Exodus, page 17
She almost said something but settled for shaking her head in bemusement.
“Nice,” Josias observed. “I think it’s actually bigger than the Diligent.”
They drove in past the main gates, and under the tall Lucia Arch at the center of the façade into the first courtyard, then on through another tunnel-like archway to draw up in front of the Sibylla wing, which housed the main state rooms. Finn had been hoping they’d go straight to the private family wing, but no, his mother had clearly chosen to show her displeasure through formality.
And yes, there was the rank of palace guards in full silver armor, waiting for him on the Grand Staircase leading up to the entrance. A captain of the guard, whose armor was embossed with the sky-blue Jalgori-Tobu crest, walked up to the back of the limousine. The resplendent figure stood to attention beside the gull-wing doors and saluted.
For a brief moment Finn toyed with the idea of ordering the limousine to drive away, but he suspected its drive manager might not obey.
“Minsterialis, we have arrived,” Detective Terence Wilson-Fletcher said.
Despite himself, Finn was impressed by how such a clinically neutral tone could convey so much sarcasm.
* * *
—
The anteroom to the Privy Council chamber was vast, with a vaulted ceiling and bulbous windows overlooking the formal gardens of the second terrace.
Artisan sculptors of old had somehow induced the palace’s livestone roots to absorb minute particles of marble and basalt, along with precious metal dust, all of which had melded together on the livestone’s surface, creating fabulously ornate patterns. To complement that, alcoves housed ancient works of art, while chandeliers that could be mistaken for small galaxies hung on gold chains.
Josias had looked round admiringly before asking: “Do you park a lot of cargo planes in this hangar?”
After twenty minutes sitting waiting on an ornate yet uncomfortable chair, anger was finally supplanting boredom in Finn’s head. A family fight was one thing, but being deliberately demeaned was another.
“So she’s quite busy then, your mother?” Josias asked as they began their twenty-fifth minute of waiting.
“No, she is not,” Finn growled. Once again, he looked at the captain standing so silently ten meters away. Whoever it was, their helmet was closed. Finn guessed they’d approve of his frustration. Palace staff venerated his mother and disapproved of any family who disappointed her. Actually walking out on her was unheard of.
There was a commotion at the other end of the anteroom, and one of the big double doors opened. Otylia skipped in as a silver armored hand swiped the air comically behind her. She turned and stuck her tongue out at the hapless guard. “Finny!” she squealed and sprinted across the shiny floor.
Finn was already rushing to greet his twin sister. They collided, and she wrapped her arms around him, squeezing tight.
“Where’ve you been? What have you been doing? I was so worried!” She pushed him away and slapped his arm. “You never called or left a message on my patch.” Another slap. “Bad brother!”
He held his arms up in surrender. “Sorry!”
“Bad!” Another slap.
“Oww. I couldn’t call.”
“Why not? Oooh, were you doing lots of illegal stuff? I know you were on Anoosha; that’s where you’ve just arrived from. What was it like? Was it terrifically exciting? Or was it dark and dangerous?”
“Minsterialis Otylia,” the captain protested. “The marchioness requested that Minsterialis Finbar was to wait by himself until she had seen him first.”
Otylia turned to face the colonel. “Eiesha, I know that’s you hiding inside that silly armor. Don’t be such a prig. He’s my brother, and I’ve missed him terribly! Just because you’re hot in bed doesn’t mean you get to order me about.”
“Minsterialis Otylia!”
“Oh, foof.” She grabbed Finn’s wrist and slapped his palm against hers.
Her self-perceptual was like having a fluffy puppy bouncing about happily inside his skull. Finn responded with wry admiration, his mind admitting he had missed her, too. There was also a thread of guilt at having left her behind.
“I should think so!”
“I had to get out of here; my soul was dying,” his thoughts told her apologetically. “I couldn’t tell anyone. I couldn’t risk it.”
“I know. This place is like a prison to me sometimes, too,” she confessed; there was a rush of resentment twined around her thought.
“But I’ve found something,” he told her. “Something amazing. It’ll change everything for me. It can for you, too, if you’d like.”
Her eyes lit with delight. “What?”
“I have to talk with mother first.”
“You’re a filthy rotten tease.” She glanced over at Josias and Ellie. “Well, isn’t she just gorgeous! You lucky thing, you always get the greatest-looking girls. I bet she screws like a demon, too.”
“Otylia!” The chide was mixed with amusement at how she always said what she felt, and respect that she never let the family expectations constrain her.
“Is that why you’re here?” she asked. “To get mother to sign a marriage license for you?”
“No, nothing like that.”
“Ha. You can’t hide how much you like her from me, even if we weren’t sharing.” With that she took her hand away from his, breaking the neural connection.
He grinned at her and gave her a proper hug. “Never thought I’d be this glad to be home.”
“Well, don’t you dare leave us again!”
“We’ll see.”
Otylia gave him a playful scowl and went over to Ellie. “Hi, I’m Otylia. I’m that idiot’s twin.”
“So I see. Good to meet you.”
“Right, I want to know everything. Start with: How did you two meet?”
