Guards, some capable of flight themselves while others used flying Kameira or some of those unreliable flying devices that the Magister’s Guild tested every few years.
Though Calder had been named by the Imperialist Guilds as the Steward weeks before, they had never held a public ceremony. Now that the Independents were weakened and largely quiet, the loyal Guild Heads had declared now to be the perfect time to present Calder to the public.
He only wished he could see it himself.
He stood at the highest window of an office building halfway across the city, looking out the window with a spyglass, catching irregular glimpses of his own coronation. He could only see the Emperor’s stage when his body double stood at a certain place, so he watched his own behavior in brief snatches.
“I could have at least attended,” he said aloud.
“Now they can’t blow you up,” Bliss responded. The Head of the Blackwatch lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling with the same intensity he used to watch the coronation.
Her hair lay beneath her in a pale puddle, her black coat still neatly buttoned up. “And Ach’magut’s Inquisitors can’t dissect you,” Bliss continued. “I’m sure there are enough remaining to swarm over the walls and pull you to pieces. The alchemists can’t get you with their gas. Did you know they have a solution that will turn you inside out? It’s expensive and impossible to make in large batches, but I’m sure a single thrown canister is possible for the Head of the Alchemist’s Guild to produce. And of course there are the Consultant assassins—”
“I understand it, Bliss, but I don’t have to like it.”
“If you would like to interrupt me, please submit the proper paperwork to my assistant and I will have her consider your request. I was saying that if you were in that crowd, you would have to worry about Consultant assassins slitting your throat. But you’re with me, so you don’t.”
She was looking at him now with her pale silvery eyes, and he looked away from the spyglass to consider her.
Together, they waited in a moment of silence before he decided to ask, “Are you finished?”
She considered. “For the moment, I am done.”
“Good.” He returned to looking out the window, where his body double received what they were calling the Steward’s crown: a silver circlet to contrast with the gold circlet that the original Emperor had always worn.
The decoy held a replica, while Calder held the real one in a case in his coat. Its Intent was only a passing breeze next to the hurricane within the real crown, but it would have been in bad taste had he worn the same crown as the previous Emperor.
Also, the sheer weight of Intent inside the golden crown would have been too distracting if he had to wear it all the time. It was better to wear a normal ornament.
“He smiles too much,” Calder muttered.
“You smile often. Especially when you are trying to reassure others, which does not normally make them reassured. In fact, I think they might feel better if you did not smile.” She sat up, cupping her chin in one hand. “One might say that your smile does not fulfill the purpose of a normal smile. Is that common?”
Bliss pulled a black notebook from her coat and started making notes. He had seen her take notes on Elder anatomy in the same book.
Over the years, he had grown to like Bliss, but that didn’t mean he was comfortable being in a room alone with her for an extended period of time. At any point, she might decide that he would benefit from some bizarre and disturbing hallucinations.
He lowered the spyglass, collapsing it and slipping it into his coat. “When are the others due to arrive?”
Bliss flapped her hands at him. “Wait, wait, no! Don’t ask that yet!”
He glanced around the room to see if he’d missed something.
“Just a few more seconds…”
He stood in silence.
“Now, go!”
“When are the others due to—”
The door opened and General Teach stuck her head in. Her helmet hung from her belt, revealing her pale hair cut close to her scalp. She stared at him as though she intended to execute him, but that was how she looked at everyone.
“Guild Heads Bennett and Kern have arrived. Is everything secure?”
Her blue eyes moved to Bliss as the Blackwatch Head pushed down something trying to escape from inside her coat. “We are safe, Jarelys, thank you.”
Calder got the distinct impression that Teach was