The Cutting Edge

by Dave Duncan

  He was only a boy, about her own age. He was short and bony and somehow comical. His mousy-brown hair was wavy instead of curled; it hung limp in sweaty straggles. His ears were very large, not at all pointy, and they stuck out absurdly. His nose was much too small for him.

  But his eyes were pure gold and wide with wonder. "I'm Thaile of the Gaib Place," she said hesitantly. He said, "Oh!" again faintly. "Oh!"

  "What's wrong?" she cried, disconcerted. "You're ... You're beautiful!"

  Then his face turned bright red below its deep tan, all the way from his collar bones to the tips of his absurd ears, and again she Felt embarrassment, but it did not mask his joy and amazement. She felt her own face redden, also. She looked away quickly.

  No one had ever called her beautiful before like that and meant it, and he did mean it.

  Want you! his emotions said. Want you! Want you!

  Even the lustful Wide had not projected desire as strong as that, and she thought it should have repelled her when coming from this Leeb as much as it had from him. But it didn't. It wasn't the same. It wasn't Wide's want-you-to-make-me-happy. It was different and it reminded her of the wanting she had felt from Sheel when she cuddled and nursed her baby. It was a want-you-to-make-you-happy wanting-tenderness! She had never felt that from any man before. A little from her mother, maybe. But not the same.

  When she dared look up, Leeb was staring at the ground, awkwardly scratching the swelling ant bites on his bony ribs. The wanting was overlain by continuing embarrassment and self-contempt at what he had said-but it was still there.

  "If you can rescue your sandals," she said, "and your hatI've got some food we can share. "

  He blinked at her. "Thaile? Thaile, you said?" She nodded.

  "That's a lovely name . . . " He was regarding her short hair with hope. "Goodwife Thaile?"

  "No. Just Thaile."

  He closed his eyes as if saying a prayer to the Gods.

  "Get your shoes, Leeb," she said. "And tell me about it."

  They sat in the burning sunlight and chewed the bread together. They took turns biting chunks off the chicken leg; and Leeb talked. And talked and talked and talked.

  There was only one thing he could talk about, the Place he had found. It was by the river, he said, on a hidden backwater. There were trees of all sorts. There was a very ancient well that he could easily clean out. There was open ground that had once been a rice paddy and could be again and would feed a huge family all by itself. There were fish galore! There was firewood and masses of withes to make wicker, which was all that was needed for a house in the valley. He was very good at weaving and he would make a big house! There were fruit trees running wild, and berry bushes. There was sweet grass for goats to give milk for, er, kids-he turned red again at that point-and an old couple lived about half an hour away, who would be pleased to have a young family in the neighborhood and who would lend them an ax and all sorts of other things to help them get started and probably leave them most of their household goods when they died, because their children all lived a long way away now ...

  It was perfect, he said. It would make the finest Place in all Thume. And his Feelings said that she would fit right in. "Look out for the ones that fall in love quickly," her mother had once told her, "because they can fall out again just as fast. " Not Leeb, she thought. She had Feeling and she knew that what he was suffering wasn't just lust, although there was certainly a flattering amount of that included. Leeb was sure that he had found the perfect place to be the Leeb Place and then he had found the perfect woman to share it with, the very next day. If a man believed in the Gods, he must believe in this.

  At last Leeb ran out of superlatives, and after that he just sat and stared at her in blissful wonder.

  She explained that she had been visiting her sister and was on her way home.

  "But you'll come and see my PI--come and see the place?" he begged.

  He wasn't what she had ever imagined. He did not have bulgy arms and broad shoulders. He was skimpy and far from handsome. Homely at best! But she had Feeling and she had never Felt a man like him, or at least not one who felt what he did, for her. A gentle, loving boy, who laughed when he should have been angry. A boy who did not take himself seriously, but took her very seriously indeed and wanted to make her happy.

  She wanted to weep. She could not bear to tell him about the College, or tell him that she must soon go away.

  She shook her head.

  Again he blushed. "Oh, I know we've just met!" he said. "I wouldn't expect ... Not so soon ... I mean, all I wanted was to let you see. And think about it, of course. I don't expect ... that! "

  She shook her head again. That wasn't the problem at all. If he showed her this Place and it was one-tenth as good as he said it was, she was going to accept Leeb right there-bare bodies on the grass. She was sure of it. And that would never do, not when she had to go away.

