The audiences were as dull as Karis had warned her they would be. Yet they were also quite interesting to Sayana as she learned what the court felt was important. Judging by the clothing she saw on display, there were some lower court nobles presenting petitions on behalf of their worlds as well as the upper court lords. Karis handled those with the same degree of attentiveness as he gave to the upper court nobles’ petitions, and in fact was more inclined to accede to their requests she noticed. At least there was a higher percentage of their petitions being resolved in their favor than the others.

A few trade schools presented requests for expansions, and Karis either approved them or asked them to wait until he looked into their status with his Minster of Education. Sayana saw the seneschal make a note on his pad the one time Karis had asked the representative to wait. The representative seemed annoyed at being told to wait but agreed. Karis said they could present themselves again in three days and he’d give them his answer.

Finally, after a span of time, Sayana saw Karis nod at the seneschal. The seneschal came forward and called an end to the audiences. Karis led Sayana out of the throne room and back to their private chambers. Sayana noticed they’d been in the throne room for a few hours. “What did you think?” Karis asked her as they changed.

“They were boring as you said they were, but I was also interested to see who presented requests and how you handled them.” Sayana thought for a moment. “I noticed several lower court lords petitioning you. You seemed more inclined to accede to their requests than the upper court lords.”

“Probably because they were more sensible than what the upper court lords wanted.” Karis laughed. “I do not pay attention to who is making the proposition. I listen to what is being asked and judge accordingly. Let us get changed, and then I need to get with Runa about that piloting academy. I swear they have been in here twice already in the past year needing to expand.”

Ardatha and her sisters got Sayana back into her casual dress and she resumed reading through the paperwork that Karis had given her. Karis searched for something on his pad. He frowned. “Is something wrong, Karis?”

“I was right. This particular piloting academy has been in twice in the last year asking for permission to expand.” Karis frowned. “I want to know what their recruitment tactics are doing to the education system on Lazuna.” He tapped something out on his pad. “I have sent Runa a message. She should know if there is a disturbance on or near Lazuna.”

Sayana focused on her task. She read through the current document slowly. It helped that she’d read so many political science books. She understood the language of the document in front of her. She frowned as she read over the same paragraph twice. She left a note stating a discrepancy based on some earlier comments and moved on.

“Your Imperial Majesties, Lady Runa wishes a word with you.” Imre’s voice cut across her concentration a short while later.

“Send her in, Imre.” Karis set his pad to the side.

Runa came in. “Your Imperial Majesties, you asked me a question about an impact to my educational districts on Lazuna because of that piloting academy, and the answer is it is causing a major issue for Lazuna, Xoanope, and Thuimia, the three inhabited worlds in that solar system. They are recruiting heavily, and entire districts have had to shut down because of a lack of children, which has caused the others in those districts to be moved into adjoining districts. This puts a strain on the families because it costs money to ship your child off to a district you are not assigned to.”

“Is there any way of stopping them?” Sayana wasn’t sure what could be done, if anything.

“Short of imposing limits on the number of children that can be recruited, no there is not.” Runa looked unhappy.

“Then we will set a limit.” Karis picked up his pad and made a note. “I will deny their request to expand in the meantime so they cannot keep recruiting.”

“They are back again? What in the name of all the stars are they doing? I know we need pilots, but this is ridiculous.” Runa shook her head.

“I agree. Send me what you think would be reasonable limits on recruitment. Do not be too harsh. Academies do need to actively recruit. If we have to force them to go farther afield, maybe they would not be so quick to expand and think about what they are doing.” Karis gave her a thoughtful look.

“There are many solar systems with no specialist academies.” Runa’s expression was as thoughtful as his. “They can recruit from those worlds as well as the ones closer to their academies. They just have to pay their recruiters to go out farther.”

“My homeworld has no specialist academies near it, and me and my siblings were recruited by the Atania academies.” Sayana brought up her own history. “It is doable.”

“They will just have to get more creative.” Runa nodded decisively. “Let me draft that proposal for you. Let me consult with some of my clerks and see what kind of complaints we have been getting. I know they have been filtering them out. I will send it to you either later tonight or first thing in the morning, Your Imperial Majesty.”

“Thank you, Runa.” Karis made a note on his pad and resumed work as Runa left. Sayana picked her pad back up and resumed reading as well.

