"An interesting comment from someone with a feather in his ear."

"You calling me a poof?" the burly man roared.

"Could be."

Olivares snarled as he stood, kicking his stool over backward. The man threw his shoulders back, a motion that emphasized his massive muscles, and raised his clenched fists.

Still seated, Theodore drew his gun and fired. The scharacki feather floated to the table, its gentle motion almost audible in the sudden shocked silence that pervaded the hall. Olivares stood, mouth open, in shock.

Calmly, Theodore holstered his gun. "On the other hand, maybe I was wrong. After all, you don't have a feather in your ear."

Olivares reached up a beefy hand to feel his ear. He looked astonished to find no blood on his fingers. He collected his stool and sat.

"Some more soy sauce, Sho-sa?"Theodore said casually, offering the bottle.

As Olivares took the bottle, the clatter of conversation, cups, and plates, resumed around the hall. Theodore felt Tomoe relax. He snagged a morsel with his chopsticks and popped it into his mouth. Ninyu was right, the cuisine was wretched. That too,Theodore vowed, would change.

18

Unity Palace, Imperial City, Luthien

Pesht Military District, Draconis Combine

1 December 3026

 

The two armored men circled cautiously, weapons held before them. Each searched for an opening in his opponent's guard. The taller suddenly shifted to high speed and advanced, his point seeking the other's throat. His target swayed slightly to the left, leaving his point to strike only empty air. A sharp, rattling crack filled the air as his opponent's shinaistruck home on the taller man's do.

"Well-struck," said Takashi Kurita, stepping back to salute his opponent with his own slit-bamboo sword. Pulling off a glove by trapping it under his arm, he reached up and flipped his men,combined fencing mask and throat protection, from his head. "It is good to test your shinaiagainst mine once again, old friend."

"Most pleasant," Subhash Indrahar agreed, removing his own mask. "With more practice, you may improve your menthrust."

"Improve?" Takashi questioned suspiciously. "You are not able to deflect it when I focus."

Subhash inclined his head, smiling the while. "But you do not always focus."

Subhash could see Takashi considering the second meaning in his words. Occasionally, as now, Subhash found it useful to speak in phrases whose second meaning was a gentle rebuke to the Coordinator, inciting him to improve in the performance of his duty. It was almost a game between them.

"And today's focus is the strategy session, is it not?”

“It is as you say, Tono.Yet you are distracted. Theodore again?"

"My constant trial," Takashi conceded. "He has spent more than a year with the scum of the Vegan Legion. One might think he prefers those ruffians to the courtiers on Luthien."

"You have given him little chance to know the court here on Luthien."

"It is not safe. There are too many intrigues, too many unscrupulous villains who would dupe him into their treasonous plots as he was duped in Rasalhague."

"He is not a boy anymore, my friend," Subhash ventured. "He needs to learn how to survive here at court."

"He needs to rid himself of his battlefield fantasies first," Takashi snapped with sudden heat. "The only communications I receive from him are wild plans for the conquest of the Lyran Commonwealth and curt refusals to consider any woman I suggest as a suitable wife. The reports from Marfix show him to be content with pretending he is in command of soldiers, happy to play with his concubine. After all these years, he still does not understand the demands of the realm."

"Those demands are great indeed, Tono,"Subhash said in a placatory manner.

There was little else he could do. Takashi still refused to accept that Theodore would never be the man the Coordinator wanted him to be. Certainly the heir could be guided, but not with Takashi's strong-arm tactics. The Coordinator's pigheadedness was itself a threat to the continuity of the House Kurita's rule, and therefore to the Draconis Combine. But Subhash knew that open opposition to Takashi would only weaken his own position and make it harder for him to protect the Combine.

The Draconis Combine stood in increasing peril. It needed the undivided attention of its Coordinator, and Subhash intended that nothing would prevent that.

"Have you read my reports, Tono?"he asked, doffing his armor.

"Yes. This morning," Takashi replied, removing his own do."You are sure this Davion adventure is over?”

“It would seem so."

For most of the past three months, there have been massive troop movements along the Davion border. Ten Battle-Mech regiments and a hundred conventional units had been involved in something called Operation Galahad. It had not turned out to be the beginnings of a war, as Subhash had feared. Only a few minor raiding forces had crossed into Combine space. House Davion had gone to great expense "to demonstrate the Federated Suns' preparedness to repel hostile invaders." He knew that Prince Hanse Davion, whom many called "the Fox," must have something more in mind, but his ISF agents had so far come up empty.

Takashi finished arranging his armor on its stand and headed for the showers. Subhash followed, willing to let Takashi determine the conversation's next step. They had washed away the sweat from their exercise and begun dressing before Takashi spoke again.

"Your assessment of our allies is uninspiring."

"I do not report strength where there is none. If Prince Davion starts a war, we should not expect much of our Kapteyn allies."

They both knew that the lack of reliable allies was a serious weakness. A man of vision could no longer ignore the ever-stronger alliance between the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth, the Combine's bitterest enemies. Any sane ruler would fear such a combination.

"We must be strong if the Fox decides we are his prey," Takashi stated.

"Our strength increases. The Ryuken experiment has proven its worth. I recommended expansion."

"That seems reasonable," Takashi conceded. Subhash knew that the Coordinator would not make a final decision until after he consulted the Warlords, but Takashi seemed inclined to take the step.

"They and the Genyosha will become very important if Wolf's Dragoons cannot be retained."

"Yes, the Dragoons. Your report was not specific. What is the real situation there?"

"Our plans are in motion, Tono.Their debt increases daily, and we prepare in case they do not fall to the 'company-store' ploy. Where the Dragoons fail to provide us with material for blackmail, I have arranged to manufacture it. We have been fortunate in finding a most convincing Natasha Kerensky."

Takashi nodded solemnly as he slipped into the simple soldier's jumpsuit he affected on military occasions.

"I do not want the Dragoons to leave the Combine," he stated firmly.

"I will convey your wishes to our agents, Tono."

"In the meantime, we must attend to the more pressing business of the Combine's strategy for the coming year."

"Indeed, Tono,"Subhash agreed, pleased that, for the moment, Takashi had forgotten his problems with his son. Now the Coordinator would apply his considerable wiles to important problems. "The Warlords await you."