The Kingmakers(39)

Msiri said, “The war isn't about fighting for the lands of old northerners. You said it yourself.”

Adele laughed. “I say many things. Sometimes I'm not sure what I mean by them anymore. I hear grumbling from the officer corps that I've hamstrung them because I've ordered them to minimize casualties among the northern humans. They want to adopt a policy similar to the Americans'. And frankly, it would work.” She stared at the ceiling. “I worry that I'm fighting this war because it was too much trouble to stop it.”

The African king leaned forward and rested his forearms on the table. “As you well know, Your Majesty, there is no point fighting a war against evil if you become evil. We know that this war will cause enormous death and devastation, but that doesn't mean you can't labor to prevent it where you can. You are not some simple politician. You are the one. You are the pivot of the world. You will end the reign of the vampires. You will save the humans of the north. I have seen it. There will be a new Golden Age when all that land in the north and all those people are brought back into useful society.”

The empress sighed. “There are so many ways to view it. Unfortunately, I see all the facets. At one time, I would've sided with Mr. Garang. Now he's a bother to me.”

“True, our lives would be so simple if we spoke and others acted. But, in fact, that would be a bad thing. No one person has the wisdom to make unquestioned decisions over life and death.”

“I thought you said you would have executed him.”

“I say many things too.”

Adele reached out and took the king's hand, squeezing it in gratitude for his camaraderie. Anhalt was away. Gareth was away. Msiri, along with Mamoru, were the closest things she had to friends and confidants in Alexandria. She felt no pretense in front of the Katangan; they understood one another in a meaningful way. He had protected her last summer when she was being pursued by her own nation. He saw her powers at work against the vampires of the high Rwenzori Mountains. His own mother was a mystic in Mamoru's secret network, although he didn't seem to know that. His troops were fighting beside Adele's in Europe.

Still, even with those deep bonds, sadly, there were things Adele could not tell him. She wanted to lay out her problems and fears, but she didn't want to show weakness in front of the leader of a sovereign nation, and a potential rival. She was the empress, and she could have no true confidants.

No longer was she a child playing games in this vast room. Today she realized it had always been and would forever be a war room.



It seemed as if the entire world was in the crystal that Adele held in her hand. Every color flitted in the infinitesimal facets. Tiny cracks emitted jets of hot or cold that she could feel as if they were fissures in the Earth. Each endless edge was the frontier where a glacier met a boundless sea. She could see its vibrating notes, and hear the pinging colors in her head. Adele could have lost herself in the crystal's hard facets; it was complex and informative. It was so fascinating in its pure existence she almost lamented altering it.

Still, Adele took the heat of the crystal itself and spread it over one sharp edge with great care. She didn't want to ruin it. The fire softened the hard surface like paste under her finger and she pressed roughness off the crystal, creating a new angle, a new sharpness that allowed the stone to better free its nature, to express itself clearer.

She flexed her fingers and turned the crystal to engage the other side. Again, she touched it and drew its own energy to shave away the excess. The sound in her ear pitched higher. She bit her lower lip in concentration as she took two fingers and attempted to tune the stone by fashioning the interior. She had to deliver heat deep into the crystal without altering the surface. She felt herself bypassing the milky golden aura of the outer plane, dropping deep inside. Then she reached out, as if with both hands, shifting walls, opening passages to allow the heat and cold to meet and blend, balancing the interior of the crystal. The music was pleasing; all the hissing undertones were gone.

Adele sat back and stared at the saffron stone on the table. Bits of sloughed crystal lay around it. It felt right, but she couldn't be sure until Mamoru approved it. He had more experience in this than she; he had been giving her talismans for years. She was excited for him to arrive so she could show her first attempt to him.

The empress turned to a pile of books and notebooks. She ran her hand over them lovingly. They had belonged to her mother, the late Empress Pareesa, when she had studied geomancy years ago under Mamoru. Adele had only had them for a few months and most of the material was fairly mundane reports and papers, still exciting because they gave her some insight into her mother as a scientific intellect and as a poet of the Earth. However, there was one special journal bound in supple leather, with heavy linen pages covered with her mother's beautiful handwriting. As enjoyable as the geomancy notes and diagrams were, Adele was even more delighted by her mother's elegant yet fanciful doodles that covered the margins of most pages. The mysterious symbols and peculiar sketches were tantalizing and gave her mother's character even more subterranean angles to explore. Adele rubbed her tired eyes and began to read.