Ellie directed an impish grin in his direction. “He dropped in unexpectedly one day.”
“I want to hear all about it. Over drinks. Preferably in a bar—though a club would also be acceptable.” She turned to Josias. “Hi.”
Josias bowed deeply, then took her hand and gave her knuckles a light kiss. “My name is Josias Matthew Aponi. I am the owner of the arkship Diligent, and a lonely wanderer between the very stars themselves. I’m also dear Ellie’s grandfather. But of all things on this day, I am most honored to make your acquaintance, Minsterialis Otylia.”
“Oh, gosh,” Otylia said. She blinked in surprise, then produced her most coquettish smile.
Finn rolled his eyes and saw Ellie was doing the exact same thing. He was uncomfortably aware how Otylia was always interested in people outside Gondiar-normal.
“I hope you’ll be staying with us,” Otylia said. “I’m sure we can find a couple of spare rooms somewhere nearby.”
“That would be lovely,” Josias said courteously. “I’m most curious about your society. It would be rewarding to experience as much of it as possible.”
“I’d be happy to show any friend of Finny’s all the intricacies I can manage.”
“Otylia,” Finn said warningly. He’d seen that appraising gaze of hers too often.
“We’ll give the conservative side of it a miss,” she said. “So boring.”
“As in your life, so in mine.” Josias smiled enchantingly.
It took Otylia a long moment to switch her gaze back to Finn. “You know who Mummy assigned to take up all your custodial work, don’t you?”
He pulled a face. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I didn’t realize the estates you managed had so many executive funds.”
“Yeah, the asset bonds look after themselves, really. Administration is only ever a formality—typical family non-responsibility. There’s really nothing to do, that’s one of the reasons I…” He trailed off.
She sighed theatrically. “How are we even related? Purpose all depends on how you channel the money and influence our family has. If you can find something that needs doing, your life actually has meaning. That way you don’t go running off on fantasy quests.”
“I did find something.”
“External, yeah, because you never looked properly here. I know how to leverage the influence I have. It takes effort and time, but I get results.”
“I know. The Gath would suffer a lot worse without your patronage. I’ve always been impressed how you advocate for them.”
“Thank you,” she said sweetly. “And they suffer even less now. Our money is actually a blessing if it’s targeted correctly.”
“Good. I…Wait, what? Have you used—”
“Funds from your estates to help pay for their welfare? Yes.”
Finn’s initial anger that she’d been spending his estate money was swiftly quenched by a burst of shame. Maybe I should have done something like that, something less selfish. “How much?”
“Lots and lots,” she taunted.
“Minsterialis Finbar,” the captain said. “Your mother will see you now.”
“Ah, okay.”
Otylia gave him an evil wink. “Oh, and just so you know, big sis is in there with her. Have fun.”
Finn groaned in dismay. He’d been assuming—hoping, really—it would just be his mother at this meeting. He puffed out his cheeks and straightened his back, then walked across the anteroom’s polished floor to the grandiose doors that were opening ahead of him.
* * *
—
The privy council chamber was actually larger than the anteroom: an echoing hall with a long tashwood table in the middle. Twenty high-backed chairs stood around it. His mother’s chair was the largest, placed halfway along one side. She sat there wearing her full Marchioness regalia: a dress of deep purple with a striped green blazer bodice that had twin lines of oversize gold buttons arrayed up the front. Her hair was arranged in a severe style, held in place by a tiara of jeweled orchid petals.
Rather shockingly, she was older than Finn remembered, with lines appearing around her eyes, and her once sharp cheekbones looser now. Am I the cause of that? Did she actually worry about me? For a moment her eyes regarded him with a deep sadness before returning to their usual aloof indifference.
His elder sister, Zelinda, sat in the chair to the right of the marchioness. A younger version of their mother, except there was nothing youthful about her. Zelinda, as the heiress, had always appeared middle-aged even in his earliest memories—reserved, disdainful, never joining in the games of her siblings—a state that shaped her face as well as her mind, draining both of any joy.
“Mother,” he began with a halfhearted conciliatory smile. “Zellie, good to see y— Oh.” His sister was very obviously pregnant. Somehow he couldn’t ever imagine her having sex. Her husband, Haian, was twenty years older than she was, a professor of ancient Earth literature in the Santa Rosa university. It had seemed like a perfect match at the time—two people with no interest in any remotely human activities. “Congratulations,” he said genuinely. Somehow he managed not to blurt out: Who’s the father?
She gave him a short nod of acknowledgment.
“Mother, may I present my colleagues, Josias and Eleanor Aponi?”
“Indeed,” his mother said without a shred of interest. “Finbar, you have caused us so much trouble, not to mention distress to your father.”
But not you, though.
“It took poor Noriko an age to get that stain off your desk. And we had to take the pieces of Cardisious’s statue to the Metropolitan Museum’s restoration specialists. They rebuilt it, but I’m still not sure the nose is quite right.”
“A tragedy. Mother, I—”
“No.” Spoken in the tone that always made Finn’s body lock up. “I have had enough of your recklessness. Can you imagine the damage you would have done to the family’s reputation if word of your absurd escapade had become public?”
