“Pliny?”
“Pliny.”
“You each have your gifts. And you would do well not to question my judgment in keeping him close.”
“Yes, my liege. But I am no more a demokrat than you are a Lune.”
He does not smile as I intended. Instead, he presses a button and the speech I used to win over the Pax comes on the speakers. An HC holo shows the faces of different Colors.
“Watch their expressions.” He watches mine as he cycles through a series of video clips from different parts of the ship as the crew listens to the speech I gave before they rose against their Gold commanders. “Do you see that? That right there. The spark? Do you?”
“I see it.”
“That is hope.” The man who killed my wife waits for my face to give me away. Good luck with that. “Hope.”
“Are you saying I made a mistake?” I ask.
He recalls old words. “Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.”
“My heart has always been laid bare.”
“So you say.” His lips part slightly, hissing the words. “But as terrorists spread lies over the net, as bombings wrack our cities, as the lowColors rumble with displeasure, as we begin a war despite the termites in our foundation, you say this.”
“Any chaos is—”
“Shut your mouth. Do you know what would happen if the other Governors thought us Reformers? If the other houses looked at mine as a bastion of equality and demokracy?” He points to a glass. “Our potential allies.” He brushes the glass off the table, letting it shatter. Points to another. “Our lives.” It falls and shatters too. “It is bad enough my daughter had the ear of the Reformer bloc on Luna. You cannot seem political. Stay a warrior. Stay simple. Do you understand?”
What if the lowColors rally to us? I want to ask, but he would have his Obsidians kill me where I stand.
“I understand.”
“Good.” Augustus looks at his hands, twisting the ring there. Hesitancy creeps over him. “Can I trust you?”
“In what way?”
A scornful laugh bursts from his mouth. “Most would say yes without thinking.”
“Most men are liars.”
“Can I trust you with power autonomous from my own?” He scratches his jaw idly. “That is when many leave their lords. It is when hunger fills their eyes. The Romans learned this time and again. It is why they did not let generals cross the Rubicon with their armies without the permission of the Senate. Men with armies soon begin to realize how strong they are. And they always know that their particular strength is not forever. It must be used with haste, before their army leaves them. But hasty decisions can ruin empires. My son, for instance, must never be allowed such power.”
“He has his businesses.”
“That is a slow power. Cleverly done on his part, if unfit for my name. Slow power can grind away any stagnant enemy. But fast power, one that can travel where you go, do what you wish it to as effectively as a hammer hitting a nail, that is the power that lops off heads and steals crowns. Can I trust you with it?”
“You must. I am the only man who can go to Lorn.”
Surprise flashes in his eyes; he is unused to having his machinations guessed. He buries the surprise quickly, unwilling to give credit where credit is due. “You knew already.”
“You wish me to approach Lorn, ask for his help, because he taught me the razor.”
“And because he loves you.”
I blink dumbly. “I’m not sure that’s the word.”
“He had four sons. Three died in front of him. And then the last in an accident, as you know. I believe you remind him of them, though you’re in fact more capable and less moral, which is to your advantage. But as much as he loves you, Lorn hates me.”
“He hates Octavia more, my liege.”
“Still. It won’t be easy to convince him to join us.”
“Then I won’t give him a choice.”
27
Jelly Beans
The Telemanuses wait for me in the hall. Kavax takes me into a hug that cracks my back. Daxo nods his head. I’m left feeling dazed between the two of them. It is the first time I’ve spoken to either without violence afoot. Truth be told, I’ve avoided them for shame of what I let happen to Pax.
“My boy only ever lost to you,” Kavax says. “Little Pax. If he was to fall to a knee, it is no shame to have fallen in friendship. I only wish he could have taken Olympus with you. That would have been a sight.”
“I would have liked to have seen him take Proctor Jupiter’s armor.”
Daxo grins. “I was Jupiter House myself. Primus till I lost to Karnus au Bellona.”
“Then I believe we have a mutual enemy.”
“Besides the scheming little bastard that killed my baby brother?” Daxo asks softly. “We have many shared enemies, Andromedus.”
Kavax scoops up his fox. It licks his neck and peers fiercely at me before it nuzzles into his thick red beard. It has a white chest, black legs, and dark russet fur covering the rest of its body. Thicker and hardier than a normal fox, and weighing nearly thirty-five kilograms, it really is more wolflike in size.
“Foxes are beautiful creatures,” Kavax says, stroking the beast.
Daxo nods. “Mischievous. Omnivorous. Resistant to poaching. Monogamous. Very special, and able to expand their hunting grounds even in the territory of wolves.” He looks up at me darkly. “But because of a damn quirk of nature, foxes fare poorly against jackals. We asked Augustus to banish Adrius. For a time, he was, yet now he returns to the fleet.”
“A crime,” I say.
They nod.
Daxo sets a hand on my shoulder. “The girls—my sisters and mother, I mean—wanted you to know that we do not hold you accountable for Pax’s death. We loved that little boy, and we know you only ever mean him honors. We know you named your ship for him. And will not forget it. Once friends, always friends. That is our family’s way.”
Kavax nods to every word his remaining son says. He tosses his fox a handful of jelly beans.
“So if you need us,” Daxo suggests, nodding to the warroom, “you need merely ask, and the House Telemanus will lend itself to your cause.”
“You mean that?” I ask.