By Stephen Tyndale-Biscoe
PROLOGUE
IN the blink of an eye a moment splits open, and falling between realities softly you land.
Two figures are approaching, and someone’s shouting “Make way for the King! Make way for Prince Egmar! Stand back!”
The elder of the pair wears astonishing headgear and a stupendous beard with jewels woven into it, and it is apparent he takes great care of his appearance.
Not yet apparent is that his Queen takes care of his kingdom - much as a mobster takes care of business.
Prince Egmar is tall and strikingly beautiful, and a stranger would soon learn that the queen is his step-mother.
She is approaching now, her dark eyes darting, and beside her is Prince Sigmar, her son, limping slightly but compact and sturdy.
You cannot see it in her expression because she has trained her face to give nothing of
her thoughts away, but when she looks at Egmar, she knows for sure he’ll not live long.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
CHAPTER ONE
Egmar was not yet king when he was married to the Princess Shansi of Kroya.
The match was arranged by Volkis and was perhaps the shrewdest thing this vain and rather dull-witted man ever managed.
Kroya, immediately to the south of Sair Jisenner, is a tiny kingdom but extremely rich thanks to the abundance in its hills of gold, silver, iron ores and lead.
It might be thought that Shansi would have benefited from the wealth this brought to the Royal House but her father, King Taigram II was a mean and surly man. Her move to Sair Jisenner was therefore an escape for which she thanked the gods; and she doubly thanked them on account of her prince.
She thought him the most beautiful man she had ever seen. His lips were sensuous and finely sculptured, his nose straight and his eyes blue. He wore an immaculately-trimmed black beard, and his tall, elegant figure was crowned with loosely curling black hair that fell shining to his shoulders.
He lived well, and surrounded himself with boisterous, pleasure-loving young men and women, and Shansi was bound to compare her new life in the royal compound in Felewith with what she had known at the court of her father.
Shansi had spent her childhood in austere royal castles, the chief of which was a massive pile overlooking the capital of Budenrath. In none of the king's castles was the sound of music or merry-making to be heard. Taigram was reclusive; he took no pleasure in company, preferring the solitary tasks of calculating the profits from his mines and smelting-works. When he did spend, he spent grudgingly, and he reacted with sour ill-will to Shansi's insistence, after her betrothal to Egmar, that she have a tutor to teach her the Sairish tongue. Was she not costing him enough already? he grumbled.
The chance to exchange the dour, joyless court of her father for its very antithesis in Felewith had seemed to Shansi to be proof that the gods looked upon her favourably. She was so enchanted by her new life that when Egmar became king, and she his queen, she saw no disadvantage in losing control over the appointment of her personal attendants* .
Those whom she had brought with her from Kroya were required to leave, and she was sad, but not dismayed. She had known it would happen, but could not have foreseen what a crucial handicap it would prove to be.
If she had not been so infatuated with Egmar, and so bewitched by the life he seemed to offer her, she might have noticed other signs which pointed to possible trouble.
Morvina, the Dowager Queen, had quarters in the royal compound, and Shansi might have noticed the barely-concealed contempt in which she held her step-son Egmar when they encountered one another. Perhaps it was because Egmar appeared not to notice it that Shansi was able to ignore it too.
She might have questioned why Morvina continued to live in the royal compound at all, in view of the accepted practice for a dowager queen to be granted an estate well away from the capital (and affairs of state) to which she might gracefully retire; she might have questioned why so many of her husband's counsellors, powerful nobles whose goodwill he needed because they controlled the kingdom's wealth - Egmar was as bored by matters of finance as he was by matters of state - visited Morvina as frequently as they did, and she might have realised that Morvina's correct but cold attitude towards her was indicative of more than the reaction of an older woman towards a younger, prettier one who had displaced her.
Shansi was blind to everything that did not fit into her picture of an ideal world, a world which was to crash around her when the calamitous news reached Felewith of her father's downfall: Taigram had been deposed, and had fled into exile.
Calamitous for Taigram and his family, the news was greeted with delight by Morvina. Furthermore, she had been expecting it.
Unknown to Shansi, her father's hold on the Kroyan throne was somewhat shaky; she discovered how shaky when Egmar told her of his flight.
Morvina, on the other hand, had known of it long before, and having once used powerful connections to dispose of a king, she now did it again.
Securing the throne for her husband had required the disposal of his elder brother, the childless and unpopular King Tayssad and in this project she had enlisted her brother, the Lord Borden. This time it was another brother, Shten, Lord of Karm, who was her chief accomplice.
Married into Kroya's royal family, Shten it was who engineered the invasion which drove Taigram into exile and replaced him on the Kroyan throne with one of his wife's relations.
Babra, the new king and a man of Sigmar's age, was thus indebted to Shten and allied to Morvina.
She heard directly from Shten how Babra had crossed into Kroya at the head a small army; how his support had rapidly grown as the people and nobility rallied to his banner; how Taigram, unable to trust anyone, had packed up his family and treasures and escaped by boat to the island kingdom of Theigia.
Morvina broke the news to Egmar, and Egmar told Shansi. He seemed to infer that it was her fault; as though she should have known that her father was vulnerable and so have spared him, Egmar, the humiliation of being associated with his disaster.
For her part, Shansi was too bewildered and distressed to do anything but weep, which only seemed to annoy him more.
"My mother and sister," she asked, attempting to control herself, "what news of them? Have you heard?"
"As far as I know they're all in Theigia. Your father packed them and himself off in a boat at the first sign of trouble. That's no way for a king to behave."
Shansi was sobbing quietly, but she said "they might all have been killed."
"Nonsense!" said Egmar. "A people don't kill their king. If Taigram hadn't shown himself to be a coward they would have come to their senses soon enough. Kingship is more than garnering wealth - and fleeing with it at the first sign of danger,"
Shansi said "yes," and afterwards hated herself for not having defended her father. In Egmar's eyes Taigram had shown himself to be worthless. And she was her father's daughter: what a disgrace!
It was a disgrace which the entire court seemed to know about in a matter of hours, but no-one came to commiserate with her. She had thought she had many friends, but now found herself friendless. It was as though failure were a miasma which surrounded her; she became a non-person. Only Morvina deigned to speak to her. "You poor thing!" she said. "How unlucky you must think yourself! But look on the bright side, my dear; if you had not been married you too would be in exile now. They tell me Theigia is the most frightful place; they've absolutely no idea of comfort, and live on fish. I suppose your father will be quite miserable, poor man."
The thought of Taigram being miserable had little effect upon Shansi; certainly not as much as Morvina might have hoped. It was the condition of her mother and sister which worried her. She assumed they were living wretchedly.
After these remarks by Morvina, Shansi could no longer hide from the fact that the Dowager Queen disliked her. She might previously have pretended not to notice the subtle contempt and cold malice in her looks, but now she had to confront the unpleasant truth: in Morvina she had - and always had had - an implacable enemy, but she could not know how dangerous.
*Note: An arrangement, peculiar to the Sairish court, which dated from the murder of a member of the king's council who had been obstructing certain schemes that were precious to the then-queen's family. A personal attendant of the queen whom she had brought with her poisoned him, and since then no queen of Sair Jisenner had been permitted to appoint her own retinue.
The match was arranged by Volkis and was perhaps the shrewdest thing this vain and rather dull-witted man ever managed.
Kroya, immediately to the south of Sair Jisenner, is a tiny kingdom but extremely rich thanks to the abundance in its hills of gold, silver, iron ores and lead.
It might be thought that Shansi would have benefited from the wealth this brought to the Royal House but her father, King Taigram II was a mean and surly man. Her move to Sair Jisenner was therefore an escape for which she thanked the gods; and she doubly thanked them on account of her prince.
She thought him the most beautiful man she had ever seen. His lips were sensuous and finely sculptured, his nose straight and his eyes blue. He wore an immaculately-trimmed black beard, and his tall, elegant figure was crowned with loosely curling black hair that fell shining to his shoulders.
He lived well, and surrounded himself with boisterous, pleasure-loving young men and women, and Shansi was bound to compare her new life in the royal compound in Felewith with what she had known at the court of her father.
Shansi had spent her childhood in austere royal castles, the chief of which was a massive pile overlooking the capital of Budenrath. In none of the king's castles was the sound of music or merry-making to be heard. Taigram was reclusive; he took no pleasure in company, preferring the solitary tasks of calculating the profits from his mines and smelting-works. When he did spend, he spent grudgingly, and he reacted with sour ill-will to Shansi's insistence, after her betrothal to Egmar, that she have a tutor to teach her the Sairish tongue. Was she not costing him enough already? he grumbled.
The chance to exchange the dour, joyless court of her father for its very antithesis in Felewith had seemed to Shansi to be proof that the gods looked upon her favourably. She was so enchanted by her new life that when Egmar became king, and she his queen, she saw no disadvantage in losing control over the appointment of her personal attendants* .
Those whom she had brought with her from Kroya were required to leave, and she was sad, but not dismayed. She had known it would happen, but could not have foreseen what a crucial handicap it would prove to be.
If she had not been so infatuated with Egmar, and so bewitched by the life he seemed to offer her, she might have noticed other signs which pointed to possible trouble.
Morvina, the Dowager Queen, had quarters in the royal compound, and Shansi might have noticed the barely-concealed contempt in which she held her step-son Egmar when they encountered one another. Perhaps it was because Egmar appeared not to notice it that Shansi was able to ignore it too.
She might have questioned why Morvina continued to live in the royal compound at all, in view of the accepted practice for a dowager queen to be granted an estate well away from the capital (and affairs of state) to which she might gracefully retire; she might have questioned why so many of her husband's counsellors, powerful nobles whose goodwill he needed because they controlled the kingdom's wealth - Egmar was as bored by matters of finance as he was by matters of state - visited Morvina as frequently as they did, and she might have realised that Morvina's correct but cold attitude towards her was indicative of more than the reaction of an older woman towards a younger, prettier one who had displaced her.
Shansi was blind to everything that did not fit into her picture of an ideal world, a world which was to crash around her when the calamitous news reached Felewith of her father's downfall: Taigram had been deposed, and had fled into exile.
Calamitous for Taigram and his family, the news was greeted with delight by Morvina. Furthermore, she had been expecting it.
Unknown to Shansi, her father's hold on the Kroyan throne was somewhat shaky; she discovered how shaky when Egmar told her of his flight.
Morvina, on the other hand, had known of it long before, and having once used powerful connections to dispose of a king, she now did it again.
Securing the throne for her husband had required the disposal of his elder brother, the childless and unpopular King Tayssad and in this project she had enlisted her brother, the Lord Borden. This time it was another brother, Shten, Lord of Karm, who was her chief accomplice.
Married into Kroya's royal family, Shten it was who engineered the invasion which drove Taigram into exile and replaced him on the Kroyan throne with one of his wife's relations.
Babra, the new king and a man of Sigmar's age, was thus indebted to Shten and allied to Morvina.
She heard directly from Shten how Babra had crossed into Kroya at the head a small army; how his support had rapidly grown as the people and nobility rallied to his banner; how Taigram, unable to trust anyone, had packed up his family and treasures and escaped by boat to the island kingdom of Theigia.
Morvina broke the news to Egmar, and Egmar told Shansi. He seemed to infer that it was her fault; as though she should have known that her father was vulnerable and so have spared him, Egmar, the humiliation of being associated with his disaster.
