The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency #2)(66)

“Well, good, then,” Jasin said, smiled, and turned his attention back to the Countess Nohamapetan. Nadashe, who had tuned what she said to be warm with just a hint of intimate, was nonplussed by this. All that effort for nothing. She turned to see Deran, a small smirk on his face. He at least had gotten what she had been up to, and how it had failed to be received.

Indeed, as the four of them sat down and began to discuss matters of a conspiratorial nature, it became abundantly clear that Jasin was entirely about business, that being the business of the Countess Nohamapetan’s plan, which she laid out in detail. Jasin listened and offered cogent but unremarkable comments and details, and within ten minutes it became clear that for this plan and the organization of it, Nadashe and Deran were surplus to requirements. Every now and again she or Deran would chime in with a comment or idea. That comment or idea was momentarily acknowledged to exist by the countess and Jasin, and then the both of them proceeded with their own planning. After a half hour of this, Nadashe needed a drink.

Deran accompanied her to the bar. “You’re feeling as useful as I am right now, I imagine.”

“‘Useful’ is an interesting way to put it.” She poured herself a whiskey.

“Well, I don’t know,” Deran said, and looked over to the countess and Jasin, both intensely focused on each other. “I think it’s nice that the revolution will happen and all we have to do to reap the benefits is show up.”

“For as long as it lasts, anyway,” Nadashe said. She pulled out a second tumbler, poured whiskey into it, and handed it to Deran.

“Thank you,” he said, and then raised it to her. “Here’s to ‘for as long as it lasts.’”

“Amen.” Nadashe looked at him, took a sip of her drink, and made a snap decision. She turned to her mother. “Deran wants to see the ship,” she said. “I’m going to give him a tour.”

“Yes, fine,” the countess said, and went back to her discussion with Jasin.

Deran turned to Nadashe. “I want to see the ship, do I?”

“Yes you do,” Nadashe said. “Some parts of it more than others.”

*

“Thank you, by the way,” Nadashe said, after she had gotten off and Deran had made sure to get his, too.

“You’re welcome,” Deran said. “And thank you too.”

“Not for this,” Nadashe said.

“Wow. That bad.”

“It was definitely not bad,” Nadashe assured him. “I meant for making sure I didn’t get stabbed with a spoon in prison.”

“Oh, that,” Deran said. “It was nothing. Your savior is a former member of the house’s security detail. Had a divorce, got into some hard stuff to forget, messed up her life pretty badly because of it. Being in prison dried her out and got her back in shape. Honestly the best thing for her. She was happy to take the assignment from me. Made her feel a little like being on the job again.”

“She toothbrushed the shit out of that other woman, that’s for sure. I’m pretty sure it added a few years to her visit.”

“Nah, no extra time. It’ll turn out to be self-defense.”

“While she was carrying a sharpened dental instrument.”

“It’s prison. Everyone does it.”

“I didn’t.”

“And you almost got spooned for it.”

“Point taken. So why did you offer to help me back there?”

“Because I knew Jasin was planning to have you killed, and I didn’t think it was good business for our house to make things worse with your house.”

“Is that it?”

“And because I thought doing you a favor would be better business for our house.”

“Anything else?”

“And because I was thinking we might need a new emperox soon and the emperox would need a consort. One whose house would be unendingly grateful for a second chance. Plus, you’d already been vetted.”

“You’ve certainly vetted me now.”

“I think it was the other way around, actually, but yes.”

“Forgive me. I was in prison. It’s been a while.”

“Believe me, there is nothing to forgive.”

“But you’re not going to be emperox anymore. You’ve settled for something less.”

“One, the chances I was going to be emperox were slim. Jasin is hidebound and slow, but he has a lot of inertia, and he’s just slightly up the food chain from me. We’d fight it out and it would be close, but he’s got the reach. Two, ‘settling’ for total control of the House of Wu is a high settle. It’s a pretty decent consolation prize.”

“It’s too bad,” Nadashe said. “I could have gotten used to this.”

Deran grinned. “You don’t have to give it up, you know.”

“Sorry, but that’s not the way these things work. I can have my toys, and Jasin, if he wants them, can have his. What we can’t have are people who are an actual threat.”

“You think I would be a threat.”

“I know you would be. That’s why you’re getting the House of Wu. You’re going to be so busy running the house and fending off the enraged cousins that you’ve thrown out of power that you won’t even be able to look up from your desk for the next thirty years.”