“The news from the front is encouraging,” Sir Godfrey said as he chose a sugared date. “We've occupied St. Etienne and Grenoble. In winter, at that. At this rate, we'll be in Paris by May, eh?”
Mamoru set down his porcelain cup. For the first time it rattled. “The truth from the front is not so encouraging as the news.”
“Really? I attended the prime minister's speech before Commons yesterday and he seemed quite optimistic.”
“Prime Minister Kemal is the empress's man. It's his job to appear optimistic.”
The old gentleman worked the date's pit. “Are we losing the war, then?”
“No, no,” Mamoru said. “We did take those two cities, but at great loss. Nearly ten thousand dead or wounded at St. Etienne, and almost ten more outside Grenoble. And that's to say nothing of the Hungarian expedition. That campaign is a meat grinder, and I fear the Equatorians are the filling.”
Sanah said, “Listen to you, Mamoru. Politics. Economics. Military strategy. Perhaps you should be prime minister.”
He laughed without humor. “I would rather die. I am a teacher, a priest, and once, a samurai. Never an elected official. But your point is well taken, Sanah. I called you all here to discuss the empress and our plans. It has been months since I spoke to all of you at once.” Mamoru poured another cup of stiff coffee. “What you may not know about the war is the reason for our glorious triumph at Grenoble. It was the empress who scattered the vampires there, allowing our army to walk in unopposed.”
Nzingu stared at Mamoru, along with her colleagues. Then she laughed with a startlingly loud cackle that surprised the group nearly as much as Mamoru's announcement. “However will the steam lords of Alexandria deal with a witch queen?”
“It isn't quite so simple.”
“I know that, Mamoru. We Zulu drove our vampires from the uKhahlamba with shamans leading our armies with botanicals and crystals. But then we turned on our magicians and priests. Will Equatoria have to destroy the great sorceress to preserve their comfortable worldview?”
Mamoru pursed his lips with tired bemusement. He checked his pocket watch. Sir Godfrey and Sanah kept quiet.
Nzingu flopped into an overstuffed chintz chair. “So have we reached the moment? Does the empress charge to the front and burn a swathe through the enemy? Why do we even need an army in Europe?”
“The strain on the empress in using her skill on that level is enormous. Grenoble was harmful to her. And the effect on the vampires was temporary. They could return. That's also part of the problem. If she starts rushing around Europe using her abilities like some altruistic bomb, she will wear herself out. She could well kill herself before I can make use of her. She still has much to do to prepare for the Event, and there is an additional complication.”
Mamoru peered out through the bead curtain separating their plush back room from the hazy hashish parlor beyond. Assured of their relative privacy, he returned to the cabal and stood near them. In a low voice, he said, “One thing which you all must know before we go further. It is something about the Greyfriar.”
Sanah sat up with alarm. “Is he dead? That will crush poor Adele.”
“No. He is quite alive last I heard.” Mamoru paused, considering his next words. “The man you know as Greyfriar is not a man. He is a vampire. His true name is Gareth. He is a prince of the British clan, the eldest son of King Dmitri.”
Nzingu's face flushed with shock and surprise. She exchanged looks with Sir Godfrey and Sanah. They both held the same disbelief that was no doubt reflected in her eyes. What Mamoru said couldn't be true, but for him to lie so flagrantly made no sense.
“He latched onto the empress while she was a prisoner in the north, and she has fallen under his sway. I have been unable to act against him because I feared losing my contact with her.”
Sir Godfrey murmured, “I had a strange feeling when I met him at the hospital after the empress was stabbed. But I dismissed it as incredible, a product of my own exhaustion at the time. How did you find out?”
Mamoru said, “I've known since I encountered him with the empress in Katanga last summer.”
Nzingu asked with the incredulity cracking her voice, “Since last summer? And we're only now finding this out?”
The priest glared at her. “This is not the time for your typical difficulty, Nzingu. We have other issues to attend.”
Sir Godfrey smiled weakly at his companions. “It's just that we find it hard to credit, Mamoru. How can a vampire pretend to be a human?”
“It's chilling to watch him mimic a human. It's sickening to see Adele fawn on him. He is a parasite even though Adele drapes human emotions on him the way people do with their pets. He is not a man. He is a creature. He must be dealt with.”