Lucian stared straight at his daughter, unable to fathom her behaviour. The room was now utterly silent, every head turned discreetly away from Brielle, yet, every eye glued to her.

She lifted the glass to her lips.

Luneberg surged to his feet. His servants scattered in all directions and priceless goblets toppled, spilling their contents across the table.

'Lucian!

Lucian stood, guessing what was coming next.

'Lucian, this is a travesty! Take her away this instant!

Lucian did not say a word. He merely walked over to his daughter and proffered her his arm. She took it demurely, and together, they walked, heads held high, from Luneberg's dining hall.

CHAPTER SIX

'What by Vandire's hole is wrong with you, girl?

Brielle remained silent. She would weather the storm of her father's wrath. Only once she had afforded him the opportunity to fully vent his spleen would she be able to act. He had remained silent all the way from Luneberg's dining hall back to the stateroom, but Brielle had sensed his boiling, inner rage from the moment they had left the chamber. He had not said a word, even to Korvane, who had caught up with them having made his apologies to Luneberg, until the door of the suite had closed behind them.

'You know how much is hanging on this mission, and yet you stroll into Luneberg's court with absolutely no concern for etiquette. Have I taught you nothing?

Brielle bristled at that, for she held dear the memories of the lessons learned at her father's side, before Korvane had arrived. She remained impassive regardless, determined that any damage done would not be caused by her, despite the fact that her father was quite correct. Her actions had been contrary to all she knew of courtly etiquette, and deliberately so.

'If I didn't know better, I might have thought you'd done it-

'Father? Korvane broke in, calm in the face of his father's wrath. Easy enough for him, thought Brielle, for it was not directed at him. In fact, Brielle thought, he probably sought to turn it to his own advantage.

'What? Her father held Brielle's gaze for a couple of seconds before turning to face her stepbrother.

'Father, I think we need to plan what to do next. I've been studying the Chasmatans' traditions, and there's precedent to suggest they might have grounds to cancel any contract we might have entered into.

Lucian took a deep breath, before addressing both his children. 'Korvane, Brielle, you both need to understand something about the nature of our deal with Luneberg. As I explained after the initial talks, this is not the type of contract recognised by high law and enforceable in the courts. This is not simple trade. This isn't even a transaction, and Luneberg is neither our partner nor our customer. He wanted something from us, and as much as he needed us at the beginning, we're as good as competitors in the long run'

Brielle fought hard to hold her tongue, for as much as she agreed with her father's assessment, she felt even more strongly that he should never have entered into the venture in the first place.

'Luneberg needed us in order to gauge whether or not he was on to something good. The fact that we signed up, and have returned here, tells him he is. Lucian said.

'But still' Korvane spoke up, 'he needs us to move the goods on. Without us, he's surely just sitting on worthless merchandise'

Brielle thought back to the cargo still sitting in her hold. She knew it was far from worthless. She had seen it for what it was — a mere sample of goods to be provided in the future. She would keep this information to herself though, and only reveal at a time most suited to her own ends. Her deliberate behaviour at the dining hall would pay dividends in the long run, but had left her stock low in the short term.

'I need to speak to Luneberg' said Lucian. 'Try to patch things up and find out what he really wants from us. I know I can turn this to our profit, but I need both of you' he looked straight at Brielle, 'both of you behind me. We are, in case you have forgotten, Arcadius'

Brielle nodded, a vision of contrition, and her father visibly calmed. 'Korvane and I will get back to Luneberg. You', he squeezed her hand, 'stay out of trouble'

Only once her father and stepbrother had left the suite did Brielle allow herself a wry grin. She had succeeded in complicating the deal to the point where it might collapse entirely, but was unsure exactly where to go from there. When she had discovered the nature of the items in her hold, she had intended merely to steer her father away from the deal, souring it to the extent that it would collapse largely of its own accord. She thought of this as entirely unselfish, but had come to realise that her father, and certainly her stepbrother, would hardly see it that way.

If she was to be damned, she thought, she would be damned for good reason. If she succeeded in ruining the deal with Luneberg, she would need to make some kind of power play against her stepbrother, for he would never forgive her, even if her father did. That made Korvane a long-term enemy, and now, Brielle realised, was the best time to deal with him.

Brielle crossed to the tall, glass doors that formed one wall of the stateroom, hauling them open upon corroded runners. She stepped out onto the high gallery, and looked out on a panoramic view of Luneberg's capital city. The sun was almost set, the last of its rays turning the sky a deep bronze, and casting the air in a thick, golden haze. The city sprawled for many kilometres in every direction, distant, craggy mountains just visible on the horizon. Below her, the palace grounds were arrayed. She noted how these appeared overgrown and untended, not like the lovingly maintained ornamental gardens she would have expected to grace Luneberg's estates. Beyond the grounds, the merchants' quarter spread as far as the distant warehouses at the city's edge, its street markets alive with activity even at this late hour.

Brielle felt a sudden urge to be free of the shackles of responsibility, if only for a short time. Luneberg's court was a claustrophobic and stale environment, and little advantage was to be had skulking in the dusty guest suites. She looked out at the city, and then back towards the door of the apartment. She came to her decision.

While her father and stepbrother wasted time with Luneberg and his pet fops, Brielle would go out into his domain. She knew not what she might find, but she reasoned it had to be better than what she had here.

The household guards made no attempt to challenge Brielle as she strode through the main gates. They resolutely ignored her in fact, staring straight ahead, out into the city streets beyond. She reasoned that their task was to challenge those attempting to enter the palace. Her thus far limited experience with the Chasmatans' bureaucracy suggested that their vigilance did not extend to those attempting to leave. An interesting observation, and one that might prove worth remembering, she thought.

The city streets outside the palace were narrow and old, the buildings overlooking them of pre-Imperial vintage, blocky and pre-fabricated to some long-lost pattern. Brielle stood outside the gates, looking first left, and then right down the empty thoroughfare. She knew the mercantile quarter lay to the east, and so turned left, headed for the junction at the end of the street.

Reaching the junction, she noticed how the further from the palace she travelled, the more people were out on the streets. She saw no signs of law enforcement, which on most of the Imperium's more populous worlds was conspicuous, and proactive in keeping the subjects in line. Here, the enforcers were conspicuous by their absence. Was the populace so well behaved as to make enforcement unnecessary? She doubted that, for she knew that rebellion and heresy lay just below the surface on every world of the Imperium. Not a single world, least of all sacred Terra itself, was untouched by war, and most such conflicts were internal in nature, even when triggered by external factors.