Abendau's Heir (The Inheritance Trilogy Book 1) (47 page)

“I never bought into that with your son; I’m not going to start with you,” Sonly said. The Empress’ presence drew back from her, and she smiled– no one was about to hold sway over
her
mind.

Sonly moved on to the matters at hand. Kare took up a position by the door, his stance confident, gaze steady. He was carrying out his role to perfection. He’d be fine, he just needed to calm down a little, let it happen. She turned to the Empress. “Sit down.”

“Empress,” Averrine reminded her. “I have a title.”

“For now. I’m not going to waste time; I want you to abdicate. If you do, we’ll let you set up wherever you choose and you’ll be allowed to keep recognition of your former position.”

“I’m not here to surrender,” the Empress said coldly. “You may have Abendau: I have the army, and the families. Once I unleash my forces, I will destroy you.”

“And your city,” Sonly said.

“Which can be rebuilt. I have the steel to do so, which is more than you or your pet psycher does. Tell me, how long do you think, really, he can keep it up against me? My psyche has been engulfing his since I arrived, and he seems to be weakening.”

Sonly looked at Kare, who showed no reaction to the Empress’ words.

“Did you think putting him in a fancy suit means he’s my equal again? You have no understanding of what it takes to wield the sort of power I have, and he had. No, Sonly, this isn’t a case of you putting your weakened husband on my throne. If you want my empire, you’ll have to fight for it, planet by planet, city by city, homestead by homestead, and you don’t have an army to do that,” said the Empress, calmly. “Nor the will.”

If not having the will to murder millions for the sake of an empire was a bad thing, she could live with the criticism. She handed the Empress a message filche. “This went out to the planets as your ship docked. It’s an agreement, by the general of your forces, to surrender.”

“This is a surrender of Belaudii.”

“And a direct order to surrender in any territory which becomes partnered with the Banned,” Sonly said. “Clause 4.b sub note 3; I don’t think Phelps read the sub note.”

“You have no governments, and no army to surrender to.”

“Lichio?” asked Sonly, glad to see his focus firmly on Kare and not the Empress. She glanced at Kare, worried, and saw he’d slipped off his shoes and now balanced on the edge of a desk, his uniform swamping his thin frame, his head down, taking no part in the proceedings.

“Of the outer rim, thirty planets have so far agreed to our terms and their garrisons have surrendered. It’s speeding up, though.”

Sonly saw, for the first time, a look of doubt cross the Empress’ face, quickly smothered.

“I hold the combined planets,” said Averrine. “Dignatis, Clorinda, Peiret, the rest. Holding the outer rim means you still have no power base, and no army.”

“Except Belaudii’s,” Sonly said. But she needed the Hiactol family on board. They were the key military family– to fully hold the army, their support was vital. And so far there had been nothing from them.

“And Peiret,” added Lichio. “They’ve confirmed their support, and so have Tortdeniel and Balandt. Clorinda has also opened negotiations with us.”

That helped. Balandt held the financial balance of power. Clorinda, along with Peiret, were the two closest planets to Belaudii and the two largest families. If they were all onboard, even Hiactol couldn’t stand alone. She nodded, satisfied, and, when the Empress went to speak, held up her hand.

“I’m in command,” Sonly said. “I’ve given you your chance to accept our terms–
now I
’m imposing them. I have your palace, I hold at least half the planets, and your army are in the process of surrendering. They follow their general’s instructions in the absence of any other.”

She hesitated at a feeling of oppression in the room, and she looked around to see what had unsettled her. Frightened her, actually. Lichio turned his gaze to the Empress and Sam dropped to his knees. Lichio knelt, too. Now, the imperious gaze moved from them to Sonly and the compelling need to please the Empress ran through her.

She looked at the still passive Kare.
Help me.
He lifted his head and met her eyes, but didn’t move.
Kare, help.
The Empress pulled at her and Sonly was forced to turn, fighting all the way, and focus on the Empress. Peace, overwhelming peace swept over her– it was right for her to give herself to the Empress. Maybe Kare, too, could cede, and they would be blessed by the Empress’ benevolence. He’d been taught how wrong he was to stand against her; perhaps he could be forgiven. How wrong
we
were, she amended, and was rewarded by a crescendo of pleasure, warming her, making her crave more.

