Chapter 13

Vanya's meeting that morning with some of the senators to discuss proper allocation of the purse to support the needs of the Legion was interrupted by Caelum with an urgency he hadn't seen in quite some time.

"Your Imperial Majesty, I am sorry, but I must speak with you," Caelum said after he'd thrown open the meeting room door and offered a hasty bow.

Concern had Vanya rising from his seat, effectively ending the meeting. "Of course."

He knew better than to ask for details where others could hear. He said nothing as he followed Caelum out into the hall, his Chief Minister making a subtle hand gesture that kept Vanya's teeth locked together.

"Ambassador Zayed is in the Mosaic Room, along with several peacekeepers and a military aide who had driven him back to the Ashion embassy," Caelum said in a low voice.

Ice settled in veins, a spike of worry causing him to miss a step and speak when he should have kept silent. "Soren went to the embassy this morning. Where is he?"

Caelum flinched around his eyes, and bile crept up Vanya's throat. Caelum kept quiet as they walked through the halls of the Senate at a pace that one could say was hurried but not panicked. When they entered the Mosaic Room, Vanya's attention was reserved for the pale-faced ambassador pacing by the window. The peacekeepers who'd escorted him to the Senate and the military aide snapped to attention, all three of them bowing stiffly to the Imperial degree.

"What is going on?" Vanya demanded the second the door was closed.

Dariush jerked around, still in the same clothes he'd worn to the Senate yesterday for the declaration of war. He looked as if he hadn't slept, dark circles standing out beneath his bloodshot eyes. His hands shook when he dipped into a bow, voice just as unsteady. "Your Imperial Majesty, something horrific has occurred."

Everything inside Vanya spiked like lightning in a desert thunderstorm. "Where is Soren?"

Dariush opened and closed his mouth before rallying himself in a way Vanya could respect if his sanity and heart weren't at risk in that moment. "I joined your military officers at the Legion's headquarters after the Senate session yesterday to facilitate calls between them and our own generals back in Ashion. The calls lasted much of the night, and I acted as translator along with several other military aides. I was invited to sleep there overnight for the scant hours before morning. I accepted and was driven back to the Ashion embassy this morning where…"

His voice trailed off, a distant look coming to his gaze that spoke of reliving a horror Vanya knew he wouldn't like.

"The exterior gates were unlocked and open," Dariush said after giving himself a visible shake. "No guards were on duty. The door was unlocked, and when I entered, there were bodies everywhere."

Vanya sucked in a harsh breath, teeth scraping together. "Bodies?"

Dariush blinked, still clearly in some sort of shock and yet forcing himself to work through it. "Bodies, Your Imperial Majesty. Every single person in the embassy had been murdered by bullets or magic."

Vanya went cold, ears ringing with some noise no one else could hear. He squeezed his eyes shut, wrenching the panic aside as he forced himself to ask the questions that mattered as an emperor and not a man in love. "The people who came with you? The Lady Lore and Sor—the prince. Were they dead as well?"

"No," Dariush said raggedly. "They weren't amongst the dead that we could find, but the prince's weapons were in a room where my counselor had been murdered."

Vanya opened his eyes, staring at the distraught ambassador. Before he could try to speak, one of the peacekeepers with ranking pins depicting him as a captain stepped forward and offered a shallow bow. "We canvassed the area and knocked on the doors of the nearby businesses, Your Imperial Majesty. Someone at a barrister firm in early for work saw a diplomatic aide and a star priest leave with two people who matched the descriptions of Lady Lore and Prince Alasandair Rourke."

Dariush shook his head. "No member of my staff nor anyone who flew here from Ashion would have betrayed us so."

"Can you be sure?" Vanya asked, voice scratchy.

"None were rionetkas, if that is your concern."

"Perhaps you didn't look hard enough at those who traveled with you." Vanya raised a hand to forestall Dariush's anticipated protest. "I know a thing or two about betrayal by those held in close regard to me."

