Chapter 46: Guests

Rudy burst into the control room a full fifteen paces ahead of Chloe. Back on Wellach, she'd almost managed to outdistance him in a sprint, but he'd always cornered far better, and she had to assume he'd kept in better shape. Too much time spent cramped up on ships and lazing around New Kyrillopolis. Rudy kept busier showing off for her and Milissa. And probably for himself.

Regardless, she only caught the tail end of what he said to Slava. "– worrying about that shit while there's something going down you're probably gonna need my help for!"

She got the drift.

"It is not appropriate to ask guests to help," Slava growled. "Or for guests to enter without asking."

Rudy shrugged. "Next thing I do that's appropriate will be the first."

Chloe tensed to interpose herself before the two came to blows again. Until they got close, she looked around the control room.

She'd expected New Kyrillopolis's antique aesthetic to end where its serious business began. She'd been wrong. The control room looked of a piece with the estate's luxury suites, though its wood-paneled walls were adorned with displays like a warship's, and the elegant, wood-framed furniture mimicked the layout of a ship's bridge.

Slava had apparently been seated in the command chair, because he stood in front of it now, glaring at Rudy and blocking Chloe's view of a significant portion of the room. She didn't know the other Kyrillos men-at-arms staffing the chamber by name.

"Get out," Slava said to Rudy. Then, after a hesitation probably longer than custom dictated, he bowed to Chloe and said, "Your Highness may stay. Of course."

Rudy took a step forward. "If Her Highness stays –"

Chloe grabbed his arm and shook her head. "It's okay, Rudy. Why don't you go find Milissa and see if she's all right."

He stared at her like she'd gone nuts. Which, considering what she'd just asked, she probably had.

She sighed. "Just go, please? If anything important happens, I'll tell you afterwards, but we can't afford to fight with the Kyrilloses."

"Like it'd be much of a fight," Rudy muttered.

A growl rumbled from Slava's mouth, and the pair of felids seated at the far end of the room snapped around to match his glare.

"Go," Chloe hissed.

For a wonder, Rudy went.

Hopefully not because he was that eager to see Milissa again.

Chloe pushed the thought away and turned to Slava.

"Many thanks, Highness," the ursid said. "You are right. We cannot afford this fight."

"What's happening? I know you didn't want to tell Rudy."

"Lord Kyrillos," Slava said. "He is back."

"That's great news," Chloe said. She hoped she was right. "Isn't it?"

"He is not alone, Highness."

"Oh." From the way Slava said it, the people with Stephan weren't exactly friendly. "The Feds? Are they trying to hold him hostage or something?"

Slava rumbled something noncommittal. Chloe took it for an 'or something.'

She ran through the possibilities.

The first, which made no sense at all, was that Stephan had betrayed her and his people. She certainly didn't expect loyalty from him, whatever he might claim, but she expected him to look out for his own.

The second was that he hadn't had a choice.

She gulped. She filed door number two away in a mental compartment labeled 'things she couldn't do a thing about.'

The third was that whoever was out there already knew how to find New Kyrillopolis.

Couldn't be the Feds. An oligarch? Maybe a certain red-haired oligarch? She glanced at the door Rudy had sprinted through. He'd been arguing with Slava and he'd been awfully quick to drop it. Had he found some way to get in touch with his brother?

If he could, would he?

If he had, should she be happy about it?

She might actually be able to do something about an Oligarchical extraction team, whether the something turned out to be saving the Kyrillos estate from the 'garchs or vice versa. Unless they gave her reason not to, she'd at least give it a shot.

"Who is it, Slava?"

The ursid grunted again and averted his eyes. Some of the other men-at-arms shot him nervous glances, but none of them looked to Chloe.

"I want to help," she said. "Please."

"That won't be necessary, Highness." Milissa's voice drifted through the silently opened door. She followed a moment later, gliding lightly enough across the carpet she hardly seemed to ruffle it.

Rudy followed at her heels.

Chloe suppressed a frown. "Would somebody explain what's going on?" she asked, more sharply than she'd intended. At least, she hoped she hadn't intended it so sharply. Milissa probably didn't deserve it.

"We have more guests," Milissa said. "And Stephan's come home."

