The Peasant

by Scott Michael Decker

  “ 'Make sure she's safe,' was all he said. At the time, I was less concerned with his reasons and more concerned for his safety.”

  “As I suspected. Other than his interest in his brother's widow, Guarding Bear has very good reason for wanting the Traitress. Reasons similar to mine that wholly justify my concern. Still, I am curious to know the details of this feud between Scowling Tiger and Guarding Bear.”

  Bubbling Water frowned. “It's a long story, Lord, and I'm not likely to give an unbiased account.” She smiled when he gestured her to continue nonetheless, then sighed, reluctant. Infinite grant me peace, she thought.

  “Guarding Bear was sixteen when he and Brazen Bear incited the Caven Hills to rebel. Scowling Tiger, Prefect of the region, sent a battalion of Arrow soldiers to quell the uprising, putting his younger brother Howling Tiger in command. The rebels annihilated the battalion, and Guarding Bear assumed unofficial control of the region. A year later Smoking Arrow appointed Guarding Bear as civil administrator and forced Scowling Tiger to give up the Caven Hills.

  “Not long afterward, I heard a rumor that Melding Mind, the Sorcerer's son, was treating Scowling Tiger for impotence. The Tiger Patriarchy wasn't likely to suffer badly, being one of the largest, but the impotence shamed Scowling Tiger.”

  “Terrible for a man to be impotent,” Snarling Jaguar said. “Worse to be sterile. Thank the Infinite, I'm neither. Speaking of sterility…”

  “Terrible,” she said when he didn't continue. “Especially for a man of eminent position. When a man cannot procreate, all in his service suffer. What about sterility?”

  Snarling Jaguar laughed. “I shouldn't have to remind you, Lady Water. Your Lord Emperor shoots pointless arrows, eh?” She looked at him blankly; he looked at the tent ceiling. “So how did he impregnate his consort if he's shooting imaginary arrows?”

  “I don't know.” Bubbling Water shrugged.

  “Don't you care?”

  She thought a moment, then shook her head. “No.”

  Snarling Jaguar laughed again, shaking his head. “Explain that to me.”

  “Why? You know the reason—you said it yourself, eh? 'A Succession Assured brings peace to the Empire.' We both know the strife of interregnums. No one wants the Empire to plunge into civil war between Flying Arrow's death and the next Emperor's accession.”

  “I don't believe this. Even you, the Peasant Upstart Usurper's mate, don't care how Flying Arrow impregnated his consort. Incredible.”

  Shrugging, Bubbling Water continued as if uninterrupted. “Anyway, Guarding Bear and I mated, and Flying Arrow was born. Scowling Tiger became Commanding General when Towering Oak retired. Smoking Arrow began to decline with senility. As he declined, the Imperial Ruling Council assumed more authority—as it should.

  “Scowling Tiger's disposition is important to understand. About a year before the insurrection, he inherited two prefectures and a large Patriarchy. All who knew his father held him in high esteem. Stretching Tiger was as much or more to the Empire as Guarding Bear is now—wealthy, influential and ancient of lineage. The Tiger Patriarchy would've claimed the throne if Smoking Arrow hadn't perpetuated his line. The son's ambition, however, was far greater than his father's, and his ability far less.”

  “Lady Water, I find your willful blindness exasperating. First you say you don't care how Flying Arrow impregnated his consort, then you say your mate will probably be the next Emperor if Flying Arrow fails to sire a child. How, by the Infinite, do you reconcile those two incongruous facts?”

  “Do you want to hear this story or not?” Bubbling Water asked, indignant.

  “Yes, Lady, I want to hear this story.” Snarling Jaguar sighed.

  “Hush, then. In the face of those expectations, Guarding Bear stole one of Scowling Tiger's prefectures, killed his brother and ground his face into his own mess in several matters. To salt the wound, my sister Steaming Water betrothed me to Scowling Tiger (without asking me), got pregnant and turned the Matriarchy over to me. I refused to mate that fur-licking alley cat, of course, and she miscarried. Not long afterward, she conceived again. Guarding Bear and I announced our betrothal the next spring, and Steaming Water gave birth to Flying Arrow, assuring the Succession. Each of these events humiliated Scowling Tiger even further. What really emasculated him was that he couldn't get an erection any longer, and he blamed everything on Guarding Bear.

