her own good.
Nadashe decided that one of her first acts as emperox would be to solve the problem of Kiva. She was … troublesome. Nadashe was aware that there had been a riot at the Emperox Hanne II Secured Correctional Facility, where some inmates had been injured and a few others went missing and were presumed dead. She decided there should be another riot there in the near future, with more definite casualties.
The good news was, all of the waiting was behind her now. All the vapid interviews, all the enervating “discussion” of royal politics, all the dealing with the increasingly demanding Proster Wu on this or that point, all of the shit—all of it would be a thing of the past very soon now. All she had to do was bow, kneel, say a few words and it was done. The ceremony was to be short, very short, because Nadashe had agreed not to take on the various lesser titles that would go to Yuva first and then to their child once it was born and Yuva could be shuffled off; Yuva would have his own, smaller ceremony later in the week. Archbishop Cole likewise would become Cardinal Cole at a different ceremony, which Nadashe had no plan to attend.
Enter the cathedral, kneel for fifteen minutes, say a few words, rise an emperox. And then, finally, real work could be done.
Then it would truly be a beautiful day for Nadashe Nohamapetan.
* * *
They had almost gotten through the ceremony, almost gotten to the point where she would be, in fact, Emperox Nadashe I, when the ghost appeared.
Nadashe heard the mutterings and too-loud whispers before she saw the ghost. She had been kneeling, knees on the marble, eyes tracing one of the veins in the stone, when the whispering began, immediately followed by the sound of Archbishop Cole no longer uttering, in his entirely grating monotone, the words of the coronation rite. It was the hitch in Cole’s speech that finally made Nadashe look up, to see Cole looking directly behind her with an expression of confusion. She followed his gaze and finally saw the ghost of Grayland II.
Her first thought was, Someone’s getting fired. From her point of view, looking up at Grayland, Nadashe could see the projectors firing beams of light down to build the image of the former emperox directly behind where she was kneeling. Either someone had accidentally projected an image of Grayland, which was a fireable offense, or they were doing it intentionally as a prank or statement, which was not only fireable but possibly ejectable. Nadashe would not object to the prankster sucking vacuum for a few very painful seconds before death came for them.
Her second thought was, She’s looking right at me.
And indeed she was. The projection of Grayland II was staring, not only at Nadashe, but directly into her eyes. It was eerie as hell.
Then the projection spoke.
“Hello, Nadashe,” it said. “Nice day for a coronation.”
The muttering of the crowd became louder. When Grayland spoke, Nadashe heard it projected directly at her, but she knew it was also being projected to the entire cathedral.
The sound person is getting fired too, Nadashe thought.
“This isn’t amusing,” Nadashe finally said.
“I’m not here to be amusing,” the projection said. “I’m here for a coronation.”
“You’re not you,” Nadashe said.
“I’m not who?”
“You’re not Grayland. You’re someone playing a prank with a projected image and a voice simulator.”
“You’re sure of that.”
“Of course I’m sure. Grayland is dead.”
“Yes,” agreed the projection. “I am dead. You should know—you’re the one who killed me.”
The murmurs became shouts at that.
“The Countess Rafellya killed Grayland,” Nadashe said, turning to the ghost.
“She brought the bomb that killed me into the palace, yes,” the apparition said. “But you were the one who gave it to her. You told her it was a listening device. You didn’t tell her what it would really do. You didn’t tell her that she was going to die along with me.”
Over the speakers of the cathedral came two voices, one Nadashe and the other Countess Rafellya Maisen-Persaud, discussing the music box. The countess was expressing concern that the listening device would be discovered. Nadashe replied that it was designed to appear perfectly innocent and that as a backup she had paid an imperial security guard to alter one of the scanners by a software upgrade. Nadashe named the guard specifically so that the countess should go to him directly for service.
The audio cut off. Nadashe stared at Grayland, stunned. Grayland smiled.