For her part, Shansi was too bewildered and distressed to do anything but weep, which only seemed to annoy him more.
"My mother and sister," she asked, attempting to control herself, "what news of them? Have you heard?"
"As far as I know they're all in Theigia. Your father packed them and himself off in a boat at the first sign of trouble. That's no way for a king to behave."
Shansi was sobbing quietly, but she said "they might all have been killed."
"Nonsense!" said Egmar. "A people don't kill their king. If Taigram hadn't shown himself to be a coward they would have come to their senses soon enough. Kingship is more than garnering wealth - and fleeing with it at the first sign of danger,"
Shansi said "yes," and afterwards hated herself for not having defended her father. In Egmar's eyes Taigram had shown himself to be worthless. And she was her father's daughter: what a disgrace!
It was a disgrace which the entire court seemed to know about in a matter of hours, but no-one came to commiserate with her. She had thought she had many friends, but now found herself friendless. It was as though failure were a miasma which surrounded her; she became a non-person. Only Morvina deigned to speak to her. "You poor thing!" she said. "How unlucky you must think yourself! But look on the bright side, my dear; if you had not been married you too would be in exile now. They tell me Theigia is the most frightful place; they've absolutely no idea of comfort, and live on fish. I suppose your father will be quite miserable, poor man."
The thought of Taigram being miserable had little effect upon Shansi; certainly not as much as Morvina might have hoped. It was the condition of her mother and sister which worried her. She assumed they were living wretchedly.
After these remarks by Morvina, Shansi could no longer hide from the fact that the Dowager Queen disliked her. She might previously have pretended not to notice the subtle contempt and cold malice in her looks, but now she had to confront the unpleasant truth: in Morvina she had - and always had had - an implacable enemy, but she could not know how dangerous.
*Note: An arrangement, peculiar to the Sairish court, which dated from the murder of a member of the king's council who had been obstructing certain schemes that were precious to the then-queen's family. A personal attendant of the queen whom she had brought with her poisoned him, and since then no queen of Sair Jisenner had been permitted to appoint her own retinue.
CHAPTER TWO
A Winding Back
Morvina’s dead husband, Volkis, had been an ineffectual ruler; under him, the great nobles whose rebellion had put him on his brother's throne pursued their own interests without interference.
He had been quite content to live quietly in the shadow of Tayssad, his brother; neither he nor his wife, Yunnika the Beautiful, had desired anything more than to be left alone with each other on a comfortable estate, but Yunnika died within days of giving birth to a son and for his second wife he married the awesomely ambitious Lady Morvina. No beauty, for she was small and sharp-featured, her black hair bundled up on top of her head like some kind of whiskery growth, she planned and executed her conquest of Volkis with single-minded zeal, ruthlessly exploiting the influence and great wealth of her family.
Two years after her marriage she gave birth to Sigmar, born with a damaged hip and a weakened left leg.
No such handicaps inconvenienced his half-brother, Egmar.
When he was six and Egmar eight, Morvina played a central role in engineering the revolt, led by her brother Borden, which killed Tayssad and put her husband on the throne.
Egmar, now heir to a kingdom, soon learned how to exploit his status, spending his limited energy adding new dimensions to the pursuit of princely pleasures. Deliberately, perhaps, Sigmar lead a very different life, playing rough, dangerous games with adventurous, daring friends, their escapades constantly upsetting the sedate routine of the court. He was driven, it seemed, by the need to prove his strength, endurance and power to dominate others. He did not care whether people disliked him; only that he could control them.
To the outside world, the overthrow of King Tayssad and his replacement by Volkis was a marginal event, for although the Sairish crown had once belonged to mighty rulers, revolt and conquest had whittled their realm away, and what remained is relatively poor and militarily insignificant.
The triumphs of its founder, the legendary Bedekka, are still sung of by the travelling minstrels, and no one listened to their songs with more rapt attention than the young Prince Sigmar. He grew up to revere Sair's great warrior king, but if Bedekka's exploits thrilled him, a more immediate influence was exercised by his uncle Borden.
The regicide Borden was a powerful nobleman whose burgeoning ambitions were destined to be fulfilled at the expense of the once-mighty Sei Empire and its Laifyan territories.
* * * *
And so it is that Fate lays a meandering thread which lies across distance and time,
linking the Empire and the little kingdom of Sair Jisenner with its dysfunctional Royal Family.
In Felewith
The mid-winter festival came and went, and Shansi was still a virtual outcast at her husband's court. The despair of those first few weeks immediately following the news of her father's flight into exile was, however, beginning to weaken its grip. What made her situation less unbearable was the growing friendship between her and Reela, her chambermaid.
Reela had begun to confide in her and to pass on palace gossip as she dressed her hair and helped her into her formal court clothes. At first she had been sullen to the point of insolence, but it had mattered little to Shansi then because the court was full of people who wanted to be her friends. Then, when she found herself abandoned and despised, Reela had softened. By mid-summer her change in attitude was such that Shansi had no hesitation in telling her the strictly confidential news that she was pregnant. No one else knew.
Three days later Shansi had retired to her chambers for the night when Reela burst in. She was extremely agitated, and Shansi was unable to make out what she was trying to say, but it seemed that she thought her mistress to be in grave danger. Unwilling, or unable to elaborate, she hurried weeping from the room, leaving Shansi in a state of wild confusion.
She was never to see her servant again. The next day a complete stranger reported for duty; she said she was to replace Reela, who had been taken ill and was too poorly to leave her bed.
"Ill!" exclaimed Shansi. "That cannot be so. I spoke with her only last night and she was perfectly well then. If she had been sickening for something I can assure you I would have known."
The new girl looked at her unblinkingly. "She got ill-overnight," she said, "and I'm to take her place. That's all I know."
Shansi summoned Ghouzene, the Mistress of the Household. "What's this about my Reela being ill?" she demanded.
Ghouzene, a fat, middle-aged woman with heavy eyebrows and more of a beard than was seemly, informed her that Reela had been struck down by a fever; a fever that had already killed a number of people in the capital. It was thought she would not live long.
The next day Shansi was informed of her death, and she began to feel profoundly apprehensive, her fears focused upon Morvina, whose presence in the palace bore down upon her more oppressively than ever. She felt certain that Morvina had had something to do with fomenting the revolt in Kroya, and the same instinct told her that she had been involved, somehow, in the disappearance of Reela, Shansi's only friend. Anxiety began to rob her of sleep, and at last she spoke to Egmar about his step-mother; she said she could no longer stand her malevolence, and she implored him to find some pretext for making her leave Felewith.
Egmar listened impassively to what she had to say, and then informed her that it was all in her imagination. He knew for a fact that Morvina held him in the highest regard. His trusted counsellor the Lord Garapu, who had served his father with such distinction, had told him so. And if Morvina loved him, she must also love Shansi, his wife.
Shansi began to weep, overwhelmed by frustration; she pleaded in vain, and then she tried a different tack: "Whose appointment is Ghouzene?" she asked.
"Ghouzene?" Egmar appeared not to know who Ghouzene was.
"Yes. The Mistress of your Household."
"I appoint all the officers of the household," Egmar retorted stiffly. "You know that."
"Then please get rid of Ghouzene."
"What on earth for?"
Shansi looked down at her feet. What reason could she give? Egmar refused to believe anything she told him. "I don't want her in the palace," she said simply, her voice barely more than a whisper.
Egmar cupped his ear with his hand theatrically. "What was that?"
"I said," said Shansi, "I don't want her in the palace."
"And I suppose when I've got rid of her, because you don't want her in my household, you'll instruct me as to who I should appoint in her place?"
"I could probably find someone better than Ghouzene."
"Appointments in the king's household," said Egmar coldly, "are to be made by the king - the king alone. You know that as well as I do. What you are suggesting is against the law. I never want to hear you speak of it again. And you must stop this nonsense about Morvina. I command it!"
Taken aback by his vehemence, Shansi did her best to obey him, and yet within two weeks was compelled to ask him once again to rid the palace of Morvina.
She had found her new chambermaid, Reela's replacement, to be sly, insolent, unco-operative and entirely unsuitable. She was also incompetent, and she had complained about her in the strongest possible terms to Ghouzene. But nothing was done to replace the girl, and in exasperation Shansi had stormed off to confront the Mistress of the Household in her own quarters. It was an action without precedent; an outrageous contravention of palace etiquette, but Shansi was too upset and angry to care.
Ghouzene's startled servant told the queen upon her arrival that her mistress had been summoned to see Morvina, and Shansi immediately made her way to the quarters of the dowager queen. On her way, however, she began to have second thoughts about bursting in, and she paused by the heavy curtains drawn across the doorway. From the voices she could hear it was apparent that Morvina and Ghouzene were just the other side of it. Morvina was saying that Shansi's loyalty was questionable, to say the least, and that they (Morvina and Ghouzene) were obliged therefore to keep her under close surveillance. And for that reason it was essential that she should continue to be served by her present chambermaid, a girl who could be trusted to do as she was told and to report everything she saw and heard. Demands for her replacement had to be resisted, however strident they might become.
Shansi was appalled, and that evening she told Egmar what she had over-heard. He went pale with rage, and in the next moment had struck her a stinging blow across the face with the back of his hand, one of his rings cutting her cheek. She was either lying, he shouted, or admitting that she was an eavesdropper, and in either case she disgusted him.
Uncowed, although she could feel the warm blood running down the side of her face, Shansi implored him to get rid of Morvina for both their sakes, but he merely stared at her stonily, and stalked off.
It was after this disastrous interview that Shansi reached the conclusion that if Morvina could not be made to leave the palace then she must be rendered harmless by removing all those in the royal household whom she controlled. They must somehow be discredited; implicated, perhaps, in treachery or denounced as servants of the demon Galgaug. Once removed, Shansi would have them replaced by people she could trust.
It was a neat solution, but when she came to examine it she saw that it contained a crucial flaw: it required witnesses and testimony, which would entail the laying out of gold and the exertion of a powerful influence, and Shansi, although Queen, had little wealth, and less influence. She was not even provided with a personal allowance.
It was time, she decided, to tell Egmar about their baby, and risk the shame and ignominy if she were unlucky enough to lose it.
When he heard the news the king was more delighted than she could have hoped. He positively crowed with pride and pleasure. His attitude towards her altered so completely that she felt emboldened enough to suggest, albeit diffidently, that he might consider granting her a secluded country estate to which she could retire for her confinement.
Egmar smiled as understanding dawned: it was her condition that had made her behave so oddly of late! He noticed, with a pang of guilt, the livid mark on her cheek caused by his ring when he had hit her. It was a sound idea that she should get away from the pressures of the court; they were making her unbalanced. He made immediate arrangements for her to be given title to a lodge and its estates which he owned, but hardly ever visited, in a province some five days' walking distance to the south of Felewith, and to Shansi's great delight, not far from Kroya.
Before he could change his mind she sent into her father's former kingdom for friends whom she heard had survived Taigram's downfall. She requested them to go directly to her estate in Fromond, and she gave them letters to confirm their business and status. They were to prepare the lodge for her arrival and confinement. She then took enormous delight in informing her chambermaid that she would soon be leaving the royal compound and would have no more need of her services.
Ghouzene requested an audience as soon as this news got back to her. Shansi was courteous but firm: her household in Fromond, she said, was her own affair, and she would make her own appointments there.
