Clearing the Web

by Cary J Lenehan

Basil has brought us to a halt before a set of open doors that dwarf even those of the city gates, and even of Dwarvenholme. The wall they are mounted in seems more of a cliff rather than just a wall. It is well over four times as high as the Hall of Mice. The gate has more guards, and I can see more of them walking the walls above. The Palace then rises in layers behind this outer wall.

  Basil dismounts from his saddle and approaches the gate and salutes: “Greetings,” he said. “I am Tribune Basil Akritas to see Strategos Panterius. Take these people to one of the suites set aside for a visiting Dukas, one of the ones with a balcony, so that they can land. I will walk to see the Strategos, so their guide can ride on the carpet to show them the way.”

  He turned, expecting to be obeyed, “Aziz, take over my saddle.” Aziz moves forward and mounts. The guards are staring at him. They have never seen anyone like him before; so large, with grey skin and even bigger teeth than any Kharl has. Basil turns to me.

  “When the guide arrives, form them up behind the carpet and follow it. I will be with you soon.” He turned again to the guard commander. There has been no movement. I don’t think that the officer is used to visitors giving him orders.

  “Hurry up, man!” The officer shakes his head and finally springs into action. It is a Tribune giving the orders after all. One person is despatched at a run. He will be trying to get to the apartment first. Basil has been walking to the gate. He turns again. “Oh, and take your time flying where he tells you to go. Give them time to get the rooms ready.”

  A Human woman, dressed in the manner of the Caliphate has nervously come out of the gate and anxiously mounted the carpet when bidden. “Excellencies, I will show you where to go,” she said, she is looking around at our odd assemblage, all in armour, except for a young child, and she is visibly armed with several knives.

  The servant is leading us around the wall until we are over the sea near what Basil has called the Arsenal. Now we are closer to it, I can see that it is a huge round shed with ships under it, on sloping ramps formed up in a circle out of the water. In the middle is a large round pool of water, several virgates in size, with a ship, its masts still up, being backed up to a long ramp. A wide gap in the circle leads along a short and walled canal to a small lake with docks, and then along another canal to the actual harbour.

  Astrid brought the saddle to beside the carpet. The girl is getting Theodora to climb. I will bet she will be petrified when she realises that she has been patting a Princess on the shoulder, and she points above the wall, to the building which has layers of balconies. She pointed to near the top and swallows.

  “I am sorry, but I am not sure which one you will be in, and I have never seen the Palace from this side. Can we please wait?” she asked. She is nervous, and unsure of the rank of the people she is with or who to even talk to. She probably thought that the Insakharl woman is the most familiar.

  Without comment, Theodora held the carpet in place until some shutters were thrown open on a door, and a servant appeared on a balcony and waved at them. The girl supposedly directing them pointed with some relief, and now we are headed towards that balcony and, following the carpet, pair after pair, we get to land.

  Dismounting and leaving the saddles outside for the moment, we enter a room that is as big as the main hall at Mousehole. It has seats and tables and many doors and corridors led off from it. Servants are scurrying about with bedding and other less identifiable things.

  An older woman, with grey hair and a severe expression on her face, is approaching us. She could be Sajãh’s sister. She has a small flock of servants behind her, and as she walks, she is looking from one to another trying to establish who to address. She has given up and, standing a little way away, addresses us all.

  “Honorii, I am Thamar Lydina, the Magister Cubicularius, the chief servant, for these sets of rooms. We are still preparing them for you, but please allow my staff to take your things and get you in place.”

  Theodora is in the lead and she turns to us and uses Hindi. “Once the children are fed, then please change into your good clothes. We don’t know when we will be received, I am sure that Basil will arrange that, but we can leave the young children with the servants. Valeria, you have time off from your duties here, just watch the way that they do things.”

  Behind her, this Magister Cubicularius has noted which one is giving the instructions…and she cannot speak Hindi.

  Chapter XLVI

  Basil

  4th November

  Basil headed through familiar corridors, dodging the servants, clerks and soldiers going about their many tasks. If I report first, we might be better placed when the Princesses actually get to see His Imperial Majesty. At least we might know which way the wind blows.

  Eventually, he arrived at the Strategos’ office, passing through a room of clerks and entered his antechamber. The door was open to the office, but he went up to the secretary, a short Insakharl woman with black hair and a faint cast of green to her skin.

  “Tribune Basil Akritas to see the Strategos.” The woman made to rise.

  “Basil?” A curious voice came from within the room. “Come in.”

  Basil entered and saluted. The Strategos was rising from behind a desk covered in paper. “Reporting, sir.”

  “Is it just you, or is your charge here as well?”

  Basil closed the door behind him. The Strategos waved him to a chair and took one himself. “She is here as well, sir, but only temporarily. She and her partner have brought an Embassy here. I am not sure of their exact purpose, but we are still on the trail of those Masters I wrote to you about. We have discovered one of their devices in Nameless Keep already on our way in. As well, I have heard of the missing dromond.”

  My boss looks much older in such a short space of time, and his normally tidy room is a mess with papers and books everywhere.

