The women and the warlords coaaod-3 Page 8

  It was only in her dreams that Yen Olass knew she envied them.

  ***

  It lasted for a month. Then the lovers were betrayed. The text-master Eldegen Terzanagel went to see Lord Alagrace, and told all – or nearly all. Terzanagel did not admit that he had been blackmailed, but simply said that Haveros had threatened him.

  'You have my sympathies,' said Lord Alagrace, knowing that Haveros was a determined and sometimes violent man.

  'My lord

  'We will arrest him, of course.' 'But

  'But what?’

  'His friends will still be…’

  'Are you afraid of revenge?' said Lord Alagrace. 'I won't call you as a witness when I grant him his trial. If we can catch him in the building with the Princess Quenerain, that will be enough.’

  'But he will know – or guess. And his friends… my lord, I request permission to… to absent myself from Gendormargensis while this

  Sensing that the text-master was truly afraid, Lord Alagrace gave him permission to make a journey to the south-east, to inspect the archives in the Atka Castle at Port Domax. As Port Domax was a free port beyond the rule of the Collosnon Empire, there would then be nothing to stop Terzanagel going further if he wished – but Lord Alagrace did not care.

  Lord Alagrace provided the text-master with horses and travel documents, together with some money for the journey, and a squad of league riders to accompany him on the first stage of his travels.

  Lord Alagrace went to this trouble because he believed that justice should be done, if that was at all possible; that those who witnessed crimes should be encouraged to come forward, and should be protected when they did; and that the Lawmaker should go to special pains to prosecute criminals in positions of high responsibility, for they have betrayed a trust as well as breaking the law.

  To him, it was a source of secret shame and sorrow that he found himself forced to manipulate justice on occasion for the most cynical of political purposes. However, this did not make him more tolerant; instead, he became even more determined to perfect the processes of the law as they applied to other people.

  And so it came to pass that the text-master Eldegen Terzanagel slipped out of Gendormargensis one evening with his slave girl Nuana Nanalako. Accompanied by their military escort, they rode through the night, and by morning they were well and truly launched on a journey which, of course, would not end at Port Domax, but would take them south by sea to Ashmolea and then to the Stepping Stone Islands, where Terzanagel would be able to complete his researches into the life and works of Saba Yavendar, creator of the Winesong.

  When morning came, Yen Olass arrived at Tangzkez Nesh – and found Lord Alagrace waiting for her. He briefed her, cautioned her and calmed her fears, and asked some questions. Yen Olass showed him where he could hide and watch.

  Haveros arrived a little later.

  'Nuana!' said Yen Olass. 'Our visitor's here.' She went into the empty kitchen and picked up a bowl of water.

  'Thank you, Nuana.’

  She returned to Haveros, bearing the bowl of water. He washed his face, then withdrew to change his clothes. When the Princess Quenerain arrived, Haveros was waiting in the sleeping quarters. The princess said nothing to Yen Olass, but went straight in. They were always just a little rushed for time, because Haveros always had to inspect a ceremonial guard at noon, and the Princess Quenerain had to conduct a service of the Rite of Purification at the same time – and Yen Olass herself often had an appointment with a patron in the later part of the morning.

  From the observation point, Lord Alagrace watched. He did not interrupt the couple: he wanted to see. He had to see to believe. When they were finished, Lord Alagrace retreated; Yen Olass showed him the way out.

  The Princess Quenerain left first. Lord Alagrace made no move to stop her, but, when she had gone, he stormed Tangzkez Nesh, leading a force of twenty league riders who had been ordered to kill anyone who resisted. Lord Alagrace hoped Haveros would put up a fight and die in combat, thus sparing the city and the regime the shame of a public trial. But Haveros, too much in love with his life to commit suicide, surrendered without a struggle.

  Lord Alagrace visited him later in the East Tower Jail.

  'Why?' said Lord Alagrace.

  And Haveros, his hands and feet in shackles, made no reply, but looked out of the window at the world beyond, where the wind kicked up waves on the river and the clouds clawed south.

  'Why her?' said Lord Alagrace. 'The city is full of slaves and whores. So why her?’

