What should I do?
It’s not my house, he replied. He wasn’t nearly as disturbed about this as Kaylin was—but she saw that he hadn’t really planned on attending dinner, either.
Coward.
You’d avoid it like the plague if Helen weren’t your home.
This was more or less true.It’s supposed to be aninformaldinner. With mostly just the Emperor and Bellusdeo. If the Hawklord comes, that changes everything.
Oh?
It’ll be political.
It’s always political, Kaylin. When there are more than two people in any gathering, it eventually becomes political. Politics is just another way of saying, “I want something and I’m going to get it.” There’s more finesse. The rules of the game change, depending on the participants. But people are political.
I don’t want the Emperor to kill me.
Neither do I. But Bellusdeo, at least, will find the Hawklord’s presence amusing—and I think the Emperor has proven that he does care about her.
He’s got a really stupid way of showing it.
People, Severn said again, as if that explained everything. And maybe it did. Kaylin cleared her throat, thinking that Severn was right. If Bellusdeo was amused, if Bellusdeo was not uncomfortable, the Emperor would forgive much.
“The thing is,” she heard herself saying before she could close her mouth and choose words more carefully, “it’s supposed to be an informal dinner. He’s not there as—as...” The words trailed off, because speaking them out loud revealed the stupidity inherent in them. He wasn’t there with his guards. He wasn’t in his throne room. He wasn’t wearing a crown—if he even wore a crown in his audience chamber. Kaylin couldn’t remember.
But hewasthe Emperor. Nothing he did or said would change that.
“Is it about Moran?”
“Not directly,” was the pleasant reply. “I am, of course, being watched. I am being observed. Any petitions I make to the Caste Court will be summarily shelved—with much more politic wording, and no doubt a few veiled threats.”
“I don’t consider assassins to be much in the way of ‘veiled,’ sir.”
“They were not attempting to kill me. Any petition I make to the Imperial Courts on behalf of the Imperial Law will likewise be known to, and examined by, the Aerian Caste Court. They will have warning, if I choose to act against their interests. Remanding this to the Imperial Courts would be against their interests.
“Their use of a human, however, opens the door to that remand. I do not understand why they chose to do so. I have been considering how to best approach what is a delicate situation. And you have a dinner guest who might be able to help. I don’t believe in coincidence,” he added.
Kaylin, at this point, didn’t believe in luck. Or at least not good luck. “Yes,” she said. “If you want to come to dinner, please feel free. It’ll give us all something to talk about that isn’t mostly awkward.”
I’d hate, Severn said,to see your idea of awkward dinner conversation.
She snorted.Mostly it involves fire, or knives. Or spoken Dragon.
* * *
Work was not exactly comfortable for the rest of the day. Kaylin could focus and forget about the looming dinner while she was on her beat, Severn by her side, but every other thing was lost to the growing stress. She did manage to enter Margot’s without kicking her sign over, and she did thank Margot for sending the Records transmission that was about to spoil a lot of Aerians’ days.
But she wasn’t at her best, and by the time she returned to the Halls for the brief end-of-day report, she was so tense her shoulders were practically bunched up around her ears. The familiar registered his objection by curling up in a pile on top of her head.
“Are you going to come to dinner?” she asked Severn. She tried to sound casual, and managed extremely anxious instead.
“I wasn’t going to.”
“That means you’ve changed your mind?”
“Kaylin, he’s not going to eat you.”
“I know—Bellusdeo would hate him forever, so he won’t risk that.”