4

The Solitary Lodge was an intentionally rustic structure, a two-story building of raw wood and glass built on the edge of a lake at the heart of a planetary park. To Kira, the defensive screens shimmering in front of the large windows and the armor behind the wood were obvious, but the defenses were subtle.

Most civilian craft from the Outer Rim would never have picked up the anti-spacecraft missile batteries concealed in the woods around the Solitary Lodge, either. Kira’s transport was a Brisingr-built combat shuttle, however, and the weapons in the forest stood out like sore thumbs.

The Lodge had been quieter the last time she’d visited. Her shuttle had been the only one parked on the concrete pads concealed beside the old-fashioned dock. Today, a dozen small spacecraft and aircraft were parked on the water—some of them directly, bobbing away on floating pontoons.

Given that the Lodge’s two outer buildings were storage for watercraft and aircraft, that suggested there were more people there than the concealed haven was really designed to hold.

That said, there were several large open spaces carefully maintained around the house. As Kira and Zoric made their way up the dock toward land, Kira spotted that hand-carved wooden bridges had been laid over the brook that wrapped around the south side of the Lodge, connecting the two main green spaces to allow for a larger party.

There were at least three dozen people scattered across the Lodge’s grounds, gathered in small clumps of conversation as half a dozen human servers made their way through with serving trays.

Kira noted Zoric examining the servers with a watchful eye and concealed a grin.

“It’s one of Sonia’s parties,” she murmured to the other woman. “Every server is a commando.”

She’d worked with several of Redward’s elite army troops before. Their dedication to their missions was impressive—and one of their missions was the protection of their monarchs.

And unlike most of Redward’s citizens, the commandos knew damn well how much Queen Sonia did.

Kira had barely finished the thought before they reached the end of the dock and the Queen of Redward herself appeared. The delicately tall woman was wearing a dark pink sundress that showed off her athletic frame perfectly, and gave the two mercenaries a genuine wide smile.

“I’m glad you were back in time to make this party, Kira,” Sonia told her. “Welcome back to the Solitary Lodge. Welcome to the Solitary Lodge, Kavitha.”

“Do you hold a lot of events out here?” Zoric asked after a modicum of a curtsy. Both of the mercenary officers wore a dark jewel-green jacket over the monochrome, temperature-regulating shipsuit of a spacer. For this situation, the shipsuits were a slightly iridescent black that rippled in the sunlight and offset the jackets perfectly—but they were still entirely functional.

“More during the local summer,” the Queen replied. “It is a bit too far north here for winter activities other than hunting and skating, and neither Larry nor I are fond of either.”

From what Kira understood, a significant number of King Larry’s ancestors had been avid hunters and there was a network of lodges like this across the planet, part of the royal family’s personal wealth.

Larry’s distaste for hunting meant that many were barely used by the royals—a significant number were being rented out as hotels and tourist stops these days.

Of course, anyone who took the rotund monarch’s dislike of hunting helpless animals for weakness had learned better by now, Kira hoped. Redward might be only one of sixteen signatories to the Syntactic Cluster Free Trade Zone and only one of the three recognized Major Powers of the FTZ, but there was no question in anyone’s mind that the system was first among equals.

And while King Larry was a constitutional monarch, limited by law, tradition and personal morals alike, it was his hand behind that creation. Though the cheerfully charming woman in the comfortable dress in front of Kira had definitely had her part in it!

“Come. The staff will complain if I don’t introduce you to their food before anything else!”

* * *

An impressive defensive array of tables had been assembled around a massive six-grill barbecue. The whole culinary fortification backed onto the brook, protecting the chef working away at the grills from excessive complaints or compliments.

Compliments, Kira suspected, were more likely. She wasn’t entirely sure what the meat used in the burgers was, but it smelled heavenly enough to convince her to try one.

“Huh,” she said after swallowing the first bite. “I’m impressed.”

