“I don’t think there is a proposed tour path. It’s meant to be informal.”

“The Imperial Guard will be very unhappy about that.”

“Then have them inform Nohamapetan’s people that there needs to be a tour path, but don’t tell me. I want to be surprised.”

“Yes, ma’am. Also, you asked to be told if there was ever news from the Count of Claremont on End.”

“Yes?” In the first week of her reign, Cardenia had sent a letter to the count informing him of Attavio VI’s passing and requesting the latest on his research. It would still be far too early for the count to respond directly to that letter.

“It’s not the Count of Claremont himself, but his son, Lord Marce Claremont. He just now arrived on a Lagos fiver and will be at Imperial Station in roughly thirty hours. He requests an audience with you.”

“His son?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“We’re sure about that relationship?”

“The note came with the same security cipher the Count of Claremont used on all his correspondence. It’s legitimate.”

“Did something happen to the count?”

“The request doesn’t say. Would you like to schedule him, or should I shunt him off?” The Office of the Emperox had more than three dozen protocol officers to meet with low-level officials, apparatchiks, and flunkeys. If any of them were important enough to escalate, Deng would get a report and decide whether to bring it to the emperox’s attention.

“Schedule him.”

“I can give him fifteen minutes prior to your walkabout with Amit Nohamapetan, whatever time that is. That should be enough time for Lord Claremont to disembark and catch a shuttle to Xi’an.”

“Have someone meet him. It’s probably his first time off End. I don’t want him to get lost.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Do I have anything else for the rest of the day?”

“Only a few minor things. Nothing that won’t keep.”

Cardenia nodded. “Then I’m going to speak to my ancestors for a while. About political marriages.”

“They would know all about those, ma’am.”

“Yes they would.” Cardenia nodded and headed off to the Memory Room.

Chapter 14

“We have two very real problems,” Kiva said to Countess Huma Lagos, her mother and the sitting matriarch of the House of Lagos. “One is bigger than the other.”

“Let’s start with the smaller one,” Huma suggested.

“The fucking Nohamapetans,” Kiva said.

Huma laughed.