The Scarab Path

Mannerly Gorget was first out the door, his future comfort very much in mind, and the rest began to follow him.

Berjek went last, frowning. 'Are you sure …?' he enquired. 'If there's something amiss here we all should know it.'

'Master Gripshod …' Che began, and saw the servants visibly flinch. She gritted her teeth. 'Berjek, please,' she continued, 'I don't think an extra pair of hands is going to help, here.' With a tilt of her head she tried to indicate Petri Coggen, who now sat on the bed, looking dishevelled, shaking and red-eyed, hugging her knees.

Berjek pursed his lips in irritation, but nodded and made his exit. Che waited for the servants to go too, but they continued patiently unpacking.

'Sorry, could you leave us alone for a moment.' She had to say it twice before they registered that she was actually talking to them. Their expressions were those of frozen surprise, as though a chair had just spoken to them. Servants, or slaves? Che wondered. She remembered her brief sight of the Spiderlands, on the way to Solarno. There had been slaves everywhere, yet they had been invisible, for that was the custom: it was considered bad manners even to look at them. 'I'm sorry,' she addressed the servants again. There were three of them — two young women and a middle-aged man, all as bald as the rest of the locals — wearing simple white tunics that hung off one shoulder.

'Where I come from, we are not used to such hospitality,' Che explained carefully. 'Please would you leave us for a little while.'

Blank-faced, they filed from the room, and Che closed the door after them. From recent experience she thought instantly, Have I locked myself in now? But there was no catch on the door, only a loop of cord and a hook. The sight of such Inapt measures was absurdly thrilling to her. This is it. I've found it. There can be no mistake.

'They're still listening,' Petri Coggen said in a whisper.

Che opened the door again, quickly, but no eavesdropping servants were revealed. The nearest one, dusting a display of pottery down the hall, could have heard them only if they shouted.

'No one's listening.'

'They're always listening,' Petri insisted.

Che closed the door and took a deep breath. 'How long since you slept, if I might ask?'

'Four days. I … If I sleep, they might …' The woman shuddered. 'I don't want to sleep.'

'Where's Master — where's Kadro?' I need to break myself of that habit as quickly as possible.

'He's disappeared!' Petri almost wailed, surely loud enough for any servants outside to hear whether they wanted to or not. 'He was investigating the city … he had found something, their great secret. He told me as much, and then, and then … gone. Just vanished.'

'What was this secret?'

'He didn't tell me that, just that he was so close — that he knew where to go.'

Che took a chair and sat down across from her. 'What sort of investigations was he making? Where did he go?'

'He went everywhere — at night, mostly. You know how Fly-kinden can see in the dark. He would copy down inscriptions from the oldest buildings. He went into the desert once, too, to see some ruins out there. Or he would go out beyond the gates to the Marsh Alcaia — the black market. He was always asking questions, piecing things together.'

Che put a hand up to stop her. 'It sounds … forgive me for saying this, but it sounds as though Kadro was fond of dangerous places.'

'He knew what he was doing!' Petri snapped back, then put a hand over her mouth, horrified. 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry,' she said after a moment.

'But did you tell our hosts that he was missing?' Che pressed her. 'Did they look for him?'

'They know!' Petri insisted. 'They did it. They took him, because he found out something. They made him vanish.'

But can you prove it? Looking at this shaking woman, Che knew the answer already. In this state, Petri Coggen was of no use to anyone.

'You think I'm mad, don't you?' Petri visibly sagged. 'You don't believe me.'

Che studied her and saw haggard exhaustion, hysteria, but not madness. 'Something has clearly happened to Kadro, so I will need to meet the local leaders. I'll ask them about him and see how they react. How would I get an audience with the Masters of Khanaphes — or will they send for me?'

Petri laughed out loud, a wretched and unexpected sound. 'You can't,' she said bitterly. 'You can't. And if they send for you …' She laughed again from pure despair. 'Kadro wanted to meet the Masters, after we came here. Everyone talks about them. They have ceremonies, to give them thanks. But whoever sees the Masters? Kadro thought they were a myth. He thought that was the whole secret …'

'But who runs the city?'

'You've already met him.' She stifled another strained laugh. 'Ethmet.'

'What, that …?'

'That nice old man? That was what you were going to say, weren't you?' Petri chewed at her lip, which was already ragged from it. 'The First Minister rules Khanaphes. He says he's only a servant of the Masters, and that the Ministers know everything, see everything. There are palaces and halls in which the Ministers are supposed to serve the Masters, but Kadro was sure they were empty. It's Ethmet, telling everyone the lie.'

'I can see why it might be dangerous to find out the truth of that,' Che said slowly. 'Although I can't see how you could really keep that fact secret from a whole city.'

Petri collapsed back on the bed with a groan. 'You won't let them take me?' she pleaded.

'Nothing's going to happen to you, now that we're here,' Che assured her. 'You're not alone any more.' She saw Petri's shoulders shake, realized that the woman was barely stifling an outburst of sobs. Whatever the truth, something happened here. On the heels of that came a more selfish thought: I hope she recovers soon. We need to learn what she knows. Che was ashamed of it but that made it no less true. She went to the door as quietly as she could, prompted by the sudden, irrational feeling that there was a servant there, silent and listening, just a moment before. That way madness lies, she decided.

From the bed Petri began murmuring, just a noise at first, then becoming words. 'But when he had done his researches …' she said, though Che could barely catch it. 'When he had gone into the desert, and spoken to the Marsh people, Kadro started doubting it all. At the end, just before he vanished, he was talking as though there was another secret inside the secret … as though he had begun to believe in the Masters after all.'

Che stood there waiting for a long time, but there was no more. At long last, sleep had found Petri Coggen.

Beyond the windows the city of Khanaphes bustled, bright with sunshine, busy with the simple industry of its people, and happily concealed under the mask of its own innocence.

'I hope I get used to them soon,' Berjek grumbled. 'It's all very decadent having them around, but …' He shook his head. The grand entrance hall to the makeshift Collegiate embassy was opulently decorated: with wall friezes depicting scenes of hunting and farming; with twin statues of Khanaphir soldiers cast in bronze; with those countless pictograms carved in their eternal lines. Mostly, however, it was decorated with servants. Standing halfway up the broad marble-faced staircase, Berjek could see a good dozen of them going through the never- ending business of keeping the edifice spotless. One was even retouching tiny chips in the friezes.

'I know what you mean,' Praeda Rakespear said. 'I woke up in the middle of the night and thought we were being robbed. They never seem to stop working.'

'I like it.' Manny smirked at them. 'I could live here. It's like being in the Spiderlands without having the Spider-kinden.' From sounds heard last night, Che guessed he had enticed one of the female servants into a different kind of service. She also suspected the woman had simply seen that as part of her duty.

'Remember this is just because we're honoured guests,' she reminded him. 'The common people of Khanaphes don't live like this.'

'I've never been common anywhere I went,' Manny replied airily.