King Ajax's skyship returned to port at the Dowager's Palace. It lay on a jagged sliver of land between the East Peninsula of the Red Realm, the Old Kingdom of the Lavender Realm and the northern outliers of the Indigo Realm that had once claimed dominion over a sixth of the Realms of the World. At the northernmost end was an artificial lock within a wider bay where a dozen skyships could berth. As the Clipper of Ajax descended, he saw two starcraft among the ships, a graceful shuttle with forward-swept wings and a double-hulled fighter shaped like a W. "Yes," Mel said to his unasked question. "They are craft of the Myrmidons."

It was a short ride to the Palace in the Royal Carriage, pulled by six ground birds. Mel stepped out confidently. Over her Cingulum, she wore a nearly sensible dress of a fine, flowing lavender fabric. Its upper part crisscrossed her torso in an X that left only a sliver of her midriff bare. The skirts consisted of a jeweled girdle piece, something like an apron in front, and a flowing train behind. Naturally, it did very little to conceal her legs, especially when she walked. Equally naturally, she still had her sword at her hip.

The Dowager's Palace was a palace in the truest sense; while there were vestiges of the defensive structures that had once stood in its place, its current form was based on aesthetic beauty and pure splendor. The turreted towers on either side of the gate were painted in pastels. Beyond was a walled courtyard where jewel birds wandered among marvelous plants. Beyond that was the Great Gate, two doors of filigreed silver and stained glass that would have shattered at one stroke of Ajax's old hammer. They seemed to open of their own accord, and Ajax and Meliboia walked hand in hand into the Dowager's Hall.

The Gates opened into the Royal Ballroom, a vast space where commoners and travelers were free to examine the paintings, sculptures, trophies and relics that lined the walls. Ajax recognized Prince Robert, no longer quite so little, trying to ride a taxidermied jackelope. He managed to climb into the saddle included with the mount before a Royal Attendant carried him away squalling. The King paused to consider the taxidermied creature. It was 3 Royal Cubits high, with its graceful neck extended and its long ears raised higher than its three-pronged horns. It stood on two legs, its front paws being barely visible vestiges. "That is Cinnabar the Swift," said another bystander. "He was the best steed of Lord Achilleus, the father of Pruna. When he fell at the Red Coast, Naam sent an honor guard to return the carcass."

Ajax turned and bowed. "My Queen," he said. To Meliboia, he said, "This is Dowager Pruna, the mother of Empress Pruna and High Queen Narcissa."

"Charmed," Mel said. "I have heard a lot about you."

"So have I, Lady Khloritia," the Dowager said with a smile. She smiled as the Attendant delivered Prince Robert into her arms.

The movements of Dowager Prunus could only be called spry as they walked together. Her dress was a periwinkle pastel, with inner layers of very pale lavender. It was the residuum of a mantle Ajax remembered seeing as royal purple. Her face and arms were not so much withered as darkened and hardened, like tanned leather. She led the way to one of the stairs on either side, then from there up to an overlooking balcony that was big enough for a banquet table. Here, nobles, dignitaries, and family members of the Dowager could conduct business with a measure of privacy from the guests passing back and forth. Hector and Daffodil were already seated, chatting with the Duke and Ambassador of the Azure Kingdom and two masked delegates from Biarmaland, the great Realm beyond the White North. Daffy shrieked and waved as Ajax came into view. His eyes were already on two unfamiliar men in strange garb beside her. As Meliboia reached the landing, she froze… then smiled.

"Father, my brother," she said with a salute. "Lord Ajax, these are Chief Aeacus and Captain Amyclas of the Myrmidons."

The clearly older man returned her gesture without rising. The younger one stood and gave his own salute. "It is good to see you again, my Sister," he said. "You have brought great fame on your name and our House. Everywhere we go, if we give the name of Myrmidon, at least one will ask if you are still with us."

"Well, I'm sure it wasn't as bad as they made out," Mel said. She seated herself beside Aeacus and promptly propped up her legs on the table. "Come, sit with me, my Lord." Ajax cautiously took the chair beside her.

