Schism of Blood and Stone (The Starfield Theory Book 1) (28 page)

Salena hesitated for a moment. She thought about revealing the identity of the Sten twins, but then immediately thought better of it. It pained her to keep it from her husband, but the threat of a leak was too dangerous.

It will be better to simply eliminate the twins,
she thought
Every day they live is another day they have to destabilize my regime. My assassins should have reported back by now. Though I wonder, has Damien had similar plans? He might have had that demon Slader kill them by now thus removing a problem for both of us. I need more information!

She tried to banish the thought from her mind and smiled at Richard. “But no worries. Tomorrow is another day we have to protect the Commonwealth's subjects. Let's clean up the mess on Magdeborg then deal with our Dominion neighbors.”

Richard smiled at her and beckoned the duchess to bed. Even as she prepared for a night of lovemaking, the nagging resolved problems still weighed her down, distracted her and kept her mind unable to enjoy herself. As she slid into bed she wondered if any Commonwealth ruler had ever been able to enjoy life's simple pleasures or if even the most enjoyable ones were haunted by issues of state.

Lord Damien Sten

Duke of Hidelborg, Defender of the Border, The Gray Knight

Sten Palace, Magdeborg, Magdeborg Commonwealth

______________

Damien spent considerable time checking his rooms for bugs and listening devices. He had no doubt Salena would stoop to spying on him in his own chambers. It was the same suite he lived in as a child and it seemed virtually unchanged. Perhaps Salena assigned him his own childhood rooms to unman him. Though he had expected his access to sensitive Commonwealth intelligence and his security clearance to be revoked, he was surprised to see he still had access to everything as if nothing had changed. He had assumed his placement in the Commonwealth palace was a sort of house arrest, but after a thorough search he could find no trace of any sort of tracking or listening device. He was almost disappointed. Convinced he was not being observed, he sent an encrypted message to a contact instructing her to meet him within the hour.

Due to security concerns he could not communicate to Aaron directly. He trusted the young man who had become nearly family to him.
Aaron will protect the border. He doesn't need me looking over his shoulder all the time.

When Damien stepped into the hallway he expected guards or servants to stop him, inquire his destination and insist on accompanying him or denying the request. With a twang of annoyance, he realized there was no one, not even preselected bodyguards. As he walked through the halls, he was greeted politely by the palace's staff and a few nobles on official business. No one challenged his authority to be there.

He returned to his suite and searched it again and uncovered the hidden switch hidden in the mouth of one of the old Ducal busts. It hadn't been cleaned in decades and his finger became entangled in a spider's web. He wiped it off on his coat and waited as the palace's old mechanics slid open a section of the stone walls. When he was safely down the narrow stairs he hit another switch at the bottom that closed the entire entryway. It was all exactly the same as when he was a child, untouched for fifty years.

Damien left the traditional uniform fitting his rank and title in the palace, opting instead for simple civilian clothes. Magdeborg was entering its spring season, warming, but still chilly, and he wrapped himself in a heavy brown knee-length coat. A simple hat covered his silver hair. He exited the palace grounds through a rear access point that was cleverly hidden and never guarded. He doubted Salena even realized it existed. As a child, he and Peter explored the huge palace finding all manners of hidden places and forgotten chambers. There were dozens of secret passages for emergency evacuations and many other older gates that rarely were ever used.

Damien walked away from the high walls and through the exterior gardens. He passed the old statues and the small stream that flowed gently through the plants and wild flowers native to Magdeborg. There was a dirt access road that ran through a small forest parallel to the main road to the palace's destrier hangars. He walked along it in silence, enjoying the time to himself.

He exited the road and headed across a short grassy area to the single iron door and remained locked at all times. Damien opened the door with a key he'd kept in his chambers and stepped out in the streets. This was a quieter street with a moderate amount of foot traffic and light vehicle presence. He turned left and mixed in with the people.

Damien rarely had need to conduct covert operations himself these days and he found it refreshing, almost thrilling to abandon the role as the heir to an empire and simply walk among the population he'd sworn to protect. He was nearly amazed that the crowd that had cheered him as a hero a few days before now did not even recognize him. Rarely, if ever, did Commonwealth nobility walk among the lower classes. For these people, it was nearly incomprehensible to find the royalty among their ranks; no one even thought to look for him.

