"...ake up." The voice weaved its way through Domi's dreams, gauzy and far away. "Basilicus."
Then the whole world jerked. Domi snapped awake to hands shaking his shoulders, and the Trellis flared golden to reveal Comitas, bathed in a cascade of the Brightening light streaming through the window.
Domi squinted up at her. Her face, usually so composed, looked constipated. A moment later he recognized the pinched look as fear, even as she said, "Hurry, Basilicus. You must come with me now."
The urgency in her voice burned drowsiness away. He pushed his heavy covers aside and sprang to his feet like the city watch was raiding the wine bar back home again. "Where are we going?" he asked. "What's happening?"
She threw his wardrobe doors open and yanked an icy lavender tunica and paenula from their hangers. "Put these on, Basilicus. I will wait outside your door."
Domi blinked at her in shock, but she was already turning to leave.
What could be so urgent that she wasn't worried about the "indignity of a Princeps dressing himself?" At any other time, he would be thrilled to chuck that nonsense right out the window. But today it made his belly churn and his hands, as he dressed himself for the first time in the two weeks he'd been at the onyx palace, shook with nerves.
Outside, the Trellis glittered, of course. But what else was new? A man could only tackle one problem at a time. He hurried out his door and past the ever-present Electi to Comitas's side.
"Walk with me, Basilicus," she urged, already stepping down the corridor and nodding for him to follow. Her long strides forced him to almost have to jog to catch up, no easy feat in even a light informal tunica and paenula. She just nodded as he stumbled and swayed into her side. "Lean on my arm. You will need it."
He blinked. "Need--"
"Basilicus," a new voice said.
The glow of sapphire and gold out of the corner of his eye clued him in on who was joining them even before he turned and saw the mindholder. "Bellus." The man looked pristine and tranquil, like he had been awake for hours sipping tea in the palace garden or something. But Domi was starting to know him well enough to see past the mask to the man beneath. "What's wrong? What's going on?"
Comitas was the one who answered, that pinched look returning. "You have been summoned for an immediate emergency examination by Princeps Buccina. She is already here."
Domi felt the blood drain from his face. Outside, wispy clouds started gathering. "W-what?"
Bellus's dark eyes were more reassuring than the man's aedificans's. "I am going to try to teach you how to avoid a mindholder's prying," he said, his voice matter-of-fact and confident. Domi was not fooled, or at least his mind wasn't buying it. But he felt his body relaxing in response to the man's tone. "Lean on Erus Comitas. She will guide you as you walk."
"Why do I need her to guide--" He broke off, eying the wavering distortion of promenia pouring in through the marble walls.
It stopped a hair's width away from his skin, of course. He was too high rank now for anyone but the Rex and Princeps Mindholder to mess with him without permission.
And one of those people was here in the palace now.
"Let me in, Basilicus, please," Bellus said.
Domi nodded shakily, relaxing his will--something way harder than it should be, because what was the point of clinging to control if you couldn't actually control anything?--and the promenia surged toward him. Into him.
When Bellus next spoke it was in his head, the presence like cool water rushing between his ears. The single word dropped him out of the onyx palace's hallway and into a cascade of endless water. Basilicus.
Domi cringed in shock, but it was his mind that had been submerged, not the rest of him. All around him black water sloshed, turbulent under gossamer threads of illusory Trellis-light.
There there, you are well, Bellus soothed, already smoothing the thrashing waters into a dark spring. Calm yourself. This is just a teaching trance.
Domi no longer had a head with which to nod, but he tried his best to obey. They had done a longer version of this exercise every day these past two weeks. He tried not to think about how much more urgent it was now and instead held his thoughts as steady as he could, watching as the burbling stream began to gather at last into a pool.
When his thoughts subsided to no more than tiny ripples gliding over the mirror-like surface, Bellus continued. Here is how it will likely feel when she is sensing your thoughts... and delving into your memories.
Domi squirmed as the sensation of a breeze brushing over the pool's still surface shivered through him, and then shuddered at the feeling of something alien and unwelcome slamming into the glasslike surface and sinking into his thoughts. It took everything in his power not to reject Bellus and the man's promenia as he shuddered in revulsion.
She is a Princeps, Bellus's mindvoice said as it rose to the surface of his thoughts again with an apologetic tinge. I am not sure how her power will change the way it feels, but you get the idea. Now if you feel either of those things, then to avoid her detection you must flood your mind with other thoughts, like so.
