The King of Talbos (The Eastern Slave Series Book 6)

by Victor Poole

  Savage went on for some time with his story, and when he had wound to a close, he turned with finality to Ajalia.

  "And so you see," Savage said, "when a man like Philas, who has no beliefs of his own, runs at some time in his life against a good woman, he adopts her as a kind of god. He tells himself, whether or not it is true, that she will form the guiding star of his whole life, and he builds up all of the morality that he has been missing around her. When the woman finds, as I understand you did with Philas, that her suitor is without character, or morals of his own, she, if she is a good woman, turns him away, and he becomes a wanderer in this world. I will guess," Savage said, "that after you spurned his advances, Philas retreated within himself, and become something of a malignant hermit. Was this so?"

  Ajalia thought of what Philas had been like in his last weeks in Slavithe, and then she thought of what Leed had told her, of Philas's sour moods in Talbos, and of his incessant drinking.

  "Well," she said, "yes."

  "This is because Philas, who lives without a religion, or a god, has built up his idea of goodness around you. You filled up the space in him that should have been filled with his own purpose and meaning in life. Without you, he became lost, even to himself. He abandoned himself. You told me that you cleansed his soul of the darkness that he harbored there, and you said also that he has since dedicated himself to a life of sobriety, and purpose. He did this," Savage told Ajalia, "because he worships you. I do not mean that he loves you, in the sense of a proper love, but that he worships you as another man worships a god, or an ideal. This is not proper, or sustainable. When you see that Philas does not develop an independent moral code, or a sense of himself as a man, and when you see that he does not take responsibility for his own destiny, you will spurn him a second time, and he will be worse than if he had never met you at all." Ajalia thought about this for a few minutes.

  "But Philas was just fine for a long time," Ajalia said. "I mean, he was grumpy, and drunk, but he didn't moon over me. He held responsibility in my master's house for many years before we came here, and before he turned sloppy at me."

  "But were you slaves together for many years?" Savage asked.

  "Yes," Ajalia said, thinking of the first time she had met Philas.

  "And did he gain responsibility during that time?" Savage asked.

  "Well, yes," Ajalia said, "but that wasn't anything to do with me. He hardly talked to me at all, really, and he never looked at me as if he was pining."

  "But Philas does not love you," Savage said patiently. Delmar was sitting atop the black horse, and staring out at the lights in the city below as he listened to Savage talk. Delmar's brow was creased gently, and his lips were pursed together. "Philas was content to worship you from afar, after he had found you," Savage said. "He would have worshipped you very quietly until he died. I think that he only declared some manner of love for you when he sensed a change in you. A man like Philas watches very closely for change, just as a man like me watches for a sign from the sky, or like you watch for Delmar hurting."

  "I don't worship Delmar," Ajalia said quickly.

  "I never said that you did," Savage said. "You love Delmar properly, as a wife should, and he loves you. I have seen you care for each other, and it is well. He has a moral code, and you have your own ideas of justice, and right. Because you are each whole in this way, you are free to love one another, and to enforce your justice within your dealings between the two of you. Philas has no such moral code, if he is the sort of man that you say. He would have watched you, and seen that you had changed, and he would have guessed that the change was caused by another man."

  "How would he know that?" Ajalia asked. Savage looked askance at her, and then up at Delmar. Delmar shrugged.

  "You glow, when you are with Delmar," Savage said. "I have seen it myself. When you are apart from him, you seem to feel pain. If Philas had studied you, and worshipped you for many years, he would see a change in you before you felt it yourself."

  "But why couldn't Philas just leave me alone?" Ajalia protested. "I didn't stop talking to him, or anything. He could have gone on liking me, or whatever, and left me alone."

  "But Philas does not like you," Savage said. He sounded endlessly patient.

  "Do you think I'm stupid or something?" Ajalia asked suddenly. "Are you thinking I'm an idiot because I don't know this?"

  "No," Savage said quickly, and he glanced again at Delmar, as though deferring to him.