I've spent a majority of my life on the Dominion border. A whole generation has passed since I last spent any real time here. I could never have done this on Haberton or Goteborg. Have I really been so marginalized in Commonwealth politics?
Damien wondered as he weaved his way down the Magdeborg streets.

Damien strolled casually along the sidewalks, passing hundreds of Magdeborg subjects. Occasionally one bumped his shoulder, passing without apology, an act none would dare consider had he been in uniform. None gave him a second glance and he quickly began to relax. There would be no embarrassing confrontations, no curious onlookers. He was tempted to stop in an eatery just to test his theory of invisibility in actual interactions then decided against it.
No need to push my luck.

He almost had trouble navigating. On several occasions he had to stop and try to reacquire his bearings. He'd been down this way before the last time he'd been to Magdeborg, but war and distance had faded his memories of this place. Magdeborg was not a huge city. The last census had placed it at nearly a million souls and none of its buildings stood more than thirty or so stories. The architecture was almost drab, mostly office buildings and apartment complexes as well as embassies of the other major interstellar powers. The architecture was all great gray and white towers with little decoration or adornment. Magdeborg was almost a boring city. It was not for the young nor those looking for a good time. It catered mostly to the nobility, visiting dignitaries and soldiers stationed in the bases in and around the city.

His contact would be waiting for him if she wasn't late. He had intended to meet her at her home, but she refused. Rebuffed, Damien suggested an old meeting place, one they had frequented when they were much younger. Hesitantly, she agreed.

He slipped through an alley, past a dog that growled at him then turned through a parking lot and stopped behind a dumpster. He checked his watch. Any minute now she would come into view. The back lot of a bar was not typically where Damien was accustomed to meeting contacts for political reasons, but many years ago he'd often brought her here for a few drinks. It was barely midday so Damien was not concerned with the usual dregs that stumbled from bars, but he was armed regardless. Even though Salena's police had been securing the city, there had still been random acts of violence carried out by thugs and other criminals. He doubted they were linked at all with the Sørensen resistance. They were just opportunists taking advantage of a lull in the normal security. What he'd seen so far was a peaceful city lacking the violence Richard described.

He kept checking the entrances to the lot and the exits of nearby buildings partly looking out for threats, but also checking for her. Finally, he saw a figure walking towards him from down the alley he'd come. It wasn't the kind of thug who would challenge his right to be on his turf. The figure was too petite, too poised. She walked with a purpose and her target was obvious as she bore down on Damien like a missile. She was wearing a business suit as if she'd just gotten off work. In reality, Anna was a lower level employee in the House Mason consulate. Despite her position, she maintained an extensive number of contacts across the Conclave and she knew more about the happenings of inter-house politics than most of the house masters themselves. She would be a valuable ally in the coming weeks. Admittedly, she was more than just a professional contact, but Damien did his best to suppress those feelings.

“It's been a while, Lord Damien,” she said without apparent emotion.

Anna stood a few centimeters shorter than Damien and lacked his military physique. Despite her small physical stature, she did possess some military training, as all Mason subjects did, in case there was ever need for a call up though she did not appear to have kept up with it in recent years. She kept her red hair tied behind her head severely and her almond eyes were hard and calculating. She had her arms crossed over her chest and maintained a look of sheer boredom on her face.

“It has. Wars do that,” he said in self defense.

“You didn't write. Not in eleven years, not a single message, Damien.”

Damien cleared his throat, but not take the bait. “Look, that was a long time ago. We both have had to do what was necessary for the Commonwealth.”

Anna narrowed her eyes. “Or for ourselves.”

Damien felt anger begin to rise in his gut. Things had picked up right where they left off so many years ago. They'd spent time together as they had during Damien's previous visits except the last, but it wasn't an exclusive thing. It couldn't be with him on the border for years at a time, but it was something to rely on whenever he returned to the capital. At times, she had nearly become a fixture in the palace and his relationship with her was an open secret; most nobles kept concubines. Of course, after every visit came the inevitable leaving, with which she was never comfortable and gave him repeated grief. This same conversation happened whenever he returned from those absences. Although they weren't getting any easier, he was able to maneuver trough them with a bit more tact.

