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“Better” He strokes his helion?”

“No,” Sevro says, dangling the bait Apollonius cannot resist “Think bigger, Rath”

“A coup…” Apollonius says suspiciously

“Tharsus will give us the inforion and my men will launch a joint attack on the Ash Lord’s fortress When he dies, Carthii and the Saud will scramble to take his throne for themselves” His lips curl at the o the spoils Your Praetors will return to fight for you Your men will defect en masse when they hear you are alive And in these cells beside you are ten blood family members of Houses Saud and Carthii, five fro struggle We will leave Venus, but you will stay and once you have consolidated control and crowned yourself Tyrant in the Ash Lord’s stead, you will contact the Sovereign of the Republic and issue a conditional surrender”

“And what do you believe the terms of this surrender would be?”

“You agree to end the war, to give us your rivals, including Atalantia au Griive orders for the legions on Mercury to surrender You rule Venus for the rest of your life—as you see fit”

“And ould stop the Republic fro me when it’s all over?”

“Me—and you can hold your own people hostage with the Saud atomic arsenal”

“Well, this is nificent for you Isn’t it? A coup with utted from the inside, and the only cost is that I betray my species”

“Species?” I ask “You’re one of a kind, Apollonius,” I purr

“The Gold betrayed you, Apollonius The Carthii helped the Ash Lord put you to rot And because of that, you’re a footnote A e against those who sent you to your death And a chance to dwarf the Ash Lord in the memory of humanity We both know you don’t care about Gold So let e The Minotaur of Mars”

“And Venus,” he says with a s up his war helm

—

Sevro and I linger in the conference room after Apollonius is escorted back to his cell “Do you think he knows that they’ll never unite behind him?” Sevro asks

“No He’s insane The Golds all know it Saud and Carthii ht have bent a knee to the Ash Lord, but they’ll never surrender their homeland to a Martian brute But if we set him loose, he’ll tear Venus apart from the inside We will descend on a fractured Venus The Ash Lord wanted to give us a civil war Fine, I’ll give the bastard one right back” I take a sip of the wine he left behind “And if, somehow, Apollonius is able to unite them, we release the video of this little conference and his ownwith me”