Chương 311: Fight Dirty

The evening is starting reasonably well. Only the usual number of surprises. The Freckentop advance group arrived to claim the prime seats for the royal family and found our 'reserved for' signs already in place. And, a conveniently-bribed venue docent standing right there with a bland, professional smile that encouraged the Freckentop delegation not to knock aside our signs. After all, etiquette is everything.

If there's no rules to this stupid games of station and prestige, we go right back to fighting real wars... ahead of schedule. This will be one of the last prospects for proscriptions of propriety to let me flaunt in Freckentop's faces, so I make the most of it. Going forward, we can expect decorum to degrade drastically. Well, more than it has. The floor is bare tile now, they've removed the carpet that was repaired and patched after Wendy's death.

I'm glad they did that, I got a sick feeling looking at that carpet and I know I'm not the only one. I start receiving messages referred to my extended family, Harigolds bringing me word that Grennick commends their respects, that Aumerje demands a conference at earliest convenience, and that representatives of House Pinking have brought a rather cryptic and coy message that seemed overall to be congratulatory but definitely hard to interpret.

My favorite catering server has drifted over with a tray full of water glasses, one of them quite full with a wedge of lemon, which I took and I chilled, and then I refilled the others, and I sent a couple of well-armed aides to make sure she got back to the catering kitchen without being bothered. She had her part to play also. There were the usual underhanded tricks.

Various people tried placing tracing sigils on some of my people, and various Harigolds that were pursuing their own agendas and plots would do the same. Assassins and bodyguards danced a deadly duel that largely composed simply of recognizing each other in time to do something about it. My sorcery added a layer of protection for our people within the reach of my radius. My business was not nearly the only scheme afoot or the only ambitions that were playing on this stage.

Most of them were rather for lower stakes, but to the counts and earls and extended families that had feuds to resolve and business to conclude and leverage to gather, their works were quite big enough for them. Scale is a strange thing. I am making my moves, and my brother his. We are twisting and shaping the Fashion Week format itself, which is going to dictate the loom on which all the rest of this season is woven. What events become important, which invitations should be avoided.

That creates an influence on which people will be in contact and what they will be talking about. We are doing this because he wants to steer the people towards holding daytime salons that I can't attend, whereas I'm trying to hold my powerbase in the evening galas. Also, he is trying to create a sense of patriotism among the military leadership, especially the popinjay pretenders who were promoted through patronage, but I'm building solidarity with the experienced middle ranks.

He is also encouraging a degree of social misogyny, and not being subtle about it. The dresses he's displaying all look like cake toppers, they're downy and gauzy and overdone, with the express intent of making it hard to take women seriously. By extension, to take me seriously. If he can guide fashion, he wants me to look ridiculous, even at the expense of every woman who follows these trends. I, obviously, am not eager to let that happen. So these is the forces that shape his and my conflict.

This is going to cause quakes and waves for anyone who already has a stake in the balance of military power, the fabric trade, real estate rentals versus holdings, catering companies or culinary accreditations, the mercury and zinc trades, perishable foods and storage spices, security at the march borders, or about a hundred different interests.

The moves we're making stir a lot of waters and shape the conflicts of hundreds of cities, dozens of fiefdoms, and those will ripple out and down, affecting millions of lives in ways we would never be able to expect or anticipate. And before we cross blades, it feels disrespectful for me not to at least acknowledge the consequences we are about to instigate.

So I let myself meditate on it, watching the lords and ladies and landed folk of all kinds as they pushed their plots and ploys and plays in the shadow of the stirring storm. And for every one of these schemes that succeeds or stumbles, some company or campaign is going to rise or fall and fortunes will be tilted. Then the barons and gentry and squires on down the line are going to have their assets and estates affected.

Every person in this room represents a hundred-thousand lives that are going to bend one way or another.

"Your ring is missing," Petunia pointed out.

"So it is. Right on time." There was a disturbance at the foyer, and tension snapped through the atmosphere like wires drawing tight. That of course would be the royal family, the only people around that can disturb the ambiance as much as I do. They swelled in like boats cresting choppy waters, the movement of party-goers rippled away like a bow wave ahead of a ship's prow to make room for the heralds ahead of the king and queen.

Following them was a procession of their children, siblings, uncles and aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews, and finally the retired king emeritus and his new wife and the dowager queen, his mother, who had that really soft grandmotherly look that only the really feisty old ladies can get away with. We were far enough back from the doors that the press of displaced persons did not force the Harigold cliques to move for them.

We just watched with barely-concealed enmity as the royals moved to join with the forward delegation of Freckentop house members. I craned to get a good view, but resisted the urge to fly. Gaining altitude would only undercut the image I'm working on. I nudged my cousin.

"Let me know if you can see the moment that someone tells him he's not getting his usual seats," I said.

"Classic," she said blandly. She could not pretend this was really her scene. She frowned just a bit, looking out across the room.

"I liked things when we would just argue about seats and start rumors about each other. It was all a lot simpler before you got here."

"Bah. Most of this was going to happen anyway. My arrival coincided with these events, neither I nor Nathan caused any of these changes."

