Empire - 02 - Servant Of The Empire Page 9

  Incomo considered, then smiled. Desio looked from his cousin to his First Adviser, and managed not to fumble the catch as his cousin tossed him one piece of the fruit. He bit into the morsel, and then began to laugh, for the first time restored to the arrogant certainty of his family's greatness. 'Good,' he said, chewing with relish. 'I like your plan, cousin. We shall dispatch a company of men on some useless raid and let the Acoma bitch think she has routed us.'

  Tasaio tapped the remaining bit of fruit with his forefinger. 'But where? Where shall we attack?'

  Incomo pondered, then offered, 'My Lord, I suggest that the raid should be close to her home.'

  'Why?' Desio wiped juice off his chin with his embroidered cuff. 'She will be guarding her estate rigorously, as usual.'

  'Not the estate, itself, Lord, for the Lady needs no spy's report to maintain vigilance against attack from your army. But she will not expect a raid against a caravan bound for the river port at Sulan-Qu. If we attack between the Acoma lands and the city, and she is prepared for our raid, we can pinpoint the flow of information and find the agent among your household.'

  Tasaio inclined his head in an unconscious- gesture of command. 'First Adviser, your counsel is excellent. My Lord, if you will permit, I will oversee preparations for such a raid. A routine trade shipment would warrant little protection, unless the Acoma bitch knows she deals with blood enemies.' He smiled, and white teeth gleamed against skin tanned dark on the Warlord's campaign. 'We should know when such a caravan is due, simply by contacting shipping brokers in Sulan-Qu. A few discreet questions, and maybe a bribe or two to hide our inquiries, and we should know within, the hour when Mara's next caravan is expected.'

  Desio met Tasaio's offer with a lordly air of industry. 'Cousin, your advice is brilliant.' He clapped his hands, bringing the errand runner in from his position outside the door. 'Fetch my scribe,' he commanded.

  As the slave departed, Tasaio's composure became that of a man sorely tried. 'Cousin,' he assayed, 'you must not write down the orders that we have discussed this hour!'

  'Hah!' Desio released a second snicker, then a full-throated laugh. He leaned from his dais and fetched his cousin a resounding blow on the shoulder. 'Hah!' he snorted again. 'You must not mock my intelligence, Tasaio. Of course I know better than to include even servants and slaves in our plot! No, I simply thought to pen a notice to the Warlord, begging his forbearance for your absence from his campaign upon the barbarian world. He will acquiesce, as the Minwanabi are still his most valued ally. And, cousin, you have just shown me how much more you are needed here.'

  Incomo watched Tasaio's reaction to his Lord's praise. He had not missed the battle-trained reflex that had seen the friendly blow coming, nor had he failed to note the calculated and split-second decision that allowed the stroke to connect. Tasaio had grown skilled at politics as well as at killing.

  With cold curiosity, the Minwanabi First Adviser wondered how long his master would be amenable to the counsel of one so obviously gifted with the qualities Desio lacked, but who could not be spared in restoring the Minwanabi to their former greatness. Desio would know that his cousin's cleverness showed him up for a fool; eventually he would become jealous, would wish more than the puppet title of Lord. Incomo noticed that his headache was back in force. He could only hope that Desio would wait to turn upon his cousin until after the Acoma bitch and her heir were pulp under the post of the Red God's grand prayer gate. Best not to underestimate how long that feat might take. Such vanity on a lesser scale had cost Jingu of the Minwanabi his life; and through that misfortune, Mara had received enough recognition to gain powerful allies.

  Apparently Tasaio's mind turned to similar concerns, for after the message to the Warlord was penned, and while Desio occupied himself with ordering servants to bring him refreshments, the warrior cousin turned to Incomo with a seemingly casual question. 'Does anyone know whether Mara has had a chance to make overtures to the Xacatecas? When I received my recall orders from the barbarian world, a friend among his officers mentioned that their Lord considered approaching her.'

  Here Tasaio revealed his cunning. No friendship might exist between officers who were enemies; by this, Incomo understood that the information had been gained by intrigue. With a grunt that passed for laughter, Incomo shared out his own latest gleanings.