The Mistress of the Household spluttered and protested, but Shansi insisted that as far as the royal lodge was concerned, the king himself had decreed that an exception be made of it, and she went on to hint that if Ghouzene could not provide her with a chambermaid to attend her at court who was more to her liking, she would get the king to appoint someone else as Mistress of the Household. Ghouzene was practically grovelling by the time the interview ended.
Following upon this interview, Shansi noted a remarkable change in Morvina's attitude towards her. The Dowager Queen actively sought her company; made pleasant conversation with her and began to show a motherly interest in her condition. Then Shansi was presented with no less than five girls from whom to select a chambermaid. She dismissed them all and sent for Ghouzene, She informed her that there was only one person whom she could trust to look after her properly in her delicate condition, and that was an old friend of hers who was even then preparing for her arrival at the lodge in Fromond. She referred to her childhood friend from Kroya, Lewvin, daughter of a high-ranking nobleman. She knew she was breaking the rules in making this request, but felt confident that she would get away with it. She did. Lewvin duly arrived at Felewith and reported for duty. Her first task, Shansi informed her, was to concentrate on learning the Sairish tongue. She herself would be her tutor, and after a faltering start, was soon delighted by her student’s progress.
Morvina’s dead husband, Volkis, had been an ineffectual ruler; under him, the great nobles whose rebellion had put him on his brother's throne pursued their own interests without interference.
He had been quite content to live quietly in the shadow of Tayssad, his brother; neither he nor his wife, Yunnika the Beautiful, had desired anything more than to be left alone with each other on a comfortable estate, but Yunnika died within days of giving birth to a son and for his second wife he married the awesomely ambitious Lady Morvina. No beauty, for she was small and sharp-featured, her black hair bundled up on top of her head like some kind of whiskery growth, she planned and executed her conquest of Volkis with single-minded zeal, ruthlessly exploiting the influence and great wealth of her family.
Two years after her marriage she gave birth to Sigmar, born with a damaged hip and a weakened left leg.
No such handicaps inconvenienced his half-brother, Egmar.
When he was six and Egmar eight, Morvina played a central role in engineering the revolt, led by her brother Borden, which killed Tayssad and put her husband on the throne.
Egmar, now heir to a kingdom, soon learned how to exploit his status, spending his limited energy adding new dimensions to the pursuit of princely pleasures. Deliberately, perhaps, Sigmar lead a very different life, playing rough, dangerous games with adventurous, daring friends, their escapades constantly upsetting the sedate routine of the court. He was driven, it seemed, by the need to prove his strength, endurance and power to dominate others. He did not care whether people disliked him; only that he could control them.
To the outside world, the overthrow of King Tayssad and his replacement by Volkis was a marginal event, for although the Sairish crown had once belonged to mighty rulers, revolt and conquest had whittled their realm away, and what remained is relatively poor and militarily insignificant.
The triumphs of its founder, the legendary Bedekka, are still sung of by the travelling minstrels, and no one listened to their songs with more rapt attention than the young Prince Sigmar. He grew up to revere Sair's great warrior king, but if Bedekka's exploits thrilled him, a more immediate influence was exercised by his uncle Borden.
The regicide Borden was a powerful nobleman whose burgeoning ambitions were destined to be fulfilled at the expense of the once-mighty Sei Empire and its Laifyan territories.
* * * *
And so it is that Fate lays a meandering thread which lies across distance and time,
linking the Empire and the little kingdom of Sair Jisenner with its dysfunctional Royal Family.
In Felewith
The mid-winter festival came and went, and Shansi was still a virtual outcast at her husband's court. The despair of those first few weeks immediately following the news of her father's flight into exile was, however, beginning to weaken its grip. What made her situation less unbearable was the growing friendship between her and Reela, her chambermaid.
Reela had begun to confide in her and to pass on palace gossip as she dressed her hair and helped her into her formal court clothes. At first she had been sullen to the point of insolence, but it had mattered little to Shansi then because the court was full of people who wanted to be her friends. Then, when she found herself abandoned and despised, Reela had softened. By mid-summer her change in attitude was such that Shansi had no hesitation in telling her the strictly confidential news that she was pregnant. No one else knew.
Three days later Shansi had retired to her chambers for the night when Reela burst in. She was extremely agitated, and Shansi was unable to make out what she was trying to say, but it seemed that she thought her mistress to be in grave danger. Unwilling, or unable to elaborate, she hurried weeping from the room, leaving Shansi in a state of wild confusion.
She was never to see her servant again. The next day a complete stranger reported for duty; she said she was to replace Reela, who had been taken ill and was too poorly to leave her bed.
"Ill!" exclaimed Shansi. "That cannot be so. I spoke with her only last night and she was perfectly well then. If she had been sickening for something I can assure you I would have known."
The new girl looked at her unblinkingly. "She got ill-overnight," she said, "and I'm to take her place. That's all I know."
Shansi summoned Ghouzene, the Mistress of the Household. "What's this about my Reela being ill?" she demanded.
Ghouzene, a fat, middle-aged woman with heavy eyebrows and more of a beard than was seemly, informed her that Reela had been struck down by a fever; a fever that had already killed a number of people in the capital. It was thought she would not live long.
The next day Shansi was informed of her death, and she began to feel profoundly apprehensive, her fears focused upon Morvina, whose presence in the palace bore down upon her more oppressively than ever. She felt certain that Morvina had had something to do with fomenting the revolt in Kroya, and the same instinct told her that she had been involved, somehow, in the disappearance of Reela, Shansi's only friend. Anxiety began to rob her of sleep, and at last she spoke to Egmar about his step-mother; she said she could no longer stand her malevolence, and she implored him to find some pretext for making her leave Felewith.
Egmar listened impassively to what she had to say, and then informed her that it was all in her imagination. He knew for a fact that Morvina held him in the highest regard. His trusted counsellor the Lord Garapu, who had served his father with such distinction, had told him so. And if Morvina loved him, she must also love Shansi, his wife.
Shansi began to weep, overwhelmed by frustration; she pleaded in vain, and then she tried a different tack: "Whose appointment is Ghouzene?" she asked.
"Ghouzene?" Egmar appeared not to know who Ghouzene was.
"Yes. The Mistress of your Household."
"I appoint all the officers of the household," Egmar retorted stiffly. "You know that."
"Then please get rid of Ghouzene."
"What on earth for?"
Shansi looked down at her feet. What reason could she give? Egmar refused to believe anything she told him. "I don't want her in the palace," she said simply, her voice barely more than a whisper.
Egmar cupped his ear with his hand theatrically. "What was that?"
"I said," said Shansi, "I don't want her in the palace."
"And I suppose when I've got rid of her, because you don't want her in my household, you'll instruct me as to who I should appoint in her place?"
"I could probably find someone better than Ghouzene."
"Appointments in the king's household," said Egmar coldly, "are to be made by the king - the king alone. You know that as well as I do. What you are suggesting is against the law. I never want to hear you speak of it again. And you must stop this nonsense about Morvina. I command it!"
Taken aback by his vehemence, Shansi did her best to obey him, and yet within two weeks was compelled to ask him once again to rid the palace of Morvina.
She had found her new chambermaid, Reela's replacement, to be sly, insolent, unco-operative and entirely unsuitable. She was also incompetent, and she had complained about her in the strongest possible terms to Ghouzene. But nothing was done to replace the girl, and in exasperation Shansi had stormed off to confront the Mistress of the Household in her own quarters. It was an action without precedent; an outrageous contravention of palace etiquette, but Shansi was too upset and angry to care.
Ghouzene's startled servant told the queen upon her arrival that her mistress had been summoned to see Morvina, and Shansi immediately made her way to the quarters of the dowager queen. On her way, however, she began to have second thoughts about bursting in, and she paused by the heavy curtains drawn across the doorway. From the voices she could hear it was apparent that Morvina and Ghouzene were just the other side of it. Morvina was saying that Shansi's loyalty was questionable, to say the least, and that they (Morvina and Ghouzene) were obliged therefore to keep her under close surveillance. And for that reason it was essential that she should continue to be served by her present chambermaid, a girl who could be trusted to do as she was told and to report everything she saw and heard. Demands for her replacement had to be resisted, however strident they might become.
Shansi was appalled, and that evening she told Egmar what she had over-heard. He went pale with rage, and in the next moment had struck her a stinging blow across the face with the back of his hand, one of his rings cutting her cheek. She was either lying, he shouted, or admitting that she was an eavesdropper, and in either case she disgusted him.
Uncowed, although she could feel the warm blood running down the side of her face, Shansi implored him to get rid of Morvina for both their sakes, but he merely stared at her stonily, and stalked off.
It was after this disastrous interview that Shansi reached the conclusion that if Morvina could not be made to leave the palace then she must be rendered harmless by removing all those in the royal household whom she controlled. They must somehow be discredited; implicated, perhaps, in treachery or denounced as servants of the demon Galgaug. Once removed, Shansi would have them replaced by people she could trust.
It was a neat solution, but when she came to examine it she saw that it contained a crucial flaw: it required witnesses and testimony, which would entail the laying out of gold and the exertion of a powerful influence, and Shansi, although Queen, had little wealth, and less influence. She was not even provided with a personal allowance.
It was time, she decided, to tell Egmar about their baby, and risk the shame and ignominy if she were unlucky enough to lose it.
When he heard the news the king was more delighted than she could have hoped. He positively crowed with pride and pleasure. His attitude towards her altered so completely that she felt emboldened enough to suggest, albeit diffidently, that he might consider granting her a secluded country estate to which she could retire for her confinement.
Egmar smiled as understanding dawned: it was her condition that had made her behave so oddly of late! He noticed, with a pang of guilt, the livid mark on her cheek caused by his ring when he had hit her. It was a sound idea that she should get away from the pressures of the court; they were making her unbalanced. He made immediate arrangements for her to be given title to a lodge and its estates which he owned, but hardly ever visited, in a province some five days' walking distance to the south of Felewith, and to Shansi's great delight, not far from Kroya.
Before he could change his mind she sent into her father's former kingdom for friends whom she heard had survived Taigram's downfall. She requested them to go directly to her estate in Fromond, and she gave them letters to confirm their business and status. They were to prepare the lodge for her arrival and confinement. She then took enormous delight in informing her chambermaid that she would soon be leaving the royal compound and would have no more need of her services.
Ghouzene requested an audience as soon as this news got back to her. Shansi was courteous but firm: her household in Fromond, she said, was her own affair, and she would make her own appointments there.
The Mistress of the Household spluttered and protested, but Shansi insisted that as far as the royal lodge was concerned, the king himself had decreed that an exception be made of it, and she went on to hint that if Ghouzene could not provide her with a chambermaid to attend her at court who was more to her liking, she would get the king to appoint someone else as Mistress of the Household. Ghouzene was practically grovelling by the time the interview ended.
Following upon this interview, Shansi noted a remarkable change in Morvina's attitude towards her. The Dowager Queen actively sought her company; made pleasant conversation with her and began to show a motherly interest in her condition. Then Shansi was presented with no less than five girls from whom to select a chambermaid. She dismissed them all and sent for Ghouzene, She informed her that there was only one person whom she could trust to look after her properly in her delicate condition, and that was an old friend of hers who was even then preparing for her arrival at the lodge in Fromond. She referred to her childhood friend from Kroya, Lewvin, daughter of a high-ranking nobleman. She knew she was breaking the rules in making this request, but felt confident that she would get away with it. She did. Lewvin duly arrived at Felewith and reported for duty. Her first task, Shansi informed her, was to concentrate on learning the Sairish tongue. She herself would be her tutor, and after a faltering start, was soon delighted by her student’s progress.
