by Victor Poole
"Go away, Elan," the older man said, when he saw that Elan had followed him.
"But I want to hear what you say about this," Elan protested, looking quite red in the face. The older man stared hard at Elan, and Elan vanished into the double doors, closing them with an angry snap behind him. "Hello, Delmar," the older man said.
"Hello, uncle Thorn," Delmar said. Thorn looked appraisingly at Ajalia, and then led the way down the hall a little, and sat down on a narrow ledge that ran around the walls.
"Tell me what is going on," Thorn said. Ajalia liked Thorn. He was younger than Delmar's father had been, but he looked older, and his eyes reminded Ajalia of a big, friendly bear. He wore a tawny beard that had the same reddish highlights that Delmar's beard showed, and his eyes were a darker blue than Delmar's. Ajalia thought that Thorn would prove to be sensible.
"We are not alone," Ajalia murmured to Delmar. She was careful to keep up still the look of an obedient slave; she was not prepared to reveal to anyone but servants her real standing with Delmar, until she knew the lay of the land within the palace. Servants she was not worried about at all, since they had already shown themselves to exist on quite a different informational plane to the royal family in the house. Thorn heard what Ajalia said, and glanced at once at the pillars. Thorn winked at Ajalia, and lowered his voice.
"If we speak very quietly," Thorn told Delmar, "I think that the little mice will not hear us."
"Boys," Ajalia called. After a long moment, two of the stable boys who were very near to Thorn poked their faces out from behind the pillars.
"Don't beat us," one of the boys whispered to Ajalia. She grinned at the boy who had spoken, and pointed across the hall.
"Go and spy from over there," she said. The two boys scowled at her, but then scurried away, and concealed themselves. Ajalia turned back to Delmar, and resumed her invisible watch at his shoulder. Thorn had watched this interaction with a broad smile on his face.
FALLOR'S AFFLICTION
"I like your new slave," Thorn told Delmar. A smile tugged at the corners of Delmar's mouth.
"I cannot speak openly to you, uncle," Delmar said. "I apologize."
"Let me know something of Rane, at least," Thorn said. Thorn's eyes went carefully over Delmar's costume, and Ajalia saw that the older man was impressed. "Have you got tailors in the white city these days?" Thorn asked mildly. Delmar did not smile.
"The situation with Rane is not fit for idle gossip," Delmar told his uncle. "I must speak with the king."
Thorn's eyes sharpened.
"I know that Simon is dead," Thorn said slowly. "Is there more than that?" Thorn glanced at Ajalia, and lowered his voice. "We have not heard from our usual sources," Thorn said in the old Slavithe. Ajalia was glad now that she had been getting a few lessons from Delmar in the nights. She had found another of her boys, a very young man from the cleaning crews, who also spoke a little of the old Slavithe, and had made him speak to her in every spare moment that she had in the last week. She could not speak much of the old Slavithe herself yet, but she understood now some of what was said, and she understood the words that Thorn used.
Delmar had told her, on their last night in Slavithe, that her facility with languages was impressive. Ajalia had shrugged.
"I forget some of them after I learn them," she told him. "I used to know several northern languages, just words for trading. I have not often put in the effort to learn a language as thoroughly as I have for this journey to Slavithe."
"Because of your nefarious plans for this place," Delmar had said with a smile.
"Yes," Ajalia agreed. "Knowing words from many lands makes me look useful. I do not actually know many languages. I am not learned," she said.
"Well, you sound learned to me," Delmar said.
"Yes," Ajalia said. "That is the effect I aim for. It makes me very valuable to my master, because the other masters envy me, and him."
"I think you know more than you let on," Delmar told her, and she laughed.
"Philas knows more languages than I do," she said. "It is his specialty, but I have a better grasp of poetry, and that pleases my master. The Eastern language is a very beautiful one, and Philas does not know how to speak in rhythms."
"Do you know any Saroyan?" Delmar asked her.
"None," she said. "I cannot even say hello."
"Good," Delmar said, and then he told her that he loved her in the old Slavithe. Ajalia laughed when he did this, and he asked her why.
"Leed told me, some time ago, that you would say things to me in the old Slavithe, and hope that I would not understand," Ajalia told him.
