Behind the Throne Read online

  Emmory was still talking with Zin and I reached up to touch his hand. “Emmory, this little girl’s lost her parents.” As I stood back up, her words slapped me in the face.

  Until it’s over.

  “Bomb!” Emmory and Jet shouted it at the same time the warning bells in my own smati went off.

  I realized in horror that my smati’s Bomb in Proximity warning was flashing directly over Ramani.

  Everything slowed and a strange roar filled my ears. Emmory grabbed me, spinning me around, dragging me away from Ramani. I heard the girl’s frantic screams, saw Zin grab for Alba as the other BodyGuards converged on us.

  It was Jet who saved me. Jet who lunged forward and snagged Ramani around the waist, lifting her into the air. He barreled through the crowd, away from me. I could see Ramani’s mouth opening in a screaming protest as she reached for me over his shoulder.

  My self-preservation instincts were apparently on vacation, because I fought against Emmory’s iron grip. I was no match for him and Cas, who was surprisingly strong for his wiry build.

  “Cas! Shield!” Emmory ordered as they muscled me the other direction toward the dubious safety of the nearest statue.

  We didn’t make it. The explosion scarred the winter sky with light as the concussion wave picked us all up and threw us like rag dolls.

  25

  I crashed into the ground and then was crushed by what felt like falling rock. Something—probably a rib or two—cracked with a spike of pain. The lack of sound was eerie, until the ringing filled my head—loud and painful. The rock rolled off me and I realized it was Emmory. I gasped, flopping around like a fish out of water on the pavement as I tried to get my body to cooperate and failed.

  “Hail!” His panicked shout was muffled, coming through the haze of pain and chaos surrounding me. He slid his hands over me, concern plastered across his face as he searched for injuries. “Dark Mother of all, talk to me. How much of this blood is yours?”

  I could taste the copper on my tongue and swiped a hand under my nose. It came away red.

  I opened and closed my mouth, my lungs refusing to drag air inward, and the panic must have shown in my eyes because Emmory swore—something he’d yet to do in front of me.

  I’d have to remember that. Though getting myself nearly blown up every time I wanted to make him swear and call me by name didn’t seem like that great of an idea.

  “Up, Majesty, I need you to get up.” Emmory glanced over his shoulder, then returned his dark gaze to me. “We have to move.” He hauled me to my feet, and practically plastered himself to my back, one hand on my neck to keep my head low. Cas was on my other side, his gun out and his young face stone hard.

  “This is Ekam Tresk. Confirmed Charlie Level emergency at Garuda Square. Suicide bomber. At least four BodyGuards dead. I need a check-in from all BodyGuards now.”

  “I’m okay,” I finally managed to gasp as I got some air into my lungs. “I’m not hurt.”

  Which was essentially true. I hurt and I probably had a cracked rib. But beyond that and a few cuts and some bruises that were going to make me not want to move tomorrow, I was fine. Jet was—

  “Jet.” I struggled to turn in Emmory’s grip. “Oh Gods, Emmory. He—”

  “I saw,” he said grimly. “Don’t look, Majesty. You don’t need to see.”

  “That poor little girl. Where’s Alba? Where’s Zin?” I was babbling as we stumbled along, the panic rising in my throat and threatening to choke me. The screams of the wounded started to filter past my clogged ears.

  “Right here, Majesty.” Like a ghost, Zin melted out of the smoke, supporting my chamberlain.

  “Let me see,” I said, reaching out for the hand pressed to her temple.

  “I’m all right, Your Majesty. Just a cut. We can deal with it once you’re safe.” She mustered up a smile. “How bad are you hurt?”

  “My nose already stopped bleeding. Everything else is incidental.”

  Zin clamped a hand down on Emmory’s shoulder, and Emmory reached up, their fingers brushing.

  I thought I’d lost you.

  You didn’t.

  It was all said without any words at all. I turned my head, feeling like I’d intruded on a sacred moment.

  “We need to get moving. I want to get to the aircar.” Emmory spotted Rama crumpled against a lamppost. He grabbed the dark-haired young man and hauled him up. “Focus for me, Rama.”

