Chapter 3

"What is this?" Raiah asked, reaching across Vanya's desk for a pile of reports that needed his attention. The open one was a brief memo updating him on the troop movement of the last company from Ashion's army traveling through Solaria to Oeiras via steam train. They'd arrived at the port two days ago with supplies and war machines, taken by frigate to board the waiting Tovanian ship-city anchored offshore. If things were going as scheduled, the Tovanian navy was even now regrouping in the Gulf of Helia to begin the fight to break the Daijal navy's blockade.

It was Tenth Month, three weeks since Nathaniel had signed the treaty with the Tovan Isles on behalf of Queen Caris. As far as Vanya knew, a battalion was all Ashion could spare to attack Daijal on the west coast. Their movement into Solaria had been done under the guise of assisting the Legion in the south against the revenant horde tearing through the countryside there. That lie would last until the first gun volley was issued by a Tovanian ship-city.

Vanya shifted Raiah on his lap and set the reports aside. "Work."

Raiah pouted at him, tugging on the collar of his robe. "But you promised you would play in the gardens with me."

"After the midday rest, yes, we shall go outside. But I do believe you have lessons this morning."

"I will take her to her teachers," Taisiya said from where she sat on the low sofa in his office, reading a broadsheet. The pair had joined him after their morning meal, Vanya in need of Taisiya's guidance over the mess still making its way across the country from Rixham.

Raiah huffed out a heavy, performative sigh, and Vanya had to work to keep from smiling. He remembered being a child and wanting to be around his older brother and his mother when they'd been away working, and then he'd taken up the learning of it all and realized how exhausting it all was. Raiah was only five, but he hoped to spare her the heavy weight of learning to rule for another year or so.

A knock on his office door had him calling out, "Enter."

He was unsurprised to see Caelum, the Chief Minister his most frequent caller these days. The person who joined him was unfamiliar to Vanya, dressed in neutral-colored robes, her light brown hair twisted up off her neck in a high knot. Her face was plain and unassuming, easily forgettable. She wore no jewelry, carried no sign of rank on her person, but her green-eyed gaze was steady and sharp as she rose out of a deep curtsy.

"Your Imperial Majesty," Caelum said, sounding a little out of breath, as if he'd run across the Oeiras Imperial estate. "Might I introduce a particular guest to you?"

Vanya eyed him sharply, the turn of phrase familiar when it came to the network of spies his Chief Minister handled. "You may."

Taisiya had straightened up at Caelum's query, setting aside the broadsheet. She used her cane to get to her feet, coming around to stand by Vanya's seat at his desk. Raiah, sensing the tension in the room, stopped squirming in his lap.

"Your Imperial Majesty, I have gone by Cinzia for the past several years," the spy said after a nod from Caelum. "I carried out a life of service within the House of Aetos."

Vanya stilled at the mention of that House, eyes narrowing. "Were you within the household?"

Cinzia nodded. "I was adept at ingratiating myself into the majordomo's good graces. After the Conclave, positions opened up after those servants who had doubts about the House of Aetos' loyalty to Solaria left. I remained to be useful and was found acceptable."

Which spoke well of her ability as a spy. "What news do you bring that bade you break your cover to leave that House and Seaville?"

"The House of Aetos' estate is old and has many secret passageways. I managed to gain access to several of them during my time there, one of which led past the family's private quarters. I overheard an evening conversation between Lady Vesper and her vezir about aiding vezir Joelle by bringing her the foreign prince and lady. They were taken from Calhames to Bellingham alive by Lady Vesper."

Fury coursed through him, hot like starfire, and Vanya had to force himself not to launch out of the chair, mindful of Raiah sitting in his lap. He kept his touch gentle with his daughter, when all he wanted to do was tear down the walls of Bellingham and let the revenants take it once he was assured of Soren's and Lore's safety. Whispers weren't truth, though, but they'd been the spark for any number of House feuds and debts over the centuries. And Vanya had known, deep in his heart, that the most logical place his lover could be was in Joelle's hands.

"How certain are you of what you overheard?" he asked.

"Completely" was Cinzia's firm reply.

"You have no proof," Taisiya murmured in warning. "And Bellingham is not the city you should be focused on."

Vanya offered his valide a thin smile. "I am well aware of the land we are losing in the south, but I will not lose him."

"Papa?" Raiah asked. "Who?"

Vanya finally stood, holding Raiah in his arms rather than setting her on her feet, and caught Caelum's eye instead of answering Raiah. "I want to speak to General Chu Hua. And send for the head star priest of the main Star Order temple. Tell them to bring me the royal and nobility genealogies."

"Of course. I will get the general on the telephone for you first," Caelum said.

Caelum gestured for Cinzia to follow him out of the office, pulling the door shut behind him. Vanya shifted Raiah in his arms and reached for the reports on his desk, handing them to Taisiya. "These are accountings of the cities and towns under siege from the revenants released from Rixham. The wardens tell me the estimated number is not something they are capable of stopping at this time, not with the ongoing war in the north and not while they are still recovering from the attack on their island and the loss of tithes."