  “I've saved the straw that broke the servant's back for last. Shortly after Smoking Arrow granted Guarding Bear hereditary rights to the Caven Hills, Fleeting Snow emerged as the most beautiful woman in the Empire, despite her humble birth. All the unmated males lusted for and courted her, Scowling Tiger among them. She was the only woman who aroused his member from its slumber. After two years of a tumultuous courtship, Fleeting Snow said she'd mate Scowling Tiger.

  “Then she met Brazen Bear. Like many of us, she loved his gentle demeanor, so at odds with his brother's rough manner. Truly, the two brothers were little different. Guarding Bear had to look strong and invulnerable. Other Prefects soon consume one perceived as weak, eh?

  “Fleeting Snow's change of heart enraged Scowling Tiger. A pity Brazen Bear mated her; he might be alive if he hadn't. As Smoking Arrow waned, growing more and more senile, the Imperial Ruling Council waxed. With its increasing regulation of Imperial affairs, Scowling Tiger, by then President of the Imperial Ruling Council, gathered more power. In his rage he acted in ways that no loyal citizen would consider.

  “Scowling Tiger invented a plot to assassinate Smoking Arrow, implicating Brazen Bear as the assassin and as the leader of the Broken Arrows. In Brazen Bear's home, Imperial troops found hundreds of Broken Arrow banners. His conviction and sentencing on charges of treason soon followed. Guarding Bear had to denounce his own brother and take a leave of absence from the Ruling Council.”

  Bubbling Water breathed deeply three times and focused on the electrical torchlight reflecting off a goblet rim. “The dilemma between his love for Brazen Bear and the need to sacrifice his brother tore Guarding Bear apart.

  “I considered dissolving my mateship to him, so terrible was his rage. The moment the executioner's blade fell, Guarding Bear died inside. He was a scabbard without a sword, a quiver without an arrow. Those were such terrible times for us all.

  “After Brazen Bear died, Scowling Tiger ordered a stay of execution for Fleeting Snow. Like a thief, he removed her from the dungeons of Emparia Castle. Giving the flimsy excuse that her safety concerned him, he took her to his home in Crag. Not a year later, the Lord Emperor Smoking Arrow died. In the confusion, what Scowling Tiger had done wasn't important.

  “At Flying Arrow's coronation, not a single fellow Emperor appeared. The insult was intolerable to the Emperor-elect and the Empire itself. Lofty Lion persuaded you and the newly-invested Soaring Condor to decline the invitations. Even though he was only fourteen years old, Flying Arrow declared war on the Northern Empire. He took the position of Commanding General from Scowling Tiger and gave it to Guarding Bear. Whether simply better for the task, a ploy to rid the Council of Guarding Bear, or a way to pull another of Scowling Tiger's claws, I don't know. The appointment was crucial to my mate's recovery. Without a war to fight, he might not have survived his grief for Brazen Bear.”

  “Guarding Bear should have refused to war on the Northern Empire,” Snarling Jaguar said.

  “Eh? Why do you say that?” Bubbling Water asked.

  “Flying Arrow might not be Emperor now, eh? The Eastern citizens knew he was petulant and cruel. Without mine and my fellow Emperors' sanction, Flying Arrow might not have succeeded his father without Guarding Bear's support.”

  “Flying Arrow would've just asked Scowling Tiger to lead the Eastern Armed Forces.”

  “Perhaps, Lady, perhaps not. Scowling Tiger might have also refused to attack the Northern Empire. The result would've been a struggle for the throne.” Snarling Jaguar smiled. “I think that that was Guarding Bear's only defeat, and the worst blunder o
f his career.”

  “I hadn't considered that. You might be right,” Bubbling Water admitted, mulling it over. “Anyway, in less than a year's time, he defeated Lofty Lion's armies. Already, Lofty Lion and Guarding Bear had dueled, and the Northern Emperor cleaved his nose in half—the only duel to date my mate didn't win.

  “Guarding Bear was laying siege to the castle when Flying Arrow came north. Until someone duels and defeats the Emperor himself, of course, the war continues. Flying Arrow issued the usual challenge, and the two Emperors fought on the plains of the Northern Empire for three days and nights. On the third night, Lofty Lion wounded Flying Arrow, a cut across the muscles of his upper left arm. Despite the wound, Flying Arrow disarmed Lofty Lion, capturing him.

