The amba.s.sador was an olive-skinned man with receding hair and a hooked nose. He wore a brown mantle with the old trim that indicated his relationship to the Borunes. He lounged rather indolently in a large cushioned chair near the window of the sunny room where he and Queen Layla were to meet. He rose as she entered and bowed with exquisite grace. "Your Highness," he murmured politely.
"My dear Count Brador," Queen Layla gushed at him, putting on her most helpless and scatterbrained expression, "please do sit down. I"m sure we know each other well enough by now to skip all these tedious formalities." She sank into a chair, fanning herself with one hand. "It"s turned warm, hasn"t it?"
"Summers are lovely here in Sendaria, your Highness," the count replied, settling back in his chair. "I wonder - have you had the chance to think over the proposals I gave you at our last meeting?"
Queen Layla stared at him blankly. "Which proposals were those, Count Brador?" She gave a helpless little giggle. "Please forgive me, but my mind seems to be absolutely gone these days. There are so many details. I wonder how my husband keeps them all straight."
"We were discussing the administration of the port at Camaar, your Highness," the count reminded her gently.
"We were?" The queen gave him a blank look of total incomprehension, secretly delighted at the flicker of annoyance that crossed his face. It was her best ploy. By pretending to have forgotten all previous conversations, she forced him to begin at the beginning every time they met. The count"s strategy, she knew, depended upon a gradual build-up to his final proposal, and her pretended forgetfulness neatly defeated that. "Whatever led us into such a tedious subject as that?" she added.
"Surely your Highness recalls," the count protested with just the slightest hint of annoyance. "The Tolnedran merchant vessel, Star of Tol Horb, was kept standing at anchor for a week and a half in the harbor before moorage could be found for her. Every day"s delay in unloading her was costing a fortune."
"Things are so hectic these days," the queen of Sendaria sighed. "It"s the manpower shortage, you understand. Everybody who hasn"t gone off to war is busy freighting supplies to the army. I"ll send a very stern note to the port authorities about it, though. Was there anything else, Count Brador?"
Brador coughed uncomfortably. "Uh - your Highness has already forwarded just such a note," he reminded her.
"I have?" Queen Layla feigned astonishment. "Wonderful. That takes care of everything then, doesn"t it? And you"ve dropped by to thank me." She smiled girlishly. "How exquisitely courteous of you." She leaned forward to put one hand impulsively on his wrist, quite deliberately knocking the rolled parchment he was holding out of his hand. "How clumsy of me," she exclaimed, bending quickly to pick up the parchment before he could retrieve it. Then she sat back in her chair, tapping the rolled doc.u.ment absently against her cheek as if lost in thought.
"Uh - actually, your Highness, our discussions had moved somewhat beyond your note to the port authorities," Brador told her, nervously eyeing the parchment she had so deftly taken from him. "You may recall that I offered Tolnedran a.s.sistance in administering the port. I believe we agreed that such a.s.sistance might help to alleviate the manpower shortage your Highness just mentioned."
"What an absolutely marvelous idea," Layla exclaimed. She brought her plump little fist down on the arm of her chair as if in an outburst of enthusiasm. At that prearranged signal, two of her younger children burst into the room, arguing loudly.
"Mother!" Princess Gelda wailed in outrage, "Fernie stole my red ribbon!"
"I did not!" Princess Ferna denied the charge indignantly. "She gave it to me for my blue beads."
"Did not!" Gelda snapped.
"Did so!" Ferna replied.
"Children, children," Layla chided them. "Can"t you see that Mother"s busy? What will the dear count think of us?"
"But she stole it, Mother!" Gelda protested. "She stole my red ribbon."
"Did not!" Ferna said, spitefully sticking her tongue out at her sister.
Trailing behind them with a look of wide-eyed interest came little Prince Meldig, Queen Layla"s youngest child. In one hand the prince held a jam pot, and his face was liberally smeared with the contents.
