realm of possibility. You could understand blowfish without disabling most of your independent thinking in self-defense.
Lady Livia said, "Is there any precedent for this situation?"
Dorsey said, "If I recall correctly, the death of the Emperor's heir has generally resulted in a civil war of varying magnitude. However, in such cases there were still distant relations left to wage the war."
Lady Livia nodded. "Oh yes, but there is still the Emperor's mother, isn't there?"
They all visualized the gibbering woman who had been quietly consigned to a country residence during the time of the Twelfth Emperor - the court was well acquainted with insanity, but the discreet variety was far preferred. The Thirteenth had had her visit the capital to witness his ascendance; the incident, or string thereof, was still remembered with some embarrassment even by people Ursula and Dorsey and Aurelius's age, and he hadn't had her visit again. Then they visualized her on the Imperial throne. "No," they chorused, though Ursula thought Lady Miyu's lag of a few seconds rather spoiled the effect.
Lord Hikaru's fingers endeavored to snap each other; even he was beginning to crumble. "What then is to be done? The Minister of Thaumaturgy a traitor… the Emperor dead, without heirs… the God Emperor at least named a successor… completely unprecedented event in the history of the Empire…"
"Of course it's unprecedented," said Ursula. "If it happened before then we wouldn't have an Empire by now."
Lady Livia ventured, "Perhaps a candidate might be found among our-"
"The people would never stand for it." Lord Jia's voice was flat. "If they cannot trust the Imperial bloodline-" Not that it was all that trustworthy to start with. "- what will they trust?"
Aurelius was sitting unusually straight, with nary a twitch - she guessed this portended something. She was right. "General Ursula has given us accounts of Lord Yuna's perfidies," he began. "Far be it from me to speak for Emperor Soniel, may-he-rest-in-peace, but perhaps as he had no children, and considering the state of the rest of his family, it was his intention that the God Emperor Fou-Lu, may-his-memory-endure, might assume his position once more. And perhaps Lord Yuna twisted his words to result in the attacks on the God Emperor."
They were beginning to nod. This they could believe. They couldn't think that the late Emperor was a power-hungry murderer - no, they'd rather think that Yuna had taken him in and that he wanted to chase down Fou-Lu to offer him the bloody throne. Granted, Yuna probably had taken him in, but that didn't automatically make him an innocent victim. It was just as bad as the people of Chedo thinking that because Fou-Lu had been behind the destruction they must have done something to deserve it.
"Good idea. It would be even better," said Dorsey, "if we could find him. Nobody seems to know where he'd gone off to after the, er, the incident."
Ursula opened her mouth to speak, then paused. What she was about to say would surely go to support their happy delusion. But they were right about one thing - the Empire wouldn't go on very long with nobody, not even a figurehead, on the throne. "The God Emperor would be in the Alliance by now. He merged with his other half - the dragon Captain Rasso and I were sent to find in Alliance lands."
"Ah!" Lord Jia said. "I believe I recall something of the sort referred to in this… this unfortunate account." He nodded at the last book. "So perhaps you were dispatched to seek him out for that very reason." Like hell we were. "Might I request the name of his… other half?"
"He goes by Ryu."
Dorsey picked up one of the soldiers' statements and waved it. "Not the same Ryu as in-?"
"The same."
Lord Hikaru drew himself up. "This is hardly following tradition, but I do suppose desperate times call for such measures. General, while you are traveling, be sure to inquire as to his whereabouts, and if he is sui -" He stopped. "Simply retrieve him, General. You know the great import of this."
"I know."
He frowned. "Yes, I'm sure you do."
"Please, General," said Aurelius. "We haven't much other choice."
Ursula nodded and endured another hour of confirming the decision and brainless nattering and questioning about the progress of reconstruction before she extricated herself and retreated. She ran into Captain Tang outside; he took one look at her face and said nothing.
That night in the barracks she wrote a notice of her impending absence, sent it out, then packed before settling down for a few good hours of sleep, which eluded her. If it was possible, she was even more unsure about the idea than when it had first been presented. A position as figurehead of a half-collapsed empire - that was what she could offer him. And while the First Emperor returning would certainly be accepted by the people, the charge of a Wyndian princess would hardly have the same effect.
She groaned and rolled over. Oh, joy. What have I gotten into here?
When she finally slept she dreamed of hexes and of General Rhun, slumped against the wall of the Imperial Castle, asking her to again call him grandfather.
For once Cray wasn't holding Elina's hand. He said, "You'll be fine on your own?"
"I won't be on my own. Ryu will be with me." Cray didn't look very reassured by this.
Deis folded her arms. "What about us?"
Ryu said, "What about you?"
"Don't even think of going to Chek without us. If you're going to try and get back your powers there is no way I'll be left behind."
"And w…we're n-not about t… t… t-to l-leave you t-two…" Scias grinned. "A-alone."
Nina felt herself blush, Cray cracked a smile, Elina giggled, and Ryu turned to examine the wall. "Fine, sure, why not?" he said. "A-Tur and Won-Qu were coming with us anyway."
Deis rolled her eyes. "As if they would've done anything to stop you."