Puffing and sweating, he did not slow until he had climbed up through the hatchways to the main deck of Number One. He immediately felt hemmed in. Marines and legionnaires were stationed on guard all along the rails of deck. Lord Purhlea, Legate Stromhaeldt, the surviving officers of the Guard, and several other Mhajhkaeirii officers stood in a rough semi-circle behind the emperor. The Grand Commandant realized that the setting had the unmistakable semblance of a military court.
To one side, a scribe sat at a round table working industriously on several documents that were the size of broadsides. The intent, balding and heavy fellow had a number of pots of colored illustrative inks and a variety of nibs, brushes and pens laid out on a satchel. From what Erskh could see in a stolen glance, the documents were some type of proclamation, with two columns of compact print and a precise facsimile of the Imperial Seal limned in the upper right corner.
Sitting behind a simple table covered with piles of paper and a few books, the emperor wore his working attire of battered brigandine, simple trousers and boots. As Erskh covered the last few steps, Mar I scribbled a note on a page and shifted it to his left onto a already tall pile of mismatched sheets and cards.
At two paces, Erskh dropped to his knees so fast that he almost lost his balance and threw up his fist in salute. "Hail Emperor Mar, King of the Mhajhkaeirii and Khalarii!"
Despite his best efforts, he had not been able to keep the quiver from his voice.
The emperor turned unkind eyes upon him. "Get up, Grand Commandant."
Erskh rocketed to his feet and fear restricted his throat so much that any platitudes that he might have attempted were choked off.
The emperor turned and beckoned the scribe who rose, gathered up the finished proclamations, sorting as he did so, and crossed to the emperor's table. Holding the rest in the crook of his arm, the scribe placed the top proclamation in front of the emperor.
Erskh was only an armlength from the table and while he could not make out the print in the columns, he could easily read the upside down grand point majuscules of the name written at the top: ERHTRYS, MERCHANT HOUSE RHESDIN.
Glancing over the document in a casual fashion as he reached for a pen protruding from an inkpot, the emperor said, "Grand Commandant, in order to prevent future difficulties here in Khalar, I find it necessary to issue warrants of execution that may be enacted by the Viceroy should the need arise."
Fixated, Erskh watched as the emperor scrawled a large, ornate signature at the bottom, sprinkled a pinch of sand from a small box, used a blotter, and then moved the complete proclamation to the side.
"This is an odious task, but I am sure, given recent events, that you can well understand the need for such action."
Erskh unclenched his teeth long enough to say. "Of course, my lord emperor. Traitors to the Empire deserve no less."
The scribe put the second warrant in front of the emperor. The name at the top of this one was MWYRLZHRE, HOUSE OF SER
This time, the emperor only glanced down long enough to sign and lay the warrant aside.
"Choosing the names to append to these warrants has been difficult. As I cannot know with certainty who I may trust and who I may not, I have had to add persons to the list that may be perfectly innocent."
The third warrant named SEORALYE, TEMPLE OF MIYRA and Erskh found his hands shaking as the emperor dealt it the same fate.
"In the interests of justice, I am however minded to appoint an extraordinary prosecutor to keep watch over persons who are deemed suspect," the emperor told Erskh, not even bothering to look this time as the scribe whisked the third warrant aside and placed the fourth bearing the name LHYT, TRADER IN METALS under his hand. This he also signed in a careless fashion.
Erskh watch as the fifth warrant landed on the table. On this one, the spot where the name of the condemned should be was blank.
Erskh watched with unmitigated terror as the emperor's hand dipped the pin in the inkpot, and then moved toward the top of the warrant and stopped, poised just a fingerlength above the paper.
Then, finding a strength that he did not know that he had, Erskh pried his mouth open to speak. "My lord emperor, it would be my great honor to immediately volunteer for this duty! I pray you, allow me to devote myself to this service! I will root out any disloyalty that may linger in Khalar. I swear this by the names of all the Gods!"
The emperor's hand returned the pen to the inkpot.