  'The Lord of the Xacatecas is a man worthy of . . . if not fear, then deep respect. His position in the High Council, though, is not advantageous at the moment.' With a flash of perfect teeth, he added, 'Our most noble Warlord was somewhat put out with the Xacatecas' reluctance to expand his interests in the conquest of the barbarian world.~Some political byplay resulted, and when the dust settled, Lord Xacatecas wound up with military responsibility for our tiny province across the sea. Chipino of the Xacatecas languishes in Dustari at the moment, commanding the garrison that holds the only noteworthy pass through the mountains to Tsubar. The desert raiders are active, at last report, so I expect he has his hands full — let us hope too full to concern himself with advances toward the Acoma.'

  Finished with his servants, and left with nothing to do but anticipate his elaborate midafternoon feast, Desio picked up on the conversation. He waved one pudgy hand to restore proper attention to himself and said, 'I advised my father on that plan, Tasaio.'

  The First Adviser refrained from pointing out that all Desio had done was sit in the room while Incomo and Jingu had discussed means to get Xacatecas occupied.

  'Well then,' said Tasaio, 'if Xacatecas is busy guarding our frontiers across the sea, we can focus our attention upon Lady Mara.'

  Desio nodded and leaned back upon his imposing pile of cushions. With his eyes half-closed, and an obvious enjoyment of his newfound authority, he said, ‘I think your plan a wise one, cousin. See to it.'

  Tasaio bowed to his Lord as if his dismissal had not been that of a thankless underling; all pride and spare movement, he left the private study. Incomo buried his regret at the young warrior's departure. Resigned to the life the gods gave, he forced himself to attend the less glorious realities of Tsurani life; no matter what plots of blood and murder might drive the Game of the Council, other mundane matters remained to be considered. 'My Lord, if you're agreeable, there are some grain transactions your hadonra needs to discuss with you.'

  More interested in thoughts of his lunch, Desio seemed less than anxious to deal with the prosaic side of family business. But as if his cousin's icy competence had awakened him to responsibility, he realized that he must. He nodded and waited .without complaint as Incomo sent for Murgali, the hadonra.

  5 — Entanglement

  Breezes rustled the leaves.

  The perfume of akasi flowers and trimmed greens filled Mara's personal quarters. Only one lamp was lit against the coming night, and that had but a small flame. The flicker painted a changing picture, as, each moment, details emerged from shadow: a gemstone's glint, highlights on polished jade fittings, fine embroidery or enamel work. Just as the eye beheld the splendid aspect, the gloom returned. Although surrounded by beauty, the Lady of the Acoma was oblivious to the richness of her furnishings; her mind was elsewhere.

  Mara reclined amid a nest of cushions, while a maid worked out the tangles in her unbound hair with a scented shell comb. The Lady of the Acoma wore a green silk robe, shatra birds worked in wheat-coloured thread around the collar and shoulders. The low lighting touched her olive skin to soft gold, an effect a more self-aware woman would have noticed. But Mara had finished her girlhood as a novice of Lashima, and as Ruling Lady she had no time for feminine vanity. Whatever beauty a man might find in gazing upon her was simply another weapon in her arsenal.

  With a directness any Tsurani nobleman would have found disconcerting, she questioned the barbarian who sat before her on his homeworld's customs and cultures. Kevin seemed utterly unaffected by the lack of social protocol, plunging directly to the heart of matters. By this, Mara judged his people blunt to the point of rudeness. She watched a
s he struggled to describe concepts alien to her language; haltingly groping to express himself, he spoke about his land and people. He was a quick study, and his vocabulary improved daily. Right now he attempted to amuse her by telling a joke that had been 'making the rounds' in Zun, whatever that meant.

  Kevin wore no robe. The servants had tried in vain to outfit him, but nothing on hand had been large enough. In the end they had settled for a loincloth, and had substituted fineness for the garment's brevity. Kevin wore russet silk with midnight-blue borders, tied at the waist by a knotwork sash and obsidian beads. Mara failed to notice the effort. She had weighed Nacoya's advice the night before and realized something troubling: this slave in some way recalled her dead brother, Lanokota. Irritation at this discovery had given rise to resentment. While the slave's outrageous behaviour had seemed amusing the day before, now she wanted only information.

  Wearied after a day of meetings, Mara remained alert enough to measure the man she had ordered into her presence. Properly groomed, he looked much younger, perhaps only five years her senior. Yet where early struggles with great enemies had given her a serious manner, this barbarian had a brow unlined by responsibility. He was tightly wound but self-contained rather than overwrought. He laughed easily, with a sly sense of the ridiculous that alternately fascinated and annoyed Mara.

