Jainan pulled his hands back, now not sure what to do with them. In the end he let them hang at his sides. “It’s good to see you.” The minute the words were out of his mouth, they sounded flat.
Taam’s eyes narrowed, half in jest. “Rehearse that, did you?”
Jainan shut his mouth. That didn’t deserve an answer. But Taam was in a good mood, and Jainan wanted to keep him that way for as long as possible. “Did your trip go well?” The aide was already carrying Taam’s suitcase. Jainan tried to ease Taam’s personal effects bag off his shoulder.
“Don’t grab,” Taam said, freeing it and pushing it at Jainan. “It was fine. Bloody Theans obstreperous as usual, but we got around them. The drilling starts next month.”
There was a short silence. Jainan settled the bag on his shoulder and turned toward the palace.
“Well?” Taam said from behind him. “That’s it? A month away and you can’t even pretend interest?”
When I ask questions you tell me not to pry, Jainan thought but bit his tongue. He turned back. “Sorry,” he said into the continued silence. Taam hadn’t moved, standing by the drive as the flyer left. “I’m sorry. Who did you meet with?”
Taam gave him another stare, this one of disbelief, and burst into sudden movement to walk past him. “Never mind. Nelen!”
“Sir!”
“What appointments do I have tomorrow?”
Taam’s aide kept up with them as he carefully consulted his wristband, falling into step with Taam, while Jainan’s footsteps echoed out of time on the marble. “Sir, tomorrow you have a debriefing with General Fenrik at ten, physical training at twelve, then you are free until the Thean embassy reception at six.”
“More damned Theans?” Taam said. “Why have I got more Theans in my calendar? I’ve only just got away from them.” It was a joke, because he was in a good mood, but that mood seemed to be fraying fast.
“This was put in your calendar by your partner, sir,” the aide said, with an expressionless glance at Jainan. He barely ever named him. Taam was unpredictably annoyed if Jainan’s Thean title was used in private, but also if his subordinates used Jainan’s first name.
Jainan retreated into a statement of fact. “The Ambassador requested our presence, Taam.” He could explain further, but it seemed like wasted effort when he knew it was unlikely to help.
“So he could whinge at me about the Imperial soldiers throwing their weight around in Thean space?” Taam’s voice went high and nasal on the last part. He sounded nothing like the Ambassador. “Heaven, give me some peace here. I’m not going. Neither are you.”
“But—” Jainan said.
“Give it a rest, Jainan.” Taam turned the corner to their rooms abruptly. “Anything else?”
“Count Jainan has offered to help with the Kingfisher account ing,” the aide said. As he said it there was an odd echo to his voice. The air smelled of copper.
Something in Jainan’s head crunched like two gear wheels colliding. He nearly didn’t hear Taam laugh and say, “So you finally got tired of lazing around, did you?”
“Did I?” Jainan said blankly. He struggled to remember exactly what he’d said to Taam’s aide about it, because his mind suddenly felt slippery. He couldn’t let the others see he was having trouble.
Taam waved an impatient hand. “Well, if you’re going to nag me about it, we might as well put you to work,” he said. “I’ll get you permissions to our accounting files.”
Jainan stopped in his tracks. He put a hand out to the wall of the corridor: it felt smooth and solid, but for some reason his nerve endings were lying to him. Everything smelled of copper. “This isn’t real.” He swallowed. “Taam’s dead.”
The aide’s face flickered, and behind it he saw the features of Aren’s Tau field technician, overlaid like two projections in the same space. There was a sudden stab of pain in his head and his surroundings dissolved.
* * *
“—the Iskat Minister for Thea decided he was coming planetside for Unification Day, which caused a huge hoopla as usual, and now he doesn’t like that we’re meeting with out-of-system representatives when he’s not in the room—oh, you know, the usual mess of my life.” Ressid’s grin over the screen was tired but wry. “But I’ve been blathering on. Tell me about your week. Your … month? Has it really been a month?”
“It was fine,” Jainan said. His head hurt, and he couldn’t remember why. It was starting to hurt all the time. “Sorry, Ressid, could you keep your voice down?” He had the bedroom door shut and the volume down, but Taam was due back soon.
“Headache?” Ressid said. She made an effort to modulate her voice from her forceful alpha-diplomat tones. “Or something else? You’re quieter every time I talk to you.”
“I haven’t been well lately,” Jainan said. “I had the flu.”
There was a pause that was at least a second too long. “I’m kind of worried about you.”
“Don’t be,” Jainan said. This had to be headed off fast. “I’m much better now.”
“It’s not that,” Ressid said. She leaned closer to the screen. Jainan frowned and glanced to the side, trying to locate the source of a sudden metallic taste in the air. “You seem to have a lot of money recently, and I don’t know where it’s coming from. I think you’re in over your head.”
Jainan’s head snapped up. Ressid’s face was hard and intent, her elbows propped on the table.
“No, you don’t,” Jainan said, and her image flickered and disappeared.
* * *
Hold on to yourself, Jainan thought helplessly as another set of lights and emotion rose up around him. It swallowed his conscious thoughts like the sea.
“Well? What did she say?” Taam demanded.
They were in their rooms. The sky outside the windows was dark. Jainan blinked and remembered what was going on: they had just come back from a commemorative dinner to mark an Iskat anniversary of some victory or other. Jainan had been seated next to High Duke Tallie, who chaired the Advisory Council—a dull name for a group with enormous power over how the Empire was run.
As the conversation came back to Jainan, the muscles in his back coiled up in embarrassment. “I mentioned it.”
“Subtly?” Taam said.
“Yes.”
“You’re no bloody good at subtle,” Taam said. “What did she say?”
Taam wanted a committee seat. Jainan had at first had no idea why he wanted Jainan to make the request for him, but he’d found out soon enough: Duke Tallie was a woman of ironclad opinions, and the ones she held about Taam were scathing. Jainan hated asking favors at the best of times. He could still feel the humiliation of it pricking at his cheekbones. She hadn’t even been scathing about Jainan himself, just given him a look as if she couldn’t believe he’d had the audacity to make the request. “I don’t think she liked the idea.”
“Of course she won’t like the idea!” Taam said. He threw off his jacket. “Stupid cow can’t see past the last time we argued—you were supposed to talk her around!”