Taisiya took the stack of reports but didn't bother opening any of them. "Taking soldiers and supplies away from either front simply to aid in rescuing Soren will endear you to no one."

Raiah leaned out of Vanya's arms so quickly he almost couldn't right her. "Soren? Where is he?"

"He'll be home soon," Vanya said as he sat her on his desk since she was wriggling all around.

Raiah kicked her feet in open air and stared up at him with wide eyes. "Promise? I miss him. He said he would come back, and he didn't."

It felt like taking a knife between the ribs when he remembered the scant time they'd had together in Calhames before Soren was stolen away from him again. "I know, but it's not because he didn't want to. He did. And he will return to us."

Vanya would not make a liar out of Soren or himself in giving that promise to his daughter.

Taisiya sighed thickly before setting the reports on the desk, idly flipping through the topmost one. "What do you think the Houses will say or do if you wage war over one man instead of fighting for Solaria?"

"What makes you think I can't do both?"

"Vanya."

He arched an eyebrow at his valide, ignoring the frown she offered him. "You think I don't know what is happening here? You think I don't recognize the mess of my mother's choices? She loved Iosiv just as much as she loved Solaria, and she killed for both."

"Don't follow Zakariya's road."

"She had the right of it, in some ways. You must see that." Taisiya's silence was as good as admittance. Vanya nodded before taking her hand in his, running his thumb over her bony knuckles in a comforting way. "I've let Joelle play her games long enough. I am done letting the fallout from the Conclave stay my hand."

"You act on whispers."

"We as a House have acted on less. The whisper of a truth will always be stronger than brittle lies to stand on. I haven't set the Legion upon those who took Soren because I didn't know where he'd been taken. I know now."

"Do you?"

"I will order the Legion to work with E'ridia's air force to help break through the defenses around Bellingham. We both know Daijal is behind Joelle's deep reserves there, even if many of the Houses refuse to see it."

"And will you be leading that charge?"

Vanya worked his jaw a bit. "As much as I would like to, no, I will not go to Bellingham."

"Then what will you do?"

"I will head south instead to join the Legion there."

Taisiya jerked her hand free of his, eyes widening. "Outside the walls?"

As much as Vanya wanted to find Soren and bring him home, he had to ensure there was a home left for the warden to come back to. Vanya turned his hand over, calling forth a flicker of starfire, the heat of the aether at its most powerful distillation burning between them. "I am one of the few with strength enough to summon starfire like a firestorm, and we all know the dead must be burned."

That lesson had been reinforced quite adamantly at the end of the Conclave last year. He would not make the same mistake as his ancestors this time.

"Not by you," Taisiya protested.

"I won't be going alone. I will ask those of the Houses who can still wield starfire and are capable of fighting to join me."

"You are our emperor. You should not be anywhere beyond the walls while Solaria fights a war."

"What sort of emperor would I be if I won't fight to save us?"

Taisiya made a tiny throwing-away motion with her hand. "Alive."

Vanya snorted, reaching out to stroke his hand over Raiah's hair, thinking of how happy and relieved they would both be once Soren was returned to them. "I have much to come back to."

"So you will burn the dead at the same time you allow a city to fall?"

"Joelle condemned Bellingham to its fate, not I. And the House of Aetos will pay for their betrayal, both to Solaria and our House."

Taisiya narrowed her eyes, but before she could argue that statement, Caelum let himself back into the office with a faintly harried look on his face. "The operator has the general on the telephone for you."

Vanya reached around Raiah to pull the telephone on the desk closer to him. "I'll take it here."

Caelum nodded and ducked back out. Moments later, the telephone rang, and Vanya picked it up, glad to hear Chu Hua's voice on the other end.

"You wished to speak with me, Your Imperial Majesty?" Chu Hua said over a line that crackled from the distance between them.

"I have it on good authority Joelle kidnapped the Ashion prince and lady with the help of Lady Vesper. The House of Aetos has picked their side, and it is not Solaria's," Vanya said.

"I see."

"Do you?" Vanya couldn't help but turn and meet Taisiya's gaze. "I want E'ridian air support to back up the Legion ranks attempting to break through the defenses around Bellingham. Send extra battalions if you must, but I want Soren brought home."

"You will not be leading the charge?"

"I will be fighting revenants in the south."

The sharp inhalation broke across the line. "Your Imperial Majesty, is that wise?"

"It is necessary."

Unlike Taisiya, Chu Hua didn't argue his intent beyond the initial protest. "I will inform the southern command of your orders and plan for your arrival."

"I hope to not be the only one fighting with starfire, so plan for that as well."

"Of course. Give me an hour."

She was polite enough to let him end the call first, even though he knew he'd given her a headache-worthy task to coordinate his presence in the poison fields against the revenant horde. But she was the best general he had, and he trusted her to protect him and the Imperial throne while he did his best to protect Solaria, his home and his heart.

"Will this be your road, then?" Taisiya asked quietly.

He looked at her, knowing that if he didn't put his all into this fight, they wouldn't have a country at the end of it. If he had to burn down cities to keep the walking dead at bay and bring Soren home, then so be it. "There is no other."

Vanya was, it turned out, ever his mother's son.