Black Jade

'Ah … what girl?'

I stared at him as I shook my head. I did not know whether to rage or give thanks that Maram's pursuits had spared him witnessing Yismi's murder.

'What's that?' Lord Rodas snapped at us as he rushed over. His angry eyes took in the traveling tunic that Maram wore. 'Fool of a fool! I told you to be ready — and now we'll have to keep the King waiting.'

'Be at ease!' Maram snapped back at him. 'Or you'll give yourself apoplexy. No one is going to keep anyone waiting!'

So saying, he cast me a troubled look and hurried to go inside the cart. We moved it out into the center of the square then, facing it toward King Arsu's box. Kane, barechested and wearing his billowing silk pants, hung his painted target from its side. By the time he had made ready his chains, the cart's door flew open and Maram burst out into the square.

Then it was our turn to perform for the King.

Chapter 38

How Maram had donned his costume and painted his face so quickly, I didn't know. He immediately managed to trip over Kane's chain and nearly landed face first in a mound of horse droppings. It was farce at its crudest, yet it made everyone laugh. After the horror of the sword fights, I thought, no less Yismi's butchery, the people in the square needed whatever relief they could find.

Maram himself took no pleasure in his performance. Some great fear burned through his bouncing belly, and he could not tell me what it was. It did not keep him, however, from shimmying about in mockery of the maracheel dancers, and making everyone laugh all the more.

Although we had improvised our way across the Haraland, we had always set the rhythm and routines of our show ourselves. It was not to be that way this day. Without warning, as Estrella joined Maram in a silly pantomime, a seemingly jovial King Arsu held up his hand and called out to them: 'Enough! Enough for now, good Garath! Let us see what else your troupe has prepared for us.'

He turned toward his left, where the Lady Lida sat pretending amusement at Maram's and Estrella's antics. Her dark, sharp face, I thought, hid her true sentiments as if covered with a veil. It disturbed me that she kept stealing quick glances at Liljana, who waited by the side of the cart with the rest of us.

'My Lady,' King Arsu said to Lida, 'since it is your birthday, what would you most like of this troupe?'

Lida didn't hesitate to answer him. She spoke in a sweet and perfectly controlled voice as she told him, 'My lord, I would like a love potion, that my ardor for my king always inflames me as it does now, even when I am ugly and old.'

Her words pleased King Arsu greatly, and I felt a flush of pride wash through him. It seemed that he could not get enough flattery, just as he had a nearly bottomless thirst for sugared drinks.

'Dear one,' he said to her, 'you will never be less than beau-tiful, and as for growing old, is it not written that those of impassioned blood will enjoy the eternal youth of the angels?'

His quote from the Darkakul Elu elicited a quick nod of Arch Uttam's skull-like head. He gazed at King Arsu as if noting down his every word. His umber eyes, though smoldering with a cruel intelligence, seemed utterly dead.

'My Lord,' Arch Uttam said to King Arsu, correcting him, 'it is written that they will enjoy the everlasting youth of the angels.'

King Arsu waved his hand at this as he might bat away a fly, Even so, I felt a flicker of fear burn through him. Then he told Lida, 'You shall certainly have your potion.'

He called out his command to Liljana then. She went inside the cart, and then hurried back out holding a blue-glassed vial full of a dark liquid. She stepped forward toward the dais, where one of the King's men moved to take it from her. But Lida stayed him, and came down from the dais to take the potion from Liljana herself. I watched as she turned her face to whisper something in Liljana's ear, and Liljana likewise spoke back to her.

As Lida returned to her place, Liljana walked back to us. I wondered what she had said to her, for she fairly beamed with new hope.

And then King Arsu pointed at Atara and said, 'Kalinda, Teller of Fortunes — come forward and let us hear of our fate!'

He smiled if expecting the usual promises of love, children and a happy future. Atara did not disappoint him. With Daj leading her forward by one hand, she clutched in her other the glass sphere that we had bought in Ramlan. Despite her blindfold, she appeared to gaze into it deeply. Then she lifted up her face toward King Arsu's box.

'My Lord!' she called out. 'I see for you the fulfillment of your greatest desire. You will gain that which you have sought all your life.'

King Arsu smiled hugely to hear this. It was, however, scryer talk, and therefore likely double-edged in its meaning. King Arsu seemed not to realize this. Likely he had never encountered a true scyrer before, as all the women of that order had long since been purged from his realm.

'The fulfillment of our greatest desire.' King Arsu repeated. 'That is well. But we have many desires. It would be hard to tell which one is the greatest.'

His answer caused Arch Uttam to look at him with scorn. And then King Arsu hastened to call down to Atara: 'Tell us then of victory! Tell us of our army, which will soon march forth on the great crusade!'

King Arsu looked out at his hundreds of soldiers assembled in the square.

Atara fell silent. I felt my heart quicken its painful beats as something stabbed into me. Then Atara drew in a deep breath and called out:

'I see an ocean of grass, covered with armies of men. I cannot count the number of spears gleaming in the sun. The shields of the army of Sunguru shine like thousands of mirrors; the men of Uskudar stand there, too, like ebony pillars. Your army King Arsu, gathers at their center. And you, on top of an elephant draped in armor, at the center of it. Your enemies stand before you. It will be said ever after that they had no hope of prevailing against such an invincible force. And then fate will find you, and everyone assembled there that day. It will be the greatest battle fought in all the ages of Ea. And you will gain the greatest victory of your life.'

She stopped speaking and stood there facing King Arsu. A terrible strangeness shivered up my spine like the chill of the winter wind. I feared with all my soul that Atara had told King Arsu the truth.

King Arsu turned directly toward Atara. At last, he put down his goblet of honeyed milk and clapped his puffy hands together. He called out, 'That, Fortune Teller, was a great one indeed. And it deserves a great reward.'

And with that, he reached into his purse and cast a handful of gold coins at her. Daj retrieved them from the grass. After Atara had bowed to the King, Daj took her by the hand once again and led her back to our cart.

Next to Arch Uttam, King Angand sat quietly gazing out at Atara. Although a stew of strong sentiments bubbled inside him, his brown face remained stonelike. His dark, almond eyes gleamed with cunning, but betrayed none of his thoughts. I had never known a man harder to read. Did he pay any mind at all to Atara's prophecy? And what had he made of the messenger's news, that King Orunjan, his old enemy, would soon meet up with King Arsu and himself in conclave? Did he dwell at all upon the great irony that Morjin had put an end to the incessant wars of the south by leading the Dragon Kingdoms straight toward a final war that would consume all of Ea?

He finally broke his silence, turning to King Arsu to say: 'It would seem that our fates are linked together But that is the future. Why don't we return to the present and witness the skills of the strongman?'

I sensed that he hated almost everything about his enforced rapprochement with King Arsu and the bloodthirsty Arch Uttam, and wished to remove himself from their presence as soon as he could.

King Arsu nodded at this, and called out to Kane: 'Taras — is that your name? Why don't you show us what you can do?'

What Kane could do, I thought, as his eyes deepened into black pools, would be to grab up his sword and charge King Arsu's box, cutting down any guard who stood in the way. And then to cut short the reigns of Morjin's two greatest kings and one of his most valued priests before other guards came to kill him.

Instead, he gathered up his chains and positioned himself in front of King Arsu's box. Then Arch Uttam