  But she could not bring herself to tell him the terrible truth, because then he would go out of her life forever and she thought she had found something as precious as the Place he had found, even if she could not keep it very long.

  When in doubt, ask your mother. That was another of her mother's sayings.

  "Why not come to the Gaib Place and meet my parents?" she said at last.

  For Leeb, that was the second-best thing she could have said. Long before evening, they were walking hand in hand.

  3

  Prince Holindarn of Krasnegar was having breakfast, again. He liked to have several breakfasts, to prepare him for as many lunches as he could persuade his mother to provide. If greed was the criterion, Holi was definitely impish.

  Looking down at him as he sucked busily and kneaded her breasts with his tiny fists, Inos was trying to decide whether his nose was really faunish, or if that was just a normal baby nose. As usual, she decided that she neither knew nor especially cared. He would definitely do. Impish or not, he was growing like a jotunn. It was all these breakfasts.

  Whatever illusions the rest of the world might have about springtime, Krasnegar knew better. The days were growing longer, but arctic winter still held the castle in its dark embrace. Yet another blizzard was howling around the castle, and once in a while the great fireplace would puff out an eye-stinging cloud of smoke. The queen was sitting with her feet almost in the hearth, her back turned to the great hall for privacy. Meanwhile the life of the palace went on around her, servants coming and going, everybody carefully pretending not to notice what her Majesty was doing.

  She wondered how many reigning monarchs behaved so casually and managed to get away with it. Her parents, even, would have been shocked, and they had never been known to stand on ceremony. Queen Evanaire had certainly never nursed Princess Inosolan in public like this.

  The source of all the informality was sitting beside her on the bench, facing the other way and supposedly watching what was going on at the far end of the great chamber, but once in a while sneaking admiring looks at her bodice. He was quite within his rights to do so, and she enjoyed his attention.

  Rap had returned the previous day from a seal hunt-beating the blizzard to the door by about three hours-and it was wonderful to have him back. She was also glad to see that he was in a cheerful mood. Something had been bothering him ever since Winterfest. Rap was not normally a brooding type. She wished he would get it off his chest, but she was not going to pry. He would speak up when he was ready.

  He hated playing monarch, but he did not look too abominably scruffy today. His jerkin was quite respectable, even if his boots were not.

  "No! No! No!" a shrill voice cried from the dais. "You have to put more feeling in it! Try again!"

  "You are the most beautiful woman in the whole world!" an angry boyish treble snarled.

  "That's a little better. But you still should sound more impressed."

  King and queen exchanged grins. The castle children were being rehearsed without mercy in a forthcoming dramatic presentation, The Terrible
Revenge of Allena the Fair, written, directed, and produced by Princess Kadie. Starring, of course, Princess Kadie in the title role.

  Amateur theatricals were an ancient Krasnegarian tradition, one of the many ways the inhabitants made merry during their long winter captivity. Dancing and madrigal singing and concerts and assorted game tournaments were others. Whether a man's taste ran to bare-knuckle brawling or lute playing, he could always find something of interest going on.

  Krasnegar held some remarkable talents, for its size. Inos could think of four or five superb singers, a juggler, two or three dancers, and a half-dozen musicians, any of whom would have won acclaim within the Impire. It had not always been so. The change could be traced back to a certain act of insanity by Inos herself, way back in . . . Gods! Where did the years go? Kadie and Gath were thirteen now, so . . .

  "Why so troubled, love?" Rap said softly. "Is the little monster sucking all the life out of you?"

  Holi stopped work and rolled his eyes to see where the voice had come from. Inos grabbed the chance to detach him and lay him against her shoulder. "Hook me up, will you, love?"

  "Actually," Rap said with a gleam in his eye, "I'm much better at unhooking. "

  "Then you need the practice!" she said. He sighed and fastened her bodice for her.

  Inos adjusted Holi on her shoulder. "As for being troubled, I was just thinking . . . Next year will be too early for Kinvale, won't it? Maybe the year after?"