"Oh, that"s just impossible," Layla exclaimed, jumping to her feet. "You girls are supposed to be watching him." She bustled over to the jam-decorated prince, crumpled the parchment she was holding and began wiping his face with it. Abruptly she stopped. "Oh dear," she said as if suddenly realizing what she was doing. "Was this important, Count Brador?" she asked the Tolnedran, holding out the rumpled, sticky doc.u.ment.
Brador"s shoulders, however, had slumped in defeat. "No, your Highness," he replied in a voice filled with resignation, "not really. The royal house of Sendaria has me quite outnumbered, it appears." He rose to his feet. "Perhaps another time," he murmured, bowing. "With your Highness"s permission," he said, preparing to leave.
"You mustn"t forget this, Count Brador," Layla said, pressing the parchment into his cringing hands.
The count"s face had a faintly martyred expression as he withdrew. Queen Layla turned back to her children, who were grinning impishly at her. She began to scold them in a loud voice until she was certain the count was well out of earshot, then she knelt, embraced them all and began to laugh.
"Did we do it right, Mother?" Princess Gelda asked.
"You were absolutely perfect," Queen Layla replied, still laughing.
Sadi the eunuch had grown careless, lulled somewhat by the air of polite civility that had pervaded the palace at Sthiss Tor for the past year, and one of his a.s.sociates, seizing upon his unwariness, had taken the opportunity to poison him. Sadi definitely did not appreciate being poisoned. The antidotes all tasted vile, and the aftereffects left him weak and light-headed. Thus it was that he viewed the appearance of the mail-skirted emissary of King Taur Urgas with thinly veiled irritation.
"Taur Urgas, King of the Murgos, greets Sadi, chief servant of Immortal Salmissra," the Murgo declaimed with a deep bow as he entered the cool, dimly lighted study from which Sadi conducted most of the nation"s affairs.
"The servant of the Serpent Queen returns the greetings of the right arm of the Dragon-G.o.d of Angarak." Sadi mouthed the formula phrases almost indifferently. "Do you suppose we could get to the point? I"m feeling a bit indisposed at the moment."
"I was very pleased at your recovery," the amba.s.sador lied, his scarred face carefully expressionless. "Has the poisoner been apprehended yet?" He drew up a chair and sat down at the polished table Sadi used for a desk.
"Naturally," Sadi replied,absently rubbing his hand over his shaved scalp.
"And executed?"
"Why would we want to do that? The man"s a professional poisoner. He was only doing his job."
The Murgo looked a bit startled.
"We look upon a good poisoner as a national a.s.set," Sadi told him. "If we start killing them every time they poison somebody, very soon there won"t be any of them left, and you never know when I might want somebody poisoned."
The Murgo amba.s.sador shook his head incredulously. "You people have an amazing amount of tolerance, Sadi," he said in his harshly accented voice. "What about his employer?"
"That"s another matter," Sadi replied. "His employer is currently entertaining the leeches at the bottom of the river. Is your visit official, or did you merely stop by to inquire after my health?"
"A bit of each, Excellency."
"You Murgos are an economical race," Sadi observed dryly. "What does Taur Urgas want this time?"
"The Alorns are preparing to invade Mishrak ac Thull, your Excellency."
"So I"ve heard. What"s that got to do with Nyissa?"
"Nyissans have no reason to be fond of Alorns."
"Nor any to be fond of Murgos, either," Sadi pointed out.
"It was Aloria that invaded Nyissa following the death of the Rivan King," the Murgo reminded him, "and it was Cthol Murgos that provided the market for Nyissa"s primary export."
"My dear fellow, please get to the point," Sadi said, rubbing his scalp wearily. "I"m not going to operate on the basis of long-past insults or long-forgotten favors. The slave trade is no longer significant, and the scars left by the Alorn invasion disappeared centuries ago. What does Taur Urgas want?"
"My king wishes to avoid bloodshed," the Murgo stated. "The Tolnedran legions form a significant part of the armies ma.s.sing in Algaria. If a threat just a threat, mind you - of unfriendly activity suddenly appeared on his unprotected southern frontier, Ran Borune would recall those legions. Their loss would persuade the Alorns to abandon this adventure."