Dariush clenched his teeth together, the tendons in his neck standing out before he took a deep breath. "No true Ashionen would sabotage us so. Everyone who has worked under me is aligned with our queen."

Vanya dearly wanted to believe that, but he knew how well someone could play the long game. "Say it was none of yours. That leaves Daijal or Solaria."

He doubted Eimarille was responsible for such an attack. The Daijalan ambassador and diplomatic corps had been expelled from Solaria last year, their embassy empty and barred to anyone but the Solarian government these days. Joelle, on the other hand, he could see her reacting badly to yesterday's war declaration.

He doubted any but the House of Kimathi would have acted so murderously. Joelle still had her supporters, and while the Conclave might have enshrined his right to rule with Callisto's own blessing, there were ever those who would conspire to see him off the Imperial throne. She would have tapped into such discontent, even from behind Bellingham's walls, and moved swiftly when Vanya was still savoring a desperately argued-for political win.

Vanya looked at Caelum. "I want all trains stopped and airships grounded. Bring me the manifests of those that have already left this morning, their destination, and who owns them."

"You don't believe the lady and the prince are within the capital?" Caelum asked.

Vanya shook his head. "A city-wide search will still occur, but I don't believe we'll find them. What use are hostages if they are here?"

Caelum grimaced. "You will need proof to accuse a House."

"The House in question was already accused."

"Why wouldn't the prince have saved himself with starfire? He is a Rourke, is he not?"

Dariush frowned. "The prince insists he has none."

Vanya knew otherwise, but it wasn't his truth to tell. "He gave up his weapons of his own free will, most likely to save Lady Lore. A warden's first tenant is to protect Maricol's children."

It was so easy to see how Soren would have been manipulated in order to ensure his sister's closest confidant remained alive. Joelle probably hoped such interference would blow back against the declaration of war and drive a rift between the two countries before the alliance was anything more than words. Perhaps she thought Vanya would focus on Soren and not the threat beyond Solaria's borders.

But as much as he loved Soren, he had to love his country more, and Vanya knew the warden would understand, even as it made his heart ache with a grief he could not let himself feel.

"I need to speak with Queen Caris," Vanya said.

"I can facilitate that," Dariush said.

"I'll send the order to the military to close the railway stations and airfields," Caelum said, already gesturing at the military aide to follow him out of the Mosaic Room.

Vanya turned toward the doors. "Come with me, Ambassador."

Dariush fell into step behind him, exactly where someone of high importance but not Imperial royalty would walk. The praetoria legionnaires waiting in the hallway fell in around them as Vanya led the way to his working office in the Senate building. He kept his expression bland as he went, aware of the whispers and curious glances thrown his way by the senatorial staff they passed.

The praetoria legionnaires cleared his office before allowing him to enter, the spell-detecting device hidden in the gas lamp chandelier above never activating. Vanya sat behind his desk while Dariush stood before it rather than sit, hands clasped together in front of him. Vanya picked up the telephone and put the receiver to his ear, pressing the button that would connect him to the Senate's operator.

"I have a long-distance call to make," Vanya said after the operator greeted him.

"Certainly, Your Imperial Majesty. May I have the number?" she asked.

"The Ashionen ambassador will tell you."

He handed the receiver to Dariush, who hid his surprise at being given access to Vanya's personal telephone line. But he rallied quickly enough, conversing with the operator as she connected him through to whoever handled such things on the Ashionen end. It took several minutes to reach someone who was within the queen's employ and then longer before she could be found and brought on the line for Dariush to explain what was going on.

Eventually, Dariush handed the receiver back to Vanya. "Her Royal Majesty is ready to speak with you."

Vanya took the receiver again, the long-distance call staticky in the silence that stretched between them over a thousand miles. Eventually, Queen Caris Rourke spoke, her voice young-sounding but quietly firm.

"I understand from my ambassador that my brother and Lady Lore Auclair are missing and that my diplomatic corps in Solaria have nearly all been murdered," Caris said evenly in Ashionen.

