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A troubled look darkened the viscount’s face as he struggled with my question.
Rather than wait on his delayed answer, I gave my reasoning. “We already discussed this, My Lord. Mr. Beretin, who was in charge of riverfront shipping inspections, is a close relative of the viscount of a territory with ports convenient for transferring smuggled goods from Tain riverboats to seaborne shipping. And I already told you that my sister went out last night and found multiple warehouses being used to hold contraband which she could associate with him. It ties together too well.”
The others around the table, mostly military personnel, were withholding their comments for the moment. I took a pointing stick from the corporal who was standing by, holding it, and used it to indicate the warehouse locations.
“Here, here and here. And the warehouse we investigated last night was here. You should be able to see the correspondence between those locations and today’s events.”
Lord Amalis didn’t respond with words, but he nodded his head while staring at the map on the table with his brow still furrowed.
“These disturbances are happening in the morning following last night’s events,” I added. “And right around the locations of the warehouses in question. It can’t be a coincidence.”
“But why would they include the warehouse you already raided?” Rod wondered.
“We missed something there. Or we haven’t removed all the evidence, and something damning is still there on site.”
“We haven’t removed any of the evidence,” Amalis corrected. “The slaves are still being kept on site as well as the other evidence. I just have city constables guarding it.”
Rod’s voice immediately sharpened. “Are you confident in their loyalty?”
The viscount’s eyes widened. “Well, of course, they’re loyal to City Hall and the Duchy!”
The Royal Prince made a noise of dissatisfaction upon hearing that.
“Your Highness?” I prompted.
“This riot didn’t happen from nothing,” Rod growled. “Somebody has been stoking the flames ever since the day the rumors of your mother’s death started circulating. Gossips have been spreading your name and your nature as a vampiress in every market and tavern in Narses. I learned the extent of it from the Royal Knights yesterday.”
“But that has nothing to do with our constables!” Amalis insisted.
“Constables live in the same city as everyone else, and they hear the same gossip, My Lord,” Rod replied dourly. “And the Royal Knights stationed in this city are of the opinion that someone has been manufacturing that gossip for a purpose.”
“But what purpose?” the viscount demanded. “It can’t be connected to what is happening right now! We raided that warehouse just last night!”
“Obviously, their purpose is to weaken the duchy in general,” Rod told him. “I would guess they’ve been priming the pump with a bigger level of unrest than this in mind. But Beretin or whoever’s behind him needed cover so his people could retrieve whatever they needed to retrieve, so they pulled the trigger early.”
I had heard enough. I turned, preparing to dash for the door.
Rod caught my arm before I could even take a step. Was he psychic or something?
“Where are you going, My Lady?” he asked in a tone as if he was saying ‘young lady’ instead of ‘my lady’.
I gave him a perturbed side-eye, then said, “I’m not trying to go out there and fight, okay?”
“Tell me where,” he insisted, not letting go.
I sighed and said, “I want to send the fairy warriors to guard those warehouses. We don’t have a means to coordinate them with the locals yet, right?”
As far as I knew, they were only communicating with the air defense people.
He frowned. “That doesn’t mean we can’t call them. Colonel, you can direct them from here, can’t you?”
“Yes, Your Highness,” Colonel Morgas immediately responded.
“But I need to show them where to go,” I argued. “Amana’s report is back in my office. I can call them to my balcony and show them the exact locations to go to.”
He nodded amiably, “Or, you can just fly out there with them and show them in person, right?”
“That’s right,” I agreed. “And I can help them coordinate with the constables as they arrive, that way.”
I realized what I had just admitted after I said it, and frowned at him.
His smile disappeared immediately. “There is no way in hell I’m letting you go out there, Ti.”
“I’m not going to fight, Your Highness!” I insisted. “I can just go out there and come back!”
“You’re not by yourself anymore, remember?” he replied, and, to my astonishment, laid his palm on my lower belly. “Not for any reason! You can’t do stuff like that, now.”
I grew instantly deep red as several gasps came from around the room. He had just said that in front of all these people, and he had done it while they were all paying attention to us. That had been calculated to create the misunderstanding, and he knew I couldn’t deny it!
Rod and I had already agreed to pretend the pregnancy began earlier than it really would start, because Gaia would be using her Immortal powers to push my babies through the first three weeks of the process as measured from fertilization on the first night. The reason was that she needed to stay in control, to ensure not only that the fertilized egg properly split into two zygotes for twins, but that they then developed into viable embryos. Only a small fraction of fertilized eggs ever stand a chance of becoming babies, it seems, so she had to make sure to get both of our daughters over that hump. Tomorrow morning, I would wake up a month pregnant, the way human doctors measure it.
There’s a lot of wiggle room in the interval from physical intimacy to this point of embryo development, but the math works out so that the theoretical act, if it had happened, was during the time we were together in the Tabad.