CHAPTER THREE
The Sairish summer that year was unusually warm and dry, and Shansi, after resting through the hottest part of the day would often go out to the small area within the walls of the royal compound which was set aside for herbs and fruit trees. At one end was an ancient walnut tree with an old bench beneath it, and here she would sit, attended by Lewvin. Then Morvina took to joining her there, and it was during their conversations - one-sided affairs since Shansi hardly got a word in, and did not attempt to - that she heard how Sigmar had been named marshal of all Laifya which was nominally part of the distant Sei Empire ("Nwodek" was the imperial term, Morvina explained) and was now engaged in a successful military campaign to enforce his authority.
The inscrutable crust of Morvina's rigid self-control crumbled when she spoke of it. The intensity of her pride and excitement was only too apparent. Sigmar was all she wanted to talk about, and Shansi was well aware that in reciting his great deeds she was inviting a comparison between him and the dissolute, ineffectual Egmar. Shansi looked forward with mounting impatience to the time when she could decently leave Felewith and escape the suffocating attentions of the Dowager Queen.
* * * *
The baby, a boy, was born a few weeks before the spring festival of Sara Noc the following year.
At Felewith Egmar issued a proclamation, announcing the birth of an heir who was take the name Chaldez. And he sent a messenger to Shansi at her lodge in Fromond instructing her to bring their child to the great hall in the royal compound at Felewith as soon as she was fit for the journey; he intended, he said, to hold the naming ceremony immediately after Sara Noc.
Shansi did as she was bid, but brought with her to Felewith two of her Kroyan retainers: Lewvin and the soldier Pemmel, whom she had put in command of her escort.
Egmar promptly ordered Pemmel's arrest.
When Shansi heard of it via Lewvin she ceased to be the meek little woman whom she thought she ought to be when in her husband's presence. "Do you wish it to be known," she stormed, "to what dangers you exposed your son when you insisted he come to the court at this time?"
Egmar was momentarily taken aback, but recovered quickly. "What dangers?" he demanded contemptuously.
"Histek is at large. You must know that. Yet you sent an escort commanded by an imbecile."
Once more Egmar was thrown off balance; he was unable for the moment to recall who, exactly, had been detailed to command the escort, and as for the bandit leader Histek, he knew him to be dead. "How dare you accuse me of such a thing!" he roared.
"I doubt that Morvina would believe you entrusted our safety to that man Gorn," Shansi responded hotly.
Egmar recalled now that he had put the matter of the escort in the hands of his friend Creal, whose sister, incidentally, was the voluptuous Killini, one of his favourites among the several women who had helped compensate for the absence of Shansi. Their attentions, combined with his daily hunting expeditions, frequent feasts and bouts of heavy drinking, had left him with insufficient time to attend to the more humdrum business of the court. He was not even sure who this Gorn fellow was. "You may be sure," he said pompously, "that Gorn was selected because he was the right man for the job. And what's this nonsense about Histek? I happen to know we are rid of him. Byrat's men chased him into Morden Mire and wiped out his entire band. Byrat himself told me."
"Byrat told you? You believe that man!" Shansi was scandalised. "Surely you remember how he insulted you? Of all the great nobles of your realm he alone absented himself from your wedding, with the excuse, if I remember rightly, that he had an in-growing toenail and was unable to undertake the arduous journey to your court!" She might have added that her Kroyan friends attributed her father's overthrow to him, for was he not uncle to the man now occupying Taigram's throne? She said instead: "In Fromond it is said that he and Histek are in league. Histek attacked a village within a day's journey of the Lodge only four days before we left to come here. Travellers on the road to Felewith were being picked off daily. They go in armed convoys now. Have you not been told any of this?"
"Travellers' tales and peasants' prattle!" Egmar growled. Then, his voice rising, he added "Of course I've heard it - and if I'd believed it do you suppose I'd have said Histek is dead?"
"How can you doubt me?" retorted Shansi. "People have been attacked. It is true that the village was destroyed. I saw it with my own eyes! Histek or whoever - does it matter? Murderers and robbers are attacking farms, villages and travellers in the very country we had to travel through. We needed protection."
"And I ensured you were given it." Egmar's tone was triumphant.
Shansi, cooler now, said "Gorn arrived at the Lodge without his sword. He'd 'mislaid' it on the way. He'd 'mislaid' about half the escort too. Those he'd managed to keep were drunk and dishevelled. There was no discipline; no order. I refused to make the journey in the company of such men, bandits or no bandits. I ordered Pemmel to take command, and he served the prince, your son, faithfully. He was obeying my orders. I beseech you, my lord, show him your kindness. He has done no wrong. He could have begged leave to return to his home, and I should have had to grant it. He would now be free. I know what a generous man you are, and wise. Show your wisdom and generosity now to our servant Pemmel."
Egmar stroked his chin. His wife, he realised, had been upset; it accounted for her extraordinary lack of respect but now that he had calmed her she had recovered it. It was all a matter of knowing how to handle her. He said "I will release Pemmel."
"May he remain here?" Shansi asked. "He often spoke to me about the high esteem in which he holds you. In Kroya they know the brilliance of your court. If you could find a position for him in your guard he would repay you doubly with loyalty and bravery. He is a man of such integrity I knew you would recognise in him a kindred spirit."
Egmar realised that he might, after all, have acted hastily; yes, he said, the Kroyan could stay, and he would give him a position in the Household Guard.
……..
The naming ceremony took place a month after Chaldez was brought to Felewith.
Shansi had dreaded meeting Morvina and hearing endlessly from her about the exploits of Sigmar, but the Dowager Queen was silent on the subject. She only began to show signs of animation when she set eyes on Prince Chaldez, and then she was as sweet as syrup. Egmar noted it, and wasted no time in scolding Shansi for her uncharitable and unworthy feelings towards his step-mother. He said he believed she was as fond of the royal family as she would have been had he, Egmar, been her own son and Chaldez her grandchild.
Shansi knew that to contradict him would be useless.
From the scale of the preparations she now saw being made in the capital she realised that Egmar intended the naming ceremony to be a magnificent affair.
Great and petty nobles of the kingdom, along with certain Sairish rulers from beyond its borders began arriving with their retainers, and over a period of days a gaudy city of tents appeared in the fields surrounding the capital.
On the eve of the sacrificial ritual of the naming ceremony, Egmar held a banquet in the great hall for the most important of his guests. Shansi was seated on his left, in a position which reflected the honour due to her.
As she looked out over the company her eyes seemed always to meet the gaze of one man in particular. She knew him to be a cousin of her husband, a man called Segga. Although a Sairish nobelman, his estates did not lie within the borders of Sair Jisenner.
When the banquet reached the stage at which formality had begun to dissolve into licence, he left his place and approached the king. Half mockingly, or so Shansi thought, he scolded his cousin for keeping his wife too much to himself.
Egmar, who had been drinking all day and by now was barely conscious, muttered something unintelligible, then rose and lurched unsteadily towards a group of men who greeted his arrival with a raucous cheer.
Segga sat down beside Shansi; perhaps he thought that her expression of astonishment meant that she did not recognise him because he at once introduced himself, explaining that he and the king were related. Shansi listened dispassionately, then said she knew who he was. He seemed hardly put out - and certainly not put down - and chatted away with all the familiarity of an old friend, which Shansi resented.
After a while he fell silent, looked at her intently and said: "You don't like me, do you?"
Shansi pretended not to have heard him properly.
"You're not afraid of me?" he asked.
She looked at him squarely and answered sharply that no, she was not afraid of him; was there any reason to be?
He laughed, but his conversation had, it seemed, dried up. After a while he excused himself and left.
For the remainder of the banquet, until she retired to her bedchamber, Shansi scrupulously avoided looking in his direction.
The following day she learnt that Egmar had given his consent for Morvina to present Chaldez to the priest at the stage in the naming ceremony when the blood of the sacrificial fowl was to be splashed across his abdomen. The idea filled her with terror, but there was nothing she could do to alter the arrangement.
During the early part of the ceremony she found herself standing immediately in front of Segga. When Morvina came forward to take the baby from her arms she heard him move closer. After Morvina had turned and stepped away he leant forward and whispered that there was someone of whom she should be afraid.
Shansi turned and stared at him, her face drained of blood.
The inscrutable crust of Morvina's rigid self-control crumbled when she spoke of it. The intensity of her pride and excitement was only too apparent. Sigmar was all she wanted to talk about, and Shansi was well aware that in reciting his great deeds she was inviting a comparison between him and the dissolute, ineffectual Egmar. Shansi looked forward with mounting impatience to the time when she could decently leave Felewith and escape the suffocating attentions of the Dowager Queen.
* * * *
The baby, a boy, was born a few weeks before the spring festival of Sara Noc the following year.
At Felewith Egmar issued a proclamation, announcing the birth of an heir who was take the name Chaldez. And he sent a messenger to Shansi at her lodge in Fromond instructing her to bring their child to the great hall in the royal compound at Felewith as soon as she was fit for the journey; he intended, he said, to hold the naming ceremony immediately after Sara Noc.
Shansi did as she was bid, but brought with her to Felewith two of her Kroyan retainers: Lewvin and the soldier Pemmel, whom she had put in command of her escort.
Egmar promptly ordered Pemmel's arrest.
When Shansi heard of it via Lewvin she ceased to be the meek little woman whom she thought she ought to be when in her husband's presence. "Do you wish it to be known," she stormed, "to what dangers you exposed your son when you insisted he come to the court at this time?"
Egmar was momentarily taken aback, but recovered quickly. "What dangers?" he demanded contemptuously.
"Histek is at large. You must know that. Yet you sent an escort commanded by an imbecile."
Once more Egmar was thrown off balance; he was unable for the moment to recall who, exactly, had been detailed to command the escort, and as for the bandit leader Histek, he knew him to be dead. "How dare you accuse me of such a thing!" he roared.
"I doubt that Morvina would believe you entrusted our safety to that man Gorn," Shansi responded hotly.
Egmar recalled now that he had put the matter of the escort in the hands of his friend Creal, whose sister, incidentally, was the voluptuous Killini, one of his favourites among the several women who had helped compensate for the absence of Shansi. Their attentions, combined with his daily hunting expeditions, frequent feasts and bouts of heavy drinking, had left him with insufficient time to attend to the more humdrum business of the court. He was not even sure who this Gorn fellow was. "You may be sure," he said pompously, "that Gorn was selected because he was the right man for the job. And what's this nonsense about Histek? I happen to know we are rid of him. Byrat's men chased him into Morden Mire and wiped out his entire band. Byrat himself told me."
"Byrat told you? You believe that man!" Shansi was scandalised. "Surely you remember how he insulted you? Of all the great nobles of your realm he alone absented himself from your wedding, with the excuse, if I remember rightly, that he had an in-growing toenail and was unable to undertake the arduous journey to your court!" She might have added that her Kroyan friends attributed her father's overthrow to him, for was he not uncle to the man now occupying Taigram's throne? She said instead: "In Fromond it is said that he and Histek are in league. Histek attacked a village within a day's journey of the Lodge only four days before we left to come here. Travellers on the road to Felewith were being picked off daily. They go in armed convoys now. Have you not been told any of this?"
