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“I know,” she said. They’d discussed protocols several times.
The audience chamber was one of the smaller ones, as opposed to the grander throne room where he’d met the emperor for the first time at his senatorial robing ceremony. He’d proudly stood in the presence of his mother, his father having long ago died in battle, and made his vow of loyalty.
This time, the atmosphere was less formal. He heard laughter as they approached the double doors of the outer chamber.
“The emperor’s first is here today,” the guard explained.
“First?” she asked quietly, as they waited to be announced.
“His prime mate,” said Jamen. “He has several mates. This one, Evetta, is his current favorite and mother of two of his younger sons.”
She grinned briefly. “Big family.”
“Hush,” Jamen warned.
The emperor was not sitting on a throne. He was by a balcony that overlooked a sunny courtyard and his figure was silhouetted by the sunlight. With the burden of absolute power, he carried a weight on his shoulders, but still managed to stand bold and upright. Jamen had always admired the man. Unlike the emperor’s father, the current ruler was less fixated on conquering new worlds and more focused on consolidating the Empire. He also wanted to resolve the issue of the Vendu’s weakening fertility.
Jamen bowed low. Paige copied him, keeping slightly behind him.
“Senator Hosta,” the emperor boomed. “Welcome.”
“Highness,” he bowed again. So did Paige.
“And this is the Earthling?” The emperor adopted the human expression with ease.
“This is Paige Lester. My most loyal hanjin.” He held out his arm and Paige crept forward, nervously shuffling on her heels.
“Highness,” she said, her voice almost lost in the chamber.
“Greetings.” The emperor moved away from the open window and balcony and his face came out of the shadows and into the light. The jagged scar he’d earned in his first battle ran from the corner of his eye to his lip, a scar that the best surgeons could have wiped away, but the emperor wore it like a badge of honor. He wanted to prove to his warriors that he was a fighter, too and in his princely youth had been in the vanguard of many invasions.
Paige remained quiet as Jamen had asked.
The emperor examined her from head to toe with his observant eyes before smiling a crooked smile, his scarred face puckering on one side. “Before we speak, I wish to talk alone with you, Hosta, about this unfortunate matter.” He gestured to Evetta who came out of the shadows. “Keep the Earthling company, my dear.”
“As you command, sir,” she responded.
The emperor led Jamen to a door at the far end of the chamber. The room behind it was like any other office used by a businessman on Halos. There was a desk, rather like Jamen’s but grander, and a comfortable chair, which the emperor settled into before waving Jamen to sit opposite him.
Jamen wasn’t worried about Paige. Evetta was young like her and likely not to ask too many awkward questions. Unlike the emperor, who had the power to demand many things from Jamen and Paige.
“Rasser,” the emperor snorted. “I’ve sent him back to his planet and stripped him of his powers. He is no longer the senator. The governor there will have to send another in his place.”
Jamen’s heart jumped with surprise. “Highness, I’d not expected this. I assumed—”
“That I would express my disappointment at his treatment of this human and nothing more? We cannot have the one representative of this important species treated badly. Our future depends on her, and the other two on Earth. Your brother has sent me reports, as has Governor Marcos. They are keen to express the opinion humans are suitable for mating.”
“Galen is to marry his girl. A human custom.” Jamen hadn’t been surprised by the news.
“And you? What are your views on cohabiting in a lifelong relationship?” The emperor leaned forward on the desk, his steely eyes peering out from under his dark locks of hair.
“I am warming to the concept.” Jamen could not lie to his emperor. He’d lain awake at night wondering if she had bewitched him somehow with her ways, and decided fighting it might not be the best way forward. There was a purpose to all things, and if his brother was right, then Jamen could do little but follow the path laid out before him.
The emperor chuckled. “Concept? A politician’s answer. You are a warrior. A leader. Tell me, what’s she like to fuck?”
Jamen had expected some kind of interrogation, but not one as blunt at this. Was the emperor hunting for an excuse? He cleared his throat. “She’s compatible—”
“I asked, Senator, what’s she like to fuck, not how you do it,” the emperor growled impatiently.