Sonly sank fully to her knees. Kare, she thought, and tried to look at him, but couldn’t turn away from the Empress, who smiled in triumph.

“I want your fealty,” the Empress told them, and Sonly knew it was the right thing to do. She heard Sam offer his, saw Lichio bow and confirm his and then the gaze was on her, the soft grey eyes demanding absolute loyalty, and Sonly sank under it. She forgot about Kare, forgot about anything other than her mistress in front of her.

Dimly, she noticed movement and realised it was Silom, striding forward to join his cousin. She forced herself to look at him as he took his place beside Kare. She caught Kare’s eyes, so different from the Empress’, their green colour harder, more demanding, yet kinder, and her fear receded a little.

Kare raised his eyebrow, questioning her, inviting her in his familiar way. His stance was relaxed and welcoming. She pulled herself to her feet, painfully slowly, and although the fear grew, she focused on Kare’s eyes. She thought of his laugh, of him asking her to marry him because it would piss Eevan off. She remembered him touching her and loving her. The Empress’ mind focused on her again, and she staggered, stumbling forwards. He smiled at her, encouraging her, and she took the last four steps to him. As she fell into his embrace, the fear disappeared.

“Well done,” he whispered into her hair. She looked round to Sam and Lichio. Lichio looked at Kare, and she willed him to pull away from the Empress. He tried to stand, but failed. Instead, he crawled to them, clumsily, not at all like Lichio. He looked back not once, but twice, each time hesitating before he continued. Kare held his hand out to Lichio– his long, slender fingers clawed– and Lichio grabbed him as if it was the key to life. Kare pulled him the rest of the way, until Lichio knelt at his colonel’s feet. Slowly, he stood, still using Kare’s hand to give him the strength he needed.

As Lichio joined them, the presence in the room lessened, and now she focused on Sam, who’d once been the Empress’ man, but had fought back. Sonly called his name and he turned to her, before he looked again at his Empress and then he, too, crawled, each tiny movement seeming to cost him more and more. He got halfway and, like a drowning man, held his hand out to Kare, who didn’t take it.

“A little more, Sam,” Kare said. “Just a little more.”

To Sonly’s amazement Sam crawled another couple of feet and then Silom reached for him and pulled him to his feet so the five of them were gathered together, in a tight circle around Kare.
You clever bastard
, thought Sonly.

Kare pulled himself from the centre of the circle and said, very quietly, “Thank you.”

Then he pushed them behind him and walked across to his mother and Sonly could feel a new presence growing and growing and growing, this one familiar and strong. Stronger than she’
d ever imagined it could be. And crueller, driven by a hate she’d never known in him before. If she’d been facing it, she’d have backed away.

His mother didn’
t. She met his eyes, glaring back, hers as hate-filled as his.

“It’s about confidence,” Kare said, conversationally. “That’s why you’re here now; you know if you leave it any longer I’ll have bags of it. You knew I always did, that’s why you stole my powers from me. That’s why you stole everything you could from me.”

As suddenly as the Empress’ presence in the room had appeared, it vanished, and when Sonly heard a gasp she realised the Empress had taken all her power, every bit of it, and focused it purely on Kare. Sonly saw him sway slightly and, briefly, close his eyes against the power. As he dropped his head, Sonly was sure he would cave in at any moment. She could hear his breathing, watched as his knees started to buckle, and he sank onto one of them in front of his mother.

“Yield,” she told him.

He moaned, a long moan, and nodded his head, very slightly. He couldn’t do it. Tears pricked Sonly’s eyes– he might have been able to once, but he’d been too harmed, too damaged, to do it now.

“Fight, Kare,” she said, not realising until the words had left her that she’d said them aloud. The Empress turned her attention to Sonly for one moment, and Sonly quailed under her glare.

She looked again at Kare and saw he had opened his eyes and was watching her. Slowly, he got off his knee and straightened, his eyes moving from Sonly back to his mother.

“So, why would I have no confidence? I’ve taken your city,” Kare told the Empress. Sonly could see the tightness in his jaw and knew every word was being forced out of him. “I’ve survived what my father told me would either kill me or make me.”

Now he took a step forward and Averrine moved back, very slightly. Silom grinned with pride, a look in his eyes which said he’d told everyone so, continually, over the years.