FORTY-FOUR
Ready to depart, Number One awaited naught but Mar's command. Sitting at a table on her main deck with his lap desk and yet another stack of reports, he had only to finish dealing with this final matter.
"You're sure that the old Gheddessii said that his name was Llylquaendt?" Mar asked, looking up from a list that summarized daily activity at the city's gates. On the page, the name was spelled Lillekayne, and the fact that this was neither a common Gheddessii'n forename nor a Khalarii'n one had instantly triggered Mar's curiosity.
"That's right, my lord king, Llylquaendt, just like you say it," the marine ceannaire confirmed. His routine account had found its way to Mar's attention a day after Llylquaendt had come and gone.
"Very old man?" Mar persisted. "White hair and very well kempt beard? About your height?"
"That's him, my lord king. Looked old enough to be my grandfather's grandfather. He entered through the gate on our watch, saying that he had horse trading business in the city, but then just a few minutes later he came back and said that they had spoken to the man that they had come to see and that the deal fell through. The last I saw of them, they were headed west on the highway."
"You said 'them?' He wasn't alone?"
"No, my lord king." Ceannaire Abaegwyrd grinned in a cavalier fashion. "He had his five wives with him."
Mar chuckled. "Yes, that would be about right. Thank you, ceannaire. That will be all."
The ceannaire saluted and made for the hatch. Abaegwyrd was a member of the small contingent that had accompanied Vice-Captain Mhygaeus and would remain in Khalar with his commander to assist Lord Purhlea in the implementation of his new policy of throw out all the bureaucrats, ignore the merchants, and run the place like a military camp. Mhygaeus had shown up wounded but alive along with a number of rescued guardsmen and all of his marines, explaining that he had ordered a strategic retreat, or in his exact words, 'hidden in a stable,' until the mobs had lost interest.
Mar closed his lap desk. He thought it odd that Llylquaendt had not attempted to contact him, and would like to have had the opportunity to speak with the medic but knew that he did not have the time to go off looking for him now. Dreading what Phaelle'n sparked calamity might have erupted in his absence, he knew that he must return to Mhajhkaei as soon as he could.
He stood on his artificial legs, moved across the deck, and climbed the steerage stairs to join Ulor and the two legionnaire lookouts, Kyamhyn and Dhem, that waited with him.
"Ready, my lord king?"
"Yes. You can raise ship."
Mar felt a strong inclination to remain in Khalar longer, but judged that he had done all that he had time to do. All of the fires had been extinguished, many with Mar's own magic, civil order had been restored to the entire city, and Lord Purhlea was firmly in control. Early in the morning on the day after Mar's demonstration to the Privy Council, large processions of devotees, representing the entire spectrum of the pantheon, had flooded from the Lower City to view Hwraldek's body and to count the Moon Dancers, who Mar had ordered to parade upon the esplanade of the temple continually. All of the chief priests, priestesses, stewards, advocates, administrators, moderators, and other varied religious potentates of the major temples and shrines had addressed the crowds, assured them that no murder had taken place and that the emperor had the enthusiastic blessing of all the Gods. By midday, the faithful had all wandered away save for a number of zealots who had begun building a new shrine to Rwalkahn at the foot of the obelisk. As far as Mar could tell, the councilors were truly cowed -- or,
in Lord Purhlea's words, 'had the fear of the Gods put in them.' A demonstrably motivated Erskh had already begun making verbose reports to Lord Purhlea on their exact movements, visitations, expenditures, meals, and sleeping companions. Mar was not sure that this arrangement would prevent future conspiracies in the long term, but it had been the best that he had been able to come up with for now.
"Aye, my lord king," Ulor acknowledged. "Should I set a direct course for Mhajhkaei?"
"No, we're going to stop at the Monolith for a few hours. I have something that I need to take a look at."
Before Hwraldek and the riots, he had made up his mind to put aside his reservations and to gaze into the Moon Pool once more. Now, after treason and rebellion, it seemed doubly urgent that he gain magical assistance with the future, but he no longer desired to merely steal another short look at his own possible future. He needed a way to perceive the future -- any future -- when and where he would.