  “I’m all right, sir. I just clipped my head. Where is everyone else?”

  “Jet and all of Team Four are dead.” Emmory’s response was clinically cold, and I found myself struggling to remember the names of the men who’d just given their lives for me. I’d just spoken to them a few hours ago.

  “I’m getting responses—Pezan was injured in the blast, Adail is with him. Willimet hasn’t checked in yet. Tanish and Jul were on the perimeter and are circling around to meet us at the aircar.” Emmory was already on the move, hustling me down the street as he filled the others in. “I’ve notified the other teams of the situation.”

  “There’s Adail—” Rama’s announcement broke off and my concussion-stomped brain was so foggy it took me a full second to comprehend why. He crumpled in a heap, the blood spreading out in a crimson pool on the gray sidewalk.

  Adail opened fire again.

  “Get down!” Zin pushed me toward the building. We slammed into the doorway, falling through the door when the lock gave. My already bruised body protested the additional abuse, and the air left my lungs for the second time in less than an hour.

  He slid off me with a muttered curse. “You okay?”

  “No,” I wheezed, lying there a minute struggling for breath. “Never mind bombs and shooters, you two are going to crush me to death.”

  “Sorry.”

  The breathy pain in that single word slapped at me. I rolled over and scrambled onto my knees, pressing my hands to the wound in Zin’s side. “No. I’ve lost too many today, I’m not losing you, too. Do you hear me, Starzin? I’m not losing you!”

  “Watch the door,” Emmory snapped the order to the others, dropping to a knee at Zin’s side.

  “Where’s Adail?” I snarled. The older green-eyed Guard had always been kind to me; his sudden betrayal sent my brain spinning.

  “Dead.” Grabbing a sari off a toppled mannequin, Emmory tore a strip off. “Sit up, Zin. I’ve got ITS incoming to the landing site, but we’ve got bigger problems.”

  “Other than me being shot?” Zin’s laugh was cut short by coughing and he spat blood onto the floor. “Shit, that must have nicked my lung. I’m getting some warnings here, Emmory.”

  “I know, just hold on. ITS says we’ve got troop movements. There’re reports of firefights in the palace. I think our traitors are making their move.” He swore again, sheer anger racing over his face. “I didn’t think they’d move this fast. I didn’t think they’d dare to do this on Pratimas.”

  “None of us did,” I said. “Let it go and focus, Emmy.” I tore strips from the sari as fast as Emmory could pack them against Zin’s wound and bandage him up. Once that was done, I wiggled out of my coat and unwound my own sari with Alba’s help, piling the jewelry Stasia had draped on me that morning on top of the green fabric.

  “I’ll keep it for you, Majesty. I’m going to stay here and try to help with the wounded. No one will bother going after me.”

  “Alba—”

  “It’s better this way. I don’t want your BodyGuards to have to worry about me. Their focus should be on you.”

  I embraced her. “Stay safe, please.”

  “You, too, Your Majesty. We need you.” She smiled. “I know you don’t think it sometimes, but we need you. You will carry us through this dark.”

  Pulling my SColt from the holster at the small of my back, I shrugged into a long jacket taken from another downed mannequin and crouched at Zin’s side. Emmory was funneling updates to my smati as fast as he got them and the news drove frozen claws into my chest.r />
  I wasn’t badly hurt because Team Four had put themselves between me and the blast and brought up their kinetic shields to cover us. They’d paid for it with their lives and the blast had still been bad enough to knock us around like dolls.

  Things were too scattered and confused for a clear picture, but what I was piecing together was that at the same time as the explosion there’d been an assault on the palace from a force of unknown strength and origin.

  “I’ve got troops assaulting the palace gates, Saxon uniforms.”

  “Security for all the matriarchs reports their residences on lockdown.”

  “I need some backup over here!”

  The ground shook beneath us.

  “Holy Mother, ITS headquarters just disintegrated!”

  I turned off the audio when the incoming ping rang in my ear. “Admiral.”

  “Thank Vishnu, you’re all right. You dropped off the grid and I thought—” Admiral Hassan didn’t even try to hide her relief. “Majesty, where are you?”

