Bad to the Throne, page 30
part #15 of The Good Guys Series
There was an audible gasp from the valet as he took her hand and helped her down the two steps to flat ground.
She smiled at him and quietly gave him a thank you.
His face went bright red, and he stammered out a lot of nothing.
She had to take her hand back from him, and then grabbed my arm tightly and gave me a not-so-gentle sign that we needed to get moving.
I got moving.
Tonight’s ball was at the Lodbrook estate, and it was big and grand and looked a hell of a lot like the other big-ass ‘homes’ that held balls in Glaton. Lots of pretty stone, big columns, smooth floors, grand staircases. It wasn’t quite as grandiose as Tollendahl, nor quite as focused on being a party space like Ironside. There was a smidge more sense of the place being lived in, but it still didn’t at all seem like a home. Maybe more like a model home, showing you how a life could be.
All the while, it was filled with rich assholes who were picking apart all the little details of the homes and pointing out what bad design choices had been made. Which was a thing I was overhearing as we slowly moved forward in a new line.
“What’s this?” I whispered to Eliza.
“What’s what?” she whispered back
“Why are we in another line?”
“Announcement line.”
“What the–”
And then I heard it. Someone bellowed out, “His lordship, the Count of Edderburry and Lady Edderburry.”
Just as the echoes began to fade, we stepped forward and there was another bellowing of someone’s title.
“Really? They announce everyone as they come in?”
“They do.”
“That seems like a lot.”
“It can be.”
“There’s so many people here.”
“There are.”
“And everyone–”
“If you don’t have a title, you can take a different path into the ball. But we have titles–”
“I don’t,” Amber said.
“You will be ‘and date’ tonight,” Eliza said.
“Great title.”
“I could give you a title,” I said. “I’ve got a few spares.”
“That’s a very strange flex,” Amber said.
“Also, not possible.” Eliza said.
“Why not?”
“You have to have a reason to give someone a title, or it has to be approved by the Emperor.”
“So we’d have to duel?”
“That would be one viable means, yes.”
“That’s stupid.”
“I didn’t make the rules.”
“I could beat you in a duel,” Amber said. “Depending on the rules, I mean.”
“Sure you could.”
“I’m tough and resourceful.”
“I know, just–”
“I’d hide and pepper you with arrows.”
“That could work,” I said, despite thinking that I’d been in situations like that and managed to get through. “Or, I could just lose on purpose to give you a title.”
“I’d rather not have one.”
“What? Why not?”
“They seem like trouble.”
“They are trouble. But then I’d have less trouble, and you’d have some.”
“You think I lack trouble?”
“No, I know you’ve got all the trouble you want and more. Just, you know, I could have less and that’s really what I’m looking for.”
“How thoughtful of you.”
“I’m all heart.”
By the time we got to the annunciation station, I was bored and tired of standing in line. It was like the worst line at Cedar Point in its history.
A bored-looking man took a small card from Eliza. He read over it, cleared his throat a little, and then took a deep breath.
“His grace, The Duke of Coggeshall, Montana Coggeshall. Her ladyship, Eliza Northwoods. And date.”
Nobody seemed to be paying attention. The entire room in front of us was filled with people dancing and hobnobbing. Doing all the things one would normally do at a ball. I will say, from first impressions, this was the first one of these things I’d been to where there was a good band playing fun, fast music that actually made me consider dancing a bit.
Said fun band was up on a stage at the far end, and the dance floor was reasonably packed with people dancing and having fun.
I looked around the place and found the food.
“I’m going there,” I said, pointing.
Eliza sighed.
“Are you going to sit at the food station the whole night?”
“No. At some point in the near future, I’m going to leave.”
“You will be dancing with us.”
“At the same time?”
“Maybe.”
It was my turn to sigh. But I chose to be the bigger person, and I walked my big ass over to the food.
78
The party wasn’t fun — It sucked.
Mainly because of Amber.
It wasn’t Amber’s fault, though. There were just a bunch of assholes who saw her and me together and made a whole host of assumptions, much like Madame Thorne had. But unlike Madame Thorne, I couldn’t force a confrontation with every one of them and point out the reality of the situation.
Any time that I was not directly with Amber, a gentleman or two would approach me to inquire about her. And it was never anything polite. They’d ask where I’d found her, how I managed to keep her, if I was ‘renting’ her out, and if she was worth the trouble.
My patience was running out, and I knew it was only a matter of time before I lost my cool and popped one of the assholes in their asshole mouth. Which would invariably cause some sort of state incident. Maybe even kick off a civil war. Which, frankly, I wouldn’t mind, because if there was one thing all this time in the capital dancing at balls and dealing with the upper crust of society taught me, it was that some of these motherfuckers needed to go to war and realize the reality of this fucked up world.
Also, wouldn’t hurt to thin the herd a little.
