Hammer and Crucible Cameron Cooper (web ebook reader TXT) 📖

Somewhere in the palace, we would find Ramaker. Between us and the palace were hundreds of people.

My steps faltered as I saw the number of people in the park already. Then I relaxed as I realized that most of them were busy raking and picking up leaf litter.

“Imperial Shield,” Juliyana murmured, coming up level with me. “Supervising.”

“Maintenance cadre,” I said back. “There are Rangers moving around the palace. I can see them from here. We’re not out of place. We were checking the perimeter per orders, if we’re asked.”

We weren’t asked. We moved down the length of the lawn, the fountains playing on our left, moving around the workers and nodding at the Shield guards.

Many people worked diligently to clean and tidy this side of the palace. I had to assume there was triple the amount on the other side, where the Emperor’s gaze, and those of his family and friends, would fall.

A stretch of hard, smooth medium separated the grass from the palace itself. Rangers and Imperial Shield—house guard cadre, by their collar crests—crisscrossed the hardscape, their boots tapping softly on the gleaming surface. On either side, wide tunnels, which were almost domes of their own in size, led to the domes beyond. I was vaguely familiar with the layout of the city from my few visits here. “Administration district to the right,” I said to Juliyana in a conversational tone. “The Lionheart district to the left, where everyone the Emperor wants close by lives.”

Each tunnel had checkpoints in them, where wrists were scanned. Anyone without a security level high enough was turned back at those points. Forcefully, if necessary.

All the perimeters were guarded by the Imperial Shield, but Noam had been certain he could mask our illicit entry. So far, no alarms had sounded. No groups of armed Imperial Shield personnel were running toward us.

Juliyana had fallen into the long-legged, hip swinging stride and upright carriage that marked the Ranger cadres who worked in deep space and in high gee conditions. I presumed it was the uniform that had imparted the habit of bearing herself upright. Technically, she was still an active Ranger. It wasn’t all that long ago she had been reporting for duty, standing at attention for role calls and duty rosters.

Then I realized that I was walking just as she was.

We looked like authentic Rangers. Was that why no one spared us a second glance?

With a deep breath I turned into the tunnel that ran straight into the center of the palace and the public assembly and meeting rooms there. In the middle of all the public areas was the famous central diorama, displaying the artifacts of an empire, with its multi-hued dome shedding rainbows across a floor of burnished coral.

“Here we go,” I breathed to Juliyana as we moved down the wide corridor to the security gates.

23

The Imperial Shield guards manning the security gates were busy scanning the few early members of the public who had arrived for the day. Noam had educated us on the intricate and detailed arrangements for the birthday honors. There would be a dozen parties inside the palace tonight, all of them feasts with dozens of courses, music, dancing and glittering guests wearing a small colony’s annual revenue in jewels and the latest fashion.

Some of the people waiting to go through the security gate carried boxes and garment bags, baggage and accessories, which were all screened and prodded carefully. That explained the delay even this early in the morning.

Juliyana and I joined the end of the line and waited our turn. My heart picked up pace.

The media would also be in attendance at the parties and around the palace—a very select group of representative journalists and reporters who were screened down to the DNA before being granted one of the few media passes to the events inside the palace. Media were processed through a separate gate, for which I was grateful. Media hounds remembered faces and mine had been plastered across the empire.

The guards were too busy processing people to look at our faces. We wore the peaked caps of a Ranger formal uniform, which shaded our faces, and if they noticed us at all, it was as Rangers, not as individuals.

The day was only going to get busier for them. It was human nature they would relax and go through the motions now. Besides, no perimeter alarms had been raised, no alerts had gone out. It was inconceivable to them that anyone who shouldn’t be able to reach this far into the palace could possibly do so. The Imperial Shield had a near-perfect reputation for protecting the Emperor.

I leaned toward Juliyana and began a nonsense conversation about a book I was reading and the family reaction to the last null-grav game. Juliyana picked up on it and gave me shit about a team she plucked from the roster and used as my favorite. I knew nothing about null-grav games, but she was a fan. I let her carry the burden of the conversation. Noam had not been able to learn for certain what security measures were used at this gate, but it was not inconceivable they would have microphones dotted on the approach to the gate, to listen into conversations. It would look odd if we just stood there with clenched jaws.

So we chatted about nothing. I learned inside a minute that the team Juliyana had given me as my favorite was having a disastrous year. Of course. I grinned openly when she gave me another ribbing about their lack of hopes.

We stepped up to the gate as the last person was let through. I nodded—Imperial Shield and Rangers do not salute each other. In the Shield’s opinion, Rangers are a lesser breed.

Only I had a Colonel’s pips and a combat shield on my collar. That earned me a grudging amount of respect.

I held out my wrist and clenched every muscle in my arm to stop my hand from shaking as