A Rising Thunder

happens.

Honor seemed unaware of that quick scrutiny, although Elizabeth knew better.

“I think we should go meet our guests, Your Grace,” she said.

“I think that’s an excellent idea, Your Majesty,” Honor agreed.

* * *

“And just who’s minding the store back home while you gallivant around the galaxy?” Elizabeth asked the better part of an hour later.

“Floyd has things under control, I’m sure,” Benjamin replied, waving his iced tea glass cheerfully. “I won’t say he was delighted with my decision to go traipsing off, but the way I see it, it’s good practice for him.”

Elizabeth hadn’t personally met Floyd Kellerman, the Chancellor of Grayson, but she’d exchanged quite a few messages with him, and William Alexander had met him. On that basis, she suspected Benjamin was rather understating Kellerman’s reaction. The Protector had chosen him as Chancellor because of his native ability, but he wasn’t quite forty yet, and some of Grayson’s more senior steadholders tried to bully him into doing things their way…especially if they thought Benjamin might not notice.

“Saying Floyd wasn’t ‘delighted’ is something of an understatement, dear,” Katherine Mayhew pointed out dryly, confirming Elizabeth’s suspicions. “I think he was of the odd opinion that things like negotiating treaties with allies is the reason you have a Foreign Minister.”

“Such a stodgy, conventional attitude.” Benjamin shook his head mournfully. “Besides, Uriah’s busy.”

“Oh?” Elizabeth cocked her head. She had met Brother Uriah Madison, the Grayson priest Reverend Jeremiah Sullivan had personally recommended to Benjamin when Lord Berilynko, the previous foreign minister, retired, and she’d been impressed with him. “I wondered why you sent Michael to initial the draft agreements instead of Brother Madison. Is this one of those things another head of state can ask about, or should I remain tactfully incurious?”

“Actually,” Benjamin said, “I sent Michael instead of Uriah for two reasons. One was that given the potential objections some of the more recalcitrant Keys are bound to nurse about concluding peace with someone we’ve been fighting for so long, I wanted a Mayhew personally involved in the treaty process. We’re still a very traditional people, Elizabeth, and the Mayhew name carries weight. With Mike’s signature on the treaty, it’s going to take a particularly hardy steadholder to oppose ratification.”

“I can see that.” Elizabeth nodded. The Winton Dynasty had been known to use family members as plenipotentiaries for much the same reasons. For that matter, that was precisely what she’d done, in a way, by sending Honor to negotiate with Haven.

“And, secondly,” Benjamin continued, “given the, um, rapidity with which events seem to be moving, I needed Uriah to talk to someone else.” His eyes met Elizabeth’s. “From a few ‘purely exploratory’ feelers which have been extended my way, I think Walter Imbessi might like to mend some fences. And since we appear to be in the process of fence-mending in general, I thought it might not be a bad idea to see just what he had in mind.” He smiled faintly. “Which, of course, puts everyone involved in what I suppose we might call a delicate position.”

“I can see where you could put it that way,” Elizabeth said dryly.

She sat back, frowning thoughtfully while she considered her response. Walter Imbesi was not, to put it mildly, universally beloved in the Star Empire, given his role in the Republic of Erewhon’s withdrawal from the Manticoran Alliance. Not to mention the mutual defense treaty Erewhon had then signed with the Republic of Haven…just in time for the war between Manticore and Haven to start up again. No Manticoran (including Elizabeth Winton) doubted that the technical exchanges which had accompanied that defense treaty explained quite a bit of Haven’s technological improvements since the shooting had resumed, which was the reason Manticore had hammered the Erewhonese with massive trade penalties. At the same time, the Star Empire had permitted Erewhon (which had declared neutrality during the current hostilities, since Haven had reinitiated them without being attacked first) to continue using the Junction and even trading with the Star Empire itself.

Which, she admitted, was mainly to keep the door open a crack. A point of which anyone as sharp as Imbesi has to’ve been aware.

