Chapter 418: Damage Control

Chapter 418: Chapter 418: Damage Control

Marius had spent fifteen years preventing Gerard from destroying Lirya through impulse, vanity, or a profound misunderstanding of how consequences worked.

He was tired.

Not the ordinary exhaustion produced by long meetings or several nights of insufficient sleep. He had survived plenty of those. This was the particular fatigue of discovering that a problem he had spent years containing had once again developed an independent idea.

The diplomatic suite Nuria had assigned him was considerably nicer than Gerard deserved.

Marius stood beside the window while early morning light spread across Deira, looking over streets already busy despite the snow that had fallen overnight. Public transport moved through the avenues below with irritating efficiency, their ether lines visible between pale stone buildings. Workers were clearing the remaining snow from terraces and public paths, although most of the roads appeared to have managed the weather perfectly well without them.

Lirya could not afford a war with this country.

That thought had repeated itself so many times since waking that it had lost any capacity to frighten him.

It simply existed.

Lirya could not afford a war with Nuria.

Gerard had apparently decided to test whether Arik knew that too.

Marius closed his eyes and rubbed both hands over his face.

For perhaps the first time in his life, he was grateful Gerard had no children.

The thought was cruel.

It was also practical.

There was no prince learning statecraft from him. No daughter being raised to believe humiliation justified retaliation. No heir being taught that every negotiation existed to prove personal superiority rather than protect the country beneath the crown.

When Gerard eventually died, Lirya might actually get the opportunity to recover.

Assuming he did not destroy it first.

Marius crossed the sitting room and found his coat where he had left it over the back of a chair.

His communicator lay beside it.

Seven missed messages from Gerard.

He ignored all seven.

After leaving Cyran’s office two days earlier, Gerard had spent more than two hours shouting at him.

The subject had changed approximately every five minutes.

Nuria had insulted him.

Arik had humiliated him.

Cyran had betrayed him.

Marius had embarrassed the crown by remaining behind with enemies.

The diplomatic quarters were insufficiently luxurious.

Dinner had not included enough senior members of the imperial household.

Arik’s guards had looked at Gerard incorrectly.

By the end, Gerard had somehow concluded that the entire disaster was Marius’s fault because he had encouraged the original Cyran operation to be handled discreetly.

Marius had barely spoken.

Experience had taught him that Gerard did not require another person for an argument.

He only required an audience.

What Marius had not known during those two hours was that Gerard had already activated the marriage rumor.

If he had known, he might have strangled him.

He buttoned his shirt cuffs, then stopped when another memory surfaced.

Hadrien Vos.

The adviser before him.

Marius had been younger then, serving several levels below the royal council and foolish enough to believe experienced men could control Gerard if they simply presented enough evidence.

Hadrien had believed the same thing.

Gerard had engineered a diplomatic provocation against a neighboring kingdom over port tariffs, convinced himself they would retreat once he threatened military retaliation, and then disappeared to a private estate the moment the other side mobilized troops.

Hadrien had been left in the capital to contain the crisis.

He nearly succeeded.

That had not saved him.

When Gerard returned, the king publicly blamed Hadrien for exceeding his authority, accused him of provoking hostilities without royal permission, and allowed a military tribunal to condemn the man for treason.

Hadrien had been executed before anyone could produce enough documentation to prove who had actually issued the original instructions.

Gerard had watched none of it.

Marius remembered standing near the back of the council chamber afterward while Gerard complained that the affair had damaged his reputation.

He had understood something important that day.

Gerard was dangerous not because he was especially intelligent.

He was dangerous because he could scheme just well enough to create disasters, then become a coward the moment those disasters required ownership.

And now the scandal involving Ayla had exploded across foreign media.

Which meant Gerard would be looking for somewhere to run.

Marius picked up his communicator.

One message had arrived from a Liryan security officer thirty minutes earlier.

His Majesty has requested departure preparations be kept available.

Marius laughed once under his breath.

Gerard had thrown an eighteen-year-old woman into an invented marriage arrangement, enraged the Emperor of Nuria, implicated several creditor states in coordinated propaganda, and now wanted the royal transport prepared in case things became uncomfortable.

Marius typed a response.

Do not move the aircraft without my authorization.

He stared at the message before sending it.

Strictly speaking, Gerard could override him.

If the king decided to flee, nobody in the delegation had legal authority to restrain him.

But they could slow him down.

Marius sent it anyway.

A knock came at the door.

His aide entered after permission, dressed for the cold in a dark wool coat and carrying a sealed packet.

"The palace confirmed your meeting."

"When?"

"Forty minutes."

"With the emperor?"

"His Majesty, Prime Minister Solvere, Chief Mezos, and Lord Cassian."

Marius sighed.

Every person in Nuria was most capable of identifying exactly how badly Gerard had miscalculated.

He accepted the packet.

"Has the king been informed?"

"No."

"Keep it that way."

The aide hesitated.

Marius looked up.

"What?"

"There are rumors that His Majesty intends to issue a statement."

Marius went completely still.

"What statement?"

"We do not know yet."

That was worse.

"Find out."

"Yes, sir."

"And if anyone from Gerard’s private staff contacts foreign media, stop the transmission if you legally can. If you cannot, tell me before they finish pressing send."

The aide nodded and left.

Marius stood alone for several seconds.

He could already imagine Gerard’s defense.

He had only been applying pressure.

He wanted to test Nuria’s reaction.

The rumor was never meant to be believed.

Ayla was close enough to adulthood that political speculation was normal.

Every explanation would somehow make the original act worse.

Marius pulled on his coat.

For years, he had believed his duty was to protect Lirya by protecting its king from his worst instincts.

That approach was failing.

Perhaps it had always been failing.

He looked once more through the window at Deira, at a capital whose emperor could probably devastate Lirya without ever leaving his palace.

Then he picked up his gloves.

If Gerard ran, Marius already knew what would happen.

The king would blame him.

The media operation would become Marius’s unauthorized initiative. The Cyran financing would become overzealous advisory work. Any concession negotiated with Arik would be presented as something Marius had surrendered against royal instructions.

Gerard had done it before.

The only difference was that Marius had no intention of becoming Hadrien Vos.

He left the suite and entered the guarded corridor.

This time, if Gerard tried to save himself by sacrificing his adviser, Marius intended to make sure Arik knew exactly where every body was buried before the king could invent the grave.