"So you say," she sounded unconvinced. She wasn't going to say it to my face, but I've seen her a few times looking at me as if I am, somehow, even more than I seem to be. Which I totally am, but not in the way she's thinking.

"Oh, I think it just happened. He's got that scowl, at the chairs, now he's scowling at us over here." And that's as much time as we had before the room interrupted. Now that the royals were here, the pace picks up, and there is new energy in the requests, messages and promises that are being carried to me by my intermediaries, as well as reports from our own various spies and informants. I know that when I show up to a major fête that there's going to be lots of people interested in me.

Someone wants assurances about this program, someone else would like to open a dialogue about a mutually beneficial situation, someone besides has just heard a juicy rumor that they're sure would be interesting to me. When I stayed mobile I would normally field those the hard way, sorting through everyone that got in my face and trying to budget my time for each of them. But filtering it through trusted relatives lets me keep things more organized and more efficient.

The next step is to start selecting officers for certain situations and have them act in my stead and report to me after the fact. But for some things, only the face-to-face will do, and there is no time that is most likely to come up, than during Fashion Week. I was not surprised at all when a breathless earl stepped in front of a viscount that was about to tell me about the mining prospects in Jangale.

"Princess," the earl blurted, "there is a rather large coalition of Lesser Houses that have requested an audience, and two of Eyellon's grand earls are with them. I am told it is rather urgent."

"Ah," I said. Good, Rabert and Tiviti had done their parts. I can only hope the next part goes as planned, the timing is rather particular. And, hope that Trazom and Kurumi were able to do their parts just as well. I patted Petunia on the arm and strolled along, careful of my skirts. They were rather broader than usual, and added to the disorientation.

You would think that being two inches shorter would not make that much difference, but it is enough that everyone just seems to loom a little higher, and it's a little harder for me to find where I'm headed. But like a miraculous lighthouse, I spotted two glowing pink eyes and a mane of pink hair that I have braided several times. I zeroed in on Tiviti and headed straight for her. The assembly that was waiting for me was really rather impressive, even for this room.

I recognized the leaders and heads of a dozen Lesser Houses, and twice as many minor houses, along with two grand dukes from Eyellon. The Lesser Houses do not have any dukes, cadet branches all, but most of them do have an earl as their house leader, and by a strict reading of the guides of station, every one of them was my equal. The grand earls may feel like they actually outrank me, even.

I don't feel it is so, the only difference between a grand earl and a regular earl is the addition of that title and some legislated procedure about succession. In any case, it remains that this is not a crowd that I can buffalo or strong-arm, not that I intend to. And despite the fact that they have come to my doorstep demanding my attention, I show my gracious side, and curtsy first.

"Gentlefolk," I say, rising as they returned with bows, dips and curtsies of their own.

"There seems to be a matter that we all need to discuss, am I correct?" I raised an eyebrow, looking around for the spokesperson. A pair of blank-faced 'aides' came melting out of the crowd at my back, taking stations beside me. One opened a notebook like a real secretary, to take notes of the goings-on.

I am known to be well-capable of taking care of myself, even though nearly every one of the earls before me had brought at least one bodyguard or armed escort with them, but still it is good form to have guards of one's own, it drastically changes perceptions. And right in this moment I'm at a big disadvantage looking tough, so the two armed assistants are a nice touch. They bracket me like very tall bookends.

And, both paradoxically and conveniently, having obvious bodyguards flanking me makes me look even more harmless. Being protected makes me look like I need protection. We're managing my image here. The spokeswoman for the assembly was the head of Pailser, a house that I've been on rocky ground with for a while. She's new, just took her office from her predecessor about two months ago, and I think she's still feeling the pressure to prove herself worthy.

She was medium height, and normally I would just be happy to not be towered over, but on this day I'm a couple inches less than medium height and so she towers over me anyway. Well, not towers, but definitely she enjoys the psychological advantage of altitude. She shoots a look at the Eyellon representatives, and gets the signal she's looking for. She's stepped herself forward as the speaker but she is waiting for marching orders from the Central House. That byplay is pretty easy to read.

"Princess," the Pailser earl said, pronouncing it the way some people do, canted upwards to sound childish and frivolous, "it has come to our attention that your interfief project, the road made of rails, has begun construction. Now, the agreements that you cut with the marquis of Tumnassed and the dukes of Anquarry and Woadrun were very thorough, but it seems that there are lots of landholders and fief-keepers that do not answer to them and have not been consulted.

For example, I hold lands in Tumnassed that are scheduled for your construction, but I hold no liege to the marquis there. As it turns out, my situation is not only not unique, but is actually frightfully widespread! In fact, princess, your slated construction takes you through hundreds of borders that you have not consulted on-""Now hold on," I said, hands out to stall her.

"I did my due diligence. And every one of the dukes and marquises that I treated with does have the right within their province to authorize roads and highways built, they do not need to negotiate with every manor along the route, provided the highway does not destroy or infringe on existing features, settlements or resources. And that is what we have done. This is a road. Surely you understand the precedent for building a road." Tiviti stood close enough to the earl of her house, Elyrga, to lend visible support.

