Black Jade ec-3

by David Zindell

  Now Lord Rodas paced back and forth with a nervousness eating at him. Just as he was readying himself to charge into the courtesans' tent and call out once more for Garath the Fool, Maram marched out of it. He came straight over to us. His face, I saw; had fallen a sickly white as if he had met up with a ghost. 'What's wrong?' I whispered to him.

  'Ah, nothing,' he whispered back. He looked over at Lord Rodas, who fairly clung to him like a tick. 'Nothing I can tell you now.' 'Was it the girl?' I said, remembering what Arch Uttam had done to Yismi.

  'Ah … what girl?'

  I stared at him as I shook my head. I did not know whether to rage or give thanks that Maram's pursuits had spared him witnessing Yismi's murder.

  'What's that?' Lord Rodas snapped at us as he rushed over. His angry eyes took in the traveling tunic that Maram wore. 'Fool of a fool! I told you to be ready — and now we'll have to keep the King waiting.'

  'Be at ease!' Maram snapped back at him. 'Or you'll give yourself apoplexy. No one is going to keep anyone waiting!'

  So saying, he cast me a troubled look and hurried to go inside the cart. We moved it out into the center of the square then, facing it toward King Arsu's box. Kane, barechested and wearing his billowing silk pants, hung his painted target from its side. By the time he had made ready his chains, the cart's door flew open and Maram burst out into the square.

  Then it was our turn to perform for the King.

  Chapter 38

  How Maram had donned his costume and painted his face so quickly, I didn't know. He immediately managed to trip over Kane's chain and nearly landed face first in a mound of horse droppings. It was farce at its crudest, yet it made everyone laugh. After the horror of the sword fights, I thought, no less Yismi's butchery, the people in the square needed whatever relief they could find.

  Maram himself took no pleasure in his performance. Some great fear burned through his bouncing belly, and he could not tell me what it was. It did not keep him, however, from shimmying about in mockery of the maracheel dancers, and making everyone laugh all the more.

  Although we had improvised our way across the Haraland, we had always set the rhythm and routines of our show ourselves. It was not to be that way this day. Without warning, as Estrella joined Maram in a silly pantomime, a seemingly jovial King Arsu held up his hand and called out to them: 'Enough! Enough for now, good Garath! Let us see what else your troupe has prepared for us.'

  He turned toward his left, where the Lady Lida sat pretending amusement at Maram's and Estrella's antics. Her dark, sharp face, I thought, hid her true sentiments as if covered with a veil. It disturbed me that she kept stealing quick glances at Liljana, who waited by the side of the cart with the rest of us.

  'My Lady,' King Arsu said to Lida, 'since it is your birthday, what would you most like of this troupe?'

  Lida didn't hesitate to answer him. She spoke in a sweet and perfectly controlled voice as she told him, 'My lord, I would like a love potion, that my ardor for my king always inflames me as it does now, even when I am ugly and old.'

  Her words pleased King Arsu greatly, and I felt a flush of pride wash through him. It seemed that he could not get enough flattery, just as he had a nearly bottomless thirst for sugared drinks.

  'Dear one,' he said to her, 'you will never be less than beau-tiful, and as for growing old, is it not written that those of impassioned blood will enjoy the eternal youth of the angels?'

  His quote from the Darkakul Elu elicited a quick nod of Arch Uttam's skull-like head. He gazed at King Arsu as if noting down his every word. His umber eyes, though smoldering with a cruel intelligence, seemed utterly dead.

  'My Lord,' Arch Uttam said to King Arsu, correcting him, 'it is written that they will enjoy the everlasting youth of the angels.'

  King Arsu waved his hand at this as he might bat away a fly, Even so, I felt a flicker of fear burn through him. Then he told Lida, 'You shall certainly have your potion.'

  He called out his command to Liljana then. She went inside the cart, and then hurried back out holding a blue-glassed vial full of a dark liquid. She stepped forward toward the dais, where one of the King's men moved to take it from her. But Lida stayed him, and came down from the dais to take the potion from Liljana herself. I watched as she turned her face to whisper something in Liljana's ear, and Liljana likewise spoke back to her.

  As Lida returned to her place, Liljana walked back to us. I wondered what she had said to her, for she fairly beamed with new hope.