They were again stopped by needing to go to court. They once again changed clothes and headed out to the great hall. They waited in the antechamber for a moment while everything was set up and then went in and took their seats. The princes joined them.

Sayana ate what was put in front of her, once the Imperial guards cleared it. None of it was recognizable so she didn’t even try to figure out what it was. She just ate it and kept an eye on the princes. Once dinner was over, the princes left, and the court began to drift around in groups to chat.

Karis seemed to be listening to the gossip, so she tried to pay attention as well. There was some talk of the insurrection. There was some talk about her. She couldn’t pick up details because the voices all blended together. A few lords wandered up to the table and spoke to them. Karis answered them so she didn’t have to. After a few hours, Karis stood and held out his hand. She took it and he helped her stand. The two departed for their suite.

They changed and resumed work on their paperwork. She got through the last of her paperwork just as Imre cleared his throat. “It’s midnight, Your Imperial Majesties.”

“Is it?” Karis glanced at the chronometer. “So it is. I will have to finish this up over breakfast tomorrow. My heart, are you finished with yours?”

“I just finished. I can flash it back over to you, if you’d like.” Sayana glanced over at him.

“Do that in the morning.” Karis smiled. “If we stay up any longer, Imre will threaten to drug me himself.”

“Yes, I will.” Imre glared at Karis.

“I’ll help by doing the same to you, Your Imperial Majesty.” Ardatha gave Sayana a look.

“All right.” Sayana set her pad on the charger. She got up and followed Karis into the bedroom. Ardatha and her sisters got her changed and the two were soon tucked into bed together. The servants left, turning out all the lights as they went.

Karis reached out and brushed his hand across her cheek. “I was blocked in my plans for last night.” He drew her closer. “I do not intend, Imre and Ardatha notwithstanding, to be thwarted in them tonight.” He kissed her.

Sayana shivered at the passion that kiss evoked in her. She responded by letting her hands roam across his chest. They slipped out of bed silently and stripped off their sleep suits and crawled back into bed under the covers. Sayana let her hands once again drift across his chest, reveling in the feel of his skin. Karis kissed her again and then traced her jaw and down onto her throat, eliciting a moan from her.

His mouth moved lower, following the contour of her throat, the line of her collarbone, until he reached her breast. Sayana gasped as his tongue traced circles around one of her nipples with his tongue and then suddenly drew it into his mouth. “Karis,” she whimpered.

“My heart,” Karis murmured. He continued his exploration of her body with his hands and mouth and it was all Sayana could do to keep her hands moving on his body. Her hand slipped below his waist and he gasped and bucked against her hand, moaning.

Karis slipped his fingers between her legs and he found the spot that drove her wild. She gasped and moaned, raising her hips off the bed as he played with her. She continued her own steady motions until she couldn’t think straight and her hands fell to the bed as she screamed her pleasure. Karis slid into her and began driving himself into her. Sayana was nothing more than a ball of ecstasy as she writhed and moaned beneath him.

Karis’ rhythm began to falter as he drew closer to his climax. Finally with a shout he drove himself into her one last time. He collapsed on top of her, breath coming in ragged gasps. “Karis,” Sayana whispered.

“My Sayana.” He rested for a moment and then rolled off of her.

They gave themselves time to catch their breaths, then slid out of bed. Karis turned on the tiny lamp on the table on his side of the bed so they had just enough light to see by to get dressed and then turned it off again as they crawled back under the covers. They curled up together, Sayana feeling at peace for the first time since she’d arrived back on the Throne World and fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning Sayana extricated herself from Karis’ grasp and went out into the main room. Ardatha was waiting for her. “Did you two even sleep last night?” she asked with some exasperation.

“I got quite a bit of sleep.” Sayana yawned.

“The dark circles under your eyes tell me a different story, Your Imperial Majesty.” Ardatha gave her a significant look.

“Just get me ready for the day, without the commentary.” Sayana laughed.

Ardatha just shook her head. “Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.” She and her sisters got Sayana showered, dressed, and put on a little makeup to cover the dark circles. Sayana decided to read through a few of the proposals she’d been unsure of again to be certain of her responses while she waited for Karis to join her.

A couple hours later, Karis joined her. “You do not ever sleep in, do you, my heart?” He yawned.

“Never.” Sayana looked up at him.

“Not even when she should.” Ardatha looked at them both.

