Kingdom River

all the more easily if those who ruled are dead.'

'I don't think… I don't think you need concern yourself with that, milord.'

'Oh, but I do. You see, Princess, the government of Middle Kingdom depends not only on the strict separation of your two armies, not only on the Fleet as a third force. It depends on a ruler being strong enough to maintain them in balance.'

'You being such a ruler, of course.'

'Your mother being such a ruler.'

'Then you had better discuss your ambitions with my mother.' An angry face over the stack of copybooks. Now, Sam could see her father in her.

'I wish… Rachel, I wish we'd had the time to know one another better. If there'd been a year or more for visits, so we didn't meet now as strangers, and all this so… awkward.'

No answer from the Princess. Her pale face, dark eyes, seemed to float above stacked white paper.

' – But, lacking that time, shall we have plain speaking?'

'Very well, milord. Plain speaking.' She touched the papers before her. 'My interests are my books and those people also interested in books and learning. Ours is an ignorant age – and forgive me, but you're an example of it. A provincial war-lord, who seems to wish to be a king! And assumes… assumes that everyone will fall in with those wishes!'

There was quiet, then, almost restful. Sam saw one of the river gulls, come up from the Gulf Entire, sail close past the room's south window. Its shadow marked a white wall for an instant as it passed.

'You're mistaken about my wishes, Rachel. Only an ass wishes to rule anyone. As only a coward… avoids necessity. – You know, I drink too much.' He saw her a little disconcerted. 'I have to be careful, at dinner and so forth here. I have to be careful not to drink too much – but not drink so little that it's noticed I have to be careful. I drink… to rest for a while from what I'm becoming.' Sam waited to see if the gull would fly back, leave another quick shadow of its passing. 'I'm becoming… an instrument, a tool for the work my people set me. And I saw the same in your mother, when I first met her, then again this morning. I saw that burden in her eyes.'

The Princess listened, her head cocked slightly to one side, as if to hear him better.

'Of course, I knew the Queen, in a way, before I came to Island. My Second-mother mentioned Joan Richardson often, admiring her courage, and always spoke of her with love. As she spoke of your father. – You would have liked my Second-mother, Catania. I was told my First-mother was beautiful, but Catania was brave. She was the sort of person we all would wish to be.'

The Princess looked down, cleared her throat. 'You suggested we speak plainly. I didn't mean to be rude to you, milord.'

'Rachel, my name is Sam Monroe. I am not your 'lord,' and never will be. But I hope, in time, to become your friend.'

Still looking down at her desk-top, as if solutions had been inscribed there. 'My mother is Queen. I have no interest in being one – in being like her.'

'Thank every Jesus for that! As to your becoming queen, it's surprising how little choice we have in these matters. I won two, three battles after older commanders had been killed. Before that, I'd been a shepherd – and occasionally, a sheep thief and near bandit. I was very young, and very foolish… Then, because better men were dead, I was looked to when unpleasant decisions had to be made. I made just enough decisions rightly, to trap myself into becoming Captain-General of North Map-Mexico – a slightly ridiculous title.'

'Not ridiculous.'

'You're too kind. But that's really all I am, a very good military commander, and a fairly good ruler otherwise. Though I probably use force, sometimes, when force is not quite necessary… I also used to read a good deal; my Second-mother saw to that. She was afraid I'd pick up poor book-English, or the mountain tribes' signs and chatter. So, I've read, though now I have little time for reading – and by the way, you must meet Neckless Peter, our librarian and informational. The old man was the Khan's tutor, and he'd love this room.'

'I'm to understand, then, that you are a decent provincial war-lord, and fairly well read.'

'Exactly.' Sam's back was hurting. He got up from the stool and walked over to the north window. The window's glass was very fine, some of the clearest he'd seen, each square pane bright as a mirror. The Kingdom people did wonders with glass…

'Well, milord – Sir Monroe – you are trying to persuade the wrong person. I am not the Queen. Put it another way: I can say no. I'm not interested in marriage; certainly not with you.'

Sam saw gulls spiraling down past the tower. It was the view the Boston girl would have had, Walking-in-air. He was struck by what a strange people those New Englanders must be, to have – at least a few of them – such a gift, and treat it only as utility… Beneath the gulls, the river Mississippi lay many miles wide, its current, beaten silver, reflecting the mid-day's winter sun like the oval yolk of the Rain-bird's egg.

'You misunderstand me.' Sam turned back from wonderful airiness to the chamber's circling stone space. 'I wasn't trying to persuade you, Princess. I was explaining the necessity. You cannot say no.'

'I think I can.' Princess Rachel stood up behind her desk – was certainly a little taller – and started to the door. 'And you are leaving.'

'Don't… do that.' Sam stayed where he was, saw her hesitate. 'If you call your guards in, my sergeant and I might have to kill them. It would be a bad beginning.'

The Princess stood still.

' – A lesson, Princess. Power lies along the edge of the nearest blade, and the best. If it were not for the Queen's rule, my sergeant and I could kill your two guards. Then I might beat you – bend you over that desk, rape you, force you to marriage. I've known men who would do it. I've seen men at this court who would do it.' Sam reached over his right shoulder, slid the long sword's blade a few inches up out of its scabbard… then slid it back. 'You see, Rachel, this solar is no sanctuary at all, and never has been. Your safety has rested – since your father's death – in the hands of a tired lady, now growing old. A lady who goes to bed with fear and deep decisions every night of her life, so that you, and others like you, do not have to.'

'My mother – '

'Rachel, the Queen has said I might try to persuade you. And when a Queen says 'try' – as when I say 'try' – what is meant is, get it done.'

'You lie! She wouldn't do that.'

'I'm sure she wouldn't, ordinarily. She'd wish you married into one of the great River families, I suppose, since you seem not up to ruling more than book-shelves. But you might say Toghrul Khan has been our marriage-broker, Rachel. The arranger of our engagement at least, from the time your mother received pigeons confirming that Seventh and Eighth tumans had taken your West-bank army's garrison at Map-Jefferson City, and killed them all. – How many was it? Three thousand… four thousand men? And, of course, the women and children.'

A silent Princess then, standing still as if savage dogs surrounded her, the blue dots on her cheekbones like spattered ink.

' – Which also was the reason she wasn't as angry as she might have been, hearing that my army had come up into Map-Louisiana.'

'My mother doesn't confide her reasons to me.'

'No. Why should she, Rachel?' Sam walked to the west window. That view was of Island's stone keeps, then the river. The coast of Map-Louisiana too far away to be seen. 'Why should she? You're no part of her ruling.' He turned back to the room. 'She's a woman bearing responsibility for many hundreds of thousands of lives, in a kingdom still occasionally cannibal. And now, the Khan, a very great and merciless commander, is coming to your river.'

'She never asks me for help!'

'Should she have to?'

'You heard her. I wasn't 'here' – only 'present.' '

'And was she right, or wrong? You allowed yourself to be only 'present,' walked away and came up here to your