The Emperor's Wolves (Wolves of Elantra #1) - Michelle Sagara Page 0,1
inconsequential lives.
“I do not understand the Empire you are attempting to build. I have never understood it, and the centuries I have spent observing it have not surrendered answers.” The admission of ignorance was costly.
For a man who professed not to want to rule by power, his form of communication was questionable. He commanded, and those who had survived the wars and sworn personal loyalty to the Emperor—most Barrani, given the sparsity of Dragons by that time—obeyed.
Elluvian had been summoned. The summons was, in theory, an invitation, but Elluvian was not naive. The oath of service had weight and meaning to both the Emperor who had demanded it and the man who had offered that vow.
Mortals were not a threat to either the Barrani or the Dragons, but many of the Imperial systems of governance—the Emperor’s word—were most concerned with those very mortals. The Emperor had created the Halls of Law, with Swords and Hawks to police the mortals who vastly outnumbered those who rose above time and age. He had also created the Wolves.
“No,” the Emperor replied, his eyes no more orange than they had been when Elluvian had approached the throne at his command.
“Why did you want to create a division of men and women as assassins?”
“As executioners, Elluvian.” A warning, there. “I am Emperor. My word is law. My judgment is therefore also law. They do not operate in secret; they are part of the Halls of Law.”
“I do not understand your law, as you call it.”
“No,” the Emperor replied again, gracing Elluvian with a rare smile.
“You tasked me—notably not mortal—to find those suitable to serve as your Wolves. I have done this for decades. For longer.”
“Yes.”
“I have long believed that you have no sense of humor whatsoever.”
“I do not find one useful or pragmatic.”
“But clearly, you must—if a very black one. Why did you devolve this duty to me? Why do you continue to do so? I have clearly failed and failed again.” There seemed to be no end to the probable failures; they stretched out into eternity in a grim, bleak act of humiliation.
“You are one of the few Barrani I have met in my long existence that I am willing—barely, and cautiously—to trust.”
“Then let me be your Wolf; you need no other.”
“Perhaps the word ‘cautious’ does not mean the same thing between our peoples. Am I using the Barrani incorrectly?”
Elluvian’s snort did not contain smoke, as the Emperor’s often did. “We do not, and have never, seen eye to eye in any discussion that involves your Halls of Law or the mortals it is meant to both employ and protect. I feel that you are merely changing the paradigm of power, of who has power, among the mortals. I cannot see this change affecting the rest of us at all.
“Should you merely send me—or someone like me—”
“There is no one like you among your kin.”
Elluvian did not wince. “If you send me, I will kill at your order. I understand that you consider these mortals part of your hoard; I will not harm your hoard, except as you command. But I would be vastly more efficient than your fledgling mortal Wolves. When you—or one of your kin—sneezes, mortals die. That will not happen to me. If you wish my death, the outcome is not in question—but it would take real effort on your part.”
“All of this is true.”
“You have always been both humorless and pragmatic.”
That dredged a brief grimace from the Emperor. “Not one of my kin would consider my ambitions here to be pragmatic.”
“A fair assessment. I withdraw my comment. But surely within this plan of yours, there is room for some pragmatism?”
The Emperor had bowed his head—not to Elluvian, but rather, to thought. It was a thought that Elluvian did not fully understand, although he had once been told that he was capable of it, with time and effort. “This will be their world, this Empire of mine.”
Elluvian had his doubts.
“They will labor and build the lives that they will live; there is no other way.”
“Then let them choose.”
“I have not forced mortals to become a Wolf; no more have I forced them to become Swords or Hawks. They have a choice, and the choice will not be coerced. If they decline, they are free to walk out of the Halls of Law.
“But choosing who is offered the duties of a Wolf, as you have learned, is...complex. Wolves will be asked to kill, yes. To kill at my command, yes—but to kill.