  The Strategos grunted and pointed at his desk. “That is what all those papers are about. Despite what we have made everyone do with re-training with fire weapons, that is a distraction. We know that its disappearance is not an accident and we know that it still exists…somewhere, but that is about all that we do know.”

  “Sir, it seems to have disappeared very soon after we defeated the Masters. It is my belief, although the Princesses seem to dismiss this, but I think that they are wrong, that the Masters are involved in its loss. After we defeated them, we think that there is still at least a hand, and possibly up to two, of them around. I don’t know why they wanted the ship, or how they got it, or what they are doing with it now, but I think they did it.

  “We know that they are still active, dispatching their servants around, we know they have at least one pentagram here and they probably have more.” He stopped. I would not have dared speak like this in giving the Strategos advice before I left Darkreach. Maybe my wife’s attitudes are rubbing off on me, or maybe it is just my new rank. I will continue.

  “I would advise not dis-spelling the one we found. Keep a watch on it, and see who visits. Investigate them and anyone who has dealings with them. That way you might find out what happened to the ship, or at least prevent another one from going missing.”

  The Strategos looks at me and thinks for a moment before nodding. A small smile appears on his face briefly. “Any other advice from a new senior officer?” he asked.

  Basil looked a trifle abashed. “Sorry, sir. I have grown unused to discipline and…well you have not met my wife yet. She has scant regard for authority, any authority. She teases the Princesses all of the time, and I am sure, is the only person not one of them who regularly causes a member of the Imperial family to blush. “Where we live is very isolated and there are very few of us. We are all forced to have to think in order for us to survive.

  “I have to say that Her Highness is doing much better with her role than I thought she would. Moreover, her husband is a Havenite Battle Mage, a
nd she copes well in getting us to act together in combat. Neither is experienced in ruling a village however, and life is a little…unorganised, occasionally.

  “By the way, I still have the Princess incognito at present, until we can learn how the Emperor wishes to treat our visit. I have had us installed in one of the suites set aside for a visiting Dukas. I thought it best as we are well out of the way of family members and are more inconspicuous staying there. Mind you, we flew here and so most of the city saw us arrive. Hopefully, they just do not know who we are.”

  “You flew?”

  “Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. I should start at the beginning…”

  Sometime later it was: “As well, our village priest, Father Christopher is also charged by his Metropolitan to talk with our Metropolitan, and to see if we are still communicate with the Orthodox in the west. I have seen no differences, but I am no theologian.

  “Finally, sir, on a personal note, if it is permitted, I would like to let my brother and sister in law meet with their niece and nephew, and let their children meet their cousins. My wife would also like to meet my relations.”

  The Strategos thought. “First, I think that we should go straight away to the Emperor and have a brief word with him, before he hears of it all from another source. Come on.” He arose and looking in a mirror to see if he was presentable, headed out of the door, followed by Basil.

  “We are off to see the Emperor, and may be some time,” he told the secretary. “Get my next appointments, and anyone else who wants me to come back tomorrow…unless it is of earth-shaking importance.”

  With that they retraced the trip they had made when Basil was first sent on his assignment. At least until I get there, I have a little less fear. I still have awe of my Emperor, due to my familiarity with Theodora and her work as a major mage…and her snoring.

  They arrived at the Emperor’s office. I am sure that there are the same people on duty that were here when I was sent out. My perspectives have changed indeed. The young woman now looks fairly ordinary in my eyes.

  The Strategos goes across and says something quietly to the man seated at the desk. Again, the man beckons to the messengers. This time it is the young man who rises and goes into the office. The man behind the desk now looks at me, not as if I am a prospective horse purchase as he had before, but as if I have run my first race and come second. Now, I start to feel nervous. Damn.

  He schooled his face to look impassive and tried to calm his beating heart. It was easier facing that damn bandit chief one-on-one than doing this.

  “Come,” said the young man and ushered them into the Imperial presence.

  This time the Emperor, the God-King, is dressed mainly in gold silk, although it has designs that are worked in gold on the gold. He still looks the same though, and I can feel my heart beating even faster. At least now I am used to the eyes. Seeing the same eyes in the morning bleary with sleep or after a hard night of celebration gives a person a totally different perspective on them. The Emperor has that sort of smile on his face again.

  Blank mind…blank mind. If I have to think, think only about what I am asked. Don’t think about Astrid or what she would say now. Damn, that is a thought.

  “I have been waiting for you,” said Hrothnog. The voice has the same terrifying tones. “I presume that it was my granddaughter that rode on the carpet that flew past here an hour ago.”

  He points to a corner of the room. There are three chairs there and a table with kaf and food on it. I didn’t notice that last time. “Sit and tell me everything that was not in the report and why you are here now.” I am being told to sit in the Imperial Presence. I am terrified. No-one sits; no-one eats before Hrothnog…no-one…ever.

  “Sit and eat. I will tell no-one you ate, if you do not.” With a terrified glance at his superior, Basil once again launched into his story. This time I leave out the personal asides. Occasionally, Hrothnog interrupted him and made him expand on what he meant or thought.