"I always said that Leed was a nice boy," Delmar said, but he was blushing a little.
Now, in the palace room with red floors, Ajalia watched Thorn, and she kept her eyes from showing any interest in what was said. She was sure that Thorn thought she knew none of the old Slavithe.
"There is more," Delmar said. Delmar did not change to the old Slavithe, and Thorn frowned at him. Ajalia saw that Thorn did not feel able to speak freely before her. Delmar pretended he had not seen Thorn's discomfort. Thorn took Delmar by the shoulder, and tried to move him aside. Delmar would not budge, and Thorn flushed.
"We cannot speak of too many things before servants," Thorn told Delmar, his cheeks a ruddy scarlet.
"Ajalia is my confidential slave," Delmar told Thorn. "She keeps many secrets." This, Ajalia reflected, was perfectly true. Thorn's jaw hardened.
"I would prefer to speak with you alone," Thorn said.
"My uncle," Delmar said. "I wish to show you the respect that is owed to your age and position, but I am the Thief Lord now, and must conduct my affairs as I see fit." This, Ajalia thought, was the moment in which Delmar would show his true colors, and Thorn would reveal his. She watched the older man blush, and grumble, and then look once again at her.
"Do you speak the Slavithe language well?" Thorn asked her. Ajalia said nothing, and Delmar frowned.
"Uncle," Delmar said, "I hope that I have been patient, but I must speak with the king."
Thorn looked at Delmar, and Ajalia saw the older man's jaw working gradually under his beard. She watched to see if Thorn would lose his genial manner, but Thorn, after considering Delmar for some time, nodded, and went back into the double doors.
"He took that well enough," Ajalia said to Delmar.
"He is not sure about you yet," Delmar said. His eyes were fixed on the two doors. "The family throne room is in there," he told Ajalia. "Everyone pretends that my grandfather sits there with the family, but he almost never does. He will be above, in his private rooms. He hears audiences here, in this hall."
"What is your grandfather's name?" Ajalia asked. Delmar smiled at her.
"We do not call him by his name," Delmar said. "You will think it is strange, but I don't know his name."
"Is that why your father's name was secret?" Ajalia asked.
"Well," Delmar said. "It wasn't a secret, from most people, but he kept it away from use as much as he could, to mirror the way of the king here. He had been prince of Talbos, and the people of Slavithe all knew his name when he came first to Slavithe. Once he was made Thief Lord, he made it clear that he would not enjoy being called Simon."
"You did not know his name," Ajalia pointed out.
"My brothers did," Delmar said. "They knew his name. They kept it from me, as a joke."
"That's terrible," Ajalia told him. Delmar shrugged. "Does everyone know your grandfather's name except for you?" she asked suddenly. Delmar shrugged.
"I don't care if they do," he said. "My grandfather likes me."
"Does he?" Ajalia asked. She waved at one of the little boys, who was peering out from behind a pillar across the room. The double doors banged open, and four people appeared. Elan was there, looking quite pleased with himself, and there was another young man, an older man with a fuzzy pale beard that was trimmed just around his chin, and a mature woman, who looked to be about the age that Beryl had bee
n. Ajalia guessed that this person was the princess with the embarrassing name. She wondered if the older man with the fuzzy beard, who looked to be significantly older than the princess, was Lerond. Thorn was not present in the group.
"Well, Delmar," the princess said, looking him up and down. "Are you the Thief Lord now?"
"Yes, aunt," Delmar said, bowing his head respectfully. The older man with the fuzzy pale beard emitted a brief, shrill snort. Delmar ignored this. "Hello, Fallor," Delmar said politely to the young man, who seemed to be younger than Delmar was, and the young man bobbed his head in reply. Fallor looked too nervous to say anything to Delmar, but Ajalia thought that he looked nice enough, and sensible, behind the trepidation in his eyes.
"Well," Delmar's aunt said loudly, and she looked around at the others and laughed. The boys who were hiding in the room had vanished completely again, and Ajalia was sure that they were listening eagerly to everything that passed. "I think we all expected to see your brother in that role, when the time came," the princess said, and she looked now at Ajalia. "Who is this person?" she asked loudly. Before Delmar could speak, Ajalia stepped swiftly forward, and knelt respectfully before the princess.