  She kept the topics innocuous, a discourse upon festival traditions and music, jewellery making and cooking, then metalworking and curing furs, undertakings rare on Kelewan. More than once she felt the barbarian's eyes on her, when he thought she was not paying heed. He waited for her to reveal the purpose behind her interest; the fact he cared at all was curious. A slave could gain nothing by matching wits with an owner — no bargaining between the two stations was possible. Yet this barbarian was obviously trying to divine Mara's intent.

  Mara reoriented her thinking: this outworld slave had repeatedly shown that his view of Tsurani institutions was alien to the point of incomprehensibility. Yet that very different perspective would allow her to see her own culture through new eyes — a valuable tool if she could but grasp how to use it.

  She needed to assess this man — slave, she corrected herself — as if he were her most dangerous opponent in the Game of the Council. She was committed to these dialogues regarding his people so she might shift the chaff from the grain and discover useful intelligence. As it was, she hardly knew when Kevin was being truthful and when he was lying. For five minutes he had adamantly insisted that a dragon had once troubled his village, town, or whatever the place called Zun might be. Exasperated, Mara had ceased to dispute him, though every child knew that dragons were mythical creatures, with no basis in reality.

  Seeing him tire, she motioned for a fruit drink to be served, and he swallowed greedily. When he sighed, indicating his satisfaction, she changed the subject to board games and, against her usual wont, listened without making observations of her own.

  'Have you ever seen a horse?' the slave asked unexpectedly in the pause as servants stepped in to brighten the lamps. 'Of all things from home, horses are among those I miss most.'

  Beyond the screen, full darkness had fallen, and the copper-gold face of Kelewan's moon rose over the needra meadows. Kevin drew a deep breath. His fingers twisted in the cushion fringes, and a wistful gleam touched his eyes. 'Ah, Lady, I had a mare that I raised from a filly. Her coat was the colour of fire, and her mane as black as your own.' Caught up in reminiscence, the barbarian sat forward. 'She was fleet, both in the sprint and the long ride, fine-spirited, and a perfect witch on the field. She had a kick that could fell an armed warrior. She stopped swords at my back more times than a brother.' He glanced up suddenly and ceased speaking.

  Where before Mara had listened with relaxed interest, she now sat stiffly on her cushions. To Tsurani warriors, horses were not animals of admiration and beauty but creatures that inspired terror. Under the alien sun this slave knew as his own, Mara's father and brother had died, their life's blood soaked into foreign soil, trampled under horses ridden by Kevin's countrymen. Perhaps this same Kevin of Zun had been the warrior who wielded the spear that struck her loved ones down. From some deep place, unguarded because of the day's fatigue, Mara felt a grief she hadn't experienced for years. And with that painful memory came old fears.

  'You will speak no more of horses,' she said in such a changed tone that the maid ceased her ministrations a moment, then cautiously resumed combing the long, lustrous hair.

  Kevin stopped picking at the fringes, expecting to see some sign of distress, but the Lady showed no emotion. Her face remained blank in the lamplight, her eyes cold and dark.

  He almost dismissed his impression as fancy. But an intuition prompted him to study her closely. With a look that was not the least mocking, he said, 'Something I said frightened you.'

  Again Mara stiffened. Her eyes flashed. The Acoma fear nothing, she thought, and almost said so. Honour need not be defended before a slave! Shamed that she had nearly forgotten herself, she jerked her head in dismissal to the maid.

  To Tsurani eyes, the gesture offered warning like a shout. The servant knelt and touched her face to the floor, then left the room with close to indecorous haste. The barbarian remained oblivious. He repeated his question, softly, as though she were a child who had not understood.

  Alone in the lamplight, and arrogant in her annoyance, the Lady's dark eyes bored into Kevin with a fury that sought to sear him.

  He misread her temper for contempt. His own raw-nerved anger kindled in response and he surged to his feet. 'Lady, I have enjoyed our chat. It has allowed me to practise your language and spared me hard labour under a brutal sun. But from the moment I came into your presence yesterday, you seem to have forgotten that our two nations are at war. I might have been taken captive, but I am still your enemy. I will speak no more of my world, lest I unwittingly lend you advantage. May I have your permission to withdraw?'