Wilhm, Lord Hhrahld, and now even Mhiskva had had dreams to provide foreboding of coming events. Suspecting these dreams to be some esoteric side effect of the Gaaelfharenii magic, he did not believe that he could harness them to his own use. Similarly, his unease, which came and went with no pattern or rule that he could deduce, was so unreliable and vague that it was practically useless.
Magic could show the future in detail. The Moon Pool was patent evidence of that and it was that sort of clear vision that he coveted. Having studied and learned the sophisticated and advanced flux modulations of Llylquaendt's autodoc, it seemed reasonable that he should have the capability to derive clues from the Moon Pool as to the nature of the ethereal modulations required to look forward in time. If he could master spells that would show him the consequences of his own actions or betray the efforts of traitors like Hwraldek, then he could much more ably rule his kingdom and empire. If he could spy on the future of the Brotherhood of Phaelle, then he would be able to counter their attacks before they came to be. Final victory and long-lasting peace would be assured.
When Number slipped into the tunnel through the sand sphere shield and approached the dock, Mar saw that Master Khlosb'ihs, who was beginning to appear weirdly prescient, was again waiting. Via Ulor in a launch, Mar had kept Khlosb'ihs apprised of events in Khalar, so it was no surprise that the Viceroy of the Monolith wore no armor and carried no staff.
Khlosb'ihs was accompanied only by Thylbr, master of the Empress Telriy, which Mar had previously thought to be somewhere in the southern Silver Sea. The large Mhajhkaei-built cargo skyship was visible beyond the amputated ancient bridge, riding at anchor in the skyship harbor. This last, a large, level area cleared of rubble, was one of the shipwright's recent civil projects.
As he prepared to fly over to the dock, Mar told Ulor, "Don't bother tying up. We won't be here long at all."
"Aye, my lord king."
When he landed, Mar, only half-joking, asked Khlosb'ihs, "Are you using magic to find out when I'm going to arrive?"
The shipwright gave him a quizzical look. "No, my lord king. Captain Khor'landt has posted lookouts in all the old towers around the cliffs to keep watch for skyships, both ours and the enemy's."
"Ah, of course."
A smile broke on the shipwright's face. "My lord king, the Queen has returned to Mhajhkaei in the company of Prince-Commander Ghorn!"
Mar did not twitch an eyebrow. "Alive, I presume?"
Moving his hands in an aborted demonstrative gesture, Khlosb'ihs blinked rapidly in confusion. "Why, yes, my lord king. Both of them."
"I brought them in the Empress Telriy," Thylbr contriubuted.
The first news had not moved Mar as he might once have thought it would. Telriy's departure, without warning or explanation, and her return, in the very same fashion, was simply another facet of their peculiar association. They had lived together as husband and wife and made a child, but they had made no promises to each other, had not made any commitment to a shared life, and were no closer to being bound together by mutual agreement than any two total strangers on the street. Whatever her reason for returning, he could not say that she had returned to him.
On the other hand, Lord Ghorn's fortunate survival or miraculous resurrection was a boon. The Prince-Commander would be invaluable to the war effort against the Brotherhood of Phaelle.
"Thank you for the information, Master Khlosb'ihs. Captain Thylbr, you came back north on the Queen's orders?"
"Yes, my lord king. Should I not have done so?"
"No, it's fine. The Queen sent you to the Monolith?"
"The Empress Telriy has no polybolos, my lord king. High-Captain Mhiskva thought that it would be safer here."
"Good idea. But I'd like you to prepare your skyship to accompany Number One back to Mhajhkaei. The Imperial household will be moving to the Monolith for the summer and the Empress Telriy will have plenty of room for everyone."
Thylbr saluted. "We will be ready to depart in no more than half an hour, my lord king."
Mar left the pair, both obviously befuddled by his muted reaction, and flew across the ruin to find the ancient courtyard and its crescent shaped pool.
