Domes of Fire Part 22

'There are different kinds of slavery, Baroness. The slavery of the Atan race by the Tamuls is inst.i.tutionalised. Mirtai's is personal. She was taken as a child, enslaved and then forced to take her own steps to protect herself. Now that she's back among the Atans, she's able to recapture some sense of her childhood.' He made a wry face. 'I never had that opportunity, of course. I was born into a different kind of slavery, and killing my father didn't really liberate me.'

'You concern yourself overmuch about that, Milord Stragen,' Melidere told him. 'You really shouldn't make the issue of your unauthorised conception the central fact of your whole existence, you know. There are much more important things in life.'

Stragen looked at her sharply, then laughed, his expression a bit sheepish. 'Do I really seem so self-pitying to you, Baroness?'

'No, not really, but you always insist on bringing it up. Don't worry at it so much, Milord. It doesn't make any difference to the rest of us, so why brood about it?'

'You see, Sparhawk,' Stragen said. 'That's exactly what I meant about this girl. She's the most dishonest person I've ever known.'

'Milord Stragen.' Melidere protested.

'But you are, my dear Baroness,' Stragen grinned. 'You don't lie with your mouth, you lie with your entire person. You pose as someone whose head is filled with air, and then you puncture a facade I've spent a lifetime building with one single observation. "Unauthorised conception" indeed. You've managed to trivialise the central tragedy of my entire life.'

'Can you ever forgive me?' Her eyes were wide and dishonestly innocent.

'I give up,' he said, throwing his hands in the air in mock surrender. 'Where was I? Oh yes, Mirtai's apparent change of personality. I think the Rite of Pa.s.sage among the Atans is very significant to them, and that's another reason our beloved little giantess is reverting to the social equivalent of baby-talk. Engessa's obviously going to put her through the rite when we reach her homeland, so she's enjoying the last few days of childhood to the hilt.'

'Can I ride with you, Father?' Danae asked.

'If you wish.'

The little princess rose from her seat in the carriage, handed Rollo to Alcan and Mmrr to Baroness Melidere and held out her hands to Sparhawk. He lifted her to her usual seat in front of his saddle. 'Take me for a ride, Father,' she coaxed in her most little-girl tone.

'We'll be back in a bit,' Sparhawk told his wife and cantered away from the carriage.

'Stragen can be so tedious at times,' Danae said tartly. 'I'm glad Melidere's the one who's going to have to modify him.'

'What?' Sparhawk was startled.

'Where are your eyes, father?'

'I wasn't actually looking. Do they really feel that way about each other?'

'She does. She'll let him know how he feels when she's ready. What happened in Darsas?'

Sparhawk wrestled with his conscience a bit at that point. 'Would you say that you're a religious personage?' he asked carefully.

'That's a novel way to put it.'

'Just answer the question, Danae. Are you or are you not affiliated with a religion?'

'Well, of course I am, Sparhawk. I'm the focus of a religion.'

'Then in a general sort of way, you could be defined as a clergyman-uh-person?'

'W hat are you getting at, Sparhawk?'

'Just say yes, Danae. I'm tiptoeing around the edges of violating an oath, and I need a technical excuse for it.'

'I give up. Yes, technically you could call me a church personage-it's a different church, of course, but the definition still fits.'

'Thank you. I swore not to reveal this except to another clergyman personage. You're a clergyperson, so I can tell you.'

'That's sheer sophistry, Sparhawk.'

'I know, but it gets me off the hook. Baron Kotyk's brother-in-law, Elron, is Sabre.' He gave her a suspicious look. 'Have you been tampering again?'

'Me?'

'You're starting to stretch the potentials of coincidence a bit, Danae,' he said. 'You knew what I just told you all along, didn't you?'

'Not the details, no. What you call 'omniscience' is a human concept. It was dreamed up to make people think that they couldn't get away with anything. I get hints-little flashes of things, that's all. I knew there was something significant in Kotyk's house, and I knew that if you and the others listened carefully, you'd hear about it.'

'It's like intuition then?'

'That's a very good word for it, Sparhawk. Ours is a little more developed than yours, and we pay close attention to it. You humans tend to ignore it-particularly you men. Something else happened in Darsas, didn't it?'

He nodded. 'That shadow put in another appearance. Emban and I were talking with Archimandrite Morsel, and we were visited.

'Whoever's behind this is very stupid, then.'

'The Troll-G.o.ds? Isn't that part of the definition of them?'

'We're not absolutely certain it's the Troll-G.o.ds, Sparhawk.'

'Wouldn't you know? I mean, isn't there some way you can identify who's opposing you?'

She shook her head. 'I'm afraid not, Sparhawk. We can conceal ourselves from each other. The stupidity of that appearance in Darsas certainly suggests the Troll-G.o.ds, though. We haven't been able to make them understand why the sun comes up in the east as yet. They know it's going to come up every morning, but they're never sure just exactly where.'

'You're exaggerating.'