  Rap scowled. "The year 3000? Does she have to go at all?" Surprised by that response, Inos went back to first principles and reconsidered the matter. She had always assumed that Kadie must be packed off to Kinvale one of these days, as she had been, to learn decorum and Imperial manners.

  How she missed Aunt Kade! It was over a year now since the dear old lady had peacefully failed to awaken one morning, her soul gone to join the Good. Aquiala had sent word through the magic portal and Inos and Rap had gone incognito to the funeral, but she still missed her dear, brave aunt. Kinvale would never be the same without her.

  "I suppose we had better settle the succession first, hadn't we?" she said. "You want Gath to succeed?"

  Now it was Rap's turn to look surprised. He glanced around to make sure no one was listening; perhaps he was considering that a commons fireplace was not the most suitable location for discussing such weighty matters. Or maybe that wouldn't occur to him. "Is there a law?" he asked. "Kadie's older."

  "Only by twenty minutes! Just custom-the oldest boy. It's the Imperial way and the way Krasnegar's always done it. Sisters get traded off for treaties, younger sons are sent to the wars to be killed, and the oldest son inherits. It's brutal, but it stops argument. I had an older brother, you know. He died in infancy. "

  "Yes, I knew that." Rap smiled. "What a lot of bother he could have saved us if he'd lived! "

  She pulled a face at him and was distracted by a contented burp from Holi. One of these days they would have to discuss the succession in the council-but Rap was still musing.

  "I have trouble," he said softly, "imagining Gath imposing his will on the kingdom!"

  True, Gath was extraordinarily placid.

  "On the other hand," the king added, "it is considerably harder to imagine the kingdom ever tolerating Kadie longer than the first week." He grinned to take the sting out of his words. "Perhaps we should send Kadie to the Imperial Military College in Hub and send Gath to Kinvale, to learn how to be a gentleman. "

  "I think Gath is a born gentleman. That's the trouble! "

  "Truly. Gath ruling jotnar just doesn't fit on the page, does it?" He sighed, no doubt thinking of the bruises and broken bones he had suffered while establishing his own right to be taken seriously as a king in Krasnegar. "But Kadie's a born tyrant." He dropped his voice. "Careful. Company!"

  "Papa!" the imperious voice of a born tyrant said as Kadie rustled up behind Inos in her Allena-the-Fair gown. "This will not work!"

  "What won't work, sweet?"

  Allena the Fair stamped her foot. "Iggi as Warlock Thraine. He can no more act than a horse! "

  Rap said, "I have known horses with considerable dramatic ability. "

  "You know what I mean!"

  "Well, why don't you play Warlock Thraine and I'll stand in as Allena the Fair?"

  Kadie uttered a royal scream of fury that upset her younger brother. Inos soothed him and scolded her daughter. Rap looked sick to his stomach, which was what always happened when he was trying not to laugh.

  "I need Gath! " Kadie declaimed, plumping down between her parents to sulk. Being respectably clad now, Inos moved around to the other side of the bench so she could face the hall and broil her back for a change. Besides, the royal family should set a good example of domestic harmony by all pointing in the same direction. She noticed that her jewel box had been raided again and Allena the Fair's gown of purple velvet bore an ominous resemblance to the drapes in the best guest bedroom.

  Rap had been inspecting the theatrical company, which was now being shooed away by servants wanting to lay tables. "Where is Gath?"

  "I don't know! He won't say."

  The king's eyes widened. "He's not going to be in your play?"

  "No." Kadie continued to pout. "He won't! He disappears half the day and won't say where he's been! And Mom won't let me follow him to find out!"

  Rap whistled silently and then said, "Hey, Pret!"

  A passing footman flashed the king a smile and detoured closer so that Rap could grab a tankard from his tray.

  "If Holi can drink all day long, then I don't see why I shouldn't!" Rap raised the tankard in a toast before he drank, grinning at Inos. She wondered what had made him so gleeful all of a sudden.

  "There isn't going to be any stupid play!" Kadie said. "With Iggi being Thraine, everyone would laugh at us! So it's canceled. "

  "That's a shame, dear," Inos said tactfully. "Perhaps you could rewrite the Thraine part so that Iggi can handle it?"