Domi made himself breathe in and out as calmly as he could and focused hard on the images, phrases, and feelings Bellus showed him.
<>
"Good morning, Basilicus," the second most powerful person on Aquarius said.
Domi tried to smile. It felt watery. "Good morning, Princeps Buccina." It was hard to get his voice above a terrified whisper. He cringed as Comitas stepped from the room, wanting her nearby for the first time.
Outside the door, Sidus stood guard, speaking lowly to Valens. The starholder met his gaze and tipped his chin toward Buccina.
Domi turned with reluctance back to the woman seated, sipping tea, in the tablinum office. Green eyes pierced him above the lip of the goblet. Her whole pasty pale appearance and unnatural gaze gave him the creeps. It was all he could do not to shudder.
"Apologies are likely in order. The early hour cannot be pleasant." She folded her hands in her lap. "But as you know, our days begin early."
His heart felt disconnected from his body, a small, frantic animal trying to break free of his chest. "Yes, Basilicus." He summoned the image of the still pool of black water and the Trellis-light streaming through the window stopped wavering.
Buccina followed his gaze, looking troubled. Then she extended an arm to the chair placed before her like a watchwoman's interrogation set up. "Come," she said. "Sit. No need to be so formal. Do you know why I am here?"
He bit his lip as he lowered himself, shaky, into the seat. Dark water, he visualized. Dark water, golden Trellis gleaming overhead. "You want to look at my mind," he said at last and managed to sound more annoyed than afraid. Daedalus would get his royal undershorts in a twist over an insult like that, righ--
Dark water. Dark water, golden Trellis. There is a trellis in the garden. It is nothing like the Trellis in the sky. He forced himself to breathe in through his nose and out through his mouth, staring down the scariest person he had ever met.
"I do," she said. She sounded like she was talking to a small child. He felt like one, but it was not comforting. "It is my task today to see how you are doing and if you are well."
Irritation, even fake irritation, was easier to bear than fear. "You can just ask me, Basilicus," he snapped.
She offered a small, sympathetic smile. "Not today, dear boy. The Rex and I are concerned for you, Daedalus. I have been asked to take a closer look at your mind and ensure that all is well. Is this acceptable?"
"I don't have a choice," he pointed out. Yes, it was way easier to be annoyed than afraid. He focused on the feeling.
She sighed. "Alas, no. This is for your own well-being. Now, let me explain how this will work. This morning, I will not be looking at the content of your thoughts or memories, but their movement and structure. But it is impossible for me to be oblivious during this examination of some stronger surface thoughts and intrusive memories. However, there is no need to be worried. I will report general information to the Rex about the status of your well-being and any interventions I deem necessary. But unless I encounter thoughts or memories that endanger your life, such things will be confidential unless you wish to share. Yes?"
"If you have to."
"I have to."
He watched, petrified, as she summoned promenia and sent the wavering distortion toward him. His whole body was screaming at him to cringe back in the high chair but there was nowhere to go to get away. The particles entered him and he braced, heart in his throat.
There is a trellis in the garden and it is nothing like the Trellis in the sky, he reminded himself.
"Shh, Basilicus. I know that you are uncomfortable, but I am not going to hurt you. You have been examined by a mindholder before, haven't you?"
Bellus was the only other mindholder he knew. There is a trellis in the garden and it is nothing like the Trellis in the sky. He tried to picture the man's face, but the best he could do was summon a hazy impression of sapphire and gold.
"This will be over before you know it."
He could not feel anything she did. Not the passage of promenia through his veins, not the weight of her attention.
Wait, no. There was something, something hidden beneath the constant golden chorus of the Trellis, its burning weight. A sort of smoothness. A closeness. A stirring, caressing intimacy.
He squirmed in dislike. There is a trellis in the garden, he chanted, and it is nothing like the Trellis in the sky. His heart hammered at his ribs like a maddened rabbit trying to escape a hunter's trap. There is a trellis in the garden and it is nothing like the Trellis in the sky.
He tried to breathe as Val--as he had been taught. As Bellus and Lumen had taught-- No, Peritia. As Peritia had taught him. But it was impossible and the Trellis was flaring and--
"Hush, now," Buccina murmured in her soft, almost crooning voice. "I am almost done."
He watched her face in dread as she finally leaned forward, seeming to stare right through him like Arbita sometimes looked at her patients.