Imre just shook his head. “If you’re going to get up to mischief after going to bed, Your Imperial Majesties, might I suggest retiring a little earlier next time? It will save you both looking as if you got no sleep the night before and announcing to the universe what you got up to.”

Sayana blushed slightly. Karis just shrugged. “I will take it under advisement, Imre. Now, can you get me ready for the day and bring us our breakfast?”

“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty. Let me get Adem and Lucan in here to help.” Imre walked over and pressed the button. A short while later, the now familiar servants entered the room. They went back into the bedroom with Karis and half an hour later, Karis emerged looking more put together than he had when he first woke up.

“Adem, will you and Vai please bring Their Imperial Majesties their breakfast?” Imre looked at the other two servants.

“Of course, Imre.” Adem grinned at Vai. “Come on, Vai. Let’s feed these two before they get cranky.”

“I don’t think Her Imperial Majesty has ever gotten cranky.” Vai giggled.

“Then let’s not make this the first occurrence.” Adem winked. Vai giggled again and the two hurried off.

“Impertinent.” Karis laughed.

“He always has been, Your Imperial Majesty.” Imre smiled.

“You encourage him.” Karis leveled a finger at Imre.

“Do I?” Imre asked with a bland expression.

“Oh, you are impossible.” Karis laughed again. He sat down, pulled out his pad, and got to work. “Did you want to flash me your work, my heart?”

“I was going over a few of the petitions I was unclear on, and I think I need to amend some of my notes.” Sayana added to her notes. “I’ve found a couple of things I missed on the first readthrough.”

“Flash it all over when you are done.” Karis read through something and frowned.

“All right.” Sayana amended another note.

Adem and Vai returned with breakfast and Sayana flashed the work over to Karis. He finished what he’d been doing and looked over her notes while they ate. “This is fascinating, my heart. I would never have seen any of this reading through these. This note of yours, for instance, about how the increase in tax would be a detriment to the working class but not to the wealthy because it excludes everyone above a certain income level. I would have looked at it, not even seen the clause about the income level as being a problem and approved it.”

“Taxes should be fairly distributed to all classes, though they seldom are. I’ve read about that numerous times in my political science and law books. It’s unfair to the working class to be overburdened while the wealthy get away with paying almost no taxes whatsoever.” Sayana scowled at the memory of just how unfair the tax code actually was.

“Do they? I will have to ask Harish to go over the tax code with me then.” Karis frowned. “It might be time to adjust some of our laws.”

“It may not be that way everywhere, but I’ve certainly seen enough treatises on the disparity in the tax laws to know it’s a problem on several worlds.” Sayana had certainly read enough of those recently to be able to talk about them.

“Planetary taxes are fixed at specific amounts set by the Imperial standard.” Karis enumerated what was paid. “Then there is the Imperial Income Tax and the Child Tax.”

“Child Tax?” Sayana was confused by that one.

“For every child a parent has, they must pay one percent of their income so that if they fall on hard times, there is a pool of money for them to draw on. The Child Tax goes directly into our social services budget.” Karis frowned. “Many critics have argued that we should not have the Child Tax, but I have seen enough anecdotal evidence from some of the poorest families in the galaxy who have paid into that for years who suddenly needed the help that did not mind it because the funds were there for their use.”

“Who complains about it then?” Sayana wanted to know.

“My nobles. Who else? They do not like paying anything, which is why they are not going to like it when I reassess the tax code. That is going to be a long conversation, and one that is likely to last several days.” Karis didn’t look like he was looking forward to that set of meetings.

“I’d like to sit in on that conversation as well.” Sayana surprised him by wanting to insert herself into that aspect of the government as well. “Perhaps if I know more about the tax code, I can understand the division in it.”

“Of course, my heart.” Karis finished making a few notes on the proposals she’d already noted and sent them off to their respective places. They finished their breakfast and made their way to the council session.

Runa caught up with them before they entered. “I would have had this to you sooner, but two of my clerks had a long list of grievances for me to go over and I was up half the night.” She flashed something to Karis’ pad. “I just finished my proposal. I think it is fair, but I will leave that up to you.”

“We will take a look after the council meeting and let you know what we think,” Karis told her. Runa nodded and the three entered the chamber together. Karis and Sayana took their places at the head of the table.