"I am Ajalia, your honored majesty," Ajalia said, and then she stood and resumed her position behind Delmar. The princess, who looked shocked and pleased, turned to Delmar.
"What is she?" the princess demanded, and Ajalia heard in her voice the additional question, where can I get one like her?
"Ajalia is my confidential slave," Delmar said. "I have obtained her on loan from her master in the East. We are negotiating trade relations with the East, and I have come to see my grandfather the king, to speak with him of these things."
"Trade relations," the princess exclaimed, her eyes widening. "I thought Simon was dead," she added.
"My father is no more," Delmar said. The princess's mouth hardened a little.
"You know," the princess said, "I heard that you killed him."
"I have great business with the king," Delmar said, meeting his aunt's eyes without embarrassment. "I believe that my uncle Thorn has gone to tell the king so."
"I am going to be king," the princess snapped, and her eyes were blazing so suddenly that even Ajalia, who had expected a scene, was taken by surprise.
"Well," the older man drawled with a laugh, "actually, my dear, you will be queen."
"You are not going to be the king, Lerond," the princess snapped. "I told you. Be quiet before guests. I am sorry about Lerond," the princess said to Delmar. "You know how he is."
"Even I, in my lowered station, have heard of the notorious Lerond," Ajalia said. She kept her eyes fixed benignly on the door, which lay open behind the group, and she felt, rather than saw, the ripple of disbelief that ran through Delmar's relations.
"What did she say?" the princess demanded, in a voice like crackling ice. The youngest uncle, Fallor, let out a nervous laugh. "Shut up!" the princess hissed at Fallor, who turned red. "What are you really here for?" the princess asked Delmar, her eyes bristling. The princess looked as though she wanted to ignore what Ajalia had said, as long as Ajalia did not speak again. Ajalia recognized the ripples of displeasure that the princess was directing at her; she knew that the princess was signaling at her to be quiet, or else.
"You asked what I said," Ajalia replied, before Delmar could speak. "I told you that I, even as a slave, and in the distant city of Slavithe, have heard of how the slippery Lerond has sought to undermine your position as supreme monarch. There are such eels in my own country of the East. I sympathize with your heavy burden." Again, Ajalia bowed towards the princess, who seemed now to be utterly speechless in shock.
"You can't say things like that!" Lerond shrilled at the top of his voice.
"I must be honest," Ajalia said, "since I have chosen to speak, it is my duty to say all."
"Oh, please," Lerond said, his voice dripping with scorn, "do tell us all, won't you, slave?" He sneered when he called Ajalia a slave, and she smiled with pleasure at him.
"I am a slave," Ajalia said to Lerond, "which is more than you will ever be."
"Hold your tongue, miss," the princess said, but Ajalia could see that she was already worming a great breach between the princess and her husband.
"I said that I would say all," Ajalia said. The whole room seemed to have frozen, and the people within it were mesmerized by her words. She had not expected the first meeting with Delmar's relations to be thus; Ajalia had expected Lerond to be a worthy opponent. She was almost disappointed with the man; he was like a minnow at the end of her hook, when she had been fishing for a whale. "And," Ajalia continued smoothly, "I will do as I have said. My Thief Lord has told me that Lerond seeks to control the throne, and I see already that it is so. You are surrounded, my gracious majesty, with snakes whom you cannot trust. Lerond has preyed upon your fears. He has lied to you, and pretended to build you up as the next king. He means already to betray you. Look into his eyes, and tell me it is not so."
Ajalia's words dropped into the room like hot stones; she could almost feel the sizzling in the princess's ears. The princess narrowed her eyes, and looked at Ajalia.
"You can't come in here and say things like that," the princess said. "Why have you brought this creature into my house?" she demanded, turning with exaggerated rage to Delmar.
"My mother is dead," Delmar said. "This slave discovered that my mother was a witch, and, being loyal to me, destroyed her. I am grateful to my slave for this."
"Lilleth is dead!" said Elan and the princess at the same time. Fallor, who had turned white at what Delmar said, turned and fled after the way Thorn had gone. Ajalia was sure that Fallor was going to find the king, to tell him this news.
