Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson [160]
Estarra raised her eyebrows. "Because Peter and I are being held under house arrest. The Chairman doesn't want us speaking to anyone."
Although her instinct to deny this statement was automatic, Sarein had seen the changes herself. Caught up with emergencies and disasters, Basil had been ignoring her, too, making excuses when she wanted to spend an evening with him or slip into his bedroom late at night. Always before, he had used her as a sounding board for advice. Now it seemed that the Chairman didn't want to listen. From what Sarein had heard around the Hansa HQ, Basil had stopped listening to everyone.
Estarra seemed deeply disturbed. She didn't seem to care that the guards overheard. "Among other things, the Chairman feels that Peter overstepped his authority by ordering a swift response during the compy emergency."
Eavesdropping, Captain McCammon made a gruff noise. "King Peter saw the threat of the Soldier compies long before anybody else did. The Chairman should reward his foresight, not punish him."
Sarein was about to snap in annoyance. If guards had to be so close, they should at least pretend to be unobtrusive! Estarra, though, looked sweetly at McCammon. "Captain, I'd appreciate it if you could give my sister and me some privacy."
"We'll keep our distance, Your Majesty." He gallantly gestured for the Queen and Estarra to walk ahead along the rows of exotic flora. Sunlight warmed the mists rising from delicate irrigation systems that maintained the various plants.
Estarra took her sister's arm, and the royal guards waited well out of earshot. "Now, what is this about a house arrest?" Sarein hissed. "That's ridiculous. You're the Queen!"
"And Peter is the King, but that doesn't mean anything to the Chairman. You don't understand how much he hates Peter--and me, because I had the poor judgment to get pregnant at an inconvenient time."
Sarein scowled. "Don't be melodramatic, Estarra. The Hansa has never been faced with so many impossible situations. The Chairman is forced to make difficult decisions every day. Give him a bit more credit than that."
Estarra let out a long sigh. "You're my older sister, and you're politically savvy, but right now, you seem very naïve. You're so close to Chairman Wenceslas that you're blind to his faults. He'll do whatever he can to destroy Peter and me."
Sarein spoke as if to a child. "Oh, Estarra! You're isolated in the Palace and don't realize how much is going on. I meet with Hansa representatives regularly. We've been betrayed by the Soldier compies and lost almost seventy percent of our Earth Defense Forces. Now the Ildirans say that hydrogues are coming to destroy Earth. What do you expect the Chairman to do?"
"Maybe he should concentrate on real problems and stop wasting time on petty jealousies." Estarra stopped in front of a reef plant from Rhejak, which looked like a cluster of fleshy blue fingers. When Sarein touched one, the whole cluster collapsed protectively into its hard stem.
"Basil is searching for solutions. Since we lost so much of our military, he's investigating the missing rammers at Qronha 3 again. If our scout can locate them, it will change the whole defensive equation."
Estarra's eyes narrowed. "Maybe for Earth. But what about all the other Hansa colonies--and Theroc--that the Chairman abandoned like sacrificial lambs?" She paused at the fauldur plant from Theroc, studying the clump of bright but deadly berries. "Let me tell you something, Sarein. You can believe it or not--depending on how much the Hansa's brainwashing affects you."
Sarein listened with an amused and slightly dismissive expression as Estarra repeated the story of how the Chairman had tried to kill them by hiding an incendiary bomb aboard the royal yacht.
"He already explained that to me,"