  And then King Arsu pointed at Atara and said, 'Kalinda, Teller of Fortunes — come forward and let us hear of our fate!'

  He smiled if expecting the usual promises of love, children and a happy future. Atara did not disappoint him. With Daj leading her forward by one hand, she clutched in her other the glass sphere that we had bought in Ramlan. Despite her blindfold, she appeared to gaze into it deeply. Then she lifted up her face toward King Arsu's box.

  'My Lord!' she called out. 'I see for you the fulfillment of your greatest desire. You will gain that which you have sought all your life.'

  King Arsu smiled hugely to hear this. It was, however, scryer talk, and therefore likely double-edged in its meaning. King Arsu seemed not to realize this. Likely he had never encountered a true scyrer before, as all the women of that order had long since been purged from his realm.

  'The fulfillment of our greatest desire.' King Arsu repeated. 'That is well. But we have many desires. It would be hard to tell which one is the greatest.'

  His answer caused Arch Uttam to look at him with scorn. And then King Arsu hastened to call down to Atara: 'Tell us then of victory! Tell us of our army, which will soon march forth on the great crusade!'

  King Arsu looked out at his hundreds of soldiers assembled in the square.

  Atara fell silent. I felt my heart quicken its painful beats as something stabbed into me. Then Atara drew in a deep breath and called out:

  'I see an ocean of grass, covered with armies of men. I cannot count the number of spears gleaming in the sun. The shields of the army of Sunguru shine like thousands of mirrors; the men of Uskudar stand there, too, like ebony pillars. Your army King Arsu, gathers at their center. And you, on top of an elephant draped in armor, at the center of it. Your enemies stand before you. It will be said ever after that they had no hope of prevailing against such an invincible force. And then fate will find you, and everyone assembled there that day. It will be the greatest battle fought in all the ages of Ea. And you will gain the greatest victory of your life.'

  She stopped speaking and stood there facing King Arsu. A terrible strangeness shivered up my spine like the chill of the winter wind. I feared with all my soul that Atara had told King Arsu the truth.

  King Arsu turned directly toward Atara. At last, he put down his goblet of honeyed milk and clapped his puffy hands together. He called out, 'That, Fortune Teller, was a great one indeed. And it deserves a great reward.'

  And with that, he reached into his purse and cast a handful of gold coins at her. Daj retrieved them from the grass. After Atara had bowed to the King, Daj took her by the hand once again and led her back to our cart.

  Next to Arch Uttam, King Angand sat quietly gazing out at Atara. Although a stew of strong sentiments bubbled inside him, his brown face remained stonelike. His dark, almond eyes gleamed with cunning, but betrayed none of his thoughts. I had never known a man harder to read. Did he pay any mind at all to Atara's prophecy? And what had he made of the messenger's news, that King Orunjan, his old enemy, would soon meet up with King Arsu and himself in conclave? Did he dwell at all upon the great irony that Morjin had put an end to the incessant wars of the south by leading the Dragon Kingdoms straight toward a final war that would consume all of Ea?

  He finally broke his silence, turning to King Arsu to say: 'It would seem that our fates are linked together But that is the future. Why don't we return to the present and witness the skills of the strongman?'

  I sensed that he hated almost everythin
g about his enforced rapprochement with King Arsu and the bloodthirsty Arch Uttam, and wished to remove himself from their presence as soon as he could.

  King Arsu nodded at this, and called out to Kane: 'Taras — is that your name? Why don't you show us what you can do?'

  What Kane could do, I thought, as his eyes deepened into black pools, would be to grab up his sword and charge King Arsu's box, cutting down any guard who stood in the way. And then to cut short the reigns of Morjin's two greatest kings and one of his most valued priests before other guards came to kill him.

  Instead, he gathered up his chains and positioned himself in front of King Arsu's box. Then Arch Uttam wagged his bony finger at him as he addressed King Arsu: 'I'm sure this man is as strung as everyone says. I'm sure we would all like to see him break his chains, but is this wise? It might give the slaves bad ideas.'

  Something ugly in his voice grated as if the whole world irritated him. I watched as he forced a thin smile upon his face. I thought for a moment that he might be joking, although he did not seem capable of any sort of levity.

