“Melun has the support of Pomeret, Sangevin, and Norgrede.” Laud set a tray of fruit and cheese between them, beginning in the place where they were both most comfortable,like laying out game pieces. “They will not cross Melun’s will in any matter. Firkane and Tries will support you, as always. Old Duke Lein is ineffectual, but you may have better luck with his son. Berebet never saw a fence they didn’t want to sit on, though they would back you if you showed enough strength.”
“If I could persuade House_______, that might be enough,” Bastin said, seizing gratefully on the problem. “When was the last time Benetot was in the capital? I swear I have not seen him since I confirmed his title.”
“The Eastern Empire suffered greatly in the war,” Laud reminded him. The last war with Valleth had claimed many members of the high nobility, including both Benetot’s and Laud’s fathers, elevating young men who otherwise would have waited decades to inherit their Houses. It was one of the reasons why Bastin had had so much trouble building his power. Right now, the castles of the capital were slippery as sand.
“I need him here. They cling to the old ways in the East,” Bastin remembered. “It may incline him to sympathy. Why has he been avoiding the capital?”
“It is more that a great deal of attention is needed at home,” Laud replied diplomatically. “Benetot is just married, with a child on the way. That may make it difficult to persuade him in this matter. The people of the East revere the old ways, but that also means they take their oaths seriously.”
“My marriage oath was not made in good faith,” Bastin countered. “It cannot be good in the sight of the stars to compel someone to make an oath against their will. As aprinciple.I always said that Melun must have bribed the Temple—”
“Re-litigating your betrothal is unlikely to sway anyone to your side, Radiance,” Laud pointed out. “That is settled business. There must be some other reason to justify such a measure.”
That was an opportunity to tell him what the Empress had done, but even with wine bubbling faintly in his veins, Bastin could not make himself do it. The despised vision of his father was too present in his mind, that quavering, apologetic voice, praying to the stars to have mercy on his son. Weak. A man so weakdeservedhis fate. He could not call himself a man at all.
“She cannot give me an heir,” he said instead.
“It helps that she has not,” Laud agreed. “And that in all the years of the Agnephus dynasty, there has never been an infertile Emperor.”
For a moment, Bastin imagined all of his predecessors, eight hundred years of Agnephus sons, and wondered if any others had been unwilling sires. Their beloved subjects would notallowthem to be infertile.
“There will be no choice but to accept a divorce if the alternative is the extinction of the House of Agnephus,” Laud was saying. “But Divinity, if the Empress were to conceive...”
“She will not,” Bastin replied. He would die first.
“Is there really no way you can be reconciled?” Laud was watching him carefully. “We can work to separate the Empress from her House, and keep Melun in check. Even Pomeret and Sangevin might be persuaded to stay their hands, if we were merely seeking to restrain Melun. But if you could just accept the Empress—”
“No.”
“I know how you feel,” Laud said sympathetically, leaning nearer. “I do. My own wife was not to my liking, at first. But there are few noblemen who marry for love. If you viewed it as a partnership, an alliance—”
“No,”Bastin repeated violently. Allow that bitch to go to banquet with him and smile at his side?Dancewith her? The thought of her hand on him sickened him, let alone—but stars,thatwasgoing to happen again, wasn’t it? It was going to be years before he could secure a divorce, and in the meantime…
He was going to have to go back to her bed. Not once. Many times. Regularly. To prove that she could not give him a child.
“I will not.Ever,” he said, and was dismayed to find his eyes were hot. He gulped down his wine.
“As you command. I think it is too soon for any extreme measures.” Laud popped a bit of cheese in his mouth and chewed. “I can begin planting concerns among the other Houses. Itisa concern. The House of Agnephus must have an heir.”
“The Duchess ofis of an age with your wife, I believe,” Bastin said, groping for something resembling strategy. “Sidonie of House Roye? Perhaps she will persuade Benetot. Especially if they have a child on the way. It grieves me, to be denied the joy of a family.”
“Liliet will be pleased to make her acquaintance, I am sure,” Laud replied wryly. “Though I would almost pity the lady, Liliet is relentless. I tell you, we disregard our women at our peril...”
He did not sound angry. There was a grudging fondness in his voice, proof that hehadtruly reconciled himself to his marriage. In the space of five minutes, he was already boasting about his two sons, the most remarkable boys who ever lived, and there was a third baby already on the way. And Bastin was glad for his friend, he was, but it was the last thing he wanted to hear.
That had never been possible with the Empress. She wanted a sacred puppet, and her hands on the strings.
There was the possibility that she was already pregnant. He had to face that reality. If she was, then he would only have six or seven months to act before Esmene had a new and better puppet, and Bastin was likely to join the short list of theEmpire’s assassinated rulers. All this time he had been so careful about when he lay with her, to never seed her, to never finish the act. Most often, it had been too painful for that to even be a possibility. But now he did not even know how many times…
He could not think of it.
If she was with child, then he would find a way to deal with it. Accidents happened. And in the meantime, he would find a way to prevent conception between them, no matter what she did to him. It would have been a simple matter outside the Empire; all the mysterious and magical energies of the world would be at his disposal. But those powers did not hold sway in his lands, and they especially did not work on him. That was why his flesh was protected so vigorously. The sacred Emperors of Argence could only rely on their own mortal healing.
There must be a way. And until he found it, he could not let Esmene near him again.
“…Divinity. Radiance?”
Bastin started. The hour had grown very, very late.