"Travellers' tales and peasants' prattle!" Egmar growled. Then, his voice rising, he added "Of course I've heard it - and if I'd believed it do you suppose I'd have said Histek is dead?"
"How can you doubt me?" retorted Shansi. "People have been attacked. It is true that the village was destroyed. I saw it with my own eyes! Histek or whoever - does it matter? Murderers and robbers are attacking farms, villages and travellers in the very country we had to travel through. We needed protection."
"And I ensured you were given it." Egmar's tone was triumphant.
Shansi, cooler now, said "Gorn arrived at the Lodge without his sword. He'd 'mislaid' it on the way. He'd 'mislaid' about half the escort too. Those he'd managed to keep were drunk and dishevelled. There was no discipline; no order. I refused to make the journey in the company of such men, bandits or no bandits. I ordered Pemmel to take command, and he served the prince, your son, faithfully. He was obeying my orders. I beseech you, my lord, show him your kindness. He has done no wrong. He could have begged leave to return to his home, and I should have had to grant it. He would now be free. I know what a generous man you are, and wise. Show your wisdom and generosity now to our servant Pemmel."
Egmar stroked his chin. His wife, he realised, had been upset; it accounted for her extraordinary lack of respect but now that he had calmed her she had recovered it. It was all a matter of knowing how to handle her. He said "I will release Pemmel."
"May he remain here?" Shansi asked. "He often spoke to me about the high esteem in which he holds you. In Kroya they know the brilliance of your court. If you could find a position for him in your guard he would repay you doubly with loyalty and bravery. He is a man of such integrity I knew you would recognise in him a kindred spirit."
Egmar realised that he might, after all, have acted hastily; yes, he said, the Kroyan could stay, and he would give him a position in the Household Guard.
……..
The naming ceremony took place a month after Chaldez was brought to Felewith.
Shansi had dreaded meeting Morvina and hearing endlessly from her about the exploits of Sigmar, but the Dowager Queen was silent on the subject. She only began to show signs of animation when she set eyes on Prince Chaldez, and then she was as sweet as syrup. Egmar noted it, and wasted no time in scolding Shansi for her uncharitable and unworthy feelings towards his step-mother. He said he believed she was as fond of the royal family as she would have been had he, Egmar, been her own son and Chaldez her grandchild.
Shansi knew that to contradict him would be useless.
From the scale of the preparations she now saw being made in the capital she realised that Egmar intended the naming ceremony to be a magnificent affair.
Great and petty nobles of the kingdom, along with certain Sairish rulers from beyond its borders began arriving with their retainers, and over a period of days a gaudy city of tents appeared in the fields surrounding the capital.
On the eve of the sacrificial ritual of the naming ceremony, Egmar held a banquet in the great hall for the most important of his guests. Shansi was seated on his left, in a position which reflected the honour due to her.
As she looked out over the company her eyes seemed always to meet the gaze of one man in particular. She knew him to be a cousin of her husband, a man called Segga. Although a Sairish nobelman, his estates did not lie within the borders of Sair Jisenner.
When the banquet reached the stage at which formality had begun to dissolve into licence, he left his place and approached the king. Half mockingly, or so Shansi thought, he scolded his cousin for keeping his wife too much to himself.
Egmar, who had been drinking all day and by now was barely conscious, muttered something unintelligible, then rose and lurched unsteadily towards a group of men who greeted his arrival with a raucous cheer.
Segga sat down beside Shansi; perhaps he thought that her expression of astonishment meant that she did not recognise him because he at once introduced himself, explaining that he and the king were related. Shansi listened dispassionately, then said she knew who he was. He seemed hardly put out - and certainly not put down - and chatted away with all the familiarity of an old friend, which Shansi resented.
After a while he fell silent, looked at her intently and said: "You don't like me, do you?"
Shansi pretended not to have heard him properly.
"You're not afraid of me?" he asked.
She looked at him squarely and answered sharply that no, she was not afraid of him; was there any reason to be?
He laughed, but his conversation had, it seemed, dried up. After a while he excused himself and left.
For the remainder of the banquet, until she retired to her bedchamber, Shansi scrupulously avoided looking in his direction.
The following day she learnt that Egmar had given his consent for Morvina to present Chaldez to the priest at the stage in the naming ceremony when the blood of the sacrificial fowl was to be splashed across his abdomen. The idea filled her with terror, but there was nothing she could do to alter the arrangement.
During the early part of the ceremony she found herself standing immediately in front of Segga. When Morvina came forward to take the baby from her arms she heard him move closer. After Morvina had turned and stepped away he leant forward and whispered that there was someone of whom she should be afraid.
Shansi turned and stared at him, her face drained of blood.
CHAPTER FOUR
In a land so distant and so different that Shansi would have thought it belonged to a fairy tale, a fat youth took a fateful decision.
Jasti IV, Mo Wa of the Sei Empire and Va Rein of Boa-Isgaad, took early retirement.
Very early. He was just 22.
He had been called upon by his uncle, the Grand Marshall, to put the Mo Wa’s seal to yet another death warrant, but worse than seeing off brothers, sisters and cousins - almost every one of his close relations had been caught trying to get rid of him - this latest one would end the life of his childhood companion, best friend and lover, Attu.
Jasti did as he had to, and that night he made his decision. For five years he had attempted to rule the unruly Sei Empire, and it had made an old man of him. Everyone was against him. He thought of Attu. Not many years ago they had been inseparable, and since he had succeeded his father, Jasti had lavished palaces, provinces and treasures on him. He had loved Attu, and if he had not been Mo Wa, Attu would surely have loved him in return? Jasti seemed to have spent a lifetime putting the Mo Wa's seal to warrants for the execution of those who had fallen victim to the lust for power; it seemed there was no end to the killing, and he was determined to have no more of it.
His announcement the following day was greeted with disbelief, at first, and then astonishment. A pilgrimage to the Holy City of Crarne at this early stage of his life? How long, pray, did he intend to remain? For the rest of his life!
Jasti was adamant. His uncle the Grand Marshal would govern in his name.
The news was not broadcast and when, a month later the imperial procession left the palace in Nadim, the capital, and passed through the Golden Gates (not a speck of gold remained on them), it aroused little interest and less speculation. The proclamation that day had, after all, merely referred to a routine hunting expedition.
The road which the imperial party took had once been the greatest highway in the world. Built during the Chah Krastnyi dynasty, when the Sei Empire was at its mightiest, it was said to have taken 100,000 slaves 100 years to quarry, hew, transport and lay the marble slabs with which it was paved. But by the time Jasti made his historic journey to Crarne very little of the original stone remained; continual plundering had reduced long stretches to a dusty, rutted track.
Jasti's progress was slow anyway, but the state of the road caused long delays, and additionally, much of the country through which he had to pass was infested with bandits. Even with a military escort of 50 guards - the Grand Marshal had refused to release any more on the grounds that too large a number would have excited an unhealthy interest in the Mo Wa's departure from Nadim - the imperial party dared be on the move for only a few hours each day. By the time it reached the holy city, 23 days after leaving Nadim, armies were on the march and death by stealth stalked the night in the palaces and homelands of the great Sei Empire.
* * * *
The closing years of the reign of Jasti's enfeebled father, Tarki Gorin, had been marked by steadily growing disorder throughout the empire. Firm, vigorous, resolute action was called for from his successor, but the young Mo Wa had neither the energy nor the inclination to provide it, so that by the time he left his imperial palace for Crarne there was already widespread chaos.
A year later, the power struggle still far from resolved, there was no single authority in the empire that was capable of, or interested in protecting the empire's more remote possessions. And of these the Rahnese of Laifya were at once the richest and the most vulnerable.
Beyond the Futchung Mountains, and accessible only through the tortuous Na Pass, Laifya is a different world; a world green in summer with vineyards and forests, and golden in autumn with grain, and through this rich land flows, like an artery, the great River Stenovin along whose length the merchants of Laifya travel to do trade with the peoples of the mountains and plains to the north: the unpredictable Oshelx and Stachaxi; the placid Shewis, the Osarians and the distant Kraitians.
Liberated from the close attention of the empire, the numerous provinces which constitute the Rhanese of Laifya had become virtually autonomous states, their imperial governors making war and peace as they manoeuvred for advantage. But the Rahensee were in danger. Pushing towards their borders from the west were land-hungry, war-like tribes on the move from their arid and mountainous homelands in the interior. And in the east came ominous stirrings from Sair Jisenner, since time immemorial a pain in the side of the empire.
The closest Rhanese to Sair Jisenner is Eimond whose governor 'Rha' Rouell made a judicious marriage into one of the great Sairish families, and laid claim, as a result of it, to certain Sairish estates which Morvina’s powerful brother, the Lord Borden, considered to be his.
The dispute came to a head shortly after Sigmar's 19th birthday, and it was resolved when Borden, accompanied by his nephew and a sizable army, crossed the River Nontock into Eimond, defeated and killed Rah Rouell, and took his capital of Cheg-im-Gure.
Borden pronounced himself the new Rha of Eimond, and proceeded to plunder the Stenovin Valley's rich trade route. Sigmar was invariably at his side, and he was at his side the day Borden was thrown from his horse and broke his neck. Two days later he was dead.
He died without a male heir, and Sigmar impetuously declared himself to be his successor in Eimond, assuming the title of Rah. It was an illegal act, but no more so than anything else he and his uncle had done in Layfia, and if tongues wagged with shocked disapproval, he was ready to silence them. He marched on one neighbour after another, sharpening a military genius which few in Laifya could rival, and the only respite came - a brief one - when his father King Volkis died.
* * * *
Several months earlier there had occurred a seemingly minor event, but one which would have far-reaching consequences.
Among Sigmar's companions was the aristocratic Saminad whose father, the Lord Garapu, owned vast Sairish estates. Saminad and Sigmar quarrelled; Saminad was sent back in disgrace to the family estates, and had it not been for the death of Volkis he would no doubt have remained there.
As it was, Sigmar broke off from his marauding to return to the Sairish capital of Felewith for his father's funery rites, and while he was there he was visited by Garapu who implored him to take his distraught son back into his service. Sigmar, sharp enough to detect an opportunity when one arose, and wily enough to see how to exploit it, agreed, but only on condition that Garapu promote and defend the interests of his mother, the widowed Morvina whom he supposed would need allies now that her step-son Egmar was king.
Garapu agreed, and in doing so sealed Egmar's fate.
Returned to Laifya, Sigmar carried on from where he had left off. His enemies were riven by petty rivalries and mutual hostility, and victory succeeded victory. He looked invincible, and was invincible until several of the Rhanese settled their differences and formed an alliance against him.
Sigmar began to suffer his first defeats, and as his army was weakened, so he was forced to retreat, abandoning his conquests one by one, and with them his pretensions of being the Imperial Nwodek of Laifya.
Jasti IV, Mo Wa of the Sei Empire and Va Rein of Boa-Isgaad, took early retirement.
Very early. He was just 22.
