The Palace of Impossible Dreams by Jennifer Fallon Page B

scandalously naked, while the blind masseur she’d recently imported from Torlenia worked out the knots in the muscles of her back. If there
were
any knots in her muscles. Being immortal, her muscles probably didn’t knot up in the first place. Jaxyn couldn’t even remember the last time he’d suffered a stiff neck.
    She probably just liked being touched like that, he decided. Had he not been here, she might well have ordered the hapless young man to massage more than her muscles. Then again, this was Diala. Jaxyn’s presence in the room probably wouldn’t have made a difference one way or another, had she wanted more than the simple pleasure of a brisk rub-down.
    â€œWhy would you be missing Hawkes?” she asked. “Fancy him, did you?”
    Jaxyn leaned against the windowsill with his arms folded. “He was a little too . . . leader of the pack . . . for my liking. But he was an ambitious son of a whore. Literally. And he wasn’t overburdened with a conscience. Bridgeman’s a flanking loyalist.”
    â€œThen get rid of him. He’s only a stopgap spymaster until you find a new one anyway, isn’t he?”
    â€œThat’s the problem,” Jaxyn said. “Good spymasters don’t grow on trees, you know. They take years to develop their contacts, their networks. If I dispose of Bridgeman, I lose the spy network that comes with him.”
    â€œDoesn’t he have a deputy?”
    â€œThat
was
Declan Hawkes. When Bridgeman retired and he took over, seems he didn’t think he needed to start training his replacement just yet. Guess when you’re young, even if you’re mortal, you think you’re going to live forever.”
    â€œSo we’re stuck with the old man,” Diala said with a shrug. “Deal with it.”
    â€œBut I want to know what Tryan and Elyssa are up to in Caelum. I need Bridgeman’s cooperation for that.”
    â€œI thought you said you’d taken care of it?”
    â€œI’ve got a couple of canines in their service,” he said. “But they’re not much use to me if they have nobody to report to.”
    Diala murmured appreciatively as the masseur found a particularlysensitive spot and then said, “Tides, Jaxyn, how hard can it be?
He’s
the spymaster and
you
have the spies. Surely you can work something out.”
    â€œBridgeman’s more concerned about the coronation, at the moment. My desire for intelligence from Caelum is a long way down his list. If it’s even
on
his list.”
    She smiled. “Well, I’m with Bridgeman there. I can’t wait ’til the coronation is done with and I’m irrevocably the Queen of Glaeba.”
    â€œI’m sure you can’t.”
    She turned her head to study him. “Is that a note of jealousy I hear in your voice, my dear?”
    â€œAnd what would I have to be jealous about?”
    â€œWell, I’m going to be queen, and you’re going to be . . . hmm . . . what
are
you going to be, Jaxyn, dearest? My minion?”
    Jaxyn smiled. “I haven’t been your minion for a very long time, Diala.”
    Damn, he’d called her Diala in front of the masseur. The man might be blind but he wasn’t deaf.
    Oh well
 . . .
nobody except Diala will lament his passing in some tragic accident.
    Jaxyn was very good at arranging tragic accidents.
    â€œBut I remember when you
were
my minion. We had fun together.”
    â€œUntil you screwed me over.”
    She smiled even wider. “I screw everybody over, Jaxyn. Don’t take it personally.” She glanced over her shoulder at the masseur. “Lower,” she ordered. The man did as she asked and she sighed happily before turning her attention back to Jaxyn. “The point is, we’re in this together and for once, I have the upper hand. I’ll be queen and you’ll be my right-hand man. There