  King Arsu took him seriously enough. He sipped some of his sweetened milk as he seemed to consider what Arch Uttam had seemed to offer as a suggestion. Then he said to Kane. 'You are a juggler as well, aren't you? Well, then, juggle for us, good Taras.'

  He waved his hand at him as if that settled the matter. Then Daj brought out a little basket filled with Kane's seven colored balls. For a while Kane entertained King Arsu and the other luminaries in the box — and the soldiers and townspeople, too — with the blur of his hands and a stream of leather-covered spheres. He sent them high up into the air on a rainbow arc, and then whirled about in a full circle, catching them with perfect timing and passing them even lower and faster as the balls flowed in an unbroken streak of crimson and orange, indigo and violet. I thought it likely that no one present in the square had ever seen such juggling.

  At last, though, everyone grew tired of this amusement, as people do. And so Kane put his balls away, and went about performing feats of prestidigitation. I had never come across anyone so skilled at this sleight of hand. He dared to ask Lady Lida for a gold coin, and then made it vanish into thin air. After showing Lady Lida his naked palm, he made a fist and blew on it. When he opened his hand again, two gold coins gleamed there.

  'Marvelous!' Lady Lida said, clapping her hands together.

  'Marvelous?' Arch Uttam said. He tried to make himself smile again. 'Let us hope it is not sorcerous.'

  I never learned how Kane worked this magic, and he never told me. Although I found some measure of wonder in it, as did Lady Lida and King Arsu, it seemed only to bore Arch Uttam. He stared at Kane with his soulless eyes as he steepled his thin fingers beneath his chin; something about Kane seemed to vex him. It was the King's prerogative to command entertainments, but that didn't stop Arch Uttam from rudely speaking out.

  'I'm sure we have all had enough of this man's tricks,' he said. He turned to look down his thin nose at Kane. 'We have heard, player, that your skill with knives is something to be seen.'

  Kane could not keep his old hate from burning through him. He growled out, 'Even as was yours, priest.'

  Arch Uttam sat staring at Kane as if he could not believe what he had just heard. Finally, he barked at Kane: 'What was that?'

  Kane smiled his savage smile, showing his long white teeth. And then, to Maram's horror, and mine, he said, 'Today, I only cast my knives at a wooden target. But you put yours through that girl's throat with a precision we all must wonder at. She couldn't have suffered much, eh? Who else has such skill but a high priest of the Kallimun?'

  Kane managed to say this without obvious sarcasm but only the greatest seeming sincerity. Even so, he walked a knife blade's edge between condemnation of Arch Uttam and compliment. A fool such as Maram might be able to get away with such wordplay, but Kane was Kane. Arch Uttam stared at him again, and his eyes finally came alive with hate.

  'You revere Lord Morjin's priests, do you?' he said to Kane.

  'Even as I do Morjin himself,' Kane said. 'What would the world be without him and the truest of his servants?'

  With many eyes now gazing upon Arch Uttam in witness of this singular interchange, it seemed that he had no choice but to interpret Kane's words as praise. But I felt the poison in his voice as he snapped at Kane: 'The world will be a paradise when we all doserve him truly. As you may serve him now by showing us what is possible through years of discipline and great concentration.'

  Kane bowed his head at this. Then he beckoned toward Estrella, standing with the rest of us by the cart. She walked toward him bearing a velvet-covered tray on which sat seven gleaming knives. It was her job to hold the tray up to Kane as he plucked up the knives one by one and hurled them at the target. And again, to retrieve the knives and stand many paces farther back as Kane repeated a remarkable feat: planting six of the knives in a perfect hexagram around the edge of the innermost circle while the seventh knife transfixed its center.

  Arch Uttam stared at the target, and for the moment seemed disinclined to speak.

  King Angand, however, clapped his hands and said to Kane, 'If you could learn such skill with the sword, we would be glad to have you ride with our army.'

  'And ours,' King Arsu said. 'There are always errants to deal with.'

  'Yes,' Arch Uttam said to Kane. He smiled at him. 'Then you could put steel through flesh instead of wood.'

  I prayed that Kane would let Arch Uttam have the final word in this deadly duel forming up between them. For at least ten of my heart's beats, Kane did not say anything, and he did not move.

  And then he growled out to him, 'I'm just a simple player, eh? Throwing knives is one thing; facing swords in the heat of battle is another. As you have said. Arch Uttam, I can only hope to master my fear. And someday, by the One's grace, to witness the defeat of those who have turned away from the Light.'