I danced with Amber, which garnered a lot of stares, and then I danced with Eliza, which wasn’t quite the attention grabber. But that meant Amber was left at the table by herself, and spent the song dealing with what seemed like perpetual harassment.
“Should I do something?” I asked Eliza.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, punch someone?”
“Oh, that’d go over well.”
“They’re treating her like shit.”
“Yep.”
“I’m going over.”
“Montana–”
I ignored Eliza and strode across to our table, sitting down next to a middle-aged, dark-haired man who was leaning in way too close to Amber, trying to convince the poor kitsune girl to leave me or he’d arrange an accident for me.
“An accident?” I asked. “For me?”
The man glanced at me, and he rolled his eyes.
I pulled out a healing potion in a vial from my pocket, something I’d started keeping with me given my predilections, and I set it on the table.
“What’s this?” the man asked.
“Just a little something for your head.”
“My what?”
I grabbed the back of his head and smashed it through the table.
Also, coincidentally, through the healing potion.
As luck would have it, I managed to time the hit with a crescendo in the music, so it didn’t seem like anyone even noticed. Minus, of course, there being a new shape to the outline of our table. Also, the unconscious asshole on the floor.
I used my feet to slide him under the tablecloth.
Eliza was there in a flash, because she noticed.
“Montana,” she hissed.
“Is that someone important?” I asked.
“He’s the relative of someone important.”
“He probably won’t remember me.”
“I’m taking Amber out of here.”
“Thank the gods — we can leave.”
“You will stay here,” Eliza hissed.
“What? Why?”
“Because it needs to look as if Amber is escorting me home while you stay here and hobnob.”
“That makes no sense–”
“I don’t want it to seem as Amber is leaving because of, well–”
“The nobles here are assholes?”
“They are not. Not all of them.”
“Do I get a say in this?” Amber asked.
“Of course,” I said.
“I want to go home.”
“See?” I said.
“You can’t go,” Eliza told me. “Otherwise, it’ll look like you’re leaving because of Amber.”
“I would be.”
“And we don’t want that.”
“I don’t understand why.”
“Do you get it?” Eliza asked.
“Of course I do,” Amber replied.
“Then we are leaving because I am tired,” Eliza said loudly. And the two left.
79
Shortly after Eliza and Amber left the party, leaving me on my own, I made sure the asshole I’d helped bump his head against the table was still alive. I didn’t want him dead. Well, let me rephrase that: I didn’t want him dead, but I wouldn’t have minded if he had expired at the hands of someone else.
Since he was alive and coming to under the table, and his face, despite a few flecks of glass in it from the healing potion vial, seemed to have healed rather nicely, I left the table. I went to a different part of the party, where I thought I could blend in a little better. However, that didn’t seem to be the case, as someone found me almost immediately.
Maelith, social secretary to one princess of Glaton.
“Your grace,” she said, “it is a pleasure to see you again.”
“Pleasure’s all yours,” I replied quickly. I don’t think she caught it, because she didn’t bat an eye. She just trailed one finger along my arm. I think in a seductive way, but it kind of felt a little bit creepy.
“Her highness wonders if you might have a moment to speak with her on this fine night. Perhaps you might be so willing as to share a dance with her.”
“I guess I could,” I said. “Seems that I am left to my own devices here.”
“Oh, well that would be most fantastic, your grace. Are you free now?”
“Sure. Fantastic.”
She held out her arm and I took it, as if I was escorting her, but she was definitely the one steering me through the crowd. It kind of felt odd that I had so many different women on my arm over the course of one evening. But here in Glaton, that wasn’t particularly strange. Lots of the eligible young men, as far as I could tell, were escorting female relatives or friends, and then spending their evenings engaged in the activities of the day with other women.
The princess was surrounded by a gaggle of important-looking people, all having intense, important-looking conversations. She smiled when she saw me. A genuine-ish smile — almost like the sort of smile that she had been told would look genuine and had mastered it. But it still didn’t have the sort of natural feeling of someone who was actually smiling. It’s a weird distinction, I know, but there was a foundational difference between the two.
She extricated herself from the conversation she was currently embroiled in and came over to me and Maelith.
“Your highness,” I said.
“Your grace,” she replied, “It is wonderful to see you.”
“And you.”
“Might I applaud you on getting a few votes today?”
“Ah, well, might I applaud you on getting a lot of votes?”
“Come on. Were you one of the ones that voted for me?”
“It’s very true I might have been.”
“That’s not quite the yes I was hoping for.”
“Let me present you with an alternative.”
“I am listening.”
“What if I wasn’t one of the ones who voted for you today, but I could be one that voted for you tomorrow?”
She gave me another one of those genuine-un-genuine smiles.
“That would, I suppose, make me even more excited at the prospects of what I have heard about you. “
“You have heard things about me?”
“That I have, your grace. Would you care to dance?”
