“Your Grace?”

“Hani Sereson,” Jainan said. He held himself as straight as he could, sitting up in bed. “I hoped you were on the press list. Do come in.”

The journalist gave him a blinding professional smile and sketched a bow. “I must say, I didn’t think I’d ever hear from you like this.” Her eyes flicked over his body and the drip in his wrist with a hungry shimmer of silver. “We heard you were ill. All of us were wondering if you were well enough for the ceremonies.”

“I’m saving my energy. Forgive me for not rising to greet you,” Jainan said.

“And thank you for coming on such short notice.” He opened his hand to indicate a chair Bel had brought in from the corridor.

“Believe me, no journalist would turn down a message like the one I just received.” Hani sat down and crossed one leg over the other. “I do hope you’re recovering well from … well, it looks like you’ve been through some kind of ordeal.” Her hand hovered over an expensive mic button, which she detached from her collar and left to float in the air between them. “Do you mind if I record this conversation?”

Jainan’s smile came from some deep, sharp place within him. “Of course not,” he said. “In fact, I would be very pleased if you would.”

CHAPTER 30

“I see where you’re coming from,” Kiem said into the recording. “I want you to know that it’s not true, but I get that you have to tell reporters you’ve done something. Fine. You want me to resign as a patron, I’ll do that.” He swallowed another spike of frustration. “Let me know if I can find you someone else, though. You should have someone from the palace on the board.” He paused.

“Stay in touch.”

He cut the recording to the latest charity and slumped back from the tiny desk. The steel of the chair dug into his shoulder muscles. He stretched his arms out. The room was large enough for him to do that, at least, though his knuckles grazed the frame of the bunk bed.

But his surroundings were luxurious compared to what they might have been.

The armored core of the station had a holding room that Internal Security used for who knew what nefarious purposes, and when the military and civilian wrangling had been sorted out, that was where Kiem had ended up. For a holding cell, it didn’t lack for frills: there was a tiny bathroom, an exercise machine, and even a flickering screen with hundreds of preprogrammed media in the corner.

Depending on how you looked at it, it might not even be a cell. The door wasn’t locked, just guarded by agents with instructions to keep him in and no sense of humor. Kiem had played with the idea of seeing if he could bluff his way past them to get to Jainan’s med room but had reluctantly abandoned it after the first unsuccessful attempt. It would be a bad idea to make the Emperor any more furious than she already was. He had Bel and Jainan to think about.