Because of his improved cognizance of the background ether, he was able to travel directly to it. The artifact, he could now sense, created a delicate flare in the mumbling-aqua cloud that surrounded the Monolith. This rainbow-symphony of intricate flux modulations was of such power that he was amazed that some of the magician-pilot trainees had not detected it. As he neared, he traced the sound-colors of the symphony and found them plunging down from the pool into the underlying rock. The ethereal tendrils extended as far as he could sense throughout the plateau. Amazingly, it seemed that the entire Monolith, or at least a great portion of it, acted as a flux vessel for the pool.
The courtyard was nearly as he had seen it last, though the ancient garden plot was verdant with new growth and the stable where he had slept had lost a few more slates from its roof. True to his orders, the crews expanding the Monolith settlement had not disturbed the area. Landing right at the curb of the reflective pool, he saw that the water still trickled from the eroded fountain. The pool itself was clear, though its surface was troubled by an inconsistent wind.
In the bright sunlight, of course, there was no moonlight to key the magic and thus no vision of a future self to confront him. On the trip down from Khalar, he had considered waiting until moonrise, but his reservations had continued to multiply and he had finally rejected the prospect of another vision, embracing the excuse that he did not have the luxury of remaining idle for half a day.
He settled on the curb and took a drink in his cupped hand. The water was still cold and refreshing. After a few more moments of relaxed contemplation of the empty courtyard, he narrowed his attention to just the pool and began to study its magic.
FORTY-FIVE
Telriy heard a firm knock on her door and knew that it was Mar. Number One had returned at midday with the Empress Telriy in tow. She had made a point of not going to the dock to greet him. That had been a full three hours ago.
With a studiously neutral tone, she called out, "Come in."
The door opened and he walked in, leaving the door open. Yhejia had told her about the artificial legs. He stopped after only a few steps, yet a good distance from where she sat in the padded rocking chair that Yhejia had insisted that she have. His expression, like her invitation, was neutral.
"Are you well?"
His manner was tightly controlled, but not distant or cold. He had changed in the time that they had been apart. Though his features were exactly the same, he had clearly grown stronger -- in every sense of the word -- in her absence. He was confident now -- in his place in the world, in the power of his own magic -- where before he had seemed to be muddling his way through. From all that Yhejia had told him, he had come into his own as a king and emperor and was more than comfortable in the role.
"I am," She told him. It was fascinating, though it did strike her as somehow odd, to see him standing o
n two feet. She examined his legs and easily found a stir in the ether around each one. "The legs, they're magic?"
With perfect balance, he raised a knee and rolled up his trouser leg to show wood and brass above the top of his boot.
"Yes, but I've learned how to re-grow my own legs and they'll be finished in less than a fortnight. I'll do the arm next, though it might take a lot longer because of the additional complexity of the bones and muscles of the wrist and hand."
He let his leg down and shook it to straighten his trouser. "The baby is well?"
"She is."
She watched his face. Anger would not have surprised her. She would not grant that he had a right to be angry. After all, she owed him nothing. Nevertheless, this -- What to call it? Indifference? Lack of emotion? -- seemed an even greater reproach. For an irrational moment, she felt an impulse to confess that she desired most of all to be held, wanted to once more feel his arm around her and their child, but she would not speak the words. There was no such thing as love. She had to believe that.
He contemplated her for a moment with placid eyes, then said, "You should go to the Monolith."
She had not expected that he would welcome her with -- so to speak -- open arms, but had never imagined outright rejection. "If that's what you want."
His face wrestled with the moment, then he blew out a puff of exasperated air, spread his arm and stump in an all inclusive gesture, and said with straightforward honesty, "I want all of this to go away, but it won't. I want to be a thief reading a stolen book on a sunny roof, but I'll never be that again. I want those for whom I am responsible to be safe, and that's -- finally -- perhaps one thing that I can do something about, at least to some extent. The Palace will be vulnerable to air attack when I'm gone. I'm sending Yhejia and the entire household to the Monolith."
Warrior (The Key to Magic) Page 22