Hegemony at Dalou: First Centurion Kosnett, Book 3 by Blaze Ward

Author:Blaze Ward [Ward, Blaze]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knotted Road Press

Thirty

Ellariel-jo Orbital Palace

Makara drank some of the tea rather than answer. The honest answer was so obnoxious as to be irrelevant. To serve. Except that service came with a price. Commanding Morninghawk meant that the fourth son was always lesser than his brothers. As it should be, with Dalou culture. At the same time, freer, because he was only a Heavy Escort, and nobody important.

He’d certainly fucked that up by sailing into Vilahana.

He could say any of a number of things right now, all of which would be true.

None of them would be honest.

And yet, the man across the table had demanded that he speak freely. Damned if you do. Damned if you don’t.

And when was the next time the Shogun was going to be so foolish as this?

“My ship and my crew are both hard-won successes,” Makara replied finally. “The fourth son of Omarov was always viewed as unlucky. Thus my brothers command Wraithruin, Kestrel, and Wraithhawk. I was raised on duty, sir. And strive to fulfill it to the best of my ability. At Meerut, that came with costs, but Heather saved me from having to pay them.”

“Heather?”

“Command Centurion Lau,” Makara said automatically. He thought of them as Phil and Heather, in spite of their official titles. “Captain of the Aquitaine flagship Urumchi. Between her, the squadron, and the Yaumgan Immortal Zhang Guolao, I was not called upon to fulfill my oaths.”

“But you would have,” the Shogun pronounced quieter than he had at any point so far.

Makara shrugged. He would have. Had given the order, and expected it to be his death.

In that one thing, at least, he had failed.

Makara could live with that failure, though he supposed that more enemy captains might have nightmares about Morninghawk these days, to quote Beridze’s line just before that battle.

The Shogun watched him. It was not unlike the Emperor doing the same. He wondered if this man was also operating without a net or a plan.

They all seemed to be, caught up in circumstances greater than any of them and at risk of being carried down the side of a mountain while trying to stay ahead of a wall of snow.

For Makara, that was almost a way of life, whereas the others still seemed to be trying to find a new equilibrium.

There was none. Phil Kosnett has assured that.

“I would ask what you need of me,” Makara said. “For now, that seems to be, as your daughter said, to embody all that Morninghawk implies. I can do that. Afterwards, I will go back to what I have always been.”

“And that is?” the man asked.

“The fourth son of a minor lord of a lesser Komyo, Shogun,” he said. “Nobody that matters, save that I have a duty and I will fulfill it.”

“And a promotion of any kind threatens to take you away from the place you most desire,” the Shogun of Dalou spoke.

“In serving Kosnett’s will, I serve yours,” Makara fell back on platitudes. The man had cut him almost to the quick.

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