“Terrible damage,” Zelinda agreed. “It would have taken us a generation to recover our status.”
Finn took a breath. “Enough of this farce. I don’t care about our position. I never did. And a good thing, too, because I have brought you something. An amazing opportunity.”
“Finbar, I am speaking. You will return to your duties, to the fold of your family, and this wretched incident will never be spoken of again. Your sister and I will draw up a schedule of public events for you to be seen at, where you will explain loudly and clearly that you have been away at an agricultural college over in Daichi province to assist your management of Hafnir and Coyat.”
“I’ve sold it.”
“You…Sold what?”
“Hafnir.”
“You can’t sell your estate,” his mother snapped.
“Mother, Josias owns the arkship Diligent. They’ve just arrived in the Kelowan system, and the arkship’s waiting in orbit around Kinnox. They need a home, mother, and I’ve offered them Hafnir.”
“This is ridiculous. Have you relapsed? Were you using sprays again on Anoosha? Oh, that awful girl was such a dreadful influence on you! We’ll have to get you booked back into the recovery clinic.”
“I’m not doing sprays! The arkship is real.”
“I don’t know who these two people are, but if an arkship had decelerated into Kelowan’s system, I would know about it. The empress’s navy keeps a watch on all arriving ships.”
“Oh, Diligent’s orbiting Kinnox, all right,” Ellie said. “I helped plot the deceleration vector.”
“Really? The plasma exhaust from any ship decelerating down from relativistic velocity would be visible for months clean across the system. The navy would have detected it.”
“True, but we used our entropy drives to decelerate. They’re reactionless, don’t use a plasma exhaust. Then once we were close to Kinnox, we used an ion drive. The efficiency is the same as fusion plasma, but without the temperature.”
Even Finn hadn’t been expecting that; he stared at Ellie in dismay. “You used an entropy drive?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Oh, sweet stars,” his mother said. “An entropy drive! Active! In the Kelowan system.” She shot Finn a furious expression. “Did you know this?”
“No.”
“What’s wrong with an entropy drive?” Ellie asked. “Every arkship was fitted with an entropy drive. Right, Grandpa?”
“Yes.”
“It damages spacetime,” Finn said. “Specifically, it siphons momentum out of local dark energy fields.”
“How does that damage spacetime?”
“It interferes with the lines of quintessence extruded by the Elohim pathway ships. Entropy drives were outlawed by the Elohim at the end of the Remnant Era. And they’re deadly serious about enforcing that prohibition.” Finn glanced at his mother. “But the arkship couldn’t have crossed a pathway when they flew insystem. The Gates of Heaven are still all working, right?”
She nodded, tight-lipped. “Very well. Santa Rosa will be happy to accept all your crew. I will designate a new district for your residence, and the livestone outcrops will be sculpted into residential blocks for you. However, you must fly the arkship to High Rosa using your ion drive only. Under no circumstances can you use the entropy drive. Once you dock, it must be dismantled and disposed of by the correct authority. I will inform the Office of the Governor of my decision.”
“That’s most kind of you,” Josias said, inclining his head graciously, “but I decline.”
“Excuse me?”
“Basic commercial negotiation; never accept the first offer.”
“You have no other offer. Nor will there be one.”
“Not true. We already have Finn’s offer. If he sells us Hafnir, we will own the land. All you offer us is the opportunity to rent our homes and work someone else’s land or business. We’d have no real freedom. You shouldn’t be surprised that I’d decline that.”
“He cannot sell you Hafnir,” she said. “Humans do not own land in the Crown Dominion.”
“Actually, mother, I can. You know the settlement constitution’s laws of ownership and the exemption for uranic humans probably better than I do. All it needs is your signature.”
“Which will never be given. That is our estate. It was granted to the family by the empress herself in return for our assistance in managing Santa Rosa.”
“It is a worthless patch of land that the rest of our family holdings have to subsidize—the same as all the other useless bits of land we own and do nothing with.”
“If I may, ma’am,” Josias said, “I would appreciate the opportunity to explain how this transaction will benefit your family holdings along with your personal standing.”
Finn began to revise his opinion of Josias as the man outlined the strategic economics of developing an asset like Hafnir with a technologically adept population. It had been Finn’s initial idea, practically grasping at straws to get himself a starship, but Josias had clearly run with it in his own mind. The man’s understanding of finance and economics was remarkable, not to mention authoritative and extensive. He made an excellent case—how owning the land would motivate people in a way that simple residency and a salaried position in a licensed enterprise never could. How generations to come would see Hafnir’s sale as a smart move, benefiting the entire Santa Rosa prefecture, and hold it up as an example. “You and your daughter will be the ones people remember as the visionaries,” he concluded. “You will bring change, progress, while at the same time ensuring the existing social structure is strengthened. That’s quite an achievement.”
Finn watched closely as his mother nodded sagely. “I will consider your proposal,” she told him. “It sounds most interesting.”
* * *
—
“So…what now?” Ellie asked.