Lerond, who had also gone pale at what Delmar said, turned now to the princess, and Ajalia could see the older man filling up with breath. Without thinking of what she could say to explain what she was doing, Ajalia reached into Lerond, and sent a taut tendril of energy around his nose and mouth. Lerond's eyes grew wide, and he reached up with both hands to his lips, and clawed at them. Ajalia released Lerond, who stared around the room in horror.
"There is a witch!" Lerond said hoarsely. "Someone here is a witch!" Lerond's eyes went first to the princess, and then settled on Ajalia. "It's her!" Lerond declared, his voice ragged. "She put a spell on me! She is a witch!"
"Why did you look at me?" the princess screamed, and Ajalia smiled. Ajalia put an arm on Delmar's elbow, and moved him past the now-arguing pair, and into the double doors that lay open behind them.
"It was her, it was her!" Lerond was shrieking. "She put her magic on my tongue, and I could not breathe! It was that slave!"
"You looked at me first!" the princess howled. "What do you think I am, a witch?"
"I don't, I don't think you are a witch, I don't!" Lerond babbled.
Delmar and Ajalia were soon out of sight of the arguing pair; Elan ran to catch up, and when Ajalia turned, she saw the swift, darting shapes of the stable boys moving into the family sitting room. Lerond, she thought, would see the boys, but the princess was so angry that she seemed to care for nothing but Lerond just now. There were chairs in this room, and several low tables. A set of stairs lay at the far end of the room; at the top of these was a door covered by a thick curtain.
"Is Lilleth really dead?" Elan asked in a low voice, moving quickly behind Delmar. The muffled voices of the princess and Lerond, drifting like scraps of ugly snow, rose and fell behind them. Without answering Elan, Delmar led the way up the stairs, and pushed aside the curtain. Elan, who seemed to have developed a sudden respect for Delmar, and a desire to please Ajalia, ran to the side of the stairs, and held the curtain aside for them.
"Thank you," Ajalia said to Elan, who grinned, and ducked his head. Ajalia told herself that the palace of the king of Talbos was in awful disarray, if such a brief space of time as fifteen minutes could change the loyalties of one of the king's sons from fixed disrespect to friendly cooperation. "Have yo
u actually changed sides, or are you only following the excitement?" Ajalia asked Elan, who laughed.
"She'll never get rid of Lerond," Elan told Ajalia. "He's an awful guy, but he flatters her, and no one else wants to."
"Then I will find her a husband," Ajalia said. They had passed into a narrow sitting room that was furnished with thick red tapestries that Ajalia guessed must have come from Saroyan. She knew that they had strange fabrics in Saroyan, though she had never seen any herself. The cloth was red, and caught the light that shimmered in the broken sunlight that came now through the windows.
When Ajalia said that she would find the princess a husband, Elan laughed. Delmar looked around at his uncle.
"She means it," Delmar said. Elan's face sobered.
"You can't go around finding husbands for princesses," Elan told Ajalia, as though he were breaking an unpleasant truth to her.
"Jay does things like that," Delmar said. He had mounted up another short set of steps to an embossed door at the end of the narrow sitting room, and he knocked at the door.
"Come in!" someone shouted from inside, and Delmar opened the door.
The room beyond was spacious, and crowded with strange metal instruments that hung from the ceiling. Ajalia thought that the room looked like a wizard's lair; she had heard stories of wizards, when she was a child in the grasslands, and she thought that Delmar's grandfather, who was sitting on a cozy green stool at one side of the room, and holding a pair of metal birds in his hands, was like the wizards from the stories she had heard in the village near her home.
Delmar went straight to his grandfather, and got down on one knee before him. Ajalia followed, and stood just behind Delmar's right shoulder.
"Rise," the king of Talbos said. He was quite an old man, and his skin was almost translucent. Ajalia thought that his hair was nice; it was wispy and white, and fell in a soft cloud around his temples. "Who is this?" the king asked, pointing a knobbly finger at Ajalia. The king was still holding the two silver birds; they were each carved from one piece of metal, and they each had a pair of curling wings that rose up above their heads.