'Of course I am.' She frowned. 'Let's not set our feet in stone on the idea that we're dealing with the Troll-G.o.ds just yet, though. There are some very subtle differences-of course that may be the result of their encounter with you in the Temple of Azash. You frightened them very much, you know. I'd be more inclined to suspect an alliance between them and somebody else. I think the Troll-G.o.ds would be more direct. If there is somebody else involved, he's just a bit childish. He hasn't been out in the world. He surrounded himself with people who aren't bright, and he's judging all humans by his wors.h.i.+pers. That appearance at Darsas was really a blunder, you know. He didn't have to do it, and all he really did was to confirm what you'd already told that clergyman-you did tell him what's happening, didn't you?' Sparhawk nodded. 'We really need to get to Sarsos and talk with Sephrenia.'

'You're going to speed up the journey again, then?'

'I think I'd better. I'm not entirely sure what the ones on the other side are doing yet, but they're starting to move faster for some reason, so we'd better see what we can do to keep up. Take me back to the carriage, Sparhawk. Stragen's probably finished showing off his education by now, and the smell of your armour's beginning to make me nauseous.'

Although there was a community of interest between the three disparate segments of the force escorting the Queen of Elenia, Sparhawk, Engessa and Kring decided to make some effort to keep the Peloi, the Church Knights and the Atans more or less separate from each other. Cultural differences obviously made a general mingling unwise. The possibilities for misunderstandings were simply too numerous to be ignored. Each leader stressed the need for the strictest of courtesy and formality to his forces, and the end result was a tense and exaggerated stiffness.

In a very real sense, the Atans, the Peloi and the knights were allies rather than comrades. The fact that very few of the Atans spoke Elenic added to the distance between the component parts of the small army moving out onto the treeless expanse of the steppes. They encountered the eastern Peloi some distance from the town of Pela in central Astel. Kring's ancestors had migrated from this vast gra.s.sland some three thousand years earlier, but despite the separation of time and distance, the two branches of the Peloi family were remarkably similar in matters of dress and custom. The only really significant difference seemed to be the marked preference of the eastern Peloi for the javelin as opposed to the sabre favoured by Kring's people. After a ritual exchange of greetings and a somewhat extended ceremony during which Kring and his eastern cousin sat cross-legged on the turf 'taking salt together and talking of affairs' while two armies warily faced each other across three hundred yards of open gra.s.s. The decision not to go to war with each other today was apparently reached, and Kring led his new-found friend and kinsman to the carriage to introduce him all around.

The Domi of the eastern Peloi was named Tik.u.me. He was somewhat taller than Kring, but his head was also shaved, a custom among those hors.e.m.e.n dating back to antiquity. Tik.u.me greeted them all politely. 'It is pa.s.sing strange to see Peloi allied with foreigners,' he noted. 'Domi Kring has told me of the conditions which prevail in Eosia, but I had not fully realised that they had led to such peculiar arrangements. Of course he and I have not spoken together for more than ten years.'

'You've met before, Domi Tik.u.me?' Patriarch Emban asked with a certain surprise.

'Yes, your Grace,' Kring replied. 'Domi Tik.u.me journeyed to Pelosia with the King of Astel some years back. He made a point of looking me up.'

'King Alberen's father was much wiser than his son,' Tik.u.me explained, 'and he read a great deal. He saw many similarities between Pelosia and Astel, so he paid a state visit to King Saros. He invited me to go along.'

His expression became one of distaste. 'I might have declined if I'd known he was going to travel by boat. I was sick every day for two months. Domi Kring and I got on well together. He was kind enough to take me with him to the marshes to hunt ears.'

'Did he share the profits with you, Domi Tik.u.me?' Ehlana asked him.

'What was that, queen Ehlana?' Tik.u.me looked baffled. Kring, however, laughed nervously and flushed just a bit. Then Mirtai strode up to the cariage.

'Is this the one?' Tik.u.me asked Kring.

Kring nodded happily. 'Isn't she stupendous?'

'Magnificent,' Tik.u.me agreed fervently, his tone almost reverential. Then he dropped to one knee. 'Dona,' he greeted her, clasping both hands in front of his face.

Mirtai looked inquiringly at Kring. 'It's a Peloi word, beloved,' he explained. 'It means 'Domi's mate'.'

'That hasn't been decided yet, Kring,' she pointed out.

'Can there be any doubt, beloved?' he replied.

Tik.u.me was still down on one knee. 'You shall enter our camp with all honours, Dona Mirtai,' he declared, 'for among our people, you are a queen. All shall kneel to you, and all shall give way to you. Poems and songs shall be composed in your honour, and rich gifts shall be bestowed upon you.'

'Well, now,' Mirtai said.

'Your beauty is clearly divine, Dona Mirtai,' Tik.u.me continued, warming to his subject. 'Your very presence brightens a drab world and puts the sun to shame. I am awed at the wisdom of my brother Kring in having selected you as his mate. Come straightaway to our camp, divine one, so that my people may adore you.'

'My goodness,' Ehlana breathed. 'n.o.body's ever said anything like that to me.'

'We just didn't want to embarra.s.s you, my Queen,' Stragen told her blandly. 'We feel that way about you of course, but we didn't want to be too obvious about it.'

'Well said,' Ulath approved.

Mirtai looked at Kring with a new interest. 'Why didn't you tell me about this, Kring?' she asked him.