She was positioned like a protective escort, with her hands tucked into her stole, ready to draw concealed weapons. She did not look at me as if she recognized me, and I did not look to her either. Rabert was next to the Tsilven earl, who was looking quite amused at these events. He was the one whose house I destroyed in my first outing as the Debt Collector, but he will never know that. But the spokeswoman from Pailser merely smirked, tilting her chin up to more thoroughly look down on me.

"The dukes and marquises are authorized to build roads in their provinces, but you are not, and the gentlefolk that you are trampling like an underclass are within their rights to refuse your intrusion. Not everyone appreciates your methods, or what you represent." She's good. This is almost precisely the script that we decided on to circulate among them. The hard part was keeping them from finding out that it's my script being parroting back at me. From behind her, the Kadot leader spoke up.

"And the contracts that were signed never stated anything about bringing in outside labor! It should be assumed that local construction uses local people, and pays wages to local treasuries!"

"And pays taxes to local coffers," added the Tarratan representative as a snarky aside. There was a lot of nodding here. The Pailser woman crossed her arms haughtily.

"And, until you see fit to treat the Lesser Houses as institutions worthy of your respect, I think you'll find hundreds of borders will be closed to you and your iron road. Now, if you would like to discuss the path by which you can fix this, I suggest that your secretary there jot this down for you. On Threeday of -""Not quite so fast," the Skerlat earl said.

"Rather than taking a percentage of the construction costs, I would be interested in deferring an equal amount of taxes that my vassals pay to the Meadowtam duchy. If we can work out an arrangement for-" Ah. My cue. I made sure I was channeling the snake for this conversation, I need to speak with the forked tongue and lie right in plain sight.

So here I am with my hands full with messages and affairs of society and state, everything that needed the stamp of approval from the woman who spoke on behalf of the Duke of Meadowtam here in Hearstcliff. And I had my back turned when the man who is, by the same token, second in line to speak on behalf of the Duke, approached me from behind. If nothing else, I would recognize him from his jacket. Tiviti took this moment to detach herself and walked away, towards the stage.

"Crown Princess," said an icy voice behind me. A familiar voice. I glanced over my shoulder, and groaned theatrically.

"Huh. You're supposed to be backstage with your girls and the dresses and all the rest." His face was unimpressed.

"I found one of your friends sneaking around. Backstage, with all the girls and their dresses." He squinted at me, fingers twitching, drumming on his leg then rustling through his hair.

"This sure is an important night for both of us, but I think that a certain degree of civility is to be expected." He paused, and seemed to just now notice the surroundings.

"My lords, my ladies. I offer my apologies for interrupting, but this is a matter of urgency. I shall be returning my sister to you in moments." I turned to put my back to the assembled earls, crossing my arms and glaring at him.

"Look, I don't know who you caught back there, but that's really not any-""Natalie, playing stupid won't make me play along as well," he said, tugging his lapels, straightening the woolen jacket.

"I understand why you're desperate. You've put a lot of work in, and you're so close. But you need to know when things are finished. This is finished. You're finished." I raised my chin, glaring up at Nathan. He's always been a few inches taller than me, and right now more than ever, but I scoffed a laugh anyway. The earls standing behind me started to murmur amongst themselves.

"You know damn well we're just getting started. I don't know who you caught backstage, but I hope for their sake you're treating them better than you treat those models you've got working for you." Frozen in place, his glare rested heavily on my face.

"You don't know- " he paused, and a flicker of his eyes took in the earls arrayed behind me.

"You tell whatever rumors you like. If you want to fight dirty, if you want to sink to that level, see fit. But understand that from now on, I'm fighting dirty as well."

"You? Fight dirty?" I let my skepticism drip. He leaned in on me, his mouth only a half-inch from my ear, his hand clasped on my shoulder. In front of those house leaders we had assembled, I froze up, unable to say anything. For many long seconds, he murmured into my ear, a message just from him to me. His breath puffed against my hair as he whispered, and when he stood straight again his eyes glittered with satisfaction. He released his grip and I staggered.

"You should not have pushed me, Natalie," he said, louder, and he turned on his heel, stalking towards the stage. I did not watch after him, I just stood, with my arms folded around my middle. My head tipped forward, my hair swayed forward over the sides of my face. The aide 'secretary' stood awkwardly to my side, then he tore away a page of shorthand notes from his notebook and crumpled them, folding his notebook. At least there won't be a record of this.

"Hmm, drama," said one of the Eyellon representatives, with relish and appreciation. And a staggering lack of taste. I took a long breath in, let it shiver back out. I squared my shoulders and took another breath. Taking my time, taking it easy. Control. Some people were less patient for my attention.

"Your Grace, the issue of this railroad should be resolved quickly before those workers move any further," insisted the Tsilven earl.

"And this may not be the best-" I turned, with rivers running down my face.

"Your lordships," I said, my voice held far too steady.

"I would like to schedule a future date to continue this discussion." My face was firm but I was helpless to stop the mascara tracking down my cheeks. My whole eyes rimmed in red, my breath catching in my throat, and thick tears poured through carefully-applied powder.