Chapter 63

I replace the missing stones in my necklace the second Edam leaves my room to pack. The use of my last resort ballistae makes me think. My list of powerful allies is short: Alora and Inara. Of course, Edam, the guards who followed me, Noah, and Lark are also on my side, and power and prestige aren’t everything. Unfortunately, I can’t really trust any of them either.

I need to figure out who betrayed me to Judica, because next time I may not survive it.

I almost call Lark up to my room, but I hesitate. She’s the one person other than my mom who I’d have trusted to support me blindly without a scintilla of doubt on any point. Until my mom executed hers, and I did nothing to stop it. Until my mom ordered her execution and only allowed her to survive in secret. I don’t think Lark blames me, but I’m not entirely positive.

Which leaves me puzzling out the politics and loyalties of my wannabe allies alone.

Even if I’m wrong about Edam and he is still in contact with his sister, I don’t think I’m in imminent danger from her. I doubt she sees me as a threat. In fact, maybe the only universal thing in my favor right now is that, to the rest of the world, I’m the weaker ruler. That means the other empresses would likely pick me over Judica to ascend the throne, because in their minds I’ll be easier to control, intimidate and ultimately defeat.

Of course, there’s always a chance that my affection for and attraction to Edam has clouded my judgment.

I shake my head and move on to Inara. She’s been Mom’s right hand as long as I can recall. She has also been like a second mother to me. And when Mom died, I saw the pain it caused her. She wanted to leave with me, but she stayed back to defend me from afar, at no small risk to herself. I also can’t think of a single reason Inara would want to harm me. She knows I’d keep her in the same position, managing many of the Alamecha affairs. I doubt Judica would do the same. And I’d rely more on her advice than my twin, too. Plus, I think Inara likes me more. And it’s not as if eliminating Judica or me would land her the throne. Our older sister Melina would snatch that crown so fast our heads would spin, from what I’ve heard.

Which brings me to Alora. I can’t think of any reason she might want me dead. Judica, Melina, and Inara would all have to die before Alora would be in line for the throne. And she’s never seemed to have any interest in it. Even so, I should talk to her before I leave. She has the least cause of all to harm me, and I trust her opinion the most. I throw the rest of my belongings in a bag and race downstairs.

I find her in the library, surrounded by books and busy reading one. I clear my throat and she looks up.

I dive right into the important part. “Marselle brought urgent intel. Judica’s planning to bomb China before my return.”

“That’s terrible.” Alora snaps the book closed. “She’s eager to make a name for herself.”

“It’s a little more complicated than that. As you know, we control both Cuba and the United States. Evians all know that, but humans don’t, which of course includes China. Mom always made Judica propose plans for what she’d do to establish herself—”

“When Mother died.” Alora leans back in her chair and looks at the ceiling. “I had to do the same.”

“In Judica’s most recent plan, we send a bomb from Alaska, disguised as a bomb from Russia. China might reject the United States’ offer of aid, but it would accept aid from Cuba. Either way, Russia looks like the bad guy, and the bombing allows her a way to slide in seamlessly and begin to develop influence in sections of China. Of course, Lainina is going to be pissed, since it implicates her holdings.”

Alora stands and pulls her phone from her pocket. “I take it this moves up our timeframe. I’ll call Phil and let him know we need the jet.”

I shake my head. “I need you here. If this goes badly, you won’t want to be anywhere near Judica. Trust me.”

“At least I don’t have to worry about you,” she says. “I will anyway, but not nearly as much.”

She still thinks Edam’s fighting for me. “Actually, I decided to fight her myself.”

Alora gulps. “Why?”

“Mom never made me run drills for what I’d do to prove myself, but even if she had, I’d never have come up with something that murdered millions of people.”

“Humans,” Alora says. “There aren’t any evians in China, at least not any sanctioned ones.”

“They’re still people,” I say, disappointed that even Alora cares less about humans.

“Fair enough.”

“Since I can’t do something that splashy, I’ll need to do something else to set the tone of my reign.” I shove down my uncertainty and doubt. I can do this. I have to do this. “I’m going to take down the biggest dog in the place, who also happens to have murdered our mother. Two birds with one, err, sword, as the case may be.”

Alora sinks into her wingback desk chair with a whomp.

I perch on the edge of the wooden chair facing her desk. “You lied before. You don’t think I can do it.”

Alora looks down at her hands. “I should tell you something about melodics. It’s effective, and if you’ve started to hear melodic lines. . . it might even be enough, but. . . You know I won the centennial games a hundred and twenty years ago. What you don’t know is how I won.”

Alora stands up and removes a book from the second highest shelf in the room. She plonks it down on the table, flips it open to a page, and points at a large glossy black and white photo. “Believe it or not, this was a pretty impressive bit of technology at the time.”

I glance down at the photograph of the Alamecha Centennial Games team. Alora’s wearing a smart black dress with divided skirts and her hair is pulled back into a severe bun.

She flips the page and shows me an image of the Lenora team. She points at a kid near the front. “This was who I fought in my first match.”

“She looks ten years old!”

She laughs. “Not quite, but she should’ve been an easy win. I was nervous and she was so young that we’d never even met socially. She was a nobody, barely even selected to enter. She was a last minute substitution for another candidate who became unsuitable. Everyone knew that round was a given for me, Chancery. She was twenty-third generation.” Alora closes her eyes, reliving the match in her mind. She exhales and opens her eyes. “And she almost beat me.”

Like my match with Lark, I imagine.

“No one even considered I might win the tournament after that near miss. Even worse, after bumbling my way through my first match, I had very bad luck. My next fight was against one of the top contenders, a man I had actually dated. I knew him very well. He was a much better fighter than me and everyone knew it, including Vaughn.”

“Wait, you fought someone from Alamecha?” I ask.

Alora clucks. “You haven’t been to the Games yet, but they don’t care what family you’re from. You’re matched up randomly until the finals.”

“Wow, so if I went, I could fight Judica, Edam, and Lark.”

Alora lifts her eyebrows. “Lark isn’t eligible.”

Duh. “Well, Judica could have to fight Edam, then. Just like you fought your ex.”

“Precisely, and the point is that I should have lost, Chancy. He should have destroyed me.”

“Did he let you win?”

She shakes her head. “We ended badly, and he was angry. I am absolutely positive he did not let me win. No, I won because I knew him extremely well, maybe better than he knew himself. I knew everything about him: his pain, his pride, his anger, his joy, his every motivation. I heard his melodic line with total clarity. I anticipated every single move and wasn’t off by a note.”

“So I need to know Judica?” I groan. “She’s the devil. We’re twins, we have identical DNA but for seventeen years, I’ve tried to guess how she’ll react, and I’m never right. If I think up, she goes down. I’m not even kidding, Alora, the other day she stabbed me with a fork at breakfast for no reason.”

“That may have been the case a month ago,” she says. “But now you have more in common, and I think you’re looking at the past with new eyes. I hope it has given you more insight.”

I shake my head. I just don’t know.

“Chancery, after I defeated Vaughn, I went on to fight more amazing, talented fighters. I researched each of them, compiling everything I knew. I watched them fight whenever I could. I managed to beat them, one after another, but my last fight was against the man who had won every single Centennial games for seven hundred years. My uncle.”