'I thought you knew, beloved.'

'I didn't,' she replied. Her lower lip pushed forward slightly in a thoughtful kind of pout. 'But I do now,' she added. 'Have you chosen an Oma as yet?'

'Sparhawk serves me in that capacity, beloved.'

'Why don't you go have a talk with Atan Engessa, Sparhawk!' she suggested. 'Tell him for me that I do not look upon Domi Kring's suit with disfavour.'

'That's a very good idea, Mirtai,' Sparhawk replied. 'I'm surprised I didn't think of it myself.'

Chapter 14.

The town of Pela in central Astel was a major trading centre where merchants and cattle-buyers came from all parts of the empire to do business with the Peloi herders. It was a shabby-looking, unfinished sort of place. Many of its buildings were no more than ornate fronts with large tents erected behind them. No attempt had ever been made to pave its rutted streets, and the pa.s.sage of strings of wagons and herds of cattle raised a cloud of dust that entirely obscured the town most of the time.

Beyond the poorly-defined outskirts lay an ocean of tents, the portable homes of the nomadic Peloi. Tik.u.me led them through the town and on out to a hill-top where a number of brightly-striped pavilions encircled a large open area. A canopy held aloft by poles shaded a place of honour at the very top of the hill, and the ground beneath that canopy was carpeted and strewn with cus.h.i.+ons and furs.

Mirtai was the absolute centre of attention. Her rather scanty marching clothes had been covered with a purple robe that reached to the ground, an indication of her near-royal status. Kring and Tik.u.me formally escorted her to the ceremonial centre of the camp and introduced her to Tik.u.me's wife, Vida, a sharp-faced woman who also wore a purple robe and looked at Mirtai with undisguised hostility. Sparhawk and the rest joined the Peloi leaders in the shade as honoured guests. The face of Tik.u.me's wife grew darker and darker as Peloi warriors vied with each other to heap extravagant compliments upon Mirtai as they were presented to Kring and his purported bride-to-be. There were gifts and a number of songs praising the beauty of the golden giantess.

'How did they find time to make up songs about her?' Talen quietly asked Stragen.

'I'd imagine that the songs have been around for a long time,' Stragen replied. 'They've subst.i.tuted Mirtai's name, that's all. I expect there'll be poems as well. I know a third-rate poet in Emsat who makes a fairly good living writing poems and love-letters for young n.o.bles too lazy or uninspired to compose their own. There's a whole body of literature with blank s.p.a.ces in it that serves in such situations.'

'They just fill in the blanks with the girl's name?' Talen demanded incredulously.

'It wouldn't really make much sense to fill them in with some other girl's name, would it?'

'That's dishonest!' Talen exclaimed.

'What a novel att.i.tude, Talen,' Patriarch Emban laughed, 'particularly coming from you.'

'You aren't supposed to cheat when you're telling a girl how you feel about her,' Talen insisted.

Talen had begun to notice girls. They had been there all along, of course, but he had not noticed them before, and he had some rather surprisingly strong convictions. It is to the credit of his friends that not one of them laughed at his peculiar expression of integrity. Baroness Melidere, however, impulsively embraced him.

'What was that all about?' he asked her a little suspiciously.

'Oh, nothing,' she replied, touching a gentle hand to his cheek. 'When was the last time you shaved?' she asked him.

'Last week sometime, I think-or maybe the week before.'

'You're due again, I'd say. You're definitely growing up, Talen.' The boy flushed slightly. Princess Danae gave Sparhawk a sly little smirk.

After the gifts and the poems and songs came the demonstrations of prowess. Kring's tribesmen demonstrated their proficiency with their sabres. Tik.u.me's men did much the same with their javelins, which they either cast or used as short lances. Sir Berit unhorsed an equally youthful Cyrinic Knight, and two blond-braided Genidians engaged in a fearsomely realistic mock axe-fight.

'It's all relatively standard, of course, Emban,' Amba.s.sador Oscagne said to the Patriarch of Ucera. The friends.h.i.+p of the two men had progressed to the point where they had begun to discard t.i.tles. 'Warrior cultures almost totally circ.u.mscribe their lives with ceremonies.'

Emban smiled. 'I've noticed that, Oscagne. Our Church Knights are the most courteous and ceremonial men I know.'

'Prudence, your Grace,' Ulath explained cryptically.

'You'll get used to that in time, your Excellency,' Tynian a.s.sured the amba.s.sador. 'Sir Ulath hates to waste words.'

'I wasn't being mysterious, Tynian,' Ulath told him. 'I was only pointing out that you almost have to be polite to a man who's holding an axe.'

Atan Engessa rose and bowed a bit stiffly to Ehlana. 'May I test your slave, Ehlana-Queen?' he asked.

'How exactly do you mean, Atan Engessa?' she asked warily.

'She approaches the time of the Rite of Pa.s.sage. We must decide if she is ready. I will not harm her. These others are demonstrating their skill. Atana Mirtai and I will partic.i.p.ate. It will be a good time for the test.'

'As you think best, Atan,' Ehlana consented, 'as long as the Atana does not object.'