"Excuse me," said the senior Biarmaman. His status was marked by his red coat and hood and a mask with painted features and a carved smile. His subordinate had a yellow garment and plain mask with simple holes for his eyes and mouth. A pair of attendants waiting on them had gray coats and masks with no mouths. "We are conducting important business. If you wish to talk idly among yourselves, please go elsewhere."

"This is my table," Prunus said as she took her seat at the head of the table, with Robert in her lap. She waved for the Biarman attendants to be seated across from Ajax and Meliboia. "It is a place for friendship, not formality. All may speak as they please, as long as they give no insult to another. If anyone does, the wrong is mine to repay."

"Oh, Mummy, these star men are just delightful," Daffy said to her mother, talking right over the Biarmans and Hector. She briefly rummaged in the frog purse at her side and gave Robert his little frog. The delegates grew all the more unhappy when he demonstrated his newfound ability to open it, making a surprisingly realistic croaking noise each time. "You should hear their stories. They told me a lot about Mel."

"Really," said the senior Biarmaman, since introduced as Biaku. "The senior Scribes of our Khan inquired about her some time ago. They gave a report that one Khloritia Niobides had been expelled by the Chief of the Myrmidons in disgrace."

"Any report your Lord received was not from us," Aeacus said. His voice was polite but firm. "She chose to separate from our clan, as is the right of any Myrmidon. A further vote was taken to decide the values of her shares and the extent of her property. If her reasons had anything to do with a dispute with any other in our ranks, it would be a private matter. I would ask that it not be spoken of." His request was a sterner warning than the Dowager's.

The Dowager found much to say. As usual, Ajax saw a good deal of Daffy in her. "I have no formal authority now, of course, except within the Palace grounds," she said. "I have used the time to renovate and improve, to organize the collections and dictate my memoirs. When I am not occupied, I receive guests, be they family, friend or visitor. It keeps me feeling young, even if I don't look it."

"Oh, Mummy, you tease," Daffy said. "You don't look a day… well, older than you did at Pruna's wedding."

Prunus smiled. "Oh, now you are just trying to get me to gossip," she said. "You know she has visited three times this season. Talk to her if you want to know."

"Oh, I have," Daffy said. "I was wondering what she told you."

"Oh ho, you think you have leverage," the Dowager said with a wicked grin. "Well, she mentioned a few things you have not… like whether I am to have another grandchild!"

"Oh, Mummy, that was nothing," Daffy said, patting Hector's hand. "We had one close call…"

The talk then turned to Robert. By then, he had set aside his frog for an old pincushion shaped like a purple hedgehog, which he pushed up and down the ornate frame of the Dowager's chair with a kind of puttering sound. "If you will pardon me for saying, I notice he does not seem to speak," Aeacus said. "It is somewhat odd, for a boy his age."

"He hasn't said his first words yet," Daffy admitted. "But he definitely understands when we talk to him. He knows his name, and yes and no, and when I tell him to go find one of his sisters, he goes to the right one. He'll get there."

By then, Hector had managed to get Biaku to talk. "Yes, we control a vast Empire, greater than the Mushroom Reals and those of the Lindorms combined," he said. "Much of it is forest and icy wastes, yet we have great wealth and subjects of many tribes and peoples, gifted in both war and the peaceful trades. As you may recall, we aided the Kingdoms of Azure and the White North against Naam, though we have certain disputes over our borders. Once our negotiations can be made official, we expect a great expansion of trade, both from your lands and ours." He looked in the direction of Aeacus. "Tell me, Ajax, is it true that creatures of the stars invaded your lands?"

"It happened once," Ajax said. "And it was one ship. It landed outside the gates of the Castle of Persicus, where Lady Daffodil had been sent for her safety during the wars with Naam. A bunch of robots or something marched out, seized the castle and took the Princess prisoner. From there, they took over Persica and two-thirds of the Red Kingdom. During the counterattack, I led a raiding party into the ship to get the Princess out."

"I really wasn't even scared," Daffy said. "The Invaders were a bit slow. I don't think they were robots, more like suits for something else to ride in. When Ajax knocked out one of them, we saw this funny little thing crawl out of it. The one in charge was different. He was weird."

"Yeah, I ran into him," Ajax said. "He had a big head, pointy ears, and these flaps like gills where his mouth should have been. He could still talk, somehow. He said his name was Kabango, something like that."