"You want me to invade Tolnedra?" Sadi demanded incredulously.
"Naturally not, Lord Sadi. His Majesty merely wishes your permission to move certain forces through your territory to pose the threat on Tolnedra"s southern border. No blood need be shed at all."
"Except Nyissan blood, once the Murgo army withdraws. The legions would swarm down across the River of the Woods like angry hornets."
"Taur Urgas would be more than willing to leave garrisons behind to guarantee the integrity of Nyissan territory."
"I"m sure he would," Sadi observed dryly. "Advise your king that his proposal is quite unacceptable at this particular time."
"The King of Cthol Murgos is a powerful man," the Murgo said firmly, "and he remembers those who thwart him even more keenly than he remembers his friends."
"Taur Urgas is a madman," Sadi told him bluntly. "He wants to avoid trouble with the Alorns so that he can concentrate on "Zakath. Despite his insanity, however, he"s not so foolish as to send an army into Nyissa uninvited. An army must eat, and Nyissa"s a bad place to forage for food - as history has demonstrated. The most tempting fruit has bitter juice."
"A Murgo army carries its own food," the amba.s.sador replied stiffly.
"Good for them. But where do they plan to find drinking water? I don"t believe we"re getting anywhere with this. I"ll convey your proposal to her Majesty. She, of course, will make the final decision. I suspect, however, that you"ll need to offer something much more attractive than a permanent Murgo occupation to persuade her to consider the matter favorably. Was that all?"
The Murgo rose to his feet, his scarred face angry. He bowed coldly to Sadi and withdrew without further conversation.
Sadi thought about it for a while. He could gain a great deal of advantage at a minimal cost if he played this right. A few carefully worded dispatches to King Rhodar in Algaria would put Nyissa among the friends of the west. If Rhodar"s army should happen to win, Nyissa would benefit. If, on the other hand, it appeared that the west was about to lose, the proposal of Taur Urgas could be accepted. In either case, Nyissa would be on the winning side. The whole notion appealed to Sadi enormously. He stood up, his iridescent silk robe rustling, and went to a nearby cabinet. He took out a crystal decanter containing a dark blue liquid and carefully measured some of the thick syrup into a small gla.s.s and drank it. Almost immediately a euphoric calm came over him as his favorite drug took effect. A moment or two later, he felt that he was ready to face his queen. He was even smiling as he walked from his study into the dim corridor leading to the throne room.
As always, Salmissra"s chamber was dimly lighted by oil lamps hanging on long silver chains from the shadowy ceiling. The chorus of eunuchs still knelt adoringly in the queen"s presence, but they no longer sang her praises. Noise of any kind irritated Salmissra now, and it was wise not to irritate her. The Serpent Queen still occupied the divanlike throne beneath the towering statue of Issa. She dozed interminably, stirring her mottled coils with the seething dry hiss of scale rubbing against scale. But even in restless doze, her tongue flickered nervously. Sadi approached the throne, perfunctorily prostrated himself on the polished stone floor, and waited. His scent on the air would announce him to the hooded serpent who was his queen.
"Yes, Sadi?" she whispered finally, her voice a dusty hiss.
"The Murgos wish an alliance, my Queen," Sadi informed her. "Taur Urgas wants to threaten the Tolnedrans from the south to force Ran Borune to withdraw his legions from the Thullish border."
"Interesting," she replied indifferently. Her dead eyes bored into him and her coils rustled. "What do you think?"
"Neutrality costs nothing, Divine Salmissra," Sadi replied. "Alliance with either side would be premature."
Salmissra turned, her mottled hood flaring as she regarded her reflection in the mirror beside her throne. The crown still rested on her head as polished and glistening as her scales. Her tongue flickered, and her eyes, flat as gla.s.s, looked at the mirror. "Do what you think best, Sadi,"" she told him in an uncaring tone.