  “During the war, the Northern Heir Sword disappeared. Flying Arrow was livid when he learned no one could find it. He personally questioned Lofty Lion. The former Emperor remembered destroying it, but Flowing Mind found traces of psychic signature in the memory. The signature was Lurking Hawk's.”

  “That's why Flying Arrow made him Sorcerer!” Snarling Jaguar said.

  “Exactly, Lord—so Lurking Hawk will eventually lead him to the Heir Sword, if he knows where it is. Some whisper that the information was so deep in Lofty Lion's mind he didn't have access to it. Only the Infinite knows the truth. Lofty Lion died during the interrogation, unable to endure seeing his people slaughtered.”

  Snarling Jaguar nodded, frowning. “I felt appalled when I heard Flying Arrow executed every Northerner in front of Lofty Lion, one by one.”

  “I felt sick that a boy I'd reared was capable of such inhumane brutality. He'd always been a difficult child. As young as I was, without children yet and not much beyond childhood myself, I was ill-prepared to rear him. As Matriarch and Steaming Water's sister, though, I had to care for him as my own. Oh, Infinite forgive me my inexperience.” Bubbling Water sighed quietly, feeling anew the guilt with which she'd so long lived.

  Snarling Jaguar held her. “I can see how you might feel responsible for a child you reared, Lady Water, but he's not of your flesh.”

  In a society that acculturated people to think faults genetic, Bubbling Water nodded, her head buried in his shoulder, still feeling she'd failed somehow. A child she'd reared had exterminated an entire people. It was unconscionable: She literally couldn't keep the idea in her conscious mind. Defense mechanisms soon repressed the internal conflict until she could function once more.

  “Our society values a woman's ability to bear and rear children. I've known women to fall on their knives because they felt responsible for their progeny, especially for daughters. Smoking Arrow compromised my authority in rearing Flying Arrow. He implicitly forbade me to discipline his son and Heir. Any child with few limits grows into an adult without a sense of morality. If I'd been older and more assertive, and Smoking Arrow more interested in the welfare of his only child, Flying Arrow might have received better guidance.” She shook her head. “ 'Might haves' are the worst of illusions.”

  Snarling Jaguar nodded. “They keep us from seeing what's true.”

  “Indeed,” Bubbling Water said, sighing. “Flying Arrow's a true tyrant.”

  Chapter 20

  The custom of killing all male descendants of a vanquished enemy evolved during the Sovereignty of the Swords. The original reasoning was that sons sought revenge upon their fathers' murderers. The reason for continuing this custom differs from its origin. No matter what the father's offense, the trait passed from father to son—in effect a genetic flaw, despite scientific evidence that the genes don't encode such flaws. Such fallacious reasoning exemplifies the psychology of the Swords themselves.—The Fall of the Swords, by Keeping Track.

  The matriarchies are a law unto themselves. We vehemently oppose the interference of men and honor canons sacred only to women. According to Matriarchal Law, a woman and all her daughters belong to only one Matriarchy. Although blood-lines run strong, a woman can change matriarchies with the approval of both Matriarchs involved. While custom decrees that children have matronyms and patronyms according to gender, the members of a matriarchy needn't all have the same matronym. In fact, for all members to have the same matronym is unusual. Whatever matriarchy to which a woman belongs, she does the will of the Matriarch. To mate whom the Matriarch says. To dissolve a mateship as the Matriarch says. To carry to term or abort a pregnancy as the Matriarch says. To fall on her knife or not as the Matriarch says. Or to accept a younger sister as the new Matriarch.—Matriarchal Law: Precepts and Canons, by the Matriarch Rippling Water.

  * * *

  “How could you let the Usurper escape, you fornicating imbecile?” Flying Arrow bellowed at the prostrate man in the eastern hall.

  “Forgive me, Lord Emperor Arrow!” wailed the Lieutenant Tumbling Pigeon, his forehead against the cold, blue-and-white stone.

  “Only those who don't know what they're doing deserve forgiveness, you despicable droppings of diseased dog!”

  “How could I have known of the crack in the city wall, Lord Emperor Arrow?” Tumbling Pigeon asked, looking up. Drops of sweat poured down his alabaster face and pooled under his quivering chin.

  “By expecting any hint of subterfuge, Lieutenant!” Flying Arrow yelled, rubbing his upper left arm with his bandaged right hand. “Especially from that Imperial Whore!” He secured the sheathed Imperial Sword to his left side with his blue and white sash. Standing, he descended to the first step of the dais. A shiver shook him. On impulse, he glanced left and right at the two statues standing at the forward corners. For a moment, he'd thought they were watching him. Silently, he vowed to get rid of them. The statues had been gifts from Guarding Bear.

