Crisis Of Empire - Crown Of Empire Part 46

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

"You killed him. He was a saint and you mur- dered him!" she shrieked as she cut the Admiral and his men in half with the intensity of her fir- ing. "You will not be permitted to live"

Her fingers were still locked around the trig- ger when Tira at last pried the empty gun out of her hands.

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Epilogue.

The recently restored Grand Reception Hall of the Secretarial Palace was filled to capacity with representatives from throughout the Pact.

The activities had begun a week before with the inauguration of Yon and Tira Bouriere-Chaney as joint High Secretaries. This afternoon had seen the ratification of the new terms of the Pact

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alliance. Tonight's gala was - almost - purely social.

"I'm glad you're the one taking the job," Wiley admitted to his sister as they wandered through the crowd. "I know I don't have the tempera- ment to handle it." He looked older now than he had just three months ago; there was a graveness about him he had lacked before.

They smiled as the one surviving Daphnean of Rainbow Dawn approached. Hanley, a former under Appointments Clerk, supported himself with a cane and there was a welt of half-healed scar across his forehead. He nodded to lira.

"Good evening," he said, "It is splendid to see everyone here tonight." He nodded at the med- ley of beings surrounding them. "This week has been a promising beginning. I hope that we can continue this way."

"With the devotion shown by those of Rain- bow Dawn, I'm sure we can," responded lira.

Hanley smiled. "Thank you, Madame."

"Are you sure you won't reconsider staying on Earth?" asked Tira. Truly, your experience and insights would be most valuable to us. To the Pact"

Hanley shook his head. "Thank you, Madame, but I think it's time I retired. I look forward to sitting in my garden with my grandchildren.

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With you and your husband in the Palace, I feel safe in leaving such matters in younger hands."

Tira blushed a little. 'Thank you, sir. I hope that your grandchildren will enjoy your com- pany, for they are depriving us."

"You are most gracious." Hanley gave a half- bow and another smile, then turned away.

Someone had called his name. "Good evening, Madame, Sir."

Damien Ver approached as Hanley disap- peared into the crowd.

Tira smiled at him and found herself wonder- ing how she could ever have thought him cold and uncaring. "How are you managing in this mob?*'

'The same as I have for the last week," he replied. "I review the holographic tapes at the end of the day and check the delegates' registry to make sure I know who's who." His smile was quick and amused. "Have you seen my wife any- where in the last half hour?"

"She's talking with the Peomer delegation, over by the beverage table. They seem to believe that because she is now Advisor to the High Sec- retaries, she must be courted." lira linked arms with her brother and... what was he? Her step- father-in-law? Her friend.

Wiley could not enter into the amus.e.m.e.nt. T

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don't envy any of you," he said with feeling. "You have decisions to make that I could never -"

Ver cut him short. "You have other decisions you're willing to make. Undertaking to be the Pacts Inspector-General is quite a job in itself.

You know that some of those old-fas.h.i.+oned lead- ers aren't going to give up their hegemony without a struggle. If you want to keep the Pact honest, you're going to tangle with some real vil- lains. I'll back you all the way, but I don't want your job."

A small band was set up in an alcove and it was blaring away with Pact Victorious followed by Glorious Heritage. In that part of the Reception Hall the din of conversation was at shouting level to be heard over the band.

"Cleaning up after the Haiken Maru is going to be the beginning," said Wiley with the first show of enthusiasm. "Once that's serried, then we can show real reforms. There are so many obligations we have left unfulfilled."

"But you don't have to do it all yourself," said lira, trying to ease the burden her brother had taken on,

"Yes," he countered her. "Yes, I do. I owe it to Nika and all those dying Germans and my own Guards, every one of them. I will never forget any of them. They died to keep me alive, and I

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have to merit that. I don't now, but maybe in time, I will, a litde." He smiled tentatively. "At least this way I'll have a chance."

Tira relented and laid her hand over her brother's, "If you must, you must."

Wiley gave Ver a slightly embarra.s.sed look, then broke away from his sister. "I'll join you for the ceremony, but I want to talk to Anson Merikur." He moved away, threading through the bustling crowd with surprising speed.

"What do you think?" Ver asked of lira when a few seconds had gone. "Do you think he's going to do it?"

"Whatever it is?" Tira said. "Yes, I think he will. But who would have thought that Wiley would be the one to devote his life to the service of Pact justice?"

"It doesn't seem all that far-fetched to me,"

Ver remarked, then leaned toward her. "And I notice that Chaney is on the balcony watching

us.

Tira looked up at once, and grinned at Chaney as their eyes met. "It's almost time."

They started toward the dais. Tira rubbed absentmindedly at the two thin scars on the back other hand, left by shattered glastic.

"Only two weeks, and everything changed,"

she mused,

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"For the better, let us hope," said Ver. He exchanged polite greetings with Anson Merikurs second in command and was pleased to see that Lieutenant Nkomo was with him.

'We're counting on you and Jessine to make sure of that," said Tira. 'The non-human council begins its congress next week. Everything we've a.s.sessed this week is supposed to be used then.