  "You're pure," Delmar said. "You don't see what men are inside." Ajalia felt thoroughly disgruntled at this statement, and she said so. Delmar shrugged. "You tell me a lot of things about myself, and about life," Delmar said reasonably. "I try to believe you, when you're quite sure of yourself. I am sure of myself now, and Savage is sure, aren't you?" Delmar asked the former priest. Savage nodded serenely. "I've told you several times, I think, that Philas is a cad, and a heel," Delmar said. "I'm quite sure, though Savage explains it better than I could."

  "Thank you, my lord," Savage murmured.

  "You know, it makes me feel very odd, when you say that," Delmar said. Savage looked sharply at Delmar, and Delmar blushed. His lips pressed tightly together. "I am sorry for being rude to myself, of course you may call me by my proper title," Delmar said, all in a stream of rapid words. Savage nodded with satisfaction, and turned back to Ajalia.

  "It is difficult for the pure in heart to see the corruption in others," Savage said.

  "I think I can see corruption pretty well, thanks," Ajalia said. She could not help herself; she felt thoroughly piqued. I have been the one leading the charge against corruption for some time now, she told herself indignantly, and she snorted under her breath. Delmar cleared his throat. "What?" Ajalia asked, feeling peevish.

  "What Savage is too delicate to say," Delmar told her carefully, "is that you do not see how beautiful you are."

  Ajalia wanted to roll her eyes. She wanted to say harsh things. She thought briefly of sitting down in the middle of the road, and having a sort of protest.

  "I'm not that beautiful," she said evenly.

  "You are," Savage said. His voice was very calm, and his eyes were fixed forward in an expression of studious disinterest. Am not, Ajalia told herself sternly, but she was a little pleased.

  "Tell me the rest about Philas," she told Savage. "He figured out that I'd met Delmar, and I don't know why Philas thought that was the perfect time to start kissing at me."

  "But you were going to find out," Savage said, as if it was obvious.

  "I was going to find out what?" Ajalia asked impatiently.

  "That Philas was a rotten guy, by contrast of how nice I was to you," Delmar supplied. Savage nodded. Ajalia felt as though she were attending a sewing circle populated by ladies who were dissecting her love life; a surge of unpleasant emotion, like the rush of blood from being upside down for too long, was flooding into her temples.

  "Well, you weren't very nice to me, at first," Ajalia said.

  "No," Delmar admitted, "but I was very honest." Ajalia thought about this.

  "You tried to trick me into following you through the trees," she said. "And you might have been trying to collect me for your mother."

  "I wasn't doing that," Delmar said. "Not on purpose. I wasn't thinking of that."

  "What were you thinking of?" Ajalia asked. "And why did you try to lead me on through the trees?" She remembered the vague way that Delmar had looked, and the irritatingly youthful look that his face had worn then. Delmar looked at her with some embarrassment.

  "I wanted to be near you," Delmar admitted. "I didn't know how to get you to stay, so I lied."

  Ajalia breathed in, and she thought about this. It was, she told herself, a pretty acceptable reason to give for lying to her.

  "Well," she said, and she could not conceal how pleased she felt.

  "Philas saw you change," Savage said, "and I am guessing that he knew, from the happiness you unconsciously exuded, that whatever the man was who
m you had found, you were about to find out how shallow he was."

  "How shallow who was?" Ajalia asked. "Delmar?"

  "No," Delmar said. "He means that Philas figured that you were going to stop talking to him, because you would realize that Philas is shallow. Philas is shallow," Delmar said urgently. "I don't think you've realized this, but he is."

  "But Philas didn't talk to me very much in the East," Ajalia complained. "I appreciate the two of you building me up into a goddess of spirituality and stuff, but I really don't think you're right."

  "But Philas didn't need to talk to you," Delmar said. "He just wanted to stare at you sometimes, and think about you."

  "Worship you from afar, is what Delmar means," Savage put in.

  "Yes," Delmar said, "and as soon as you met me, and I treated you like a person, instead of like an object, Philas knew that his days were numbered. He knew you'd get rid of him."

  "But I never had him!" Ajalia cried, feeling utterly misunderstood. "I didn't spend that much time with Philas at all."

