"They attacked from behind, apparently, Sire."
He nodded, lifting the skull with his rapacious fingers, so that its empty eyes stared at her again.
"They grasped the heads of their victims with their jaws, penetrating the brain and killing instantly. Then they dragged the body back into the darkness."
"And this danger drove us out of the caves, Your Majesty?"
"Exactly," he agreed with flashing eyes. "But don't think of these cats simply as some evolutionary pressure. This wasn't mere natural selection; this was terror. The saber-tooths were utterly silent, invisible in the darkness. It's possible that no human ever clearly saw one. They were original nightmare buried deep in our species' psyche. They were death itself. This is the mark of the Old Enemy."
Oxham looked down at the cat on her lap. She offered it a finger, which it licked once with its raspy tongue. The beast made a small noise in its throat and continued to purr, absolutely content.
"I see your love of felines has a darker side, Sire."
"Of course, Senator. Their contributions to humanity, though al-ways essential, haven't always been pretty. Imagine being a predated 277 species, Nara. At any moment, a family member, a lover, a friend might be hauled away screaming to die."
"Like being always at war," she said.
"And always on the front lines. But from this enemy came the necessity to evolve. We were defenseless against this beast, until we developed group cooperation, tools, and finally, the only useful weapon: fire."
"The terror is what brought humanity up?" Nara Oxham said, then realized it at last: "Perhaps you are pro-death too, Sire."
"Perhaps. The council faces another difficult decision."
She took a deep breath. Was the Emperor contemplating another genocide already? "Sire, shouldn't this be raised before the entire War Council?" The dead sovereign narrowed his eyes. "Senator Oxham, the War Council is not a parliament of equals. I have enjoined twelve such councils over the last sixteen hundred years, and in each of them one counselor has arisen from among the others."
Her eyes widened. Flattery from the Emperor? "I am your servant, Sire."
"Don't contest with me, Senator. You are nothing of the kind. You are the force that has risen up to balance my power. A natural occurrence in the evolution of this war."
Oxham ordered herself to relax, trying to see into the man's mind. There was more in his words than flattery. She spoke carefully.
"I agree, Your Majesty, that the council has achieved a balance now."
He nodded. "That is its purpose, to be a microcosm of the Risen Empire. It must possess two parts, equal parts. But there are times when we must act together, you and I."
She realized that the Emperor had taken the first person singular. He had dropped the imperial we for plainer speech.
The garden darkened, and the Lynx's war prize appeared in synesthesia.
"Our elevated hero Laurent Zai has concerns about this Rix artifact," the sovereign said. "He believes it contains some sort of ghost of the Legis compound mind."
"A ghost, Sire?"
"A doppelganger. A copy, transmitter! trom Legis. Captain Zai has been rather convincing on this point. If he's right, the object is even more dangerous than the mind that occupied Legis. It contains all our secrets. And now it has a body as well."
"Lucky, then, that the good captain has captured it."
"We hope so. But the powers of this thing are unknown. It can change itself, Senator, at the lowest level of matter. Zai's journey to Home will take almost two subjective years, ten Absolute. We don't know what tests the Lynx may face over that length of time."
Senator Oxham frowned. The official reports that the council had received about the object had couched their conclusions in very speculative language. Oxham wished that she could retain outside scientific counsel, but the reports were wrapped in the hundred-year rule. She couldn't even access them outside the council chamber. "In fact," the Emperor continued, "it may be that the Lynx cannot control the object."
"Control it, Sire?"
"The Apparatus representatives on board the Lynx believe that the object may be exerting an ... influence. The thing is trying to subvert Zai's crew. There is grave danger."
What was the Emperor saying? Her empathy flared, and Oxham saw a bright shape in the Emperor's mind, a point coming to focus: the culmination of a plan.
"Sire, aren't there escort craft heading to rendezvous with Zai now?" she asked. Two smaller vessels had set out for Legis when the incursion began; they were now altering their paths, angling in behind the Lynx as it headed back toward Home.
The sovereign nodded. "Exactly. They will keep a greater distance from the object than the Lynx. And they will be under Imperial writ, outside of the usual chain of command."
She saw it in his mind: the cold point of closure. Victory. Revenge.
"What are their orders, Sire?"
"They are fabricating several high-yield nuclear drones. If the need comes, they will destroy the object and the Lynx in a surprise attack."
Nara Oxham felt blindness creep into the edges of her vision. Felt 279 her own emotions rise: anger and desperation. She knew finally that the sovereign wouldn't rest until Laurent Zai was dead.
"Sire . . ."
"Only if the need becomes immediate, Senator. I will make the final decision. I alone will take responsibility."
The first person singular again.
"Shouldn't the council discuss--"
"My oath is to protect the Eighty Worlds, Senator. Captain Zai's warning is clear in this matter: This object represents a great threat to the Empire, even to humanity itself.'"
She swallowed. The dead man was hanging Laurent with his own words. He would use them later to justify his decision. Now that he had warned her, the Emperor could even claim that he had consulted with his counselors before emergency action. Although he couldn't depopulate a world without the political cover of a War Council vote, the sovereign could certainly order a single frigate destroyed.
The people would remember that the Emperor had pardoned Zai. Making him a martyr would maintain a certain symmetry.
"I know you will keep this information confidential, Senator. The hundred-year rule still applies, of course, to this conversation."