One can detect pregnancy very early with magic, so it wouldn’t be strange for me to know I was pregnant at roughly the time a human would be missing her first period. But to just come out and announce it in front of the room like this, with me unable to protest because I couldn’t tell anyone what was really going on, that wasn’t fair.
Even though I understood that he was right, that I had to behave myself for the sake of my daughters, I glared at him, intending to convey the message, You and I are gonna have words about this later, Mister!
He just kept his chin up and smiled. I gave him an extra dose of glare, then turned my eyes away.
“Fine. I’m only going to get my notes and come back.”
“We’ll go together,” he answered amiably, then told Morgas, “Send infantry squads toward the areas My Lady indicated. We’ll be back with the exact locations.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” she responded immediately, then, with less certainty, “We’re going to have soldiers engage civilians?”
“They are to defend themselves only,” he answered, “And avoid conflict while they are moving. You”re sending them in to take over those warehouses. Let’s go, My Lady.”
And then he was dragging me back, the length of the floor, to my office on the opposite end. As we went, I was crabbing, “I can’t believe you don’t trust me.”
“Put your hand over your heart and ask it why,” he replied. “Begin by reflecting upon what you did yesterday.”
I frowned at him. “And telling everyone in the room like that…”
“The sooner they know you need to take care of your safety, the better. I want to surround you with people who can help you remember to behave yourself.”
“Please slow down, Your Highness. These wooden clogs aren’t made for running.”
I was still wearing Dorian traditional dress, after all. A kimono restricting my leg movement and sandals over traditional socks. At least they were the flat, indoor style sandals, not the clumsy outdoor kind, but they were still, most decidedly, meant for walking.
He stopped, turned toward me and, before I could yelp, swept me right into a princess carry.
“Rod! What are you doing?!” I demanded as I struggled to keep the sandals from slipping off my feet.
“Discovering a new way to get you to call me Rod, as it turns out,” he replied as he rushed down the hall and my face blazed bright red yet again. The various Headquarters personnel working in the Solarium all turned to watch, wide-eyed, as we dashed by.
Hedrit, the Pendorian footman, who had been left without instructions when we dashed out, was still guarding the door to Mother’s office. As he saw us approaching, he simply bowed, then turned and opened up both of the double doors into the room.
“Welcome back, My Lady,” he said without showing the slightest hint of anything being out of the ordinary as Rod marched right past him, still carrying me.
“At least let me down so I can get into the desk!” I begged.
He finally did so– I had the impression he was slightly reluctant to do it– and I yanked open the drawer where I had tucked Amana’s report away. I thought about taking Mother’s notebook for Inda as well, then decided I didn’t want to advertise its existence and left it in the drawer.
Closing it, I turned and began heading back, only to find myself quickly swept off my feet again.
“You’re not going to carry me back into the war room like this, are you?” I worried as we dashed past Hedrit once again.
He looked like he was seriously considering it, then shook his head. “I’ll put you back on your feet outside the door.”
“You’d better!” I warned.
My embarrassment was already fading slightly by the time we arrived, but not so much that I could have stood entering like that, so I was relieved when he did as promised. I quickly patted my kimono flat, then nodded to the soldier guarding the door to open it.
The process of relaying the information was, of course, a bit clumsy, but they did have workable methods. Morgas had already sent for her, so Lady Falerè, the captain of the fairy warrior squad, appeared soon after Rod and I returned. She was reluctant to abandon her patrol of the air over Narses, but I told her I would keep an eye on things while she was busy with matters on the ground.
“Ti!” Rod immediately objected.
“I’m just going to obediently sit on my balcony and watch things!” I rebutted. “I won’t fly a single inch off the floor!”
Falerè didn’t look convinced either.
“I have very strong senses,” I insisted. “And I have a vampire technique I can use.”
“In broad daylight, Your Highness?” she retorted, but I held her gaze and nodded.
“In broad daylight,” I answered firmly. “My father was the most powerful vampire in history. Don’t measure me by common standards.”
That wasn’t the real reason I could be confident in myself, of course, but she didn’t have to know that.
The fairy warrioress pressed her lips together, then nodded. But she handed me a stone.
“That’s a communication stone I enchanted,” she explained as I turned it over in my hand while studying it. “You can communicate with me directly.”
I can do that without the stone, Captain, I replied with a smile, and her eyes and mouth both grew wide. I handed the stone back to her.
“As I said, don’t measure me by common standards.”
“Just in case,” Rod interjected. “Might I hang onto that stone?”
He wouldn’t have heard the spiritual voice I had sent directly to Falarè, but he must have guessed what had happened, because he didn’t ask about me rejecting the stone.
She gave him a quizzical look, which he answered with, “In case she flies off on me anyway.”
“You seriously don’t trust me!” I complained as Lady Falerè handed the stone to him.
“It’s just a precaution, my lovely delinquent,” he told me with twinkling eyes.
