precedent for others to intervene in their own internal issues.”
Charlie stood and shouted, “Damn it!” He slammed his fist down on the table. “Then why don’t I just go strangle Twerp’s scrawny little neck.”
“Because you’re no longer of House de Maris. You are House de Lunis, and that would be outside intervention, which would force the other ducal houses to support Theode.”
“Fuck that bitch,” Charlie shouted and stormed across the room. He wanted to hit something, but then he had a sudden thought that helped a little. “But if you had the wherewithal to take the ducal seat back . . .”
Arthur finished the thought for him. “The other houses wouldn’t intervene, not openly.”
Charlie grinned, and Arthur frowned, clearly not sure what to make of Charlie’s attitude.
“Syndonese pirates,” Theode screeched. “What do you mean, Syndonese pirates?”
The head of the mercenary team to which he’d entrusted Arthur shrugged. He was a large, ugly man, all hard edges both physically and emotionally. “He called himself Raul the Damned, said he was part of the Mexak League. Definitely Syndonese.”
“And you let him take Arthur?”
“We had no choice, ten of us against an entire crew. Some of them wore powered armor and carried assault weapons. And their ship was a Syndonese heavy cruiser.”
Theode trembled with rage. With a third of the de Maris old guard leaving his service, and the rest, at best, only reluctantly dutiful, he was becoming more and more dependent on these mercenaries to keep his officers in line. He tried to keep his voice down and failed miserably. “How did a scruffy bunch of pirates get their hands on a functional heavy cruiser?”
The large mercenary shrugged indifferently. “Probably mutinied, killed their senior officers, and took control of the ship.”
The man’s lack of concern only fueled Theode’s rage. “This is a disaster, an absolute disaster.”
“My dear,” Gaida said calmly, stepping between Theode and the large man. Theode suspected she was fucking him. “Calm down, my dear. I think this might not be as much of a disaster as you fear.”
“How do you mean?”
She took him by the arm and led him several paces away from the mercenaries, then spoke softly for his ears only. “I doubt Arthur will be treated terribly well by a bunch of pirates. And of course, any ransom demands they make will be . . . excessive, as far as we’re concerned. So we’ll have to negotiate, and such negotiations will undoubtedly take years, during which Arthur will probably suffer unthinkable deprivations.”
Theode’s pulse slowed and his breathing calmed. “Thank you, mother,” he said, feeling much better. “Your insights are always so . . . thought provoking.” He leaned toward her and kissed her chastely on the cheek. “I do so value your advice.”
Shortly after they returned to Luna, Drakwin escorted two other Syndonese into Charlie’s office where Charlie and Roacka waited—Charlie seated behind his desk, Roacka seated in a large, comfortable chair to one side. The two Syndonese were vastly different men: one short, balding, slightly overweight; the other medium height, but thin, with a face sculpted of sharply angled features. Drakwin indicated the short, balding one. “This is Sobak. He don’t speak standard so good, so I may have to translate.”
Charlie stood, stepped around the desk, and extended a hand to Sobak, who eyed him warily. Charlie said in Syndonese, “We can speak in your language then, Mr. Sobak.”
“Just Sobak,” the man said, extending his hand, though still warily. “You speak Syndonese, eh?”
Charlie said, “I learned a bit before the last war, then had five years of lessons in a POW camp.”
Sobak grinned, though it had more the look of a grimace. Drakwin turned to the other Syndonese. “This is Thamaklus.”
Charlie extended his hand to Thamaklus, who glowered at him for a moment. The Syndonese reached over with his left hand and gripped his own right wrist, lifted his right arm to about waist high, then let it drop. It flopped down at his side and hung there limply. “It’s dead,” he said in Syndonese.
Charlie lowered his hand and asked, “How?”
Thamaklus grinned as unpleasantly as Sobak. “Goutain’s Security Force interrogated me for a couple of days, though I never did find out why, or what they wanted to know.”
“Has it been treated?”
“Who would look at it?”
Charlie turned to Roacka. “Have someone look at that arm. We have advanced medical facilities here; we may be able to do something about nerve damage like that.”
He asked Drakwin, “Are there other Syndonese here with untreated injuries?”
Drakwin looked carefully at