“I would love to.”
I led her out onto the dance floor. We didn’t speak yet. There seemed to be something that she was holding back. As the music started, she actually began talking again.
“I have heard from certain friends of ours that you were most impressive in the meeting earlier today.”
“I was intrigued by your organization,” I replied.
“Is it something that you are genuinely interested in joining?”
“Yeah, you know, I am,” I said.
“You mean that?”
I wasn’t being a hundred percent truthful, but in that moment, there was at least some truth to it. I’d been thinking about it, ruminating on all this bullshit I’d been hearing. So much of what Valamir spouted off was the same shit that the princess spouted, was the same shit that everybody talked about. Everyone believed they were the ones who were doing the hard stuff that would end up saving the Empire.
And there had always been something—I wouldn’t say off—but something I hadn’t liked about Valamir. And who’s to say that he wasn’t just very good at doing the same crap? The getting idiots like me to do what assholes like him wanted done by the simple act of appealing to my desire to be better than I was? It was frustrating, and trying to figure out who I could trust was an exercise in futility. Honestly, it didn’t seem like there was a damn person in Glaton that I could trust, except maybe the people I had hand-picked myself. But none of those people had any sort of power, and none of those people wanted power anyway.
I had to admit, the mere fact that Valamir didn’t want the throne was one of the largest boons going for him, in terms of me trusting him. But I also had to admit there was the possibility that the princess’s cult — from everything that had been presented to me by Clyde and Valamir — could just be a group of people that were trying to do good, and were doing things that might not be popular with the status quo. And if that was the case, who was I to try to fight against that? Because fuck, that’s what I wanted to do.
But what if that’s not who they were? What if they were setting me up, saying all those things that were nice to hear to get me aboard? And they really were trying to do something ultra nasty, like destroy the world, to make it so that they were the only ones left so they could build the world back any way they liked.
A lot of thoughts ran through my head while I was dancing there with the princess, and I knew she was waiting for an answer. “Leora impressed me,” I said, “and I think if I was presented with the option, I probably would say, yes, count me in. I want to make the world a better place, and it’s always hard. If it were easy, the world would already be better. Right?”
That seemed to get an actual smile from her.
It still felt distant from the woman I’d known when she lived at Coggeshall for that short period of time. That had seemed like a normal young woman. She’d been interested in things and spoke in the same sort of cadence everybody else did. Now there was something different about her. But I knew I was scarred from having had to play games with the master. There was nothing to indicate she had been taken over by some other entity. Maybe she’d just matured. She’d been in a rough situation and come through the other side, grown in a different capacity.
“I could see offering something for Coggeshall,” she said. “Were I emperor, I would have unlimited power. And being that you are so distant and so independent, it would not be unusual for me to push for more independence, should you so desire. Perhaps we could make Coggeshall a place that is truly special.”
“Well, first of all, Coggeshall is a place that’s truly special.”
“I didn’t mean to imply it wasn’t. I am young yet and I have not learned the art of speaking the way I would like to.”
“You’re not doing that bad,” I said. “Much better at it than I am.”
“Maybe, but it is one of my few powers. You are gifted in that you have the strength to back your wishes.”
“Well, that’s a little more of a pain in the butt than I wish sometimes.”
“And your butt are other one’s buts.” She laughed a little bit and I smiled. It was a shit joke, but she was trying. It was the only joke she’d told in my presence, as far as I could recall.
“I think I’d like to join your group,” I said. “If you’ll have me.”
“There will be discussions this evening,” the princess said. “Following this soiree, we’ll be speaking on many things. One of which is necessarily what is happening and who can best assist us in getting to where our goals are, so that we might better the world. And in my opinion, your grace, you could help us immensely. But though I am quite powerful within the Empire of Glaton, I am but a member of my group. My word carries but equal weight amongst my partners there.”
“Gotta love equality,” I said.
“Indeed, your grace. I have hope for what you may bring. And once your strength is our strength, we might truly bring about the change that we seek.”
“I hope that as well,” I said.
She gave my arm an extra squeeze as the dance finished.
“Before we go about our merry ways,” I said, “and maybe we need to do a second dance for this. I wondered if you could tell me what happened between you and Nadya Glaton?”
Regina went a little rigid and tilted her head to the side.
“The short answer,” she said slowly, “is that I made an error.”
“Did you try to kill her?”
“That’s what you heard?”
“Yes.”
“It is more fair to say that I was close to giving in to a horrid impulse. I saw her as a great rival who would unseat me and ruin my dreams to bring this world into greatness, and I thought the only thing I could do was remove her.”
“And there was some elf involved who stopped you?”
“Yes. In the height of emotion, I did not see what I was doing. I did not understand my actions, and I wondered if there was something happening within the spa itself to force my hand in the matter. But I was stopped from making the worst mistake I could. If there was a means to thank that elf, I would.”
