Deathstalker 06 - Deathstalker Legacy

names of everyone working for him now. He looked down at the Crown, sitting on the table before the mirror, and decided against putting it on just yet. It always gave him a headache. He sniffed loudly, threw himself into his favorite chair, and nodded shortly to Jesamine Flowers, his wife-and Queen-to-be, sitting elegantly in the chair opposite him. She was wearing a devastatingly elegant gown with casual style and grace, her makeup was restrained but perfect, and Douglas just knew that she looked the part far more than he ever would.
    "You're scowling again, Douglas. Don't. It'll give you lines."
    "Sorry. I was thinking. Look; we don't have a lot of time. The day's Session will begin in under an hour, and Anne's been paging me increasingly urgently ever since I showed up, but ... I felt it was important we have this little chat. Clear the air, so to speak."
    "Of course," said Jesamine. "You first."
    "We're going to be married," said Douglas, as naturally as he could. "We couldn't stop that now, even if we wanted. Too many people want it. It's like a business merger, where the stockholders have voted it through, and to hell with what the board wants. It's inevitable now."
    "Darling, you say the most romantic things. But yes, I understand. The show must go on. I take it the Champion won't be attending this Session of Parliament?"
    "No," said Douglas. "I've decided he's needed urgently elsewhere. And he'll go on being urgently needed elsewhere until after we're safely married."
    "I've seen the wedding dress. It's really very lovely. Practically a work of art."
    "Lewis is my best friend."
    "I'll look every inch a Queen. We'll make a lovely couple."
    "I should never have made him Champion. I should never have given up being a Paragon. We were happy then. Our lives made sense. I never wanted to be King."
    "You could abdicate," Jesamine said carefully. "It's not a prison sentence."
    "No. I can't. I'm needed."
    "Then be King, dammit! Do the job, and don't look back. Just as I'm not going to look back. We're going to be King and Queen. Nothing else matters."
    Douglas nodded slowly. "I thought . . . we'd have the same choir my father chose for my Coronation.
    They sounded fine."
    "Bit weak on the descants, and the main tenor isn't nearly as good as he thinks he is, but yes, they'll do.
    Who's going to be best man? It can't be Lewis now."
    "No; it can't be Lewis. I thought maybe Finn Durandal. He was my partner for years, after all, and it might help to make things up with him for not being chosen as Champion."
    "Yes, the Durandal. Good choice. He'll look good, he always does, and it'll play very well with the media. Maybe I should have Emma Steel as my maid of honor ... If we can persuade her to leave the sword and gun behind. Any thoughts as to where we should spend our honeymoon? I hear the Sighing Mountains on Magellon are very lovely this time of year."
    "I thought perhaps the Black Lakes on Hali," Douglas said diffidently. "They've become quite the place to be, and be seen."
    "Oh yes, sweetie! Hali! Gorgeous scenery, and lots and lots of the very best people for us to look down our noses at."
    And then they stopped, and looked at each other for a long moment. In the three days since the Neumen riot and its aftermath in the House Infirmary, Douglas and Jesamine had spent a lot of time together, making a great public show of togetherness, but there were still a great many things they hadn't said.
    Things that needed to be said, now, if only so that they need never be discussed again.
    "We can still make this work, Douglas," Jesamine said finally. "We can be happy together, as King and Queen. As husband and wife."
    "We're really very well suited," said Douglas. "We have a lot in common, we work well together ... It doesn't matter that you don't love me."
    "I do ... care for you, in my way. You're a strong man, brave and true, with a good heart. Trust me, you don't meet many like that in show business. We'll make a good partnership. And I want to be Queen. It's what I've always wanted. And you'll make an excellent King. It doesn't matter that you don't love me."
    "But I do," said Douglas, quietly, miserably. "I do love you, Jesamine. That's the problem."
    "Oh God," said Jesamine. "Douglas ... I didn't know. This ... is going to complicate the hell out of things, isn't it?"
    "Probably," said Douglas. "I love you, Jes. And Lewis is my best friend. Do you see now, why-"
    "Of course, yes. No wonder you . . . How long have . .