Blue stepped back into her chamber and walked over to the window. The running priest emerged from a doorway below, scattering a group of servants, and careered across the courtyard to disappear through an archway on the other side. He might be heading for the chapel or the kitchens or even the main entrance to the palace. But why was he running?
Blue chewed her lower lip. There was far too much going on she didn't know about just now. It had taken her days to find Pyrgus and heaven only knew what might have happened if someone else had found him first. Not that she entirely blamed herself – Pyrgus was unbelievably stupid sometimes and this bee in his bonnet about living as a commoner was about as thick as it got. A commoner. She shuddered. It took lifetimes of self-sacrifice to get born a prince and Pyrgus was prepared to throw it all away. Besides, he wasn't just a prince. He was Crown Prince. He should be learning how to rule instead of mixing with hoi polloi. Luckily he'd have her to advise him when he became Emperor, but even so…
Except it wasn't just Pyrgus. There was something going on between her father and the Faeries of the Night. Not just the recent discussions. There was something else. She could smell it. Too many comings and goings. Too many little chats in shadows. Too many strange faces at the palace. The other thing was that her father had stopped talking to her. Well, not stopped exactly. But if she tried to discuss politics, he changed the subject. If she so much as mentioned Faeries of the Night, he almost ran for cover. Even when she told him Black Hairstreak had it in for Pyrgus, he'd seemed more embarrassed than grateful. But at least he'd taken action, which was something.
Blue walked slowly back from the window and sat down at her dressing table. She stared at the ornate jewel case for a long moment. She'd never done this to her father before. But then she'd never had to. She reached out and fingered the clasp. Perhaps it was going a bit far. But then again, wasn't it going a bit far that her father had stopped confiding in her? What was a girl supposed to do? She flicked the clasp, but didn't open the lid.
Where was the harm? It wasn't as if she couldn't be trusted. It wasn't as if she was some sort of spy for the Nighters. She had Father's best interests at heart.
Everybody knew that. Even he knew that, if he cared to admit it. Besides, she was a Princess of House Iris. Third in line for the throne. Didn't that count for anything? Didn't that mean she should never be kept in the dark?
Blue stood up abruptly, walked across the room and locked her door. Princess of House Iris or not, what she was about to do was illegal and she would be in truly gigantic trouble if her father ever found out. Fortunately that wasn't very likely.
She walked back to the dressing table and opened the casket. After a moment, the psychotronic spider crawled out, its great eyes blinking in the light. The creature had a rainbow back, like a skim of oil reflecting sunlight. It crawled aimlessly around the dressing table for a moment, examining her brush and comb, lurking near her perfume bottles. Then it moved purposefully towards her, halted at the edge of the table and waited.
Blue reached for her little wicker sewing box. She hated this bit, but it had to be done. She took out a silver needle, licked her lips nervously, then pricked the tip of her finger. She wiped the needle clean and dropped it back into the sewing box. The spider seemed to quiver in anticipation.
Ignoring the pain, Blue squeezed the finger until a single drop of bright red blood welled up and dropped beside the insect on the table top. The spider turned towards it at once and began to feed. In a moment, the table top was clean again. Blue sat back and waited, willing her slim body to relax. Impatient minutes passed before – at last! – she felt the familiar scratching on the edges of her mind. The blood was the link, of course. Her blood, her mind. It was a small enough sacrifice, she supposed, but without it the spider was no more useful than an ordinary bug.
Blue closed her eyes and opened her mind. She felt the alien presence of the psychotronic spider at once, alert, cautious and strangely familiar. She reached out a mental tendril and stroked it gently. The spider wriggled and trilled like a kitten. It was ready to accept her. In her mind, she touched it, held it, felt it blend with her.
It was as if a shutter opened and light flooded through. Her perceptions suddenly expanded. She caught her breath and fought down the sudden excitement as she became aware of not just her room, but the whole upper storey of the palace, then the palace itself, then the island, then- Rein back! she told herself. This was the most dangerous time. If her perceptions continued to expand, she would be insane within minutes. Yet even knowing that, she wanted the expansion to continue. The feeling that went with it was like nothing else she'd ever experienced, an exhilaration that bordered on ecstasy. This was precisely why the use of psychotronic spiders was outlawed, even in the Imperial Espionage Service. Too many good operatives had ended up as cabbages, happily crooning to themselves as their minds examined distant reaches of the universe.
Rein back! She had a talent for it. Her curiosity, her need to know., had always been far stronger than the pull of pleasure. Now she imposed a focus that drew her attention away from the all and everything, back to the palace, back to her room. With a curious flicker, she saw the room through the eyes of the spider itself, all distorted planes and angles filled with giant furniture and sweeps of patterned textures. She released her mental grip a little and expanded again, but not too much. Now it felt only that she had escaped from her body and was rushing through a windswept tunnel to her goal.
An instant later she was standing in the private quarters of her father, Apatura Iris, the Purple Emperor.
There were two men in the book-lined chamber, her father himself and Gatekeeper Tithonus. Both were informally dressed and held brandy balloons, but the expressions on their faces showed this was no casual meeting.
' – did lose his temper. Both of us did,' her father was saying. 'But at least he listened. I think I may have you to thank for that.'
Tithonus shrugged. 'He's safe now. It's all that matters.'
'Indeed,' the Emperor nodded. 'But unfortunately that doesn't solve our problems.'
'No, sire, but it does simplify them a little,' Tithonus said smoothly. He set down his glass and turned to look directly at Blue.
The illusion was so real she felt she should duck behind a screen and hide. But she knew she didn't need to. However much it felt like she was here, her physical body was still in her bedroom. Only her consciousness was visiting and that was quite invisible.
'Any further intelligence on the troop movements?' her father asked.
Blue was instantly alert. Troop movements? She hadn't heard anything about troop movements. Who was moving troops? Her father? She'd have known. She was sure she'd have known. Besides, he wouldn't have used the word intelligence if he was talking about his own soldiers. Intelligence meant information collected by the Imperial Espionage Service. Information on somebody else's troop movements.
Even without her body, she felt a chill. There was something going on between her father and Black Hairstreak, negotiations that were supposed to heal the ancient rift between Faeries of the Light and Faeries of the Night. They'd been under way for months so far as she could gather. Until now she'd assumed it was the usual horse-trading, each side jostling for the best position possible, after which things would settle down for a few years. But troop movements meant something far more serious. Troop movements meant war. Or at least the threat of war. No wonder her father looked worried.