  “My granddaughter has grown since she left here,” Hrothnog eventually said, when Basil had finished. “When she left, she was like a spoilt child, playing at being Royal and with no thought beyond tomorrow. There are many here among her cousins who are like that. You say that she has taken the responsibility of a child, one that is not her own?”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “Does she treat her like a pet, like a small dog or as a parent does?”

  That is an odd question to give me pause. How can I judge a member of the Imperial family for another? I can only be honest.

  “She treats her as my mother treated me. She makes her see right and wrong. She hugs her and she scolds her if she is wrong. She comforts her when she cries in the night. She regards her as her daughter, and in return Fear thinks of her as her mother. She goes to the Princess Rani as I would have gone to my father, but to the Princess Theodora as her mother.”

  “And she loves this Rani person?”

  “I believe so, Your Majesty. It started as a casual indulgence; or perhaps just curiosity but, from watching them, they engage in all of the casual intimacies that a married couple engage in. Ayesha, she is the Caliphate ghazi sent on the same task as I by her cousin, she says that they complete sentences for each other like an old married couple, and she is right.

  “They are of one body and, usually, of one mind. I cannot speak about what they do in private, but the one disagreement they have had in public was on a moral principle over Azizsevgili, the Hobgoblin captive who has since married one of our women. Rani would not accept him as a proper person and the Princess Theodora upbraided her and made her treat him as you would have everyone treated in the Empire, regardless of their race. He and his wife and children are with us now.”

  Hrothnog nodded. “Why do you think they wish to see me?”

  I have thought about that question all the way here. “If I may be so bold, Your Majesty, I think that the Princess craves your approval of her actions, and to know that she might continue in Mousehole. I have heard her say several times that we are too small to survive on our own without support.

  “One day, someone will decide that they want our riches, and we are rich; very, very rich, and we will only get richer. Every day even our youngest women wear gems to work in the fields that the ladies of the Court will envy when they see them.

  “We currently have the support of the Dwarves, but they are Dwarves and busy on their own business, and will not be distracted by anything short of the Final Battle, and maybe not even then. We need more people, even more women, but mainly men who will be suitable. Verily chose Aziz to wed, and I would venture to suggest that we might even find places with some of our women for some good Alat-Kharl among the men you send.”

  “She may underestimate the strength of your village,” said Hrothnog. “I have tried to look into it since I found out about it, and the shield that is in place stops even me. If she can do that, and make those things that flew past my window, she has grown much since she left here and is getting to be a mage of power. How strong is her partner?”

  “Your Majesty, they refer to each other as husband and wife, as do the other two women in Mousehole who are married.” Out of the side of his eye, Basil saw the look on his Strategos’ face. I just casually corrected Hrothnog…oh shit. “I am sorry Your Majesty. I did not think…I apologise.” Hrothnog waved away his apology.

  “Her husband, how strong is she?”

  “Your Majesty, the Princess Rani is a powerful mage in battle. Much more formidable in combat than your granddaughter, but the Princess Theodora attempts, and succeeds at non-battle spells that make her husband nervous. She is continually pleased that she thinks of ways to do things that others have not thought of. The flying saddles are an example. Only we of the village can fly them, no-one else. I do not understand these things, but apparently this makes it easier to make them.”

  “Th
ey are to help us deal with our next threat. Hulagu, he is our male Khitan, says that we will be attacked by the dragon that lives south of the gap by summer. He will not say how he knows, but the other Khitan back him up on this. Theodora has made the saddles so that we can outfly the dragon and hopefully kill it. It is now up to Rani to think of the weapons and tactics to defeat it. Your granddaughter leans on her husband in those matters.”

  “Your Khitan, why have they not gone back to their tribes?”

  “No-one exactly knows, except for the Presbytera Bianca, and she is now adopted as a Khitan, and so she will not say what she knows. The two women who are his slaves, but do not behave like slaves do elsewhere, are hoping that husbands will come for them, and will agree to stay in the valley with them.”

  “How can a priest’s wife become a Khitan?”

  I have been in here for over an hour now, and I am feeling exhausted. “Your Majesty, she behaved as a Khitan would, and knew the tribes before she met her priest. She was raised as a schismatic from the far west and had to adapt more to become Orthodox than she had to change her ways to become Khitan. Again, not being Khitan, we do not know the details. They do not discuss these things with others. Sometimes the Presbytera is just a priest’s wife, the same as any other priest’s wife, and sometimes she is a Khitan. It is like night and day as she switches from one personality to the other. Her husband, and the other Khitan seem happy to accept this.”

  Hrothnog paused in his questions and pointed briefly at the pot of kaf. Steam began to come from its spout. “You have not eaten or drunk anything. Do so now. That is an order. Next, I want to hear about this assassin from the Caliphate.”

  Basil obediently poured himself a cup and took a pastry. “She calls herself a ghazi…” Damn I have done it again, oh well. “It means Holy Warrior. She is sort of like a female warrior-priest. She leads the other Islamic women in prayer, and I am not sure if she actually wants one of their real priests to come to the valley.