“Catherine Bell Barahal.” A smile like regret wrinkled the corners of his eyes. “You should have been my daughter.”
I inhaled sharply. There was no reply to that!
He added, “Had she married me instead of Daniel, you could have been my heir. We might still manage it.”
“Your heir?”
“Like the didos of old, the queens of old Qart Hadast. Like Queen Anacaona. Is it so strange a thought? While it is true in these days most people in Europa would scoff at the thought of a woman ruling, that is purely due to local prejudice and current custom. You look surprised, Cat. You can’t believe a woman cannot rule just as well as a man. You met the cacica. You were raised in a Kena’ani household.”
“To rule as emperor is the wrong thing to wish for. We must work for Assemblies like the one in Expedition.”
He chuckled. “Do you believe you can demand Assemblies in every city in Europa and have them established overnight?”
“No, of course one battle will not win the war.” He had trapped me.
“It will take years, decades, more likely generations. Yet all might be accomplished swiftly if a single man could set it in place.”
“And then what? Retire gracefully, leaving the happy subjects to rule themselves?”
He sipped at his glass.
“I don’t believe you,” I said.
“You want to believe me.”
“I want to believe a lot of things! I want to believe my parents are alive and soon to be reunited with me. Is this what my mother feared? That you would claim me and pass me off as your own child? I won’t be your heir, and I’m not your daughter.”
In silence he studied me over the brim of his glass as if waiting for me to rethink my position and change my mind. But I was not to be trapped as Vai had been. I knew how to riposte.
“Did you love her?” I asked.
He drained the glass and set it down with a hard clunk. “You are not the only one to have lost those you held dear.”
“I’m sorry they aren’t with us now,” I replied quickly, for his spike of anger startled me.
“This is why you and I will never be done, little cat, for we are all that remains of them.”
“Maybe so. Anyway, as this war goes on, it seems we need each other.”
I went to the side table to slice bread and smear dollops of cheese on top.
Many scribes and storytellers have recorded the history of the world, each colored by its author’s own interpretation and illuminating only the part of the tale she feels is important or wishes to reveal. Stories tell us what we think we know about the world. Sometimes they share truth and knowledge, and sometimes they propagate lies and ignorance.
But words are only one road to change. The sword, which is not fighting but any form of action, is the other. Some cut a path that others may follow into the wilderness of possibility. The general saw not limits but unchained opportunity. I did not trust him, but I believed that, as Rory had once said, he said what he meant, and he meant what he said. At least in the moment he said it.
“What exactly is it you need me for, Cat?”
“Your legal code will release villages and clans from clientage. That’s what I need.” I offered him the plate. “Do you ever worry about your safety? Since I’m to be the instrument of your death.”
“Will I die because of a deliberate action on your part against me? Might you be the tool someone else will use to destroy me? Or is your refusal to be my heir the death of my hopes to set in place a successor whose ideals will match my own and thus improve the destiny of humanity?”
I laughed. “Oh, that was well played, General. But the answer is still no.”
He took several slices of bread off the plate. “You can’t possibly believe that I believe you came to me because you have been seized by an overwhelming desire to join my army.”
“We have a common enemy,” I said in a low voice.
He glanced again toward the door, then smiled with a confiding look that drew an answering smile from me. Was I so starved for affection that I would rub up against any hand that offered a friendly pat?