"Sounds like an Ikarian," Amyclas said. Mel and Aeacus both nodded.

"He kept rambling that he would conquer our world," Daffy added. "He said even if Ajax defeated him and rescued me, our world would be conquered. When Ajax came, he hit him over the head with a wrench, and we jumped to his skycraft from the airlock. Kabango tried to chase us with his own little ship. Ajax shot him down." She smiled and sighed, then belatedly took Hector's hand.

"Not bad for a first-generation terrestrial," Aeacus said.

"Wait a minute," Amyclas said. "You said something climbed out of a mech? What did it look like?"

"Hard to say," Ajax said. "It definitely had a shell, and joints. There were things that looked a lot like tentacles, but I think those were feelers."

Amyclas and Aeacus looked at each other and shook their heads. Mel smiled. "You are full of surprises," she said. "Those were Astakoi, the best biomechanoid suit fighters in known space."

Biaku ventured to address Mel directly. "Tell me," he said, "is there not a greatest among your adversaries?"

"Come now," Aeacus said. "One of the oaths of the Myrmidons is the Vow of Cassandra. We do not announce our name or list our own deeds, even when invited. We only answer when asked."

"Then what of the tale of the Incursion?" Biaku asked more directly. "It is said that a race called the Kophon destroyed whole planets, but a lone Myrmidon defeated them, not once but three times…"

"That was the Ostrakoi," Mel said. She downed the remaining half of a wine glass. "It means Fugitive or Outcast. The Kophon called them that, after they were blamed for the initial incursions. They're definitely related, but even for the Kophon, it's too touchy to ask. They went world to world in swarms of millions, sometimes billions. Once, I neutralized a planetary infestation and captured a Monarch. After that, I cleaned up an outpost where some idiots had tried to breed them. The third time people talk about was… something else."

After a pause, she added, "People get the wrong idea, anyway. They think being a Misthia means chasing each and every bounty across a galaxy like it was personal. Nope. Space is a big place. If you run into a mark once, you've gotten lucky. After that, it's usually done one way or the other."

Hector spoke up. "What about Cadmus?" he asked. "I mean, I heard a story once…"

"Yes," Biaku said, "I do believe I heard the name myself."

Mel scowled. "He was nothing," she said. "I only went after him because he had gotten away from the Myrmidons, twice. When I left, I vowed that I would find him. So, yeah, once in a while we do a Hunt for Honor."

Seeing the curious looks, not least from Ajax, she sighed. "All right, I'll tell you a little about it," she said. "He was a clonesmith. He probably gave the name to himself, after a king in the myths who created an army from dragon's teeth. There were stories that he could produce a clone of a full sentient in 12 hours. Everyone who knew anything about it said 12 weeks would have been impressive enough. What he really had were connections, a lot of people he had either helped or paid off, including some of the Myrmidons. Every time someone got close, he would move on or clean up by the time a search party showed up. When my Agema was sent to detain him, I tried to cut him off while the rest were busting in the front door. He ran right past me while I was doing an airlock override."

She allowed an Attendant to refill her glass. "It took five years to find a lead. I found his operation, not him. It was only 5 tanks. It took a lot longer to get close again. The trail went straight into the Quarantine Sector where the Ostrakoi were contained. I finally had to run the blockade to go in after him. I found him on a rock with just enough atmosphere to kill you, but the Ostrakoi had managed to get a hold. He had a Swarm and their Monarchs working for him. He told me when he met them, they thought they had finally found one of our Monarchs; they don't get us. Once I got there, he had them stand down while he tried to talk his way out of it. When I told him he was coming with me, he took a stroll outside without a suit."

"Sure he did," Amyclas said. He looked at Ajax with amusement. "You watch this one. When I heard she hooked up with a King, I figured she would be Empress of the World by the time we got here."

"Be civil," Aeacus said. "Do not worry; she was always honorable and faithful to her partners, at least by the standards of the Codes of the Myrmidons. Just treat her well, do not anger her, and do not presume to tell her what to do."

"That is the last thing I intend," Ajax said in good humor. "I say, our meal has arrived." He was informal enough to lift the cover of a platter that had just been set before him.

It held a bomb.