Damien brushed aside the bait, not willing to start that debate in public. “What happened here? Richard Teton was vague when I spoke to him.”

Apparently she was willing to drop the personal matter for business. “I suspect whatever he said isn't too far from the official statements. What did he tell you? Something about the Sørensens attempting to take power and House Teton coming to save the day?”

“But he said it so much more convincingly,” he said firmly tongue in cheek.

“I bet. House Teton showed up a few weeks ago, trashed whatever meager defenses the Sørensens could muster and took the palace. They moved quickly enough that it was pretty obvious they had this planned for a while,” Anna said confidently. “The Sørensens didn't last long.”

“How strong is Salena's grip on power?”

Anna glanced around as if looking for someone that might overhear them. “Strong enough. They have military checkpoints around the city, but nothing too restrictive. They're really just trying to get any of the Sørensens who escaped the initial invasion. There's a resistance both here in the city and a larger Sørensen led one out in the countryside. The city resistance is pretty pathetic, they only lasted a few days and the public never seemed to really support them. Salena seems to believe the people regard her as some sort of savior.”

“Do they?”

“No. For the most part they couldn't care less.”

“And the Sørensens?”

“Most of them are dead. The Sørensen House Guard tried to face Magnus Teton-Sten head on out on the plains. They were slaughtered. Thaddeus is dead. Dietrich is in prison and scheduled to be executed. Despite all that their resistance out in the countryside is fairly strong and they've been harassing and raiding the Tetons where they can. I think Odin and Astrid Sørensen are in charge out there. Magnus was tasked with rooting them out, but he's been pretty unsuccessful so far.”

“Do you-”

Anna held up a hand. “No resistance contacts for me. I'm not in that business anymore. I have other more important responsibilities than associating with dissident groups.”

Damien blinked.
That's unlike her. Usually she has her fingers in everything.

Anna handed over a small data chip and a reader. “Most of what you're looking for is in there. Obviously some of the houses have declared their intentions, most have not. House Teton, along with their traditional allies –
Sjöberg
, Bergstr
öm
and Toburn – are all firmly in Salena's camp and are bringing in troops. Their rivals oppose them, not necessarily because of what happened here, but rather that's just what they're accustomed to doing. Most of the houses' loyalty is still up in the air. They don't like how Salena claimed power and they don't believe the Sørensen coup story, but they're more worried about instability and the war with the Dominion than they are about Commonwealth law. A few of the Sørensens went traitor and joined Salena's cause.”

“I heard about Erik Sørensen,” he said.

Anna seemed uncomfortable. “Apparently he's some sycophant who's been waiting for a day like this for a long time. He's greedy, but not stupid.”

Damien ran a hand through his gray hair and exhaled slowly. “She hasn't wasted any time shoring up her power base,” he said more to himself than anyone else.

“You know, I have to wonder. Why in Ithix are you here? I'm surprised you're not dead,” she said with such seriousness that Damien actually blinked.

He half smiled. “I thought you'd be happy to see me.”

“Don't get coy. You're not in the clear, yet,” Anna said flatly, but Damien detected a hint of steel behind her voice.

“I mean you know this is a trap. Salena sees you as a threat and she's not going to sit around and wait for you to overthrow her. What are you trying to accomplish here? Are you actually trying to destabilize her regime? Do you have your eyes set on the throne?”

She was not accusing him of anything, really. She spoke to him not as subject to her lord, but as a former lover. She still cared about his well being apparently. For once, she was setting her personal feelings above her political objectives, a kindness Damien had certainly not granted her in the past. He felt his heart sink a bit as he realized the unfairness of the situation.

Damien sighed. “When Peter died, I was next in line for the throne, regardless of whether he declared an heir. I was his brother and hereditary rights give the throne to me. But there have been complications,” Damien began.

“Salena's impatience for one,” Anna noted.