and some manner of disease has left red welts upon his neck. I saw a green jewel on his finger: taken by Magad I from a slain priest of the Mzithrin, so rumor tells. He studied me as you might an expensive horse. The jester held the Emperor's pipe, now and then sucking on it himself with a disagreeable slurp.
'You will dine with my sons, Captain,' said Magad. 'Do you like brandied quail?'
Nothing would he speak of but food and the hunt, and yet his eyes never ceased to probe me. At last he looked pointedly at the door at the end of the balcony, drew a deep breath and waved: 'It is there. Go and see it.' Then he departed with his entourage, and when I rose from my second bow the prince nudged me forward. I walked alone down the hallway and opened the door.
The room was about the size of my day-cabin. Torches blazed on the walls, and by their light I saw many great chests standing open. Within them-gold. Unimaginable gold. Perfect three-ounce cockles, and rods, and bricks emblazoned with the Magad seal. There were also whole chests of ivory and megrottoc horn, and four of red rubies alone-four times my weight in bloodstones, sir, I implore you to believe-and the last chest held pearls. One-third of the whole Imperial treasury is what the scroll claimed, and I doubt it not. Were I less a man than your son, my heart should have been quite faint.
'It will be taken aboard tonight,' said the Prince when I returned, 'and our hundred Turachs with it.'
'Your Majesty,' I said carefully, 'the Turachs are your supreme father's most terrible warriors. Even the Imperial marines fear them. How shall I explain their presence to my crew?'
'They will be dressed and outfitted as marines-nothing more. It is not strange to arm a trade ship in those waters, Rose. Pirates swarm in Thуl like flies in a stable.'
'But will they obey the captain of the vessel, in an emergency? The survival of the ship could depend on it, Your Majesty.'
'They will obey Drellarek. Drellarek will obey you.'
'And Sandor Ott?'
'Ott commands six spies. They can hardly afford you worry, Captain, if you have nothing to hide from the crown.'
I had no choice: he was a prince, and could not be reasoned with. But I saw to it that he knew better than to dream of letting those killers dispose of Nilus Rose when his usefulness was done:
'Nothing whatsoever shall I hide, Sire: neither my fears, nor my sensible precautions. In the second category are letters dispatched months ago, to certain professionals outside the Empire. In the case of my demise they will be forwarded over a span of years to the lords of the Crownless Lands, and a number of your family's internal rivals.'
'Where no doubt they would be read with astonishment,' laughed the blind man. He was shaken and furious and wished none to see it. Probably he could think of little besides killing me, and yet realized (as you and I did long ago) that Arqual's treason can never be revealed, nor the exact number of those letters known, even should they extract my confession with hot iron and blades. Yet he might have threatened. He might even have had me dragged back to those tunnels and tortured for my insolence-for that I was ready. Nothing, however, prepared me for what he actually did: groping for my face again, he pulled me savagely by hair and beard, forcing his lips against my ear.
'I know these rivals you speak of,' he whispered. 'Some are banished, most are dead. The sons of Maisa are dead-we have their bodies in an ice chest. The astrologers have spoken; the dead stir and the living smell death. You cannot stop us-it is the hour of Arqual, you fool.'
Then he released me and smiled. We dined, the royal sons insulted one another, and I left the Keep of Five Domes just in time to avert disaster with the augrongs.
All this I tell you, sir, knowing it will gladden your heart that a Rose met the Imperial Person and set sail with a third of his wealth. Did you not swear we would one day parley with kings, and even use them for ends of our own? Perhaps you will have forgotten the occasion, but I never shall: it was a summer on Littelcatch, when you caught me dawdling with hammer and chisel, simply wasting the day, laughing among the penniless boys of the isle. I had hacked a crude figure out of driftwood. 'The purpose of this, Nilus, if you please?' you asked, and I had the cheek to reply that I would learn proper sculpture, and one day carve a goddess for the figurehead of your ship. How right you were to strap me! Nonsense must be cured with clarity, and there is nothing clearer than pain.
I must post this with the Imperial Mailguard, who even now is at my door. Please do not be silent, sir, nor Mother either.
I have the honor to remain your most obedient son,
N. R. ROSE
Old Foes
12 Vaqrin 941
'Neeps,' said Pazel, 'are your parents alive?'
They were dangling from the stern of the Chathrand, their seat a wooden spar bound by two ropes to the taffrail, their bare feet resting on the casements of the gallery windows. Someone had the idea that Ambassador Isiq had frowned at the windows on first sight: the boys had therefore been set to polishing the brass hinges with a mixture of turpentine, tallow and cinders, until they gleamed.
Light breeze, warm sun. And biting flies attracted by the reek of tallow. To strike at them meant letting go of something: rope, window, spar. Given the sixty-foot drop to the water, they did their best to ignore the insects.
Neeps shook his head. 'They died when I was three. The talking fever, you know. We had no medicines on Sollochstal.'
The Great Ship was being winched away from the docks: already the Plaza lay a quarter mile behind. Small craft skated across their wake, passengers crowding the rails nearest Chathrand, just gazing at her. The society folk of Etherhorde were bemused, and slightly affronted: it was the fastest turnaround in living memory for the Great Ship. Barely three days in port, and no tours allowed! As for the demeanor of the Treaty Bride, and her choice of clothes-the less said the better.
'Who raised you, then?' Pazel asked.
'My father's family,' said Neeps. 'They have a grand house. Ten feet above the lagoon, on strong stilts.'
'You lived in a stilt house!'
'Best way to live. Throw a line out through the kitchen window, snag a tasty copperfish, reel him in. Straight from cove to kettle, as my uncles used to say. Great folk, my uncles. They taught me pearl-diving. Also how to smell a lie: we had to sell our pearls to merchants from Opalt and the Quezans, and they were always trying to cheat. But no one could cheat Granny Undrabust. She ran the family business, the household, half the village. Everybody knew her because she was fearless. She used to drive off crocodiles with a bargepole. They say she killed a pirate with her fish-knife. They'd sneak into the village at night, pry jewels off the temple walls, kidnap boys. That even happened to me. Upa! Careful, mate!'
The platform tilted madly. Pazel, lost in Neeps' words, had nearly lost his balance, too. When they recovered he was still gaping at his friend. 'You were kidnapped? By real pirates?'
'Too blary real. Their ship stank like a chamber pot. But they didn't have us long. Two months after they took us, the fools raided an Arquali fort in the Kepperies. Warships caught up with us in days, hanged the pirates and made us all into tarboys.'
'And you never saw your family again?'
Neeps scrubbed vigorously at a hinge. 'Oh, I saw 'em. After the Empire grabbed Sollochstal. We landed for a day and I ran off and saw Granny and my uncles. And my little sister: she was so glad to see me she dropped a whole basket of fish. But the Arqualis fetched me back that same night. Said they would have taken pearls for my freedom if I'd asked, but they couldn't reward a runaway. Granny Undrabust would have fought them, but I made her stop. And she's dead now, too. Stepped on a cobra urchin, can you believe it? A Sollochi slave told me last year. The man heard she laughed before she died: 'At least it was one of our own who finally got me. Don't be sad!''