Emotions passed over her eerie pale countenance like ripples. A wince and a small nod. The furrowing of those fair, manicured brows, followed by compassion welling in those weird pear-green eyes. Then she frowned and her eyes narrowed as she leaned forward. Worry passed over her expression for a heartbeat, and then she inhaled sharply.
Then her promenia sifted back out of his head and, for a moment, hovered as a wavering distortion in the air that he could not see through with any clarity. By the time the particles dissipated a moment later, her face was composed. Still. Blank.
Domi shivered, eying her in terror. Just outside the door, he saw Valens cross to Sidus and bend his head, teeth clenched. The boy passed him something with a grave expression.
Buccina turned to look at Comitas. "I am going to report my findings to the Rex. I have two recommendations and two commands." She smiled at Domi, the look not reaching her eyes. "You are grieving, Basilicus, anxious, and severely burned out. I recommend more rest and fewer duties for a time. You may do as you wish within reason, but now is a good time for sleep, study, and practicing your breathing, not toil. I advise you to trust in the people you have around you to govern in your stead until you have your balance and bearings." She glanced back at the door, where Comitas stood just opposite of Valens and Sidus with a worried look. "Come, Erus."
The protocol handler stepped stiffly into the room, dread in every line of her face even as Domi sat in fearful confusion. "Yes, Basilicus?" she asked, stiff as a corpse as she bowed.
"My orders are to have his personal physician administer a very light sedative and his mindholder work with him until he can control his own anxiety. And until he does so, and I am satisfied that he is faring well, I want him to return to strict solitude."
Comitas relaxed a little, though she looked as confused as Domi felt. "Very well, Basilicus. I will see it done."
"And keep people away from him. All but you and other senior staff. Not his friends. I sensed some... romantic feelings. Now is a terrible time to risk indulging in such. We do not want him experiencing heights of emotion during this time of recuperation."
Domi could not even manage to feel embarrassed. He just wanted her gone.
Perhaps she sensed his thoughts again, or at least his desire, because she rose to her feet. "I will take my leave, now." She dipped her head to Domi. "Be well, Basilicus."
"A-alright."
As she departed, Valens stood, stiff and clenching his hand around something. And then his eyes met Buccina's and he blinked. She strode past, promenia ringing, and was gone.
Valens gritted his teeth as he and Sidus stepped into the room. "She knows," he said. "She sensed what I was going to do in an instant and made me forget, just for a moment there, as she walked past. There's no way she could have missed anything in Domi's mind. Not if she could bypass my protections so easily."
"What were you going to do?" He got a closer look at the thing in his aedificans's hands and gaped. An ornate silver, gold, violet, and black hilt. He'd seen a pair at the waist of every Electi in the palace. "Eyes devour! Were you going to kill a Princeps?" he hissed.
Valens frowned. "Not kill. Just disrupt her promenia long enough to capture her."
"And do what with her?" Domi asked. "She's a Princeps! Do you have any idea how powerful she is?" Eternal Radiance, Domi could destroy the whole world with practically a sneeze, and he knew next to nothing. He could not imagine what Buccina was capable of.
Valens shrugged. "I was going to toss her in the dungeon."
Comitas shook her head. "That would not have worked. She and the Rex renew the anti-promenia wards there themselves each year. That is why the wards can hold any Lightholder. Except them. You could not have held her."
Valens gritted his teeth. "Then we'd lock her in the old-fashioned way, throw away the key, and run."
"What do we do now?" Domi asked. His heart was still racing. "She... She knows about me. She has to."
"What can we do?" Comitas asked quietly. "Her orders were... odd. I do not know what she intends." She sighed. "For now, we must wait and see what she does. And prepare to flee if we must. Do you recall how to find the passage, Basilicus?
"Yeah."
For once, she did not correct him. "Good. Let us pray to the Eternal Radiance that we do not have to use it."
<>
Buccina had the most well-controlled mind on Aquarius. But today her thoughts were spinning.
The Princeps Worldholder is a younger twin. Sweet Eternal Radiance, a living younger twin. The Trellis yet stands and he is one of a living pair. How is this possible? What should I do?
There was one thing that she would not do. Not yet. Not unless it was absolutely necessary. If she revealed him, revealed them... She shook away the terrifying thought. No, she could not bear to contemplate it. Not yet.