Any other time, the Kyrillos girl would have bubbled that. She said it seriously, almost sarcastically, and her smile looked awfully thin. Milissa looked every bit her brother's sister.

Chloe asked, "So why does this place feel tense as a space elevator cord?"

"Because our guests are not necessarily welcome," Milissa said. She turned to Slava. "Captain?"

"There are five of them."

Milissa's grin wavered. "Color?"

"We do not have visuals at this range," Slava said.

"But if there's five, we know who it is." She sighed. "Oh, Principle above, this is not what we needed right now!"

"Who is it?"

"Complicated," Milissa said. She took the command chair Slava had recently vacated. Wordlessly, the ursid moved to an open console.

"Complicated how?" Chloe occupied the chair beside the last unmanned console.

Slava started to answer. "Highness, it is difficult –"

"No, Captain, it's quite all right," Milissa said. "The five mecha out there belong to fellow members of the aristocracy. Five brothers, to be precise."

Chloe couldn't help it. Some of her old images of the periphery crept into her head and threatened to make her smile. Rudely, she shoved them to the back of her mind. She'd seen enough to know how little truth there was to those dreams. "Why is that bad?"

"It may not be," Milissa said. "These gentlemen are not exactly enemies of House Kyrillos."

"Not exactly?"

"Our houses have given occasional offense," Milissa said, "but there haven't been any duels for well over a lifetime. Stephan would very much like to keep it that way."

"How do these guys feel?" Chloe asked. "About dueling, I mean?"

"They're quite fond of it, Highness," Milissa said, "so we must take care to make absolutely clear no one present is capable of giving satisfaction."

Rudy swallowed a comment, but whether challenging, arrogant or lewd, Chloe was glad not to know. She shot him a little glare anyway, and got back a little grin. Lewd, then.

"In any case, they are bringing my brother home, so I suppose they expect us to be grateful."

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"You're sure Stephan's with them? How can you tell?"

"My Lord's mecha sends us a signal," Slava said.

Nothing as fancy as Milissa reading her brother's mind, then. Chloe wondered sometimes if the younger Kyrillos had any powers at all. If so, they were either underutilized or dwarfed by her brother's.

"If they're bringing Stephan home," Chloe asked, "why don't they contact us and tell us?"

"They know we're aware of them," Milissa said. "As the hosts, we are expected to contact them and bid them welcome."

"Then why don't you?" Chloe searched the console she sat beside for some sort of communications device. If one existed there, she didn't recognize it. Not that she recognized the instruments she did see. The Mother Goose, it wasn't. "The sooner he gets back, the sooner we can be sure he's all right, right?"

"Because it would be too polite." Milissa spoke slowly, frowning slightly, as if she were explaining an obvious principle to a thick-headed child. "We mustn't give the impression we act at their convenience rather than our own or else they'll feel free to take more than we wish to give."

"Like…?"

"Concessions," Milissa said. It was the flattest word Chloe had ever heard her utter, and she managed to pack a lot of emotion into it. None of it pleasant.

Chloe got the idea she should maybe shut up and watch.

Principle! Even Rudy, who normally couldn't keep from running his mouth for five seconds, had figured as much out. In Chloe's defense, she supposed Milissa might have mentioned something to Rudy on the way to the control room.

Sounded like a pretty feeble defense.

She shut up and watched.

Chloe watched the instruments, most of which followed patterns she wasn't familiar with and whose function she could only guess at. She watched the men-at-arms, who, with Slava leading them, operated with what she assumed was cool, military efficiency. Mostly, she watched Milissa.

The Kyrillos girl might have been a split personality. Traces of the familiar, frivolous, flirtatious Milissa remained, but not many. She moved almost as coolly and efficiently as her retainers.

Or, as her brother.

Chloe shuddered, and wasn't sure why. The room temperature felt like it had dropped about ten degrees. She had to fight to keep from tugging the too-low bodice of the dress up so she didn't have as much skin exposed to the chilly air.

Rudy's hand settled on her shoulder. She glanced up at his smile, which seemed to be an attempt at reassurance.

She returned it with about as much success and kept watching.

"Six mecha have entered the orbit of the processing station," one of the men-at-arms said. "We have a visual."

"Let's see them," Milissa said.