He had been called upon by his uncle, the Grand Marshall, to put the Mo Wa’s seal to yet another death warrant, but worse than seeing off brothers, sisters and cousins - almost every one of his close relations had been caught trying to get rid of him - this latest one would end the life of his childhood companion, best friend and lover, Attu.
Jasti did as he had to, and that night he made his decision. For five years he had attempted to rule the unruly Sei Empire, and it had made an old man of him. Everyone was against him. He thought of Attu. Not many years ago they had been inseparable, and since he had succeeded his father, Jasti had lavished palaces, provinces and treasures on him. He had loved Attu, and if he had not been Mo Wa, Attu would surely have loved him in return? Jasti seemed to have spent a lifetime putting the Mo Wa's seal to warrants for the execution of those who had fallen victim to the lust for power; it seemed there was no end to the killing, and he was determined to have no more of it.
His announcement the following day was greeted with disbelief, at first, and then astonishment. A pilgrimage to the Holy City of Crarne at this early stage of his life? How long, pray, did he intend to remain? For the rest of his life!
Jasti was adamant. His uncle the Grand Marshal would govern in his name.
The news was not broadcast and when, a month later the imperial procession left the palace in Nadim, the capital, and passed through the Golden Gates (not a speck of gold remained on them), it aroused little interest and less speculation. The proclamation that day had, after all, merely referred to a routine hunting expedition.
The road which the imperial party took had once been the greatest highway in the world. Built during the Chah Krastnyi dynasty, when the Sei Empire was at its mightiest, it was said to have taken 100,000 slaves 100 years to quarry, hew, transport and lay the marble slabs with which it was paved. But by the time Jasti made his historic journey to Crarne very little of the original stone remained; continual plundering had reduced long stretches to a dusty, rutted track.
Jasti's progress was slow anyway, but the state of the road caused long delays, and additionally, much of the country through which he had to pass was infested with bandits. Even with a military escort of 50 guards - the Grand Marshal had refused to release any more on the grounds that too large a number would have excited an unhealthy interest in the Mo Wa's departure from Nadim - the imperial party dared be on the move for only a few hours each day. By the time it reached the holy city, 23 days after leaving Nadim, armies were on the march and death by stealth stalked the night in the palaces and homelands of the great Sei Empire.
* * * *
The closing years of the reign of Jasti's enfeebled father, Tarki Gorin, had been marked by steadily growing disorder throughout the empire. Firm, vigorous, resolute action was called for from his successor, but the young Mo Wa had neither the energy nor the inclination to provide it, so that by the time he left his imperial palace for Crarne there was already widespread chaos.
A year later, the power struggle still far from resolved, there was no single authority in the empire that was capable of, or interested in protecting the empire's more remote possessions. And of these the Rahnese of Laifya were at once the richest and the most vulnerable.
Beyond the Futchung Mountains, and accessible only through the tortuous Na Pass, Laifya is a different world; a world green in summer with vineyards and forests, and golden in autumn with grain, and through this rich land flows, like an artery, the great River Stenovin along whose length the merchants of Laifya travel to do trade with the peoples of the mountains and plains to the north: the unpredictable Oshelx and Stachaxi; the placid Shewis, the Osarians and the distant Kraitians.
Liberated from the close attention of the empire, the numerous provinces which constitute the Rhanese of Laifya had become virtually autonomous states, their imperial governors making war and peace as they manoeuvred for advantage. But the Rahensee were in danger. Pushing towards their borders from the west were land-hungry, war-like tribes on the move from their arid and mountainous homelands in the interior. And in the east came ominous stirrings from Sair Jisenner, since time immemorial a pain in the side of the empire.
The closest Rhanese to Sair Jisenner is Eimond whose governor 'Rha' Rouell made a judicious marriage into one of the great Sairish families, and laid claim, as a result of it, to certain Sairish estates which Morvina’s powerful brother, the Lord Borden, considered to be his.
The dispute came to a head shortly after Sigmar's 19th birthday, and it was resolved when Borden, accompanied by his nephew and a sizable army, crossed the River Nontock into Eimond, defeated and killed Rah Rouell, and took his capital of Cheg-im-Gure.
Borden pronounced himself the new Rha of Eimond, and proceeded to plunder the Stenovin Valley's rich trade route. Sigmar was invariably at his side, and he was at his side the day Borden was thrown from his horse and broke his neck. Two days later he was dead.
He died without a male heir, and Sigmar impetuously declared himself to be his successor in Eimond, assuming the title of Rah. It was an illegal act, but no more so than anything else he and his uncle had done in Layfia, and if tongues wagged with shocked disapproval, he was ready to silence them. He marched on one neighbour after another, sharpening a military genius which few in Laifya could rival, and the only respite came - a brief one - when his father King Volkis died.
* * * *
Several months earlier there had occurred a seemingly minor event, but one which would have far-reaching consequences.
Among Sigmar's companions was the aristocratic Saminad whose father, the Lord Garapu, owned vast Sairish estates. Saminad and Sigmar quarrelled; Saminad was sent back in disgrace to the family estates, and had it not been for the death of Volkis he would no doubt have remained there.
As it was, Sigmar broke off from his marauding to return to the Sairish capital of Felewith for his father's funery rites, and while he was there he was visited by Garapu who implored him to take his distraught son back into his service. Sigmar, sharp enough to detect an opportunity when one arose, and wily enough to see how to exploit it, agreed, but only on condition that Garapu promote and defend the interests of his mother, the widowed Morvina whom he supposed would need allies now that her step-son Egmar was king.
Garapu agreed, and in doing so sealed Egmar's fate.
Returned to Laifya, Sigmar carried on from where he had left off. His enemies were riven by petty rivalries and mutual hostility, and victory succeeded victory. He looked invincible, and was invincible until several of the Rhanese settled their differences and formed an alliance against him.
Sigmar began to suffer his first defeats, and as his army was weakened, so he was forced to retreat, abandoning his conquests one by one, and with them his pretensions of being the Imperial Nwodek of Laifya.
CHAPTER FIVE
His situation was becoming increasingly precarious when Egmar staged the naming ceremony for his son and heir.
When it was over, and the celebrations and feasting finished, the guests drifted back to their own estates and provinces. Segga was one of the last to leave, having been invited by the king to remain for a few days as his personal guest in the royal compound itself.
Shansi found his presence disturbing and did her best to avoid him, but the day before he was due to leave, her curiosity got the better of her and she summoned him to her chamber. She referred to the naming ceremony and his remark about Morvina; she asked him what he had meant by it.
He shrugged, and told her that in his opinion Morvina was the single most dangerous person in the kingdom because Egmar, and now Chaldez, stood between the throne of Sair Jisenner and her son, Sigmar.
Shansi was astonished. She objected that Sigmar was not interested in the Sairish throne, being preoccupied by his conquests in Laifya.
It was now Segga's turn to look surprised. "Have you not heard?" he asked her. "Sigmar has met with defeat"
At first Shansi could not bring herself to believe such a thing, but Segga insisted that his information was reliable. She asked if Sigmar would not recover; was it not just a temporary set-back? Segga shook his head; he was certain that the prince was about to be defeated utterly. The rhanese of Laifya, he said, had formed a powerful coalition, and would pursue him until he was crushed. His only hope then would be flight - flight to Felewith, where Morvina would be waiting for him. She would like nothing better, he added, than to be waiting for him with the crown.
Shansi stared at him in horror. She had come to depend upon Sigmar keeping himself occupied, and his mother happy, with conquests far from the borders of her husband's kingdom. Now all her comfortable security was gone, like sand blown off a rock.
She began, hesitantly, to tell Segga of the terror Morvina had inspired in her. She told him about Reela, who had died so mysteriously, and she told him about the conversation she had overheard between Morvina and Ghouzene.
He asked her if she had not spoken to Egmar about her fears, and as she told him about his absolute refusal to take any notice of them, tears welled up in her eyes and coursed down her pale cheeks. Segga made as though to pull her towards him, but she pushed him gently away. It was, however, a half-hearted gesture, and in another moment she was in his arms, sobbing uncontrollably. He held her to him, kissing the top of her head. Abruptly she regained control, and shrugged free. Holding the tops of her arms, he peered into her face and implored her to promise him that she would seek his help and protection the moment she considered herself, Chaldez or Egmar to be in danger of their lives. She nodded, and sniffed loudly. He reached for her hand and kissed it swiftly, causing her heart to thump so loudly she thought he must hear it; and that made her blush.
"Forgive me," he said, thinking it was the kiss that had embarrassed her, "but you must know you have bewitched me. My reason is vanquished. I am in your power."
"My dear Segga!" exclaimed Shansi, laughing, the tension gone. "How earnest you look! But I assure you I am innocent. If I had the power to cast spells I would use it on the king and make him send Morvina to trouble people far from here. I have opened my heart to you; it is I who am in your power."
Segga smiled ruefully. "Then we are in each other's!"
They talked for a while. Shansi told him about her childhood in Kroya and her friends Lewvin and Pemmel whom she had succeeded in bringing to the royal compound. Segga was impressed. And in his turn he told her about his province of Istin which, he said, lay beyond the eastern marches of her husband's realm. His overlord was the powerful king of Eujinni, a just man, and much respected by subjects and client-lords alike. Then he looked at her earnestly and implored her to eat and drink nothing that had not previously been tasted in her presence. She agreed. And lastly he advised her to try to keep in touch with events in Laifya.
When the last remaining guests had finally left Felewith, Shansi suggested to Egmar that she and Chaldez should return to Fromond.
"You can go," he said, "but you'll not take Chaldez with you." Then he accused her of continuing to harbour unfounded suspicions concerning Morvina.
Over the next weeks the news coming out of Laifya was of unremitting disaster for Sigmar, and Shansi knew that for her and Egmar and their baby it signalled growing peril.
Egmar, it transpired, had a surprise in store. Summoning her, he announced that she and Chaldez would be able to leave Felewith after all. He had decided, he went on, to take them with him on a tour of the northern province of Sembfrid.
Noting Shansi's astonishment, he patiently explained that during the last years of his father's reign the kingdom had been troubled by the attempted incursions of a certain neighbouring ruler. By coincidence, this man and King Volkis had died in the same year, but there were now reports that his son was up to the same tricks. Sembfrid appeared to be his chief target, and Egmar had been advised that the loyalty of his subjects there would be stiffened if he were to visit them.
It sounded reasonable enough to Shansi, but why was it necessary for her and Chaldez to go with him?
Egmar nodded sympathetically, then pointed out that the impact of the visit would be far greater if he could present to the people his son and heir: his own presence would impress upon them the identity of their sovereign, and the presence of Chaldez would give them a sense of continuity. And the mere fact that the visitation followed so closely upon the naming ceremony would give it added significance, he said.
Shansi was left with nothing to argue about. All she could do was to ask that she should be consulted at every stage in the planning of her own and the prince's travelling arrangements.
Egmar casually informed her that she should speak to Morvina about that.
Shansi looked at him with disbelief. Morvina? What had she got to do with them?
Egmar said that the dowager queen happened to be taking a keen personal interest in the projected tour. She was extremely anxious that it should be a success - and here he gave Shansi a meaningful look - and had asked to be allowed to exploit her considerable influence in the northern provinces on behalf of the royal family by arranging suitable hospitality for it during its progress. It would therefore be a matter of courtesy, he suggested, for Shansi to consult her if she intended making separate arrangements for herself. He, Chaldez and the child's wet nurse, on the other hand, would be taking advantage of Morvina's contacts.
