Chapter 420: Before the King

Chapter 420: Chapter 420: Before the King

Marius arrived at the imperial council room twelve minutes early and still felt as though he had kept everyone waiting.

The chamber was smaller than the formal rooms used for foreign delegations, with no flags, thrones, or ceremonial arrangement that Gerard could mistake for a royal reception. Snow covered the inner gardens beyond the tall windows, while a low fire burned beneath the opposite wall and warm gold ether traced through the dark stone floor.

Arik stood near the end of the table in a black shirt and pale gray trousers, reading from a projected document. Mezos occupied the opposite side with several investigation files open before him, while Cassian sat near the windows with coffee and the relaxed posture of a man who had survived almost two centuries of political stupidity.

Marius removed his gloves.

"Gerard may attempt to leave."

Arik looked up.

"May?"

"I discovered departure preparations this morning. I prevented the aircraft from moving without notice, but his personal guards will not physically stop him if he decides to run."

"Severin is dealing with it."

Marius paused.

Relief arrived before dignity could stop it.

Cassian noticed.

"You seem pleased."

"For fifteen years, Gerard doing something stupid automatically became my responsibility. I am willing to share the experience."

Arik gestured toward a chair.

Marius sat.

Mezos pushed a file across the table. Inside were the first publications that had carried the supposed marriage between Gerard and Ayla. None were Nurian. Four originated in states heavily indebted to Liryan financial institutions, another depended on Liryan shipping contracts, and the sixth was still being traced.

"I knew nothing about this," Marius said.

"We established that," Mezos replied.

Marius looked at the release orders attached to the report and felt his stomach tighten.

"He used a private network."

"And a secondary communicator."

"Of course he did."

Marius leaned back and rubbed his forehead.

"After leaving Cyran’s office, he shouted at me for more than two hours. Apparently Nuria insulted him through its roads, its guards, his guest suite, dinner arrangements, and the fact that Arik did not personally reorganize the palace around his arrival."

Cassian’s brows rose.

"The roads offended him?"

"They function too well."

Cassian took a thoughtful sip of coffee.

"That is difficult to forgive."

Marius almost laughed.

Then Arik closed the projection in front of him.

"What happens when Gerard realizes this cannot be contained?"

The question erased what little humor remained.

"He runs."

"You sound certain."

"I watched him do it before."

Marius told them about Hadrien Vos.

The previous royal adviser had been left to contain a military confrontation Gerard himself had provoked over port tariffs. Gerard fled to a private estate when the neighboring kingdom mobilized, returned only after Hadrien negotiated the crisis down, and then blamed the entire affair on the man who had saved him.

Hadrien had been executed for treason.

"Gerard did not attend the execution," Marius finished. "He complained afterward that Hadrien had embarrassed the crown."

Mezos’s expression had become glacial.

Cassian set his coffee down.

Arik merely watched Marius.

"You expect him to do the same to you."

"I expect him to try. The Cyran operation will become mine. The financing will become mine. The media story may become mine if he thinks anyone will believe it."

"Will they?"

"In Lirya, if Gerard controls the proceedings, belief is optional."

Arik was silent for several seconds.

Then he asked, "How would you feel about becoming king?"

Marius stared at him.

Cassian turned his head.

Even Mezos looked away from the file.

"I’m sorry?"

"King of Lirya."

"I understood the words."

"Good."

Marius searched Arik’s face for humor and found none.

"You cannot simply solve an inconvenient monarch by replacing him with his adviser."

"I can solve quite a few problems that way."

"Arik," Cassian said, though he sounded more interested than disapproving.

Arik leaned one hip against the table.

"I do not care why Gerard did what he did anymore. His resentment toward Agaron, his lost profits in Wrohan, his feelings about sovereign ether—none of it matters."

His gold eyes hardened.

"He involved my family."

Marius understood immediately.

Ayla.

"She is eighteen," Arik continued. "He fabricated an international marriage arrangement around her, allowed foreign media to discuss where she would live and the children she would supposedly have with him, and did it because he thought my wife’s sister was a useful weapon."

There was no raised voice.

Marius would have preferred one.

"Gerard is going to die."

The certainty in Arik’s tone left no room for negotiation.

Marius slowly exhaled.

"So this meeting is not about whether he keeps his throne."

"No."

"Does Gerard know that?"

"Not yet."

Cassian picked up his coffee again.

Marius looked between them.

"You are discussing the removal of a foreign king as though you are replacing a minister."

"Someone will replace him," Arik said. "Gerard has no children. Lirya will have a succession problem regardless of whether that happens next month or twenty years from now."

"And you would prefer an ally."

"I would prefer someone who does not finance operations against my government and invent marriages involving my family."

Marius gave him a flat look.

"That is an unusually low standard for kingship."

"You already exceed it."

Despite himself, Marius laughed once.

He stopped quickly.

"I am not royal."

"I did not ask whether you were."

"I have spent my career advising the crown, not preparing to wear it."

"And yet you seem to understand your country better than the man currently wearing one."

Cassian studied Marius over the rim of his cup.

"That is worth considering."

Marius looked toward him in disbelief.

"Do none of you hear how insane this conversation is?"

"Frequently," Cassian said. "One adapts."

Mezos finally spoke.

"Lirya would need stability after Gerard."

That was the practical part Marius hated most.

Because they were right.

If Gerard died without an established heir, ministers, distant relatives, military figures, and wealthy creditors would begin tearing at whatever remained. Lirya could spend years settling succession while its economy deteriorated around them.

Marius looked toward the windows.

"I would need to think."

Arik nodded.

That surprised him more than the proposal.

"I am not asking for an answer today."

"Generous."

"I can become less generous."

Marius almost smiled.

Then he placed both hands on the table.

"If Gerard is going to die, I need to know before he does something desperate enough to drag Lirya with him."

"That is why you are here."

Marius nodded slowly.

"Then I will give you everything. Foreign financing structures, creditor relationships, intermediaries, political payments, every pressure operation I know about."

"Including ones unrelated to Nuria?"

"Yes."

Arik’s attention sharpened.

"I am not doing it for you," Marius added. "I am doing it because if Gerard runs home and starts blaming me, I have no intention of becoming Hadrien Vos."

Cassian’s expression softened slightly.

"Good."

Mezos’s communicator vibrated.

He checked it.

"Severin found him."

Marius closed his eyes.

"Where?"

"Three streets from the diplomatic wing. Decoy car."

Arik looked almost bored by the predictability.

"Is he coming?"

Mezos read the next message.

"He is now."

Footsteps sounded beyond the doors several minutes later.

Severin entered first, immaculate in a dark formal coat and looking as though escorting a fleeing monarch through Deira had been an ordinary administrative errand.

Gerard appeared behind him.

His scarf sat crooked around his neck, his coat was creased across one shoulder, and his face had turned an alarming shade of red.

He opened his mouth.

Nothing happened.

Marius stared.

Gerard pointed furiously at Severin, still completely silent.

Cassian lowered his coffee very carefully.

Arik looked at Severin.

"What did you do?"

"Improved the journey."

Severin stepped aside.

Gerard’s voice returned.

The first sound out of his mouth was a scream.