They appeared on what Chloe had thought were just more wood panels but now recognized as very high-resolution screens. She wondered how much of the house was thus disguised.

Five of the mecha were red-brown with golden bands. She didn't recognize their markings, but Milissa evidently did, judging from her tired sigh.

The sixth was the Black Rook.

Stephan's machine had obviously suffered from its bout with the Divine Auric Drake and the Reformer. Chloe remembered most of the damage from what she'd seen of the fight, but the mecha had clearly gotten the worst of the explosion at the battlecruiser. Already down one arm when last she saw it, the mecha had lost the other as well. If the twisted shoulder joint and trailing polymers were any indication, an explosion must have torn it off. As the angle of the mecha shifted relative to whatever camera the Kyrilloses were using to observe them, Chloe could see more of the damage on Stephan's machine's back. Nothing resembling thruster-wings remained, not even jagged stumps. Those seemed to have been pushed into the mess of shattered metal where its rear armor would have been.

Chloe tried to imagine how it would have felt as neural feedback and winced. From the tightness of Rudy's hand, she figured he did, too.

Milissa didn't speak for a long time. At last, she whispered, "Oh, my."

Chloe fought an urge to rush to her side. She might not like Milissa – okay, she didn't like her, no 'might' about it –, but she knew how it felt to see family get hurt. Milissa might be a flirt, but Principle knew she didn't deserve this.

Stephan... might. Chloe hadn't asked Rudy what more he knew about the Kyrillos family business. She didn't like to think what she'd learn.

Nonetheless, Chloe couldn't wish it on Stephan, either. She owed him at least her freedom and probably her life, too, and Rudy's besides.

Slava glanced back at Milissa. "My Lady?"

Milissa didn't answer. She stared at Stephan's mecha, ashen-faced, as if she'd never seriously considered the possibility he could get hurt.

Slava repeated his query.

Milissa gave the same response: none.

"My Lady, if we do not tell them we are watching, they may do something not so polite," Slava said urgently.

Milissa's lip trembled.

Chloe rose from her chair and said, "Open a channel, Captain."

Her voice sounded oddly distant, commanding – imperious. She swallowed a gulp. She'd never slipped into a role like the imperial one she'd used on the Errant Magpie by accident before.

Slava, or one of his subordinates, obeyed even before they had time to think about it.

The main screen went blank for a fraction of a second, then transformed itself into a face that could have been from another branch of the Kyrillos family tree. One who had let himself go, though. The mechaneer whose image filled the screen really did fill it. His flight suit did nothing to hide that he carried more pounds than the Principle intended his frame to, albeit in equal portions of fat and muscle. His deepset dark eyes practically sunk into a fleshy, ruddy face, and even his sharp nose seemed somewhat diminished in comparison. His long, curly hair and beard struck Chloe as almost ludicrously youthful in comparison to the rest of his look.

"Good afternoon, Lady Kyrillos," he said. He had a jovial voice, but it sounded uncomfortably loud. "It is as always a great pleasure to enjoy the..."

His voice trailed off as he saw Milissa still seated and Chloe, obviously aristocratic in her present garb and with the dye washed out of her hair, standing.

"And who is this vision of loveliness with you?"

Chloe started to answer, but Milissa suddenly bolted to her feet and said, "Lady Jaric. Lady Petra Jaric."

Chloe didn't remember telling Milissa about that. Had Slava?

Had Rudy?

"Lady Jaric," Milissa continued, "it is my distinct pleasure to introduce you to Lord Arsen Brise."

"The pleasure is all mine," Lord Brise said, a gleaming white grin splitting his features.

"Thank you, Lord Brise," Chloe said.

"You're very welcome." Lord Brise eyed her appreciatively – and, for Chloe, uncomfortably – before turning back to Milissa. "As you presumably already know, Lady Kyrillos, my brothers and I are about to do you some small good fortune. Unless, of course, you planned on inheriting shortly." He chuckled at what he apparently meant to be a joke.

Milissa laughed politely, which was more than Chloe could manage.

A snort of genuine laughter from the side of the room caught her attention. She glanced that way. Rudy had slipped out of the field of vision of whatever camera projected Chloe and Milissa to Lord Brise, and he apparently found the visitor funnier than either noblewoman did.