  “Bring his mate and children!” Flying Arrow yelled. Blast those lazy Arrow Warriors anyway! he thought. They couldn't capture a single Bear Warrior for interrogation!

  * * *

  Tumbling Pigeon shuddered at the Emperor's order, fearing now not for his own life, but for the lives of his children. “Lord Emperor Arrow, I beg of you to spare my family. Hurl me onto my own knife and toss my body to the dogs, but please let my children live!”

  “Silence!” the Emperor spat.

  Tumbling Pigeon was desperate for some artifice to save his three sons. “Lord Emperor Arrow, they're your blood relatives!”

  “Indeed—I should have long ago corrected whatever madness possessed the Matriarch to mate her daughter to you! Now be still!”

  Pacing back and forth on the lower step of the dais, Flying Arrow kept his gaze on the prostrate man. Tumbling Pigeon shuddered. The Emperor's expression, fraught with contempt and anger, made his visage wholly inhuman. In this mood, he was Steaming Water resurrected, his mother renown for her wrath and tyranny.

  The Lieutenant had heard tales of the Empress who'd died giving birth to Flying Arrow. While a young woman, Steaming Water mated the Emperor Smoking Arrow and ruled Emparia Castle and the Water Matriarchy with an iron fist. Not long before her death, Steaming Water ordered five of her six younger sisters to change their names to Stream. Leaving only Bubbling Water with the matronym, Steaming Water declared this youngest sister of seven the Matriarch, abdicating the title.

  Much displeased with Steaming Water, the five sisters had welcomed Bubbling Water's appointment to the Matriarchate, thinking her easier to manipulate. Having to change theirs and their daughters' names had pleased them less. They'd liked the influence inherent in sharing a matronym with the Empress. Steaming Water had ordered her sisters to adopt a different matronym to prevent a future claim on the Matriarchate, strengthening the youngest sister's hold on the position.

  The Sisters Stream, however, had mistaken the new Matriarch's sparkle for weakness. Like her sister the Empress, Bubbling Water also ruled with an iron fist, but tempered it with a velvet glove. Under the young woman's management, the Matriarchy had grown, and was now the most prolific and extensive in all four Empires.

  A year after making Bubbling Water the Matriarch, Steaming Water had
died giving birth to the future Emperor, and never knew how astute her choice had been. Afterward, Bubbling Water had cared for the motherless child while not much more than a child herself. The ignorant and superstitious said that Steaming Water's spirit had entered her son. This belief had a basis in truth, mothers bestowing upon newborns half their psychic reserve. The Infinite had taken Steaming Water before she'd given the child this psychic gift. As a result, Flying Arrow was significantly lacking in talents.

  * * *

  At swordpoint, four guards in blue and white herded a woman and three boys into the audience hall. Despite the steel at her back, the woman walked erect, without a sign of submission or fear. At ten paces behind the Lieutenant, the guards stopped them and shoved the children to the floor. While her progeny whimpered at her feet, the woman made her obeisance, then spoke without a quaver. “Lord Emperor Arrow, I don't object to this treatment, but my children don't have the understanding to see it in its proper perspective. If the Lord Emperor would be so kind as to explain—”

  “Shut up, woman!”

  “Lord Emperor Arrow!” she said indignantly. “I will not—”

  “Trickling Stream, please!” Tumbling Pigeon pleaded into the floor, his forehead against cold stone.

  Frowning toward her mate, she sighed. “Forgive me my outburst, Lord Emperor Arrow.”

  “I'll report your disrespect to your Matriarch and recommend that she remove your tongue!” Imperial law forbade Flying Arrow to punish a woman without her matriarch's explicit consent. Trickling Stream's Matriarch would never relinquish such a duty to someone else. Bubbling Water enforced her own discipline.

  “Thank you, Lord Emperor Arrow, on behalf of the Lady Matriarch Water,” Trickling Stream said, bowing. “My faults are intolerable, it is true,” she added, her composure as solid as rock. “However, after these curmudgeons who profess to be guards treated me no better than a slave, I have a right to know the reason.”

  “The Lady Trickling Stream demands an explanation, eh?” Flying Arrow sneered, pacing again. “Tell her, Lord Lieutenant Tumbling Pigeon!”