  “Can’t tell you. A shop in Garuda Square.” I looked around, catching Emmory’s eye and mouthing the admiral’s name. He nodded once and held up four fingers then jerked his head toward the door before he went back to binding Zin’s wound. “Someone tried to blow me up. And it sounds like ITS HQ just went up in flames.”

  Hassan’s little gasp was as clear as the gunfire that suddenly echoed outside. “Majesty, we don’t have much intel, but I’ll send you what we’ve gathered so far. All Navy ships are holding at present.”

  “Are there any Saxon ships incoming?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “Well, that’s something at least. Pass the word, Admiral, we’ve got a coup in progress. Unsure if foreign or domestic. If anyone approaches the planet and won’t stand down in my name, you blow them into dust, is that understood?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  A second broadcast tone sounded in my ear and it took me a moment to realize this one was coming over the planet-wide system, not just the palace smati link.

  “Citizens of Indrana.” Ganda somehow looked both regal and girlish, facing the camera with only a hint of tears still staining her cheeks. “It is with great sadness that I must announce to you not only the death of our beloved empress, but of her heir.

  “One of them was stolen from us by fate, the other—my dear cousin—was murdered this very afternoon in an explosion set by Saxon spies. This act of war will not go unanswered!”

  “Oh, bugger me,” I swore, getting to my feet. “Emmory, why does everyone think I’m dead?”

  “I cut your smati off from the network, Majesty,” he replied. “It seemed safer.”

  The shoes I was wearing were crap for running and I cursed myself for letting Stasia talk me out of my boots. “Admiral, are you still there?” I didn’t even bother listening to the rest of Ganda’s speech.

  “Yes, Majesty.”

  “Coordinate with Caspel and General Saito, tell them that I’m still kicking but to keep it quiet for right now. I don’t think this is actually the Saxons but I could be wrong. If I’m not, then Ganda is trying to take my throne and start a war all at the same time. Funnel the information back to me. Find Toropov, too, make sure he’s safe. We’re going to be on the run for the aircar. I won’t be able to talk until we’re back in the palace, but I’ll see what you send me.

  “And Admiral, if General Vandi is still alive, find out if she’s loyal to me. I don’t care if it’s a breach of protocol—you ask her directly. I need to know if I can count on more than just one gods-damned ITS squad.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Gods be with you.”

  “With you also,” I replied and cut the connection. “Alba, I want you to stay here until we’re long gone. No one will make the connection if they don’t see you with us.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Her smile was forced and I hugged her again.

  “I’ll see you soon.”

  “Tanish reported Willimet met up with him and Jul,” Emmory said to me as he helped Zin to his feet. “Her com got taken out by Adail. He apparently finished off Pezan and tried to kill her, too. I’m having them backtrack and meet us here.” He tossed me the location over our link.

  I slid under Zin’s arm. “This one didn’t try to do something stupidly noble like staying and bleeding to death, did he?”

  Humor fought free of the concern on Emmory’s face. “Only momentarily, Majesty. I’m down to protecting you in the middle of a coup with only two healthy BodyGuards until we can get to the others. Sergeant Terass is going to meet up with us at the aircar.

  “I know it won’t do any good to ask you to keep your head down,” he said. “So please just try to stay alive for me?”

  I winked at him and wiggled my gun at the door. “Let’s get moving, Ekam, before Ganda plants her ass on my throne.” There were a thousand things jockeying for prominence in my head, but I let my training take over as we hit the open air and my focus sharpened on the world around us.

  We came around the corner and Emmory jerked his gun up when a uniformed police officer sprinted toward us. “Ekam Tresk, Officer. I will drop you if you don’t back off.”

  The woman skidded to a halt. “Sir, yes sir.” She blinked at me. “Is that the princess? But they just said she was—”

  “Not dead,” I said with a grim smile. “And not a princess anymore. What’s your name?”

  “Officer Hajuman, Your Majesty. Iza Hajuman.” The young woman kept her hands away from her weapons as she dropped to a knee and bowed her head. “I am your loyal subject. My life for you, Shining Star of Indrana.”

