Interesting Times

'Can you… do it now?'

'Only if everyone opens all the doors and turns their back.'

The Emperor's expression did not change. The court fell silent. Then there was a sound like a number of small rabbits being choked to death.

The Emperor was laughing. Once this was established, everyone else laughed too. No-one can get a laugh like a man who can have you put to death more easily than he goes to the lavatory.

'What shall we do with… you?' he said. 'Where is the… Grand… Vizier?'

The crowd parted.

Rincewind risked a sideways squint. Once you were in the hands of a Grand Vizier, you were dead. Grand Viziers were always scheming megalomaniacs. It was probably in the job description: 'Are you a devious, plotting, unreliable madman? Ah, good, then you can be my most trusted minister.'

'Ah, Lord… Hong,' said the Emperor.

'Mercy?' suggested Rincewind.

'Silence!' screamed the chamberlain.

'Tell me, Lord… Hong,' said the ancient Emperor. 'What would be the punishment for a… foreigner… entering the Forbidden City?'

'Removal of all limbs, ears and eyes, and then allowed to go free,' said Lord Hong.

Rincewind raised his hand.

'First offence?' he said.

'Silence!'

'We find, generally, that there is no second offence,' said Lord Hong. 'What is this person?'

'I like him,' said the Emperor. 'I think I shall… keep him. He makes me… laugh.'

Rincewind opened his mouth.

'Silence!' screamed the chamberlain, perhaps unwisely in view of current thinking.

'Er… could you stop him shouting 'Silence!' every time I try to speak?' Rincewind ventured.

'Certainly… Great Wizard,' said the Emperor. He nodded at some guards. 'Take the chamberlain… away and cut his… lips off.'

'Great One, I—!'

'And his ears… also.'

The wretched man was dragged away. A pair of lacquered doors slammed shut. There was a round of applause from the courtiers.

'Would you… like to watch him eat… them?' said the Emperor grinning happily. 'It's tre… mendous fun.'

'Ahahaha,' said Rincewind.

'A good decision, lord,' said Lord Hong. He turned his head towards Rincewind.

To the wizard's immense surprise, and some horror too, he winked.

'O Great One…' said a plump courtier, dropping to his knees, bouncing slightly, and then nervously approaching the Emperor, 'I wonder if perhaps it is entirely wise to be so merciful to this foreign dev—'

The Emperor looked down. Rincewind would have sworn that dust fell off him.

There was a gentle movement among the crowd. Without anyone apparently doing anything so gross as activating their feet, there was nevertheless a widening space around the kneeling man.

Then the Emperor smiled.

'Your concern is well… received,' he said. The courtier risked a relieved grin. The Emperor added, 'However, your presumption is not. Kill him slowly… over several… days.'

'Aaargh!'

'Yes in… deed! Lots of boiling… oil!'

'An excellent idea, o lord,' said Lord Hong.

The Emperor turned back to Rincewind.

'I am sure the… Great Wizard is my friend,' he suctioned.

'Ahahaha,' said Rincewind.

He'd been in this approximate position before, gods knew. But he'd always been facing someone — well, usually someone who looked like Lord Hong, not a near-corpse who was clearly so far round the bend he couldn't poke sanity with a long pole.

'We shall have such… fun,' said the Emperor. 'I read… all about you.'

'Ahahaha,' said Rincewind.

The Emperor waved a hand at the court again.

'Now I will retire,' he said. There was a general movement and much ostensible yawning. Clearly no one stayed up later than the Emperor.

'Emperor,' said Lord Hong wearily, 'what will you have us do with this Great Wizard of yours?'

The old man gave Rincewind the look a present gets around the time the batteries have run out.

'Put him in the special… dungeon,' he said. 'For…ow.'

'Yes, Emperor,' said Lord Hong. He nodded at a couple of guards.

Rincewind managed a quick look back as he was dragged from the room. The Emperor was lying back in his movable bed, quite oblivious to him.

'Is he mad or what?' he said.

'Silence!'

Rincewind looked up at the guard who'd said that.

'A mouth like that could get a man into big trouble around here,' he muttered.

Lord Hong always found himself depressed by the general state of humanity. It often seemed to him to be flawed. There was no concentration. Take the Red Army. If he had been a rebel the Emperor would have been assassinated months ago and the country would now be aflame, except for those bits too damp to burn. But these? Despite his best efforts, their idea of revolutionary activity was a surreptitious wall poster saying something like 'Unpleasantness To Oppressors When Convenient!'

They had tried to set fire to guardhouses. That was good. That was proper revolutionary activity, except for the bit where they tried to make an appointment first. It had taken Lord Hong some considerable effort to see that the Red Army appeared to achieve any victories at all.

Well, he'd given them the Great Wizard they so sincerely believed in. They had no excuse now. And by the look of him, the wretch was as craven and talentless as Lord Hong had hoped. Any army led by him would either flee or be slaughtered, leaving the way open for the counter-revolution.

The counter-revolution would not be inefficient. Lord Hong would see to that.

But things had to be done one step at a time. There were enemies everywhere. Suspicious enemies. The path of the ambitious man was a nightingale floor. One wrong step and it would sing out. It was a shame the Great Wizard would turn out to be so good at locks. Lord Tang's men were guarding the prison block tonight. Of course, if the Red Army were to escape, no blame at all could possibly attach to Lord Tang…

Lord Hong risked a little chuckle to himself as he strode back to his suite. Proof, that was the thing. There must never be proof. But that wouldn't matter very long. There was nothing like a fearsomely huge war to unite people, and the fact that the Great Wizard — that is, the leader of the terrible rebel army — was an evil foreign troublemaker was just the spark to light the firecracker.

And then… Ankh-Morpork [urinating dog].

Hunghung was old. The culture was based on custom, the alimentary tract of the common water buffalo, and base treachery. Lord Hong was in favour of all three, but they did not add up to world domination, and Lord Hong was particularly in favour of that, provided it was achieved by Lord Hong.

If I was the traditional type of Grand Vizier, he thought as he sat down before his tea table, I'd cackle with laughter at this point.

He smiled to himself, instead.

Time for the box again? No. Some things were all the better for the anticipation.