CHAPTER NINE

In Felewith Egmar had let it be known that his tour of Sembfrid was indefinitely postponed.
Immediately following Shansi's suicide and the disappearance of Chaldez, he had appeared to be unaffected; but in reality his emotions were frozen by incomprehension. Slowly the outward coolness gave way to grief; the grief to anger and the anger to a numbness, so that nothing seemed real.
Urged on by Garapu and others of the council, he had instituted a search for Chaldez, concentrating on the country between Felewith and Fromond, for it was assumed that Shansi had hoped to hide the prince on her estate there, or perhaps, even, over the border among friends in Kroya. The fact that the two Kroyans had gone missing at the same time as the prince also pointed to this possibility. It was Morvina who had suggested that he spread the net to the eastern part of the kingdom.
Everyone whom Shansi had been seen with in the last days before her death was summoned before the council and questioned. Skripshi's turn came when it was reported that he had been seen in conversation with her while she was inspecting her new horse.
He told the council that she had asked his advice about the forthcoming visit to Sembfrid. The king was immediately alert. "What sort of advice?" he demanded.
Skripshi said: "She was anxious about it. She seemed to be under the impression that your majesty would be in danger if you undertook it."
"And . . . ?"
"I told her that it was a a part of the kingdom in which Queen Morvina had close ties, and that if there was any danger she would surely have got to hear about it and have informed your majesty's council."
"What did she say to that?"
"She seemed not to be very reassured, your Majesty."
"She was mad, of course. You were aware of that?"
"On the contrary, she struck me as being perfectly well."
"And yet capable of believing that my council, or indeed Queen Morvina, could be indifferent to my safety?"
"Yes, your Majesty."
"What reasons could she have for believing such a monstrous thing?"
"I do not know, your majesty. I never had the opportunity of finding out."
Egmar irritably dismissed Skripshi. He had found him to be a most unsatisfactory witness, with an answer for everything, and yet with no answers at all.
That evening, the second after the disappearance of Chaldez, the king's personal attendant brought him a bundle of documents. Egmar sent for his priest to read them to him, and was astonished by what he heard.
They were letters to Rilt of Sembfrid, and they referred to the projected royal visit to his province, asking if the arrangements were in hand. Egmar listened without much interest until he heard the name of Histek, the bandit. The letter-writer wanted confirmation that he had been contacted and knew where and when to take action. There was also reference to payment, the enormous sum of 10,000 karas being mentioned.
"Your intermediary," read the priest, "must inform Histek that what he asks for is out of the question. Ten thousand karas is our limit. If he will not agree we will find someone else who will."
Another letter referred in the most disparaging terms to "that foreign hussy who calls herself 'queen'," to the "brat" Chaldez and to "the strutting fool who is king of this unhappy land."
When he heard this last description Egmar shouted "STOP! Who wrote that?"
His priest could only shake his head. Egmar yelled for his attendant and demanded to know the exact details of how he had come by the letters. The servant, shaking with terror, said he had been called to the gates of the royal compound where he had been handed them by a hooded figure whose face he never saw. The only words to pass were the terse instruction to "see that these reach the king."
Egmar dismissed his priest and his servant, and sat staring at the documents. He was muttering to himself, and the words he repeated over and over to himself were: "strutting fool! A strutting fool!"
He began to wonder afresh about Shansi: was it possible that she had known something; might she not have been mad after all? Had a trap really been laid for them in Sembfrid? He wondered about Histek: could Shansi have been right there as well; had Byrat lied about the bandit and his followers perishing in Morden Mire? Was any of this possible? And who had written these letters to Rilt? Surely not one of his counsellors? That was inconceivable - or was it? It had to be someone close enough to have known in advance about the Sembfrid visit, and someone who could raise 10,000 karas. That had to point to a nobleman, and almost certainly a member of the council.
Egmar refilled his goblet with wine and resolved to speak to Skripshi again; perhaps this time the old man would be more helpful.
Egmar never did see Skripshi again. The old man's mutilated body was found the next day in an alley in the town. He had been bludgeoned and stabbed many times. According to his servant, a messenger had called on him the previous evening. After speaking with him in private, Skripshi had said he had some urgent business to attend to, and he had left hurriedly.
Egmar felt thwarted. He summoned Garapu, whom he had come to rely upon especially. He told him to find out why Skripshi might have been lured to his death.
Garapu looked at his sovereign with an air of astonishment. Surely he knew about Skripshi?
"Know what about him? What do you mean?" Egmar demanded.
"I thought it was common knowledge," replied Garapu, "that he enjoyed young girls. I mean young girls."
Egmar shook his head in disbelief.
"Ten-year-olds; eleven-year-olds. You must have known, your majesty."
"I did not know it," Egmar retorted. "And I don't see what it has to do with what happened last night."
"Indeed, it may have nothing to do with it," said Garapu, "but there are people who find that sort of thing offensive. Predilections of that kind are rarely safe. I would say Skripshi got what was coming to him. The wonder is, frankly, that it didn't happen sooner."
Bewildered, but not wishing to show it, Egmar decided to raise the subject of the letters. Garapu listened to him, a half-amused expression on his face; he looked stern, however, when the king repeated the scandalous description of himself.
"I have the letters," Egmar concluded. "You can see them."
Garapu waved his hand and shook his head. No, he had no wish to see them. "I must assume," he said, "that they are no more than a very bad joke. No one could possibly describe you in such disgraceful terms and be serious. Someone, perhaps, who wishes to hurt you composed them, and then ensured that you should see them. By purporting to reveal some sort of plot it was likely you would take them seriously, and the insult would be all the more wounding. It might seem unlikely that you could have an enemy as vituperative as that, but I believe it quite possible for a personage such as yourself to give rise to insane jealousies, and jealousy, sire, is the mother of wickedness. You must surely know that there is not a woman in your realm who does not ache for the pleasures of your bed. Such inordinate attraction can make for very jealous husbands!"
Egmar had to concede that what his trusted counsellor was saying made sense. In which case Shansi had been mad; he had been right all along.
He told Garapu that there was no need for the citizens of Felewith to know of Skripshi's shameful secret; he would be buried with honour, he said, and he asked Garapu to make the necessary arrangements.
Three days after Skripshi's funeral, Egmar himself was dead. His wine had been poisoned. He died in protracted agony.
Queen Morvina sent immediately for Sigmar, the defeated Nwodek of Laifya. The crown of Sair Jisenner, she told him, was his for the taking.