  Although the barbarian towered over her, Mara showed no change in composure. 'You may not go.' How dare he act as a guest and request his hostess's leave. Checking her anger, she spoke in measured tones. 'You are not a "captive". You are my property.'

  Kevin studied Mara's face. 'No.' A grin lit his features, rendered wicked and humourless by the anger that lay behind. 'Your captive. Nothing more. Never anything more.'

  'Sit down!' Mara commanded.

  'What if I don't? What if I do this instead?' He moved with battle-honed speed. Mara saw him come at her like a blur in the lamplight. She might have shouted for warriors to defend her, but astonishment that a slave might raise his hand to her made her hesitate. The chance was lost. Hands hard with sword callus closed over her neck, crushing jade ornaments into delicate skin. Kevin's palms were broad, and icy cold with sweat. Too late Mara recognized that his banter had been a façade to cover desperation.

  Mara gritted her teeth against pain, twisted, and tried for a kick at his groin. His eyes flashed. He shook her like a rag doll, and did the same again as her nails raked his wrist. The breath grated through the back of her throat. He held her just tightly enough to prevent outcry, but not quite cruelly enough to stop her breath. His eyes bent close to hers, blue and hard and glittering with malice.

  'I see you are frightened at last,' he observed. She could not speak, must be growing dizzy; her eyes were very wide and dark, and filling with tears from pain. And yet she did not tremble. Her hair hung warm over his hands, scented with spices; the breast that pressed his forearm through her silk robe made fury difficult to maintain. 'You call me honourless slave, and barbarian,' Kevin continued in a hoarse whisper. 'And yet I am neither. If you were a man, you would now be dead, and I would die knowing I had removed a powerful Lord from my enemies' ranks. But where I come from, it is shameful for a man to harm a woman. So I will let you go. You can call your guards — maybe have me beaten or killed. But we have a saying in Zun: "You can kill me, but you can't eat me." Remember this, when you watch me die as I hang from a tree. No matter wh
at you do to my body, my soul and heart are free. Remember that I allowed you to kill me. I permitted you to live because my honour required it. From this moment forward, your every breath is a slave's gift.' He gave her a last shake and released her. 'My gift.'

  Humiliated to her very core that a slave should have dared lay hands on her and threaten her with the most shameful death, Mara drew breath to call her warriors. With a gesture, she could subject this redheaded barbarian to any of a dozen torments. He was a slave, he had no soul and no honour; and yet he slowly, and with dignity, sat back upon the floor before her cushions, his eyes mocking as he waited for her to name his fate. Revulsion not felt since she lay helpless beneath her brute of a husband made her shake.

  Every fibre of her being cried out that this barbarian be made to suffer for the insult he had forced her to endure.

  But what he had said gave her pause. His manner challenged her: call your guards, his tenseness seemed to say. Let them see the fingermarks on your flesh. Mara gritted her teeth against a shriek of pure rage. Her soldiers would know that this barbarian had held her at his mercy, and chose to let her go. Whether she ordered him scourged or executed, the victory would be his; he might have snapped her neck as easily as that of a snared songbird, and instead he had maintained honour as he understood it. And he would die with that honour intact, as if he had been killed in battle by an enemy's blade.

  Mara grappled with a concept so alien it raised her skin to chill bumps. To vanquish this man through the use of superior rank would only diminish her, and to be shamed by a slave's action was unthinkable. She had trapped herself, and he knew it. His insolent posture as he sat waiting for her to act revealed that he had guessed to a fine point how her thinking would follow, and then staked his life on his hunch. That was admirable playing for a barbarian. Mara took stock of the result. Shaken again into chills, but Tsurani enough to hide them, she fought for composure. More hoarsely than she intended to sound, she said, 'You have won this round, slave. By bargaining the only thing you have to risk, your own existence and whatever faint hope you have for elevation on the Wheel in the next life, you have put me in the position of either destroying you or enduring this shame.' Her expression changed from barely controlled rage to calculation. 'There is a lesson in this. I'll not forfeit such instruction for the pleasure in seeing your death — no matter how enjoyable that choice appears at the moment.' She called a servant. 'Return this slave to quarters. Instruct the guards that he is not to be allowed out with the workers.' Looking at Kevin, she added, 'Have him returned here after the evening meal tomorrow.'