  'Love,' said Haveros.

  When a grown man talks of love, there is no hope for him; Lord Alagrace turned away in disgust. 'I raped her,' said Haveros.

  'Who believes that?' 'The people will.’

  'Khmar won't,' said Lord Alagrace. 'And even if he did

  The Lord Emperor Khmar would be extremely angry if Lord Alagrace was to execute Haveros just for a little matter like rape, particularly when the only supporting evidence was a confession which Khmar would never believe.

  'If you don't want to punish me,' said Haveros, 'why did you arrest me?’

  'So that justice can be done. Nobody can be allowed to stand outside the law.’

  'But now you've arrested me, you're too frightened to enforce that law,' said Haveros. 'You're a coward.’

  Lord Alagrace bowed his head. It was true. He had really expected Haveros to fight and die in Tangzkez Nesh – had really expected that a sense of honour would compel the warrior to meet his death at swordpoint. He had not anticipated the complications of a trial.

  When Haveros and Chonjara had fought earlier in the year, they had brought trouble upon themselves by quarrelling in the public eye. But when Haveros had conducted his affair with the Princess Quenerain, he had been entirely discreet. The public disclosure of the affair was Lord Alagrace's responsibility, and the Lord Emperor Khmar was likely to see that as a case of his Sharla Lawmaker making war on Yarglat clansmen. If Lord Alagrace had Haveros executed, Khmar was likely to delete his head with a hammer.

  'If you think you've made a mistake,' said Haveros, 'then let me go. Forget about it. I can, if you will.’

  'Not possible,' said Lord Alagrce. 'Chonjara's heard of your arrest.’

  'Oh.’

  There was no need to say more. If Lord Alagrace abandoned the trial, Chonjara would protest, and the law would be brought into disrepute. More seriously, Chonjara might challenge Lord Alagrace, giving him a choice between public shame and death. If Lord Alagrace followed the matter through and allowed it to come to trial, he was likely to incur the wrath of the Lord Khmar.

  There was no way out.

  Or was there?

  'A dralkosh,' said Lord Alagrace. 'What?' said Haveros.

  'The mob has a woman in a cage in the northern marketplace. They're going to stone her to death tomorrow.' 'Then she's got nothing to lose.' 'They're going to stone her baby, too.' 'Ah,' said Haveros.

  Sensing hope. He would live; he would be free of these shackles, free to rejoin the world of horses and women, wine and song.

  'This dralkosh,' said Lord Alagrace. 'She worked magic on many men… deluded their senses. Turned them against the law. Made them mad. And you… you were one of the victims.’

  'But the princess?’

  'You drugged her. People will believe that. But even so

  'I know what the punishment is,' said Haveros. 'I can live with that.’

  Even for a man seduced from the righteous path by the occult arts of a dralkosh, there was still punishment in store. Otherwise men would constantly have yielded to such seduction without a struggle. Ruefully, Haveros rubbed his left ear, which would soon be missing: then he gave a little grin. He was going to live: he could not subdue his high spirits.

  'An exile's life is a hard one,' said Lord Alagrace.

  'Oh, I'll survive,' said Haveros.

  He already knew where he would go and whom he would turn to, but he had no intention of telling Lord Alagrace, who would
have been extemely alarmed to know that Haveros planned to seek help from the Lord Emperor Khmar.

  'Done, then,' said Lord Alagrace. 'Done,' said Haveros.

  And they bowed to each other, and Lord Alagrace departed to attend to the necessary business. The dralkosh was extracted from the mob; after negotiations, she confessed to bewitching Haveros, among others; the baby was put into the care of a good family, and the dralkosh was stoned to death.

  Haveros admitted succumbing to the madness engendered by the dralkosh; his left ear was cut off and he left the city in an ignominious fashion, with whips chasing him as he rode out on a broomstick like a child riding an imaginary horse. The law allowed him twenty days of grace in which he could flee without hindrance; after that, every man's hand would be against him, and it would be death for him to be caught within the boundaries of the empire until ten years had elapsed.

  For the Princess Quenerain, there was a special Ceremony of Cleansing, at the end of which she was once more officially a virgin, and free to continue as head of the Rite of Purification.