Someone had come in the previous night and replaced the ordinary chair Sayana had been sitting in with a pared down version of the throne, much like what Karis was sitting in. Sayana self-consciously settled into the new chair. Karis squeezed her hand and waited for the rest of the ministers to enter. Once the rest of the ministers were present, they got to work.

Just before the council ended, Sayana leaned over. “Don’t forget about the tax code,” she whispered in Karis’ ear.

He nodded. “Harish, we will need your assistance this evening, and probably for a few evenings to come.”

“How may I be of service, Your Imperial Majesty?” Harish looked at them expectantly.

“We want to go over the tax code and see where some changes can be made. A startling disparity was brought to my attention, and I would like to rectify it.” Karis ignored the few looks shared by the other ministers.

“What disparity is that, Your Imperial Majesty?” Geraint seemed more disturbed than the others.

“The fact that my poorest citizens are taxed nearly to death while the wealthiest pay next to nothing.” Karis stated the situation that Sayana found so distasteful quite bluntly. “I find that rather unfair and unmanageable. I wish to see where we can make some adjustments to even things out.”

“Your Imperial Majesty, the lower classes have always born the burden of the taxes. It is part of the privileges of wealth to not have to pay as much.” Geraint was obviously one of those who believed that wealth should insulate a person from the realities of life.

“That’s not entirely true, Lord Geraint.” Sayana addressed the council for the first time that session. All eyes were on her. She swallowed hard and continued. “This vast disparity did not come about until the eleventh emperor took the throne, when his council seized control and used him as a puppet rather than allowing him to rule properly on his own.” There were some murmurs at her statement. “Many of the tax laws were changed at that time and no one has done anything to fix them since.”

“You base this information on what, Your Imperial Majesty?” Geraint’s tone was incredibly condescending, and it irritated Sayana to no end.

“Lord Hyram Quijano’s treatise on the tax code from the rule of the eleventh emperor. Lord Xabier Acquati’s treatise from the rule of the thirteenth emperor. Lord Coinneach Balog’s treatise from the rule of the fourteenth emperor. And from Lady Lilja Arriola’s treatise from the rule of the twentieth emperor.” Sayana listed her sources.

Geraint stared at her blankly. Metis flashed Sayana a wicked smile. “I take it the empress is a scholar, Your Imperial Majesty?” Trenor seemed somewhat taken aback by Sayana’s knowledge of the tax code.

“Yes, she is.” Karis smiled. “That is one of the many reasons I fell in love with her. If she says the information is in the Imperial archives, then you can find it there yourselves.”

“Of course, Your Imperial Majesty.” Geraint seemed even more disturbed.

“I will be glad to go over the tax code with Your Imperial Majesties.” Harish gave Karis a warning look. “I can guarantee if you change it, you will not be a popular man though, Your Imperial Majesty.”

“I do not expect to be, Harish. I aim for fair, not popular.” Karis shrugged. “I know the assassination attempts will increase if I change it. I am already planning for that.”

“All right.” Harish nodded. “As long as you are prepared for it, I will help out in any way I can.”

The council ended and Karis and Sayana went back to their rooms. “Will the assassination attempts really increase if we change the tax code?” Sayana looked unhappy with this as she sat beside him on the couch.

“Oh yes.” Karis sighed. “My nobles do not like it when I change things in a way that does not benefit them, especially if it impacts their wealth. I will be arresting people for a while now, both for their attempts on you and on me once I change things.”

Sayana sighed. “I suppose I will just have to get used to more near-death experiences then.”

“You are taking this rather well.” Karis seemed surprised by her acceptance of it.

“I am already tired of it, Karis.” Sayana scowled. “I was tired of it in the courtesan wing. I have been empress for three days, and I am already fed up with the assassins. It is simply a part of life I suppose I must grow accustomed to, so I will.”

“That reminds me.” Karis looked over at Imre. “Imre, will you find me another vibroblade? One that my wife can easily use?”

“One or two, Your Imperial Majesty?” Imre looked curiously at Sayana.

“Two, please.” Sayana didn’t want them, but she knew how important it was to protect herself. “I can wear one under each sleeve. If I lose one, I can draw the other.”

“Very well.” Imre pulled out his pad. “I’ll send a message to Trainer Wil. She may have some ideas.”

“Good idea.” Karis gestured to Sayana’s arm. “She is carrying one of mine for now, but I will need it back eventually.” Imre nodded.