Vanya let none of the anguish he felt at losing Soren once again seep into his voice as he conversed in the same language. "You have my sincerest apologies for the attack upon your people and territory within Solaria. Rest assured, it is not one I initiated."

"Your people can't have been best pleased about the debt owed to my brother that you are paying with the Legion."

Young, Vanya decided, but quite astute when it came to the fallout of politics. "A common enemy remains even after the dead will be burned. I have no intention of reneging on my promise of aid and an alliance."

"I am relieved to hear that, as we desperately need the support. But that still doesn't tell me who took my people or why."

Vanya quashed the knee-jerk retort that Soren wasn't hers. "I have my suspicions on who but no proof. As to why? Solarians don't see your war as theirs."

Caris made a thoughtful noise that crackled in Vanya's ear over the line. "But you do."

"My country was not spared from the interference of rionetkas, and I see Eimarille for the threat she is. She may claim Ashion is hers to rule, but that is not the only country she covets."

"So you risked your people's wrath to support mine."

"I made a vow."

"To my brother. My understanding is he could have asked for anything, and he never did until now."

She didn't need to know Soren's reasoning behind that. Only Vanya knew his lover had kept the vow and never asked for anything before now so as to remain by Vanya's side. "Soren never knew his past."

Caris was quiet for a moment. When she spoke again, her voice was soft and wry. "He dislikes the name Alasandair Rourke."

"He is a warden. It is what he was made to be. Soren can be nothing else, no matter the name your people would give him."

"He is my heir."

"For now," Vanya demurred. "Take solace in the fact he is worth more alive than dead to whomever has him. He and your lady will be a bargaining chip."

"That relieves neither of us of our current dilemma."

"No, but it will not stop me from sending the Legion north nor searching for Soren and Lady Lore. This alliance will not falter." Vanya meant it, the sureness in his voice as hard as steel.

"Thank you. I think my people and my country will survive because of you. I wish others were as open to giving aid."

"I wasn't, at first."

"No, but you were honorable about what you owed. Soren said you would be."

"E'ridia hasn't agreed to an alliance?"

"Not for lack of effort."

"What about the Tovan Isles?"

"Ashion is landlocked. Daijal holds the western coast, and the Ashionen parliament handled diplomatic duties with that country when necessary. My people don't have the proper connections nor permission of passage through foreign territory to open diplomatic channels with that nation."

Vanya looked at Dariush and the intent expression on the ambassador's face as he listened to only one side of the conversation. "Solaria has an alliance with the Tovan Isles. If Ashion needs access to their representatives through Solaria, I will grant such accommodations. Your ambassador can coordinate with mine for an introduction."

Caris made a soft, surprised noise while Dariush did his level best not to give away whatever he was feeling in the face of Vanya's offer.

"Thank you," Caris said again, relief, or perhaps delayed grief, making her voice waver over the line. "Ashion accepts your generosity."

"I look forward to our new alliance."

"As do I."

They didn't chat much longer, the bulk of their conversation finished. After he placed the receiver in the cradle, Vanya looked at Dariush, and the ambassador dipped into a deep bow. "My people thank you, Your Imperial Majesty."

"Who has custody of Soren's weapons?" Vanya asked.

"Ah, I would need to check, but I believe the peacekeepers do. They are the ones investigating the crime scene."

"I want his weapons brought to me."

Vanya knew how much wardens cared for their weapons, had spent many nights watching Soren tend to them before he could coax the other man into bed. A warden's life was only as good as their training and ability to defend themselves in the poison fields. He'd hold on to Soren's poison short sword, his dual pistols, and his dagger until the warden could claim them again.

Because he would.

Dariush inclined his head. "I will retrieve them immediately, Your Imperial Majesty."

He took his leave, closing the door behind him. Left alone in his office, Vanya gave in to the urge to pray, holding his head in his hands while hunched over his desk. "You said our roads were meant to cross. Tell me they still will, Callisto."

But in those few moments where it was just Vanya and his heartbeat before duty came knocking again, the Dawn Star did not answer his prayers.