Shansi's apprehension only intensified with this statement. Her mind flew to the question of a military escort, but she said nothing until she might raise it in an off-hand manner.
The opportunity for this arose during a discussion of the tour at a formal meal a few days later. Quite casually she asked who would be in command of their escort.
Egmar seemed to be slightly surprised by her question: he said why, Creal of course.
Well, thought Shansi, they were not to be without protection. That was some relief. But Creal . . .? She was not to know that it was he who had put Gorn in charge of the detachment which was sent to escort her and Chaldez from her estate in Fromond to Felewith for the naming ceremony, but she did know him to be dissolute and unreliable, and she suspected Morvina of having had a hand in introducing him to her husband. The king's reliance upon such a worthless man could only suit her purposes, she reasoned.
Shansi finished her meal in silence. Then, as Egmar rose from the table she announced baldly that she would not leave Felewith unless Pemmel the Kroyan was appointed commander.
There were 20 or so people present; etiquette demanded that they observed silence whenever the king or his queen spoke, so Shansi's demand was made in the full hearing of everyone there, and judging by the audible intakes of breath it caused a sensation.
Egmar was trapped. His wife still occupied a position of unique respect, and would do so for the first year of the prince's life, assuming he survived. He could not be seen to be denying her anything, but this was an outrageous request. Pemmel was a foreigner, and his appointment to the Guard had caused Egmar trouble enough.
He turned, made a shrugging gesture and said he would have to think about it. The next day he informed Shansi that her request was out of the question. She had known as much when she had asked it, and in asking it she had known she was embarrassing him.
When it was over, and the celebrations and feasting finished, the guests drifted back to their own estates and provinces. Segga was one of the last to leave, having been invited by the king to remain for a few days as his personal guest in the royal compound itself.
Shansi found his presence disturbing and did her best to avoid him, but the day before he was due to leave, her curiosity got the better of her and she summoned him to her chamber. She referred to the naming ceremony and his remark about Morvina; she asked him what he had meant by it.
He shrugged, and told her that in his opinion Morvina was the single most dangerous person in the kingdom because Egmar, and now Chaldez, stood between the throne of Sair Jisenner and her son, Sigmar.
Shansi was astonished. She objected that Sigmar was not interested in the Sairish throne, being preoccupied by his conquests in Laifya.
It was now Segga's turn to look surprised. "Have you not heard?" he asked her. "Sigmar has met with defeat"
At first Shansi could not bring herself to believe such a thing, but Segga insisted that his information was reliable. She asked if Sigmar would not recover; was it not just a temporary set-back? Segga shook his head; he was certain that the prince was about to be defeated utterly. The rhanese of Laifya, he said, had formed a powerful coalition, and would pursue him until he was crushed. His only hope then would be flight - flight to Felewith, where Morvina would be waiting for him. She would like nothing better, he added, than to be waiting for him with the crown.
Shansi stared at him in horror. She had come to depend upon Sigmar keeping himself occupied, and his mother happy, with conquests far from the borders of her husband's kingdom. Now all her comfortable security was gone, like sand blown off a rock.
She began, hesitantly, to tell Segga of the terror Morvina had inspired in her. She told him about Reela, who had died so mysteriously, and she told him about the conversation she had overheard between Morvina and Ghouzene.
He asked her if she had not spoken to Egmar about her fears, and as she told him about his absolute refusal to take any notice of them, tears welled up in her eyes and coursed down her pale cheeks. Segga made as though to pull her towards him, but she pushed him gently away. It was, however, a half-hearted gesture, and in another moment she was in his arms, sobbing uncontrollably. He held her to him, kissing the top of her head. Abruptly she regained control, and shrugged free. Holding the tops of her arms, he peered into her face and implored her to promise him that she would seek his help and protection the moment she considered herself, Chaldez or Egmar to be in danger of their lives. She nodded, and sniffed loudly. He reached for her hand and kissed it swiftly, causing her heart to thump so loudly she thought he must hear it; and that made her blush.
"Forgive me," he said, thinking it was the kiss that had embarrassed her, "but you must know you have bewitched me. My reason is vanquished. I am in your power."
"My dear Segga!" exclaimed Shansi, laughing, the tension gone. "How earnest you look! But I assure you I am innocent. If I had the power to cast spells I would use it on the king and make him send Morvina to trouble people far from here. I have opened my heart to you; it is I who am in your power."
Segga smiled ruefully. "Then we are in each other's!"
They talked for a while. Shansi told him about her childhood in Kroya and her friends Lewvin and Pemmel whom she had succeeded in bringing to the royal compound. Segga was impressed. And in his turn he told her about his province of Istin which, he said, lay beyond the eastern marches of her husband's realm. His overlord was the powerful king of Eujinni, a just man, and much respected by subjects and client-lords alike. Then he looked at her earnestly and implored her to eat and drink nothing that had not previously been tasted in her presence. She agreed. And lastly he advised her to try to keep in touch with events in Laifya.
When the last remaining guests had finally left Felewith, Shansi suggested to Egmar that she and Chaldez should return to Fromond.
"You can go," he said, "but you'll not take Chaldez with you." Then he accused her of continuing to harbour unfounded suspicions concerning Morvina.
Over the next weeks the news coming out of Laifya was of unremitting disaster for Sigmar, and Shansi knew that for her and Egmar and their baby it signalled growing peril.
Egmar, it transpired, had a surprise in store. Summoning her, he announced that she and Chaldez would be able to leave Felewith after all. He had decided, he went on, to take them with him on a tour of the northern province of Sembfrid.
Noting Shansi's astonishment, he patiently explained that during the last years of his father's reign the kingdom had been troubled by the attempted incursions of a certain neighbouring ruler. By coincidence, this man and King Volkis had died in the same year, but there were now reports that his son was up to the same tricks. Sembfrid appeared to be his chief target, and Egmar had been advised that the loyalty of his subjects there would be stiffened if he were to visit them.
It sounded reasonable enough to Shansi, but why was it necessary for her and Chaldez to go with him?
Egmar nodded sympathetically, then pointed out that the impact of the visit would be far greater if he could present to the people his son and heir: his own presence would impress upon them the identity of their sovereign, and the presence of Chaldez would give them a sense of continuity. And the mere fact that the visitation followed so closely upon the naming ceremony would give it added significance, he said.
Shansi was left with nothing to argue about. All she could do was to ask that she should be consulted at every stage in the planning of her own and the prince's travelling arrangements.
Egmar casually informed her that she should speak to Morvina about that.
Shansi looked at him with disbelief. Morvina? What had she got to do with them?
Egmar said that the dowager queen happened to be taking a keen personal interest in the projected tour. She was extremely anxious that it should be a success - and here he gave Shansi a meaningful look - and had asked to be allowed to exploit her considerable influence in the northern provinces on behalf of the royal family by arranging suitable hospitality for it during its progress. It would therefore be a matter of courtesy, he suggested, for Shansi to consult her if she intended making separate arrangements for herself. He, Chaldez and the child's wet nurse, on the other hand, would be taking advantage of Morvina's contacts.
Shansi's apprehension only intensified with this statement. Her mind flew to the question of a military escort, but she said nothing until she might raise it in an off-hand manner.
The opportunity for this arose during a discussion of the tour at a formal meal a few days later. Quite casually she asked who would be in command of their escort.
Egmar seemed to be slightly surprised by her question: he said why, Creal of course.
Well, thought Shansi, they were not to be without protection. That was some relief. But Creal . . .? She was not to know that it was he who had put Gorn in charge of the detachment which was sent to escort her and Chaldez from her estate in Fromond to Felewith for the naming ceremony, but she did know him to be dissolute and unreliable, and she suspected Morvina of having had a hand in introducing him to her husband. The king's reliance upon such a worthless man could only suit her purposes, she reasoned.
Shansi finished her meal in silence. Then, as Egmar rose from the table she announced baldly that she would not leave Felewith unless Pemmel the Kroyan was appointed commander.
There were 20 or so people present; etiquette demanded that they observed silence whenever the king or his queen spoke, so Shansi's demand was made in the full hearing of everyone there, and judging by the audible intakes of breath it caused a sensation.
Egmar was trapped. His wife still occupied a position of unique respect, and would do so for the first year of the prince's life, assuming he survived. He could not be seen to be denying her anything, but this was an outrageous request. Pemmel was a foreigner, and his appointment to the Guard had caused Egmar trouble enough.
He turned, made a shrugging gesture and said he would have to think about it. The next day he informed Shansi that her request was out of the question. She had known as much when she had asked it, and in asking it she had known she was embarrassing him.
CHAPTER SIX
By deferring his response to her demand, Egmar had regained the initiative. Shansi retaliated the only way she knew how to: looking him in the eye, she retorted “You cannot put Pemmel in command of the escort because he is a foreigner; a Kroyan. What do you suppose I am? If a Kroyan is fit to be your queen, why should a Kroyan not be fit to command your escort? By insulting my countryman in this way you insult me. Is this my reward for bearing you a son - insults? Was Morvina ever treated thus by your father? I sometimes wonder that I am allowed to share the King of Sair Jisenner's bed! Pemmel will be put in command of our escort or Chaldez and I shall not accompany you to Sembfrid. I shall let that be known so that if you insist on taking him everyone will know that you are acting against my wishes."
Egmar pursed his lips. He was bewildered and unsure of himself. He said, authoritatively, he hoped, "You know perfectly well there is no comparison to be made between your position here as my queen, and Pemmel's as my servant. Nevertheless, for your ease of mind I am prepared to break with all convention, and put Pemmel directly under Creal as his second-in-command."
Shansi said "thank you." She knew it was the best she could hope for.
Later that day she had occasion to leave the inner enclosure of the royal compound to inspect a horse which had been presented to her as a gift. She was accompanied outside the gates by the Lord Skripshi, a gnome-like little old man who for many years had been the late king's grand counsellor. He had a few long wisps of white hair on the top of his head , a wrinkled face, with dark pouches beneath his eyes, a wide mouth with loose, purple lips, and from his chin a few straggly hairs that tangled together to form a sort of beard. He was not quite as tall as Shansi.
Some years before Volkis died he fell from favour and was, in fact, exiled. But the king relented when he discovered that he had been the victim of a conspiracy to discredit him, and although the old man was not restored to his former pre-eminence he was made a counsellor and admitted to the court, where he had continued to live in the quarters provided for him.
To Shansi he had seemed the very image of a goblin. She was repelled by his apparent eagerness to befriend her. His smile - she interpreted it as a leer - sent shivers down her spine; even after her father's fall from power and she had become an outcast at the court she refused to give him the slightest encouragement.
It was Reela who eventually changed her mind about him.
Shansi had made a remark about how repulsive she found him, and how she wished he would not grin at her, but Reela, who usually agreed with everything her mistress said, this time plunged into a spirited defence of the old man. He might be ugly, she said, but he had a heart of gold; if Shansi ever needed a friend, she could find none more loyal, more shrewd or more generous.
Shansi did not immediately alter her opinion of Skripshi, but what Reela told her did make her think, and eventually she started to return the old man's smiles, and although they had little to say to each other she began to think of him as a sort of guardian. Now, as she passed through the gates of the inner enclosure, she was by no means displeased to find him stepping along beside her.