  "You made plans with him," Delmar said quickly. "You told him things that you didn't tell anyone else, even before he started kissing you. He made himself all useful and pathetic, and he got you to confide in him."

  "I didn't confide in Philas," Ajalia said, but she was thinking of the way that Philas had constantly teased her about sharing a room with him, and how he had followed her sometimes, and tried to make her share in his portion of the work. Delmar was watching Ajalia, and she knew that he saw her thinking about it.

  "We're right," Delmar said, without sounding pushy.

  "Well, what do you want me to do about it now?" Ajalia asked finally. "I warned Fashel about him, and told her he wasn't very consistent."

  "You don't need to worry about Fashel," Delmar said easily. "She'll decide what she wants to do about him."

  "But Fashel could be taken in by Philas's tricks," Ajalia said, frowning. "I nearly was," she added. She looked at Delmar, and saw that he was smiling. "What?" she demanded. "Are you laughing at me again?"

  "I'm not," Delmar said, laughing a little, "but you are really wonderful."

  "I fail to see how not understanding apparently obvious things makes me wonderful," Ajalia told him. Delmar laughed again, and told Savage all about Fashel's broken engagement to Isacar. Savage could not restrain himself from a smile, and Ajalia felt thoroughly left out. "What are you both smiling about now?" Ajalia asked, feeling somewhat ill-humored.

  "Did you help these two young people break their engagement?" Savage asked Ajalia. Ajalia, feeling distinctly suspicious, nodded slowly.

  "They were being very shy and awkward about it," Ajalia said. "It made me nervous. I don't like unhappily married people, and I didn't want that in my own house."

  "So you broke it for them?" Savage asked.

  "Sort of," Ajalia said, thinking of how she had sent Isacar into the kitchen, and how she had talked to Fashel afterwards. "Yes," she added, "I guess." Savage glanced at Delmar, who was looking very satisfied with life.

  "And do you realize at all," Savage prodded gently, "that the young lady desired you to do this for her?" Ajalia looked between Delmar and Savage.

  "Now you are both being ridiculous," Ajalia said. "No, she didn't want me to. She was scared, and unhappy, and I helped her."

  "But she wanted your help," Savage insisted, "and the young man wanted your help. Did they present the problem to you together, or apart?"

  "Apart," Ajalia said slowly.

  "And did each of them confide their worries and distress?" Savage asked.

  "Yes," Ajalia said, feeling as though she were missing something important.

  "Well, then," Savage said, as if that settled the matter.

  "Well, then what?" Ajalia demanded. "Are you trying to tell me that Fashel and Isacar colluded together to get me to break them up, so that neither of them would have to figure out how to not get married?"

  Savage and Delmar glanced at each other, and both of them grinned.

  "You are both being very silly," Ajalia said firmly. "I don't think anyone tries to trick me into doing that kind of thing. I mean, Philas used to," Ajalia admitted, "but my boy from the East pointed it out, and then I stopped falling for it." Ajalia thought about things for a few minutes. "Do you really think Fashel would do something like that?" Ajalia asked.

  "I know Isacar would," Delmar said. "You said she was scared. Do you think she felt guilty, because she knew Isacar was going to try to get you to break the engagement off, and she didn't want you to figure that out, and blame her?" Ajalia stared at Delmar in the darkness.

  "You did not used to be this clever about things," Ajalia said. "Why are you saying all of these perceptive-sounding things about other people all of a sudden?"

  Delmar thought for a moment before responding.

  "You know," Delmar said, "if Savage is right about my mother, and she did do that for a long time, I think that she taught me how to break people open, so that she could steal from them."

  "You mean, if he's right that she stole light from people?" Ajalia asked. Delmar nodded.

  "I thought she was stupid," Delmar said. "I thought she was really clumsy, and stupid. But if it was all an act, then I am good at reading people. I didn't realize you could talk about things like this, with words," Delmar said. "My whole family was always like this. Wall expects me to let him out, and make him a deputy in Slavithe. He thinks I owe him, because mother told us for so long that he would be the Thief Lord."

  Ajalia had not seen Wall since Delmar had sent men out to capture him. Delmar had told her that Wall was imprisoned, but she did not know where Wall was, or who guarded him.