  I arched an eyebrow at her earnest devotion. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” I looked past Zin to Emmory. “What do you say, Emmy? Right now we can use all the guns we find.”

  My BodyGuard nodded. “Iza, get up and take point. You kill anyone who won’t drop their weapons at first challenge. Understood?”

  “Perfectly, sir.”

  We kept moving. I didn’t have a clue where Emmory was headed, but I trusted him. Cas was on my other side, blue eyes scanning the deserted landscape around us. “Sir, I’ve got ITS on the landing pad. They say everything is secure. Captain Gill wants to know if she should send troops out to meet us?” Blood coated his neck and my throat constricted when he turned away from me to scan the scene. His back was cut up from flying debris. Emmory’s order about the shield had come too late to keep him from being injured.

  Emmory shook his head. “We’re almost there. Tell her to hold. Do we have a sitrep on the palace?”

  “Nothing yet, sir. It’s chaos over there.”

  Tanish melted out of a side street so fast it even startled Emmory.

  “Shiva, man. I almost shot you,” he muttered, lowering his gun.

  “Sorry, sir. Jul and Willi scouted out an approach to the landing pad. Everything looks good. We didn’t contact ITS, though. I wasn’t sure what the situation was.”

  “Good job.” Emmory patted the younger Guard. “The ITS is Captain Gill’s squad; we’re safe.” He turned around and looked at Zin, who gave a sharp nod.

  We sprinted down the sidewalk, across the landing pad to meet the ITS shuttle. Troops had fanned out, weapons at the ready, and they hustled me into the relative safety of the shuttle’s interior.

  The shuttle lurched, taking off before I made it to a seat. Zin stumbled, throwing me into Emmory. I felt my Ekam wince as he tried to steady us. “You’re hurt, too,” I whispered, swallowing past the lump in my throat when the realization hit me.

  “I’ll be fine.”

  His black coat was charred on one side and he was as spattered with gore as I was. He was bleeding from several cuts and holding his left arm tight to his side—the side he’d used to shield me.

  “No, you won’t. Where’s Sergeant Terass?” I demanded.

  “I’m right behind you, Majesty.” Fasé’s lilting voice drifted into the air over my left shoulder. “If you’ll sit down, I’ll take a look at you.�
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  “I’m fine.” I lowered Zin into a seat. “Look at Zin, then Emmory, and then Cas.” All my BodyGuards were injured, but those three were the worst of the lot.

  “Look at her first,” Emmory replied.

  I snarled a curse at him and grabbed him by his uninjured arm. “Sit. Down.”

  Emmory stared at me for a long heartbeat, but finally sat. Fasé, however, wasn’t quite so cooperative.

  “Majesty, I really should insist, your ribs—”

  “It’s just cuts and bruises. I’m fine,” I lied, knowing full well that Emmory knew the truth. “I swear to the Dark Mother the next person that argues with me is going to get my fist in their face, is that understood? Heal them. That’s an order, Sergeant.”

  Fasé swallowed, glancing at Emmory. Thankfully, he gave her a little nod and she put her hands over Zin’s. Silence descended and I realized I was holding my breath. I exhaled when Zin did, some of the tight lines of telling pain easing out of his face.

  “May you feel better,” Fasé whispered, touching her forehead to Zin’s. The motion left a smudge of soot and blood on her pale skin. “Your Majesty?”

  “Do the others first.”

  “Majesty.” This time it was Zin, not Emmory. “Please sit down. At least let her check you. We need to be sure you aren’t seriously injured.”

  I already knew I wasn’t and Emmory did, too, but he wasn’t speaking up. Muttering a vicious curse under my breath, I sat and held a hand out to Fasé. “All right. Get on with it.”

  Her fingers were cool as she wrapped them around my wrist. “I meant what I said about not healing me. You need to save your strength for them.”

  I closed my eyes, resting my head against the back of the seat. I felt vulnerable just lying here. I wanted to be up doing something. It was a bad idea to close my eyes. The minute my lashes fell, I saw Ramani’s face, Jet’s back, and then the explosion. “Oh, bugger me.” I shoved away from Fasé, stumbling for the facilities and barely making it before emptying the contents of my stomach into the toilet.