"I"ll deal with the matter, my Queen," Sadi said, putting his face to the floor in preparation to leave.
"I have no need of Torak now," she mused, still staring at the mirror. "Polgara saw to that."
"Yes, my Queen," Sadi agreed in a neutral voice, beginning to rise.
She turned to look at him. "Stay a while, Sadi. I"m lonely."
Sadi sank immediately back to the polished floor.
"I have such strange dreams sometimes, Sadi," she hissed. "Such very strange dreams. I seem to remember things - things that happened when my blood was warm and I was a woman. Strange thoughts come to me in my dreams, and strange hungers." She looked directly at him, her hood flaring again as her pointed face stretched out toward him. "Was I really like that, Sadi? It all seems like something seen through smoke."
"It was a difficult time, my Queen," Sadi replied candidly. "For all of us."
"Polgara was right, you know," she continued in that expiring whisper. "The potions enflamed me. I think it"s better this way - no pa.s.sions, no hungers, no fears." She turned back to her mirror. "You may go now, Sadi."
He rose and started toward the door.
"Oh, Sadi."
"Yes, my Queen?"
"If I caused you trouble before, I"m sorry."
He stared at her.
"Not very much, of course - but just a little." Then she returned to her reflection.
Sadi was trembling as he closed the door behind him. Sometime later, he sent for Issus. The shabby, one-eyed hireling entered the chief eunuch"s study with a certain hesitancy, and his face was a bit apprehensive.
"Come in, Issus," Sadi told him calmly.
"I hope you aren"t holding any grudges, Sadi," Issus said nervously, looking about to be sure they were alone. "There was nothing personal in it, you know."
"It"s all right, Issus," Sadi a.s.sured him. "You were only doing what you were paid to do."
"How did you manage to detect it?" Issus asked with a certain professional curiosity. "Most men are too far gone for the antidote to work before they realize they"ve been poisoned."
"Your concoction leaves just the faintest aftertaste of lemon," Sadi replied. "I"ve been trained to recognize it."
"Ah," Issus said. "I"ll have to work on that. Otherwise it"s a very good poison."
"An excellent poison, Issus," Sadi agreed. "That brings us to the reason I sent for you. There"s a man I think I can dispense with."
Issus" single eye brightened, and he rubbed his hands together. "The usual fee?"
"Naturally."
"Who is he?"
"The Murgo amba.s.sador."
Issus" face clouded for a moment. "He"ll be difficult to get to." He scratched at his stubbled scalp.
"You"ll find a way. I have the utmost confidence in you."
"I"m the best," Issus agreed with no trace of false modesty.
"The amba.s.sador"s pressing me in certain negotiations that I need to delay," Sadi continued. "His sudden demise should interrupt things a bit."
"You don"t really have to explain, Sadi," Issus told him. "I don"t need to know why you want him killed."
"But you do need to know how. For various reasons, I"d like for this to look very natural. Could you arrange for him-and perhaps a few others in his household-to come down with some kind of fever? Something suitably virulent?"
Issus frowned. "That"s tricky. Something like that can get out of hand. You might end up infecting an entire neighborhood, and there would be very few survivors."
Sadi shrugged. "One sometimes must make sacrifices. Can you do it?"
Issus nodded gravely.
"Do it then, and I"ll compose a letter expressing my regrets to King Taur Urgas."
Queen Silar sat at her loom in the great hall of the Algar Stronghold, humming softly to herself as her fingers pa.s.sed the shuttle back and forth with a drowsy, clicking sound. Sunlight streamed down from the narrow windows set high up in the wall, filling the huge, narrow room with a diffused golden light. King Cho-Hag and Hettar were away from the Stronghold, preparing a huge encampment some few leagues out from the base of the eastern escarpment for the army of Alorns, Arends, Sendars, and Tolnedrans approaching from the west. Although he was still within the borders of the kingdom, Cho-Hag had formally transferred authority to his wife, extracting a pledge of support from all of the a.s.sembled Clan-Chiefs.