  "What are you going to do with Wall?" Ajalia asked. Delmar sighed.

  "I have been avoiding thinking about it," he admitted. "That yellow-haired slave was with him."

  "Yelin," Ajalia said.

  "Yes," Delmar said. "I think," he added slowly, "I didn't want you to see either of them, because then you would make things happen."

  "And you want to keep whatever piece of your old family that you can," Ajalia said. Delmar glanced at her.

  "Yes," he said.

  Savage shifted the sleeping Mop on his shoulder, and they came down into a long stretch of road that led to the edge of the city. Many of the burning lights in the city had been put out; one of the streets that met up with the bottom of the mountain road had a pair of torches burning at it, and the two flickering torches, from here, looked like gleaming orange eyes.

  "Violent boys," Ajalia said. Delmar looked around at her. "I said we would talk through the interesting things that got interrupted," Ajalia explained.

  "You said that if Fernos had been beaten by a boy when he had been younger," Delmar said to Savage, "things would be different now." Savage drew in a long breath.

  "I think that Ajalia shares my view of violence, and death," Savage said, "but I may be wrong. Mop started a fight over the horse, and over his dignity," the former priest said, "and you asked if we ought to break the boys up."

  "You have to stop children from fighting, don't you?" Delmar asked, frowning.

  "Not if they're working out problems among themselves," Ajalia said. "I fought a lot when I was a child, as a slave. I wasn't allowed to fight back when I was at home, and my parents let my brother beat me."

  "That doesn't make any sense," Delmar said.

  "Well, my parents are evil," Ajalia said, as if that explained everything. Delmar looked over at Ajalia, and she saw that a new idea was crossing through his mind.

  "Your parents are still alive, aren't they?" Delmar asked.

  "Probably," Ajalia said. Delmar thought about this for some time.

  "I'm sorry," Delmar said. "I hadn't thought about it. I was feeling sorry for myself, because my parents are dead now, but I guess it would be worse if they were alive."

  "Yes," Ajalia said. Delmar peered at her in the moonlight.

  "Do you worry about them coming to find you?" he asked.r />
  DELMAR VOWS TO CHANGE

  "No," Ajalia said with a laugh. "My parents are poor, and ignorant, and my brother is a violent sloth. None of them want me. I don't know why they would go to the effort of traversing a whole continent to look for me." Delmar seemed to be holding his breath, and thinking about whether or not he should ask any more questions. "It doesn't bother me very much anymore," Ajalia told him. "You can ask about them, if you want to."

  "Well, I was wondering if you thought I should let Wall go," Delmar said. Ajalia laughed.

  "I don't know," she said.

  "I wouldn't," Savage said.

  "Why not?" Delmar asked.

  "I will tell you about violent boys," Savage said, "and then you will answer your own question." Savage once again launched into an explanation of children, and justice, and the need for boys and girls to learn to stand up for themselves. As Savage was explaining about how parents and adults who interfered in the matters between children kept them from developing moral responsibility, Ajalia let her mind wander.

  She was thinking of her black horse as she walked, and about her master's home in the East. She was thinking of the way marriages were done in the East, and she was thinking about taking Delmar there, and marrying him in the Eastern way.

  Ajalia sighed, and tried to think of what she would say to her master, if she appeared suddenly on a flying horse. She began to compose a list of the things that needed to be done, before she could relax. Delmar, she thought, would have to be crowned. She guessed that the priests of Talbos would want to manage the coronation. She thought of the way the guards had glared at her, when she and Delmar had first come into the city, and she thought about going home to Slavithe, and waiting until Delmar had straightened out the structure of the city. She wondered if Delmar had meant what he had said about using magic to make Talbos a nicer place to live.

  Ajalia realized, very suddenly, that she was ravenously hungry. She had begun to develop a slight headache, and her body felt empty, and tired. She felt stale. she began to think about the house that Philas had taken, and she asked herself why she had wanted to go and see it in the first place. Now that Delmar and Savage had piled onto her with detailed explanations of Philas's motivation for being nice to her, she felt a little used.