  "No! It's hopeless!" The princess sulked in silence for a moment, apparently contemplating the void thus left in the cultural life of the kingdom. But then she said sweetly, "Daddy?"

  "When you call me that, like that, I know you want something you know I know you shouldn't have! " Rap took another swig of ale and smacked his lips. "Yes, my beloved?"

  "Is Corporal Isyrano the best swordsman in the kingdom?" Her father shot Inos a perplexed glance over the top of Kadie's head. "Without a doubt," he said warily.

  "Better than you?"

  "Me? Kadie, as a swordsman, I make a fair bandmaster! I'm no fencer! But Isyrano's very good indeed, so far as I can judge. "

  "I want you to tell him to give me fencing lessons."

  "Fencing lessons." Rap considered the matter, looking somewhat dazed. "May I ask why you want fencing lessons? "

  "Does a girl need more reason than a boy would?"

  The two of them could keep this up for hours. Inos adjusted Holi's blanket while she waited to see who was going to give up first. She wondered if Rap realized that Corporal Isyrano was the sort of man a girl might find good-looking. She wondered if Kadie was starting that already. She wondered if Rap appreciated that his Kadie troubles had barely begun.

  The king was redeploying on more strategic ground. "Well, I don't see why not. Very good exercise. By all means ask the corporal to give you fencing lessons. "

  "I did. He won't."

  "Ah. Did you ask politely?"

  "Of course!" Kadie said, much too quickly.

  "Or did you try to order him to give you fencing lessons? Kadie, I have told you a hundred times that you are not to go around throwing orders at everybody! You don't give orders to anyone, no one at all! And I have told everyone in the kingdom that they are not to obey you if you try! Everyone! "

  Ignoring the opportunities presented by this obvious exaggeration, Kadie said grumpily, "Then how do I get fencing lessons? "

  "You ask. Politely."

  "Can I say you said he--"

  "No. You don
't mention me at all."

  "Then he still won't!" Kadie cried despairingly. She jumped up from the bench and went rushing away as fast as she could move in the velvet drapes.

  "God of Madness," Rap muttered, raising the tankard. It stopped halfway as he turned to his grinning wife. "Fencing? "

  "The Elven Queen in The Yalor of Giapen, I expect. "

  "Ah, my literary ignorance showing again ... And what's this about Gath? He has finally broken free from bondage?" She thought shed told him. Motherhood was making her forgetful, perhaps. "Before you left. Gath has taken up good works. "

  "Now I have heard everything. What sort of good works?"

  "What I usually do. Hot soup to the sick and so on. He came and said that since I wasn't able to do it while Holi was still small, then maybe he should."

  The king swelled with pride. "His own idea?"

  "Apparently. He's been doing it for about two weeks now, I suppose. "

  "That's wonderful," Rap said, looking awed. "He thought it up all by himself ? And didn't ask his sister's approval? And he's sticking with it-you are making sure the soup goes where it's supposed to, aren't you?"

  "Of course! I have learned something in thirteen years of mothering. "

  "Great! " Rap said. "That's great! I must congratulate him. "

  "Yes, you should show approval," Inos said. "He was a bit upset yesterday. Old Thrippy is dying and--"

  "God of Fools!" Rap's tankard crashed to the floor, sending frothing ale everywhere. He stared at Inos in horror. His face had gone ashen, as if he had just seen a dragon.

  4

  Rap paced to and fro. Inos settled herself in one of the big leather chairs by the fireplace and waited until he calmed down enough to speak. They had cleaned up the beer, handed Holi over to the nursemaid before he woke up demanding his first lunch, and retreated to their private parlor. Now Rap was presumably going to explain. The peat glowed, and the room was toasty warm, a rarity in Krasnegar in winter.

  She studied him, being careful not to let him notice. He always seemed big, unless there were jotnar present. Clumsy, almost. A cautious, well-meaning man, unaware of his own strengths. Very few former stableboys could ever have persuaded a kingdom to accept him as a ruler, but Rap had, and she was certain he had done it without using sorcery. Very few men could have refused what he had refused-godhood, infinite power. She owed everything to Rap and she thanked the Gods daily for him.