  He bowed then, not so much to Arch Uttam or King Arsu, but to the sun burning like a circle of white-hot steel above their silk-covered box. Without another word, he turned about and walked back toward the cart.

  'What is wrong with you?' I whispered to him as he moved up close to me.

  'So, Morjin is wrong,' he muttered. He cast a quick, killing look at Arch Uttam. 'It's wrong that the Beast himself isn't here instead of his lackey. Then I'd put a knife into each of his damn eyes!'

  We hoped to end our performance with Alphanderry singing a few songs. King Arsu agreed with this plan, and waved his hand at the cart's door as if commanding it to open. When Estrella walked over and turned the handle to let out the mysterious minstrel known as Thierravai, everyone around the square fell silent. They watched as Alphanderry positioned himself in front of King Arsu's box — but not too near it. Then Kane took up his mandolet and Estrella and I our flutes, and we all gathered together to play for the King.

  Three songs we gave to King Arsu and his companions, and to the many soldiers looking on and listening in wonder. For we made, I thought, a wondrous music — or rather Alphanderry did. While Kane and I, with Estrella, summoned out of our instruments ancient melodies, Alphanderry sang out with the much finer instrument of his voice. No words poured forth from his golden throat, not even those of the Galadin. The perfect tones that his lips shaped and shaded had something of the form of words, and something of their meaning, too, but seemed to go far beyond them and touch upon that deep, resounding place in which words had their source. It was a true magic that he worked that day. His songs pierced the hearts of all who listened. Each person in the square, I thought, heard in them what he most wished to hear: yearning for love or exaltation of war; chants pealing out like bells and hymns to life and lamentations of the dead. Even as I breathed into my flute and played to accompany Alphanderry's marvelous singing, I couldn't help thinking of the astonished look in Yismi's eyes as Arch Uttam had sliced his knife across her throat. So it was, I sensed, with many of those who listened to Alphanderry. Something in his brill
iant voice seemed rip through the thin veil that separated life from death, and the earth from the starry heavens. By the time he finished the last of his songs, many people were weeping and many more stared at him as, if they could not believe what they had just heard.

  In the vast silence that came over the square, as King Arsu and King Angand stared at Alphanderry stunned and unable to speak, Alphanderry bowed his head to them and quickly returned to the cart, Estrella walked over with him to shut the door. Then she came back over to where Kane and I stood in front of King Arsu's box, and we made our bow together.

  At last, King Axsu returned to himself. He smiled at us even as a thunder of applause rang out from around the square. He reached for his purse with its golden coins. But then Arch Uttam stopped him, laying his bony hand on King Arsu's arm. He raised his other hand to silence the soldiers who were shouting, clapping and calling for Thierraval to come back out of the cart to sing for them again. Now the air fell so deathly still that I could hear the flies buzzing around the foodsellers' stalls. Arch Uttam's scabrous eyes looked from Kane to Estrella to me, then settled upon the cart. He looked at King Arsu. And then, in a bone-chilling voice, he called out: 'There is error here.'

  Hundreds of people seemed horrified to hear this. Hundreds of pairs of eyes now turned their heat upon us. I sensed Kane readying himself to respond to Arch Uttam's dreaded accusation. I shook my head slightly to warn him to say nothing.

  And then I called up to the box: 'What error, Arch Uttam?' The High Priest of the Kallimun of Hesperu stared down at me. His knife-like eyes fairly cut open the scar marking my forehead. Something about me, too, seemed to vex him. 'Do you really not know, flute-player?' he asked me. 'We have only played the ancient songs,' I said to him. 'But do you not know that many of them have been proscribed?' He waited like a spider watching for a butterfly to become ensnared in its web. As it happened, I did not know this, but I did not want to betray my naivety. And so I said to him, 'We are only players who have traveled far and performed mostly in small villages. It might be that we haven't learned of everything that has been proscribed.' 'Ignorance of the law is no excuse for violating it,' he said to me. 'Indeed it is not,' I said, sweating beneath the sun as much his hateful gaze. 'And that is why we have striven to play only the classics that would be acceptable. But since we don't have your keen discernment as to which songs fall into error, perhaps we have chosen unwisely.'