"My brother is well," Milissa said. It was not a question. Nor, however, was it a statement of the obvious.

It was somewhere between a plea and a prayer, and Chloe's heart went out to Milissa for it.

She almost regretted the mean and hurtful things she'd thought about the Kyrillos girl.

"Nothing a good long rest in the company of two such lovelies wouldn't clear up," Lord Brise said cheerfully. "Is Lady Jaric present as Lord Kyrillos's betrothed? We hadn't heard."

Chloe frowned, surprised. “His betrothed? Why would you think that?” She supposed Petra wouldn't have said that. Petra would have been flattered.

Lord Brise looked just as surprised, so maybe Chloe's slipping out of character wouldn't cause any problems. “I can see why Lord Kyrillos might make an exception to his usual policy for you, Lady Jaric,” he said, “but scarcely without hope of reward.”

His usual policy?

“Petra,” Milissa said quickly – too quickly for Chloe to ask any more questions, and Chloe had to think it intentional –, “is not from the periphery. Stephan rescued her.”

"What from?" Lord Brise asked.

He sounded idly curious, and Chloe almost answered as carelessly. She checked herself at the last second. There was obviously a heck of a lot going on that Lord Brise, and Milissa, weren't telling, but Chloe couldn't even begin to puzzle out what it was or what she should do about it.

She still had to answer the question, though.

"A life of crushing monotony," she said, which was both true for Petra's imaginary history, the sort of thing she'd say, and safely noncommittal. Chloe hoped.

"Then he's quite the hero, Lady Jaric," Lord Brise said.

"May we speak with the hero?" Milissa asked. "I, and all of us, of course, have missed him so."

"Unfortunately," Lord Brise said, "Lord Kyrillos is not in a condition to speak with you at the moment."

Chloe waited for Milissa to respond. When the Kyrillos girl seemed unable to, Chloe asked, "What's the matter with him?"

"He had a bit of a run-in with our Federal friends. Nasty bit of business, and a nasty place for it, too. Fortunate for him he was giving off enough psychic turbulence for my brothers and I to hone in on. Doubly fortunate that we were closer than an Animus Hunter."

Psychic turbulence sounded bad to Chloe's untrained ear, but Milissa actually seemed to perk up. "Perhaps," she said, "you'd like to stay at New Kyrillopolis for a time, Lord Brise?"

Chloe wanted to shoot her a “what the heck?” but saw no way to get it past the nobleman watching them.

"I'd be delighted, Lady Kyrillos, to avail myself of your company, but under the circumstances I fear it might be misinterpreted by our more… zealous peers."

"Surely a few days would do no harm, My Lord. Surely none could gainsay your motives," Milissa said, fawning like she did over Rudy. Chloe wondered why. "Surely you are above reproach."

"You might be surprised," he said. And Principle above, he actually winked.

Chloe was used to Rudy carrying on. He had the excuse of being young and something of a celebrity. And, though she’d never admit it, good-looking enough to get away with it. Lord Brise... wasn't. He had probably been handsome a decade ago and could be again if he lost the half of his weight that wasn't muscle, and maybe he was a big name in aristocratic circles, but he wasn't any kind of young.

He wasn't half as smooth as he seemed to think, either, because he'd given Milissa the out she'd obviously been looking for.

"Somehow, My Lord," the Kyrillos girl said, "I shall manage to control my disappointment. A visit would no doubt bore you in any case, as Lady Jaric and I must attend to my brother during his convalescence."

"Right you are, Lady Kyrillos," Lord Brise said. "Perhaps you can alleviate your grief by coming to my estate on Boria as soon as this foolishness between the mundanes is concluded."

"Something much to be looked forward to," Milissa said.

Chloe had to keep her eyes from rolling. Rudy, comfortably off to the side of the screen, didn't bother.

"Perhaps," Lord Brise continued, "you and your brother will see your way clear to our betrothal now that I have done you this small service, eh?"

Lord Brise's expression remained fixed in a mischievous grin. Chloe wondered if the sense of satisfaction she felt from him was psychic, or just her impression.

She glanced at Milissa.

The Kyrillos girl's face was frozen in a polite smile. She didn't even look at Chloe. She repeated, "Something much to be looked forward to."