make a shining contribution to our community. Would you be kind enough to introduce to us your companions, whom we know less well?'
Taita called them forward by name. Meren was the first and went to stand before the platform. 'This is Colonel Meren Cambyses, bearer of the Gold of Valour and Companion of the Red Road.' The council studied him in silence. Suddenly Taita became aware that something unusual was afoot. He diverted his attention from the three oligarchs to the leather screen behind them. He scried for some hidden presence but there was none. It was as though the area behind the screen was a void.
This alone was enough to alert him. Some psychic force was cloaking that part of the chamber.
Eos is here! he thought. She throws no aura, and has concealed herself behind a screen more impenetrable than leather. She is watching us. The
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shock was so intense that he had to fight to keep himself under control: she was the ultimate predator, and would smell blood or weakness.
At last Aquer spoke again: 'How did you lose your eye, Colonel Cambyses?'
'Such things happen to a soldier. There are many hazards in our lives.'
'We will deal with that in due course,' Aquer said.
Taita could make little of such an enigmatic statement. 'Please return to your place, Colonel.' The interview had been cursory, but Taita knew they had extracted all the information they required from Meren.
Next Taita called Hilto. The oligarchs took an even shorter time to consider him. Taita saw Hilto's aura burning honest and unremarkable, except for the fluttering ribbons of blue light at its edges, which betrayed his agitation. The oligarchs sent him back to his seat. They treated Imbali and Nakonto in much the same manner.
At last Taita called Fenn. 'My lords, this is an orphan of war on whom I took pity. I have made her my ward and named her Fenn. I know little about her. Never having had a child of my own, I have grown fond of her.'
Standing before the Supreme Council, Fenn looked like an abandoned waif. She hung her head and shifted her weight shyly from one foot to the other. It was as though she could not bring herself to look directly at her inquisitors. Anxiously, Taita watched her with the Inner Eye. Her aura remained subdued, and she was playing perfectly the role he had set for her. After another pause Aquer asked, 'Who was your father, girl?'
'Sir, I knew him not.' There was no flicker of falsehood in her aura.
'Your mother?'
'Neither do I remember her, sir.'
'Where were you born?'
'Sir, forgive me, but I do not know.'
Taita noted how well she was holding herself in check.
'Come here,' Aquer ordered. Timidly she hopped up on to the platform and went to him. He took her arm and drew her closer to his stool. 'How old are you, Fenn?'
'You will think me stupid, but I know not.' Aquer turned her, slipped his hand into the top of her tunic and felt her chest under the linen.
'There is already something.' He chuckled. 'There will soon be much more.' Fenn's aura glowed softly pink and Taita feared she was about to lose her self-control. Then he realized she was displaying only the shame that any young girl would experience on being handled in a manner she did not understand. He had more difficulty with keeping his own anger
in check. However, he sensed that this little scene was a test: Aqueii was attempting to goad a reaction from either Fenn or Taita. Taita remained stony-faced but he thought: In the time of reckoning you shall pay in full for that, Lord Aquer.
The oligarch continued to fondle Fenn. 'I am sure you will grow to be a young woman of rare beauty. If you are fortunate you may be chosen for great honour and distinction here in Jarri,' he said. He pinched one of her small round buttocks and laughed again. 'Run along now, little one. We shall consider it again in a year or two.'
He dismissed them, but asked Taita to remain. When the others had left the room, Aquer said politely, 'It is necessary that we of the council confer privily, Magus. Please pardon us while we withdraw. We shall not leave you long alone.'
When they returned the three oligarchs were more relaxed and friendly, and remained respectful.
'Tell me what you know of my grandfather,' Lord Aquer invited. 'He died before I was born.'
'He was a loyal and respected member of the court of Regent Queen Lostris during the period of the exodus and the Hyksos invasion of the Two Kingdoms. Her Majesty entrusted him with many important tasks.
He discovered the road that cuts across the great bight of the Nile. It is still used, and saves several hundred leagues of the journey between Assoun and Qebui. The queen bestowed honours upon him for this and his other accomplishments.'
'I still have the Gold of Honour I inherited from him.'
'The queen trusted him to the extent that she chose him to lead an army of two thousand men south from Qebui to discover and chart the Nile to its source. Only one man returned, demented with fever and the hardships he had encountered. Nothing was ever heard of the rest of the army, or the wives and other women who accompanied them. It was presumed that they had been swallowed up in the vastness of Africa.'
'The survivors of my grandfather's legion who won through and finally reached Jarri were our ancestors.'
'They were the pioneers who built this little nation?' Taita asked.