“I wielded no power, yet they came to me. Some were too strong for you, some had to crawl as you clung to them, some just had love to guide them, but they came to me. Who’s going to come to you just for the love of it?”

His mouth tightened into a thin line and he stepped towards her. His eyes focused on her, and Sonly could feel the power coming from him, sharp and precise. His mother gasped, her eyes becoming uncertain, and he stepped forward again. Sam closed his eyes beside her, his breath coming in gasps. She touched his arm and he opened his eyes.

“Can’t you
feel
it?” he asked. “Maybe… he’s done it to me once, maybe that’s why, but it’s
so
strong.”

He put his hands up to the side of his head just as the Empress shrieked, high and pain-filled, and now Sonly
could
feel it, like a buzz in the air, not aimed at her, but too strong to miss. She glanced at Lichio, saw he was pale, his hands trembling, and at Silom. Even he was breathing heavily.

“Stop!” yelled the Empress. Sonly whipped her head round and saw her clutching her hair, pulling it.

“Yield,” Kare said, his voice hard and implacable. His mother shook her head, drew herself straighter, and for a moment the two psychers stood, neither willing to back down.

Kare stepped forward once more, and this time the Empress stepped back, putting her hands out, as if to hold him back.

“
My
empire,” he told his mother. “My people. My city. Accept it or I destroy you; and I will. My terms– a place in the outer rim, with no one to manipulate. A room: luxurious, fitting for your stature, where there is no outlet for your power. You’ll be like Ealyn; the power turning inward until it destroys you.”

“You can’t do that,” the Empress said. “You know what it would do.”

“Trust me, Mother. After what you did to me, to Ealyn, and especially to Karia, I can and will do it if you oppose me further.” He turned to Sonly. “Draw up a document, an official abdication; she’ll sign.”

The Empress looked at him and opened her mouth. He cut her off.

“If you don’t, I will incarcerate you. You can’t take me, you can’t take them, and you certainly aren’t retaking your empire. Not after what it cost me to get it.”

***

Kare sat in the room with his mother, only Silom with him as he waited for Sonly to complete the document. He didn’t talk to her, didn’t talk to Silom, but at no point did he let his psyche fall back or give her a chance to establish hers. Tiredness lay as a tight band around his head, and he was relieved when the door opened and Sonly and Lichio entered.

Sonly set the filche in front of the Empress, who read it. She looked at Kare, as if calculating what to do, and he flared his psyche a little more, leaving her in no doubt that if he had to, he could hold her even more firmly. He wished he had some supply of whatever concoction she’d been giving him but they hadn’t, so far, found it.

Slowly, Averrine picked up the filche and prepared to put her mark on it. Once again, she looked around the small room and Kare, alert– ready for her– felt her reach out and saw Silom move towards him.

Kare looked at Silom, but her focus wasn’t on his cousin. Too late, he turned and saw Lichio, blaster raised, his hand shaking.

Kare saw the bolt coming for him, but had no time to stop it. He tried to shield himself, but he was shaking with exhaustion now, the effort of holding his mother back tiring him. He dived to the side, but knew he was too slow. Something blurred in front of him. He saw a gush of blood and a falling body, and then Silom fell to the floor, a great wound in his stomach, red spreading from it.

“Sam!” shouted Kare as he turned back to his mother. He had to close her down, stop her using her power to hurt others, to hurt him anymore. He remembered the block he’d placed in his own mind, how it had stood against all the Great Master’s knowledge.

He took his psyche and pushed against his mother, fury giving him a strength he didn’t know he had. His powers formed a wall in front of hers, holding it in place, holding it so she could not get around it. He realised to hold her forever, he would have to leave his own psyche inside her, blocking her.
Can I do it: become powerless again?
This was the glory Ealyn had foreseen. Not the pain but this, the surrendering of his powers to finish Averrine’s reign. Resolved, Kare pushed his mind in front of hers, and slammed it in place.

“What have you done?” she hissed, as she felt his wall. “Where are my powers?” She put her hands up to either side of her head. “You bast– ”

“Take her away. I’ll deal with her later.” He dropped to his knees beside Silom. Sam was already there, trying to stem the flow of blood from a stomach wound gaping through Silom’s ripped uniform, a wound too wide to staunch. Sonly was holding Silom’s hand, telling him to wait for Kare.