The horse was brought up by a groom for her to inspect. Skripshi, standing at her elbow all the while, began talking about the business in Sembfrid. He advanced the view that it was entirely unnecessary for her and Chaldez to make the journey there. He even doubted that there was any real need for the king to go either.
Shansi raised her eyebrows. She told the groom that the horse would do, and dismissed him.
Skripshi waited until he was gone, then he said that the threat which Egmar thought to deflect by his visit was non-existent. The Sair Jy-Din prince who was supposed to be interfering with Sembfrid was an imbecile, and in imminent danger of being deposed. He was incapable of managing his own affairs, let alone of meddling in other people's.
Shansi made no attempt to hide her astonishment. Skripshi then went on to explain that he had his own sources of information about what was going on, and that they were more reliable than the king's.
What, then, where the king's sources, Shansi asked?
Skripshi told her that he was being advised by his council, but that he believed the council to be less interested in promoting his interests than those of Morvina.
The name cropped up like a bad coin; Shansi repeated it, in the manner of an exclamation. Skripshi gave her a wry look, and then told her that the dowager queen had many friends on the king's council, where her chief ally was the Lord Garapu. It was he, especially, who had been pressing the case for the royal visit, and in support of it, had produced letters from Rilt of Sembfrid, which spoke of the province being in dire peril.
Shansi asked if the letters were forgeries; the old man thought not. It was the information they contained that was false, he said. There was no question of Sembfrid being in danger.
Shansi had met the Lord Rilt both at her wedding and the at the naming ceremony; he was a young man, and she had been impressed by his courtesy; why, she asked, would he seek to mislead the council?
Skripshi smiled at her; if Garapu had asked him to he would have obliged, for he was married to Garapu's daughter.
Shansi would have liked to ask Skripshi more, but by now they had reached the gates of the inner compound. Her companion bowed formally, and took his leave.
Shansi's mind was in turmoil. Morvina had constructed the perfect trap for her, Egmar and their child. She had no need to speculate on its precise mechanics; she knew only that it would be sprung during their travels in Sembfrid.
As the certainty of this gripped her, she felt overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness, staggered and collapsed in a faint.
* * * *
She recovered to find Egmar standing beside her couch; he was most solicitous.
The only explanation Shansi could offer for passing out was that she was weaker than she had thought; too weak, perhaps, to undertake the journey to Sembfrid. Could it not be postponed?
Impossible, said Egmar; the arrangements were all made.
Shansi pleaded, but she pleaded in vain. Eventually Egmar ran out of patience; he turned and strode towards the doorway. As he reached the heavy curtains which were drawn across it he stopped. Then he turned slowly, thoughtfully. All right, he said, the tour was postponed. Shansi stared at him, dumbfounded. After he had gone she let go and cried, anxiety and tension escaping with her tears. She was left with a sense of euphoria, but it was short-lived because as she examined her triumph it melted to nothing before her eyes. They had been granted a temporary reprieve, that was all.
Egmar's change of heart did give her some hope, however.
That night he came to her, and was tender and loving, and she was reminded of a time - a hundred years ago it seemed - when he had showered her with caresses and endearments in the pleasure-drenched nights of their early marriage.
The next day she was up and about, and she said nothing to him about the postponement; but the following day she met him when he came in from a hunting expedition. As they walked away together from the inner gate to the great hall she told him that a postponement was not sufficient. She believed they would be in mortal danger whenever they undertook the journey, and that he must therefore cancel it, for all their sakes.
As she spoke, he stopped walking, disengaged his arm from hers and burst out into a loud, artificial laugh, holding his sides and throwing back his head. She looked at him, frightened.
Little had he realised, he said, recovering his breath, what a devious, deceitful and malicious-minded women the daughter of Taigram was! So; her fainting fit had had nothing to do with her being weak from child-bearing. It had been a sham. She had abused his trust and exploited his sympathy by pretending to be ill! And for what reason? Because she was obsessed with the insane notion that "someone" wanted to kill them all. She would be telling him next it was Morvina! People might indeed want to kill her, he said. But no one wanted him dead, for was he not the king? Then he repeated her pleas, mimicking her voice, and bursting into laughter, he walked away.
Shansi stood where he had left her, stunned and humiliated. his entire speech had been loud enough for everyone around them to have heard it.
Egmar stopped when he got to the entrance of the great hall and clapped his hands, summoning his attendants. They scurried to him and he announced, his voice raised imperiously, that he no longer wished to be pestered by the mad woman who called herself his queen. Unless he specifically summoned her, she was to be kept away from him. Then the heavy door was swung open for him and he went into the darkness beyond.
Shock gave way to anger, and at her first opportunity Shansi sent for Lewvin and Pemmel. They met together in the herb garden, in a corner which was partially obscured by bushes.
Egmar pursed his lips. He was bewildered and unsure of himself. He said, authoritatively, he hoped, "You know perfectly well there is no comparison to be made between your position here as my queen, and Pemmel's as my servant. Nevertheless, for your ease of mind I am prepared to break with all convention, and put Pemmel directly under Creal as his second-in-command."
Shansi said "thank you." She knew it was the best she could hope for.
Later that day she had occasion to leave the inner enclosure of the royal compound to inspect a horse which had been presented to her as a gift. She was accompanied outside the gates by the Lord Skripshi, a gnome-like little old man who for many years had been the late king's grand counsellor. He had a few long wisps of white hair on the top of his head , a wrinkled face, with dark pouches beneath his eyes, a wide mouth with loose, purple lips, and from his chin a few straggly hairs that tangled together to form a sort of beard. He was not quite as tall as Shansi.
Some years before Volkis died he fell from favour and was, in fact, exiled. But the king relented when he discovered that he had been the victim of a conspiracy to discredit him, and although the old man was not restored to his former pre-eminence he was made a counsellor and admitted to the court, where he had continued to live in the quarters provided for him.
To Shansi he had seemed the very image of a goblin. She was repelled by his apparent eagerness to befriend her. His smile - she interpreted it as a leer - sent shivers down her spine; even after her father's fall from power and she had become an outcast at the court she refused to give him the slightest encouragement.
It was Reela who eventually changed her mind about him.
Shansi had made a remark about how repulsive she found him, and how she wished he would not grin at her, but Reela, who usually agreed with everything her mistress said, this time plunged into a spirited defence of the old man. He might be ugly, she said, but he had a heart of gold; if Shansi ever needed a friend, she could find none more loyal, more shrewd or more generous.
Shansi did not immediately alter her opinion of Skripshi, but what Reela told her did make her think, and eventually she started to return the old man's smiles, and although they had little to say to each other she began to think of him as a sort of guardian. Now, as she passed through the gates of the inner enclosure, she was by no means displeased to find him stepping along beside her.
The horse was brought up by a groom for her to inspect. Skripshi, standing at her elbow all the while, began talking about the business in Sembfrid. He advanced the view that it was entirely unnecessary for her and Chaldez to make the journey there. He even doubted that there was any real need for the king to go either.
Shansi raised her eyebrows. She told the groom that the horse would do, and dismissed him.
Skripshi waited until he was gone, then he said that the threat which Egmar thought to deflect by his visit was non-existent. The Sair Jy-Din prince who was supposed to be interfering with Sembfrid was an imbecile, and in imminent danger of being deposed. He was incapable of managing his own affairs, let alone of meddling in other people's.
Shansi made no attempt to hide her astonishment. Skripshi then went on to explain that he had his own sources of information about what was going on, and that they were more reliable than the king's.
What, then, where the king's sources, Shansi asked?
Skripshi told her that he was being advised by his council, but that he believed the council to be less interested in promoting his interests than those of Morvina.
The name cropped up like a bad coin; Shansi repeated it, in the manner of an exclamation. Skripshi gave her a wry look, and then told her that the dowager queen had many friends on the king's council, where her chief ally was the Lord Garapu. It was he, especially, who had been pressing the case for the royal visit, and in support of it, had produced letters from Rilt of Sembfrid, which spoke of the province being in dire peril.
Shansi asked if the letters were forgeries; the old man thought not. It was the information they contained that was false, he said. There was no question of Sembfrid being in danger.
Shansi had met the Lord Rilt both at her wedding and the at the naming ceremony; he was a young man, and she had been impressed by his courtesy; why, she asked, would he seek to mislead the council?
Skripshi smiled at her; if Garapu had asked him to he would have obliged, for he was married to Garapu's daughter.
Shansi would have liked to ask Skripshi more, but by now they had reached the gates of the inner compound. Her companion bowed formally, and took his leave.
Shansi's mind was in turmoil. Morvina had constructed the perfect trap for her, Egmar and their child. She had no need to speculate on its precise mechanics; she knew only that it would be sprung during their travels in Sembfrid.
As the certainty of this gripped her, she felt overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness, staggered and collapsed in a faint.
* * * *
She recovered to find Egmar standing beside her couch; he was most solicitous.
The only explanation Shansi could offer for passing out was that she was weaker than she had thought; too weak, perhaps, to undertake the journey to Sembfrid. Could it not be postponed?
Impossible, said Egmar; the arrangements were all made.
Shansi pleaded, but she pleaded in vain. Eventually Egmar ran out of patience; he turned and strode towards the doorway. As he reached the heavy curtains which were drawn across it he stopped. Then he turned slowly, thoughtfully. All right, he said, the tour was postponed. Shansi stared at him, dumbfounded. After he had gone she let go and cried, anxiety and tension escaping with her tears. She was left with a sense of euphoria, but it was short-lived because as she examined her triumph it melted to nothing before her eyes. They had been granted a temporary reprieve, that was all.
Egmar's change of heart did give her some hope, however.
That night he came to her, and was tender and loving, and she was reminded of a time - a hundred years ago it seemed - when he had showered her with caresses and endearments in the pleasure-drenched nights of their early marriage.
The next day she was up and about, and she said nothing to him about the postponement; but the following day she met him when he came in from a hunting expedition. As they walked away together from the inner gate to the great hall she told him that a postponement was not sufficient. She believed they would be in mortal danger whenever they undertook the journey, and that he must therefore cancel it, for all their sakes.
As she spoke, he stopped walking, disengaged his arm from hers and burst out into a loud, artificial laugh, holding his sides and throwing back his head. She looked at him, frightened.
Little had he realised, he said, recovering his breath, what a devious, deceitful and malicious-minded women the daughter of Taigram was! So; her fainting fit had had nothing to do with her being weak from child-bearing. It had been a sham. She had abused his trust and exploited his sympathy by pretending to be ill! And for what reason? Because she was obsessed with the insane notion that "someone" wanted to kill them all. She would be telling him next it was Morvina! People might indeed want to kill her, he said. But no one wanted him dead, for was he not the king? Then he repeated her pleas, mimicking her voice, and bursting into laughter, he walked away.
Shansi stood where he had left her, stunned and humiliated. his entire speech had been loud enough for everyone around them to have heard it.
Egmar stopped when he got to the entrance of the great hall and clapped his hands, summoning his attendants. They scurried to him and he announced, his voice raised imperiously, that he no longer wished to be pestered by the mad woman who called herself his queen. Unless he specifically summoned her, she was to be kept away from him. Then the heavy door was swung open for him and he went into the darkness beyond.
Shock gave way to anger, and at her first opportunity Shansi sent for Lewvin and Pemmel. They met together in the herb garden, in a corner which was partially obscured by bushes.
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