"Where is the artist?" she demanded the moment she swept back into her palace, Electi fanning out away from her to their posts. She had left them outside the onyx palace, as was polite. Foolish. That worldholder aedificans had almost stabbed her. Easy to deal with, but still.
Buccina's elderly personal secretary, still bowing in greeting, straightened. "The western garden, Basilicus."
The Princeps Mindholder nodded. Lyra had recently arrived in the palace as her latest Artist In Residence, supposedly just one of many talented young people summoned to the capital to flourish beneath Buccina's patronage. The night-dweller girl was still adjusting to court life in Domus Sapphiri, the sapphire palace, and loved the day-side's mild Germinating. Buccina could not get her to stay indoors.
"Do you wish me to rearrange your calendar to accommodate a visit today, Basilicus? You are not scheduled for an appointment with the young Erus until Disciplina."
"Yes," Buccina said, pitching her voice to an airy capriciousness despite feeling nothing of the sort. "Commissioning a work when inspiration has struck is essential."
The old woman dipped her head. She was well-accustomed to her Princeps's eccentric behavior and random whims after ten years of service. Buccina had made sure of it.
The Princeps Mindholder made her way to the western wing of the palace, waving her hand at her Electi and attendants alike. "Leave me," she commanded. Bowing, they scurried backward, leaving her a clear path out down the lapis lazuli-tiled hallway and out to the garden.
She found the girl in the snow, of course, pick and file in hand. The young artist had no promenia to aid in her ice sculptures, but her visualization skills were well-honed and her hands had a talent for intricate work.
Which was a great relief. This ruse would be difficult to pull off otherwise.
The girl had not noticed Buccina yet. The fifteen-year-old swept loose wavy locks of dark brown hair over her shoulder and studied the glittering Trellis above her and then her latest creation, a lion of ice and snow. The mythological great cat crouched, fangs bared, and the warm Trellis light tinged its snowy fur golden. Tucking her lip between her teeth, the youth tossed her tools aside and bent to heap more snow into gloved hands, then packed it atop the beast's haunches.
Buccina cleared her throat and the girl's warm brown eyes jerked to her, growing fearful as they settled on the Princeps's illusory blond and buxom visage.
"Basilicus," Lyra said, rising to her feet and smoothing her black paenula over her dark jade tunica. Buccina despised the outlandish night-side fashion, dark and colorful, which made the girl look poor and nonbinary when she was neither, but she could not help but indulge Lyra. After all, who was she to criticize anyone for an unusual or false appearance? "What did the--"
Buccina held up a hand, and the girl fell silent, grimacing at the reminder. Lyra had lived most of these past fifteen years in strict seclusion in the night-side, and still forgot about what she could and could not do and say now that the Rex had commanded Buccina to summon her to Vola Apertus.
Buccina gave the girl a pointed look and swept promenia through the garden and sapphire palace. There were no minds in the immediate vicinity but her own and Lyra's. It was safe to speak. She nodded her permission.
Lyra swallowed, stepping toward her, boots crunching in the snow. Boots. She was wearing bloody boots. "What did the Rex say?" the girl asked again.
Buccina shook her head. "Nothing yet. But do not worry. He is not yet thinking about that right now, love."
Lyra looked doubtful. And scornful. Had Buccina been so testy at this age? "How do you know? You cannot read his mind."
Indeed, Decus was the one person on the planet whose mind she could not read. Not that it mattered. The old man's face was an open book. "I just know. You are safe."
Lyra bit her lip. "But the Trellis--"
"You are safe," Buccina said again, taking the girl's shoulders in hand. She waited until the young eyes looked up at her. "I will not let anything happen to you."
Lyra squirmed away, eyes flashing. "Like you let nothing happen to--"
"Do not say it," Buccina warned as her heart plummeted to a place of grief too deep for tears at the reminder. Such tiny hands, small enough to fit all four in my own at once... She pushed the memory away. There was too much at stake here and now to get lost in the past. "You must never speak of it. Never."
Lyra lowered her eyes, face darkening. "Forgive me. That was unworthy of me."
Buccina could never stay cross with the girl for long. "I forgive you." She sighed. "Now please go practice your breathing."
Lyra's head jerked up, golden cheeks paling. "You said--"
"Just in case," Buccina said gently. "I will do all that I can to spare you, but you know that you must be prepared."
"Yes, Mother."