  Yen Olass escaped without punishment: her involvement in the scandal did not become public knowledge. Haveros and the Princess Quenerain had nothing to gain by naming someone privy to their intimacies, while Lord Alagrace dared not risk an inquiry that might find he had suborned an oracle for his own political purposes.

  Lord Alagrace dispatched a report on the affair to the Lord Emperor Khmar, requesting direction regarding the vacant position of Lord Commander of the Imperial City of Gendormargensis; that duty done, he was free to brood about his own failings, among which he numbered fear, indecisiveness and a small but undeniable degree of ineptitude.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Midsummer's Day initiated a new year, Khmar 19, which did not get off to an auspicious start. Drought fostered forest fires and brought a water shortage to the surrounding region; stones fell from the heavens, and then a comet appeared in the northern sky, causing an outbreak of dralkosh hunting; the Yolantarath River fell below memory's lowest level; there was a rumour of cholera, an outbreak of equine enteritis and a plague of mice; a child was bitten by a mad dog and died of rabies, and a cat by the name of Lefrey succumbed to a virulent form of influenza and passed away, a tragedy which greatly distressed an oracle by the name of Yen Olass Ampadara.

  Things could have got worse, but improved instead. Rain fell; the river rose; a new holy man appeared, and had some success in persuading Gendormargensis that the habit of stoning women to death had got out of hand; the leader of a long-standing slave rebellion was captured and crucified, and his remains fed raw to some of his followers who had been detained in the starvation cages; from the south came news of success, conquest and victory.

  Then, when all seemed to be going well – the autumn promised a bumper harvest – dispatches arrived from the Lord Emperor Khmar. Lord Pentalon Alagrace was ordered south to the newly conquered port of Favanosin, where the emperor would be waiting for him. General Chonjara and the Princess Quenerain were to travel with him. Khmar did not say why he wanted these three, but Lord Alagrace could guess. Doubtless Khmar, unhappy with the administration of justice in Gendormargensis, was ordering all three south for punishment.

  What else could it be?

  Khmar specifically ordered Lord Alagrace to 'leave your tame league riders in Gendormargensis', which was ominous, to say the least.

  Lord Alagrace informed Chonjara and the princess of the emperor's wishes, then revised his will. Khmar, who was not the world's most responsible administrator, had failed to make two vital appointments, so Lord Alagrace nominated two of the more sober-headed high-born Yarglat clansmen to act as Lawmaker and Imperial Commander of the city until further notice.

  While a staff officer organized a convoy for the journey south, Lord Alagrace completed his personal business then conferred with Yen Olass Ampadara. He explained his position. He was going south; he would have to face the emperor; Khmar was a ruthless and unpredictable judge. If faced with the prospect of immediate death, Lord Alagrace planned to ask the emperor to listen to a reading. It was known that Khmar did not travel in the company of oracles; would Yen Olass consent to go south to Favanosin to give a reading?

  Yen Olass once again advised Lord Alagrace to flee the empire; when he refused, she agreed to travel south with him to risk Khmar's anger.

  Any mission to the emperor was dangerous, because Khmar was given to extravagant outbursts of rage and violence. Nevertheless, he was capable of generosity, and sometimes indulged his own sly sense of humour in remarkable ways. It would be difficult for an oracle to manipulate Khmar, but not impossible; he could never be led by the nose, but ways might be found to give him a little nudge in the right direction. It was, in a way, the ultimate challenge; the thought of it made Yen Olass afraid, and that was one reason why she accepted.

  Her actions were also conditioned by her awareness of discreet enquiries which the Sisterhood was making about her activities. Her Midsummer Report, detailing her activity for Khmar 18, had come back to her with lists of questions; after many days of waiting, she was not yet certain if her answers had proved acceptable. All things considered, it seemed a good idea to get out of Gendormargensis.

  Lord Alagrace was, in many ways, her protector; if he left, then Yen Olass would lose many of her privileges, and would be vulnerable to any investigation which challenged her behaviour. If he died, she could seek some other protector in the south; if he was exiled, perhaps he would take her into exile with him. Yen Olass began to wonder what Lord Alagrace would be like as a lover, a bedmate, a husband. He was old, yes, but he would be better than what she had at the moment – which, since Lefrey died, was nothing.