“So you really think he wants to — how did you put it? ‘Mend fences’?” she asked.

“I think he never really wanted them in such disrepair in the first place, actually.” Mayhew’s tone was serious. “Let’s face it, Elizabeth. From Erewhon’s perspective, and especially without knowing hostilities were about to resume…”

He shrugged, and Elizabeth nodded.

“I know.” She sighed. “I never blamed Erewhon as much as a lot of other Manticorans did. It was High Ridge’s fault, and I know you were warning Descroix the whole time about where their so-called foreign policy was leading. So was I, for that matter! I even know Imbesi was pissed off as hell when Pritchart went back to shooting at us. That still isn’t going to make it easy for Erewhon and the Star Empire to do some kind of sweetness and light kiss-and-make-up!”

“Granted. And unless I’m mistaken, that’s not what Imbesi has in mind, exactly, either.”

“No?” She raised an eyebrow. “Then what does he have in mind?”

“Obviously, there wasn’t much time for back-and-forth exchanges before I climbed aboard ship to come visit you,” Benjamin pointed out. “You know Havlicek, Hall, and Fuentes have been using Imbesi as their theoretically unofficial point man with both Haven and Congo, though. My impression is that someone in Haven — or possibly Congo — dropped a partial summary of what Captain Zilwicki and Agent Cachat brought back from Mesa on their friends in Maytag, and I think the Triumvirate’s concluded that this corner of the galaxy’s about to get a lot lonelier and more dangerous. They don’t want to be caught out in the cold, so they’ve reached for their ‘unofficial’ go-to guy to do something about that.”

“I said I don’t blame them as much as a lot of Manticorans do. That doesn’t mean I’m feeling especially fond of them. On a personal level, at least, the thought of their catching a chill doesn’t exactly break my heart.”

“Trust me, the same thought crossed my mind.” Benjamin smiled thinly. As Manticore’s major military ally, the Grayson Space Navy had taken its own losses at the hands of improved Havenite combat capabilities. “As you say, though, that was on a personal level.”

“I know.” Elizabeth grimaced. “And we’ve had our own unofficial interface with them through Congo and Torch all along. It’s not as if we don’t have any common ground anymore. That’s why I proposed Torch as the site for that summit meeting Eloise and I were going to have before the assassination attempt. For that matter, Erewhon’s backing for Torch is bound to attract this Alignment’s attention in its direction, isn’t it?”

“True. And then”—Benjamin glanced casually around, as if reassuring himself even here that no one but Katherine was close enough to overhear them—“there’s Smoking Frog.”

Elizabeth looked at him for a moment, then nodded.

“Point taken,” she said quietly. “And I won’t pretend I wouldn’t like…a little more insight into Barregos’ plans, let’s say. Not to mention the fact that an, ah, understanding with the Maya Sector would do quite a bit for our own security on that flank. For that matter, Maya has to be even higher on Mesa’s list than Erewhon, after the Battle of Congo!”

“Exactly what I was thinking. And I don’t doubt Imbesi’s thinking the same way. Among other things, the man’s almost terminally pragmatic. He’d have to see the possibility of brokering a relationship between us and Maya as a way of getting back onto acceptable terms with all of us.”

Benjamin had that right, Elizabeth reflected. When it came down to it, no one in the galaxy was more pragmatic than the Erewhonese. Except, of course, that all the pragmatism in the universe didn’t change that inflexible Erewhonese view that a deal was a deal — the very attitude which had led to so much anger on Erewhon’s part when the High Ridge Government chose to effectively ignore its responsibilities to its allies.

“When they sign on, they do have a tendency to stay signed, don’t they?” she said out loud, and Benjamin nodded.

“More than some star nations I could mention, anyway,” he said. “Speaking of which, how are the Andermani taking all of this?”

Elizabeth gave him a pained look.

“That wasn’t the most diplomatic segue in the history of statesmanship, Benjamin.”