“You weren’t expecting to be?” Sonia asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I grew up on handmade and hand-spiced mutton burgers my father made,” Kira replied. “I don’t trust anyone’s burgers to come close enough to be acceptable. This is…acceptable.”

The Queen laughed.

“I will attempt to phrase that more delicately to Em Caballo,” she said. “She thinks she might have made the best burger in the known galaxy.”

“Well, if it helps, I think she’s right,” Zoric said. “Damn, that’s good.”

“I will leave you to your food for the moment,” Sonia told the mercenaries. “Almost no gathering at the Lodge is without ulterior motives, but today’s are minor. Enjoy, ladies.”

Kira concealed a smile at Zoric’s momentarily pained expression as the Queen swept away. A pair of nonbinary local businesspeople swept in on the Queen like hovering vultures the moment Sonia was clear of the mercs, which earned a different pained expression from the mercenary Captain.

“I figured when it was out here,” she murmured to Zoric. “Though the crowd is diverse. Most of the people here are… Well, they’re the people I expect to want to talk to the Crest delegation in detail.”

“You know these people?” Zoric gestured around.

“Most of the Redward people by sight and name,” Kira admitted. “There aren’t many I’ve had an actual conversation with, but I’ve met most of them.

“So have you,” she reminded Zoric.

“I guess. I’ll admit I’ve only paid attention to the military people at the parties you’ve brought me to,” her business partner replied, shaking her head. “I mean, it makes sense that we’re considered movers and shakers in the business world, but…”

“But we’re still soldiers, even if we’re soldiers for hire?” Kira finished. She took a moment to focus on her burger while Zoric considered that.

“I guess. Which makes me wonder what ‘ulterior motives’ Her Majesty has.”

“Well.” Kira looked around the crowd, considering the people she did know—and the ones she didn’t know but could identify by the angular projections of Crest-style clothing.

“Most people here are civilian infrastructure,” she concluded after a second. “Executives or major shareholders of companies that build large-scale ground, air or space facilities. Then, of course, we have the female and enby portion of the Bank of the Royal Crest delegation.

“Most of the ulterior motive I see here is giving the non-male members of that industry a slight edge in meeting their counterparts in the BRC group,” Kira noted. “There’s a lot of work on the table right now, across the Cluster but mostly focused in the Costar Clans Systems.”

When Kira had first arrived in the Syntactic Cluster, the Costar Clans had been the major source of military actions in the area. The inhabitants of four marginal-to-doomed systems, they had survived by building the cheapest possible nova ships and stealing from everyone.

Redward had occupied those systems as part of finalizing the creation of the Free Trade Zone. They had the potential to help make the Kingdom of Redward an unimaginably rich five-star-system power—or to drag King Larry and Queen Sonia’s nation into complete bankruptcy trying to keep their promises.

“So, Her Majesty wants to, what, handicap men in the bidding process?” Zoric asked.

“Not quite.” Kira shrugged. “My own experience is that everybody, generally, listens to people of their own identifications more easily. Since Redward has a somewhat more male-dominated industrial and economic space than most, that can have a feedback loop effect that closes out everybody else.

“So, Queen Sonia uses the power of her position to enable women and enbies to talk to each other and form their own connections in an enabling space.”

“Huh. Despite being here for years, I hadn’t noticed that until you pointed it out,” Zoric admitted. “I’ve seen worse sexism in the galaxy.”

“I don’t think it’s even sexism so much as just like preferring to talk to like,” Kira said. “Human nature. Like the fact that we’re hanging out near the buffet table, talking to each other, rather than meeting the people around us.”

Zoric chuckled.

“I’m not sure who here we need to meet,” she admitted. “But from what you and the Queen said, I imagine there is at least one person we should.”

“Almost certainly,” Kira agreed. “So, I suggest we each grab one of those iced teas at the end of the table—the Lodge’s staff makes amazing iced tea—and go see who we can find.”

OceanofPDF.com