  Yen Olass quit her quarters in Moon Stallion Strait, and moved into Lord Alagrace's residence for her last few days in Gendormargensis. She spent whole evenings in the stables, packing and repacking her saddle bags. Her klon, her dreamquilt and a few other oddments went into a storeroom under lock and key, and Yen Olass made the housekeeper swear to guard those valuables with her life. Yen Olass wheedled a sabre out of the armoury, and cut herself three times sharpening it.

  She was leaving Gendormargensis!

  She extracted some money out of Lord Alagrace and bought new boots, new foot bindings and a lightweight coat of rabbit skin which she could wear over her fleece-lined weather jacket when it was too warm to wear a snow-coat. There was more than a little money left over – Lord Alagrace had only a vague idea of what things cost, and Yen Olass was ferocious when in pursuit of a bargain – so she indulged herself outrageously by spending some of it on a piece of a cone of sugar, which came from the south and was extremely expensive.

  Since she might never return to Gendormargensis, Yen Olass now, for the first time, actually got round to visiting the Velpliski Statue Gardens, famous throughout much of the surrounding territory, but patronized by few of the inhabitants of the city itself. It was a quiet place, full of grass, moss, sunshine, flowers, olum trees, groves of grey sprite bamboo, plum trees, and, of course, statues – of men, of women, of children and of animals. Including bears.

  The largest statues were those of a dragon and a whale. The whale looked like a bulbous log with a few half-defined excrescences growing from its body. This monster was said to live in the sea, a ship-length of quiescent blubber, feeding on driftwood, seaweed and landlost gnats. Yen Olass was not convinced; the whale was hardly a credible creature. For that matter, she was not convinced that the sea existed, at least not as it had been descibed to her; she suspected that the sea was half extravagant imagination and half irresponsible exaggeration.

  The dragon, on the other hand, carved from stone but painted in the colours of flowers and fire, was so powerful and vibrant that it insisted on the autonomous drama of its own life. Besides, the dragon was not just a credible creature, but also a necessary creature, for each element has its own animal, and the dragon was the beast dedicated to fire, as the worm is to earth, the bird is to sky and the fi
sh is to water.

  There were some children playing on the dragon, and for a while Yen Olass watched them. Then one fell over and grazed her knee. A mother appeared, but scolded the child instead of comforting her:

  'Look what you've done! Didn't I tell you? Didn't you listen to me? I just can't trust you. Now you – listen – next – time…’

  This said while shaking the child.

  Which started to cry, a hopeless sobbing wail.

  'It's no good crying. It's your own fault. Didn't I tell you? Come along now.’

  And the child was dragged off, still crying.

  And Yen Olass wished she could have intervened, because the child was so little, and it was only being itself.

  Yen Olass – vulnerable because her own world was breaking up around her – was quite upset by what she had seen.

  She returned to the bears, which were shown fishing in the river. Yen Olass was an expert on bears, or thought she was. They are the laziest and most comfortable creatures in all of creation; they go fishing and honey-eating, and never get told off for getting their feet wet.

  'So you like bears, do you?' said a voice.

  And Yen Olass discovered she was being observed by a street derelict, some old soldier without a pension.

  She let him tell her all about bears, about how to build bear traps, how to track a bear, the diseases bears carry and how bear meat should be cooked; at the end of his lecture he clearly expected a little money, but instead she gave him rather more.

  As she left the statue garden, Yen Olass thought about the children she could have if she was exiled with Lord Alagrace, and married him. She would not be cruel to them; she would dress them in bearskin, and they would live some place where they could run free…

  Returning to Lord Alagrace's residence, Yen Olass found a letter of summons waiting for her. She was required to present herself to the Library, immediately, with all her equipment.

  Yen Olass was irritated. The last time she had been ordered to the Library, they had gone through her copy of the Book of the Sisterhood page by page, checking every flaw and blemish against their damage records, and they had spent half a day doing it. Never mind. Soon she would be out of the city, and free from such petty harassment.