That was what she wanted.

She needed her father to be upset and out of position to counter those plots. It would keep his mind off of what she was really doing.

The next step in her plan dealt with the nobles. They had to both present a challenge to Damon Eram, yet be in no position to threaten her when her plan succeeded and she took his crown. There was a very delicate balance in arranging that, and it hinged on keeping them too busy with each other to worry about the crown. The business of arranging that had already begun. Miranda had delivered a series of instructions to Ulfan about what she wanted done, and she had also begun to plant certain vague rumors about several noble houses.

The noble houses of Wikuna had a very regimented rank system, that was based on the size of the house and the amount of money it had. The house of Eram was considered highest ranked, because it was the Royal House. Without the Royal status, house Eram would rank about tenth among the assorted houses. House Eram had a very lucrative business, but the house was smaller than it had been in many years. And Damon Eram was the reason for that. By killing off anyone who could challenge him for the throne, he reduced house Eram from twenty members to four. Damon Eram, Keritanima, Jenawalani, and Veranika. Rank was important, but it had nothing to do with holding the throne. When it came to holding the throne, that was when raw military power and political jockeying came into play. A house held the throne because it was backed up by other houses, or it had utter control of the military, or both. House Eram had been in power long enough for Damon Eram to have that control of the military, even though he lacked the support of the other noble houses. The army and navy was loyal to the crown, and that made them loyal to Damon Eram, because he was the undisputed ruler of Wikuna. That meant that anyone who wanted the crown had to fight the military to get it. No noble house had the manpower to face Wikuna's military in a coup, and that would plummet Wikuna into a bloody and savage civil war.

Things were already tense. The largest houses, Zalan, Tarn, and Alagon, had called up much of their private armies to Wikuna, reportedly to protect their interests. Other houses, rivals of those houses, called in their own armies to protect themselves from their forces. That placed a very large hostile force at Damon Eram's doorstep, so he had called in the army to counter any ideas of an alliance between the houses to topple him. It was a powder keg waiting to explode, and Keritanima had already given Miranda the matches to light it. As soon as Keritanima was let out of the room, she would set the fuse to go off at a time of her choosing, then stand back and watch the fireworks.

With the noble houses embroiled in inter-house squabbling, it would keep them too busy to really do anything against the crown. The key laid in arranging things so the fighting began just before she made her run at her father's throne. That wasn't all that difficult, because to make the noble houses bite on her bait, she had to have a reasonable amount of time to lay down rumors and innuendo, then plant certain evidence here and there to back those rumors up. She had to make it subtle, so it would look like the house's spies uncovered a secret plot, rather than having everything laying out in the open and obvious. The longer it took them to uncover the "plot," the more believable it would appear to them. It was a game she had played before many times, and it was a game at which she excelled. The easiest way to neutralize an enemy was to give them another, more immediate, enemy to fight. It worked at a personal level, it worked at a group level, and it worked at a noble house level equally well.

It would all start with a simple note.

The note was easy enough to write. Keritanima took care of that on the sixth day of her convalescence, a short note written in a bold, flaring style to the new head of house Zalan, Sheba Zalan. Miranda had told her that Sheba was not taking well to her new role, and that her uncles, aunts, and her great uncle all were considering supplanting her and taking control of the house. That meant that her life was in very serious danger. Without her doting father to protect her, she couldn't go back to piracy, and the large bounty on her head in the East would make taking a commercial ship to trade suicide. That meant that her only way to maintain the money and high life she liked was to be a decent house matriarch. The note, written in a perfect imitation of her father's writing, invited Sheba to the Palace for a personal audience. The term "personal audience" where her father was concerned was a notorious statement. It meant that he either had a sexual attraction for the recipient of the note, or he or she was being invited to his or her own murder. Damon Eram wasn't unknown for dalliances with the more attractive noble ladies, whether they were married or not.

It was a perfect situation for Keritanima. With Sheba's control of her fortunes-her very life-at stake, she'd jump at the chance to talk to the King. House Zalan had been in secret negotiations to form an alliance by marriage to house Eram anyway, so the note would have a sharp ring of truth in it. Since the note specifically said for Sheba to come after court and meet him in his chambers, she would probably take it as an invitation to wrestle in the sheets. And Sheba would find it irresistable. Sheba lived for danger and excitement, and the opportunity for such an unknown, exciting experience would draw her like bees to honey. Even if she found her father repugnant, the idea of a midnight interlude with him would be powerful for her, powerful enough for her to show up, even if to just tell him no.

The result of that would make it look like house Zalan and the King were close to an alliance. The other large houses would take exception to that, and begin plans to drive a wedge between Damon Eram and Sheba. The smaller houses would increase their mercenary forces because of the activity, and that would heighten the tensions. It was an all-around perfect situation.

Keritanima had little else to do but make plans for those seven days. On the morning of the eighth day, the Chamberlain arrived with the morning meal, as had become the custom. But this time, he handed Keritanima a wax-stamped envelope. "His Majesty hopes you are well enough to attend court this day, Highness," he said simply.

"Is this a summons?" she asked, holding up the envelope.

"No, your Highness, that is a letter that was delivered to the Palace this morning by messenger. I'm afraid I don't know who sent it."

"Thank you, my Lord Chamberlain," she said absently, tapping the envelope in her hand as she pondered its contents. "I'm well enough to manage court. Tell my father I'll be there."

He nodded calmly and beckoned the servants to hurry with the setting up of breakfast, then took his leave. Keritanima followed Miranda and Azakar as they carried the meal into her bedroom, where Kalina and Binter waited for them, tapping the letter against her muzzle curiously. She sat down with the others and let Kalina take her pick of the morning's plates as she opened the letter and quickly scanned it. "Good news," she said, pausing to touch the Weave and sweep the area for unfriendly ears or unusual concentrations of magic on the Weave. She'd discovered that those magical concentrations were Priest spells, and it had been a simple task to learn how to disrupt them. "It's from Ulfan. He'll be ready."

"You expected him not to be?" Kalina asked.

"It was a big job I asked him to do, Kalina," she replied.

"He must have a code if he sent you a letter," Azakar noted.

Keritanima nodded. "We worked it out a long time ago," she replied. "This letter reads like it's from a young girl. It's full of flowery gushing, but the signals are there and in the proper order."