‘Why, so we do,’ said the Empress, delight speaking itself plain across her face. ‘Pardoned and employed! My major domo will show you-’
‘Ware!’ shouted a guard. ‘An Ebby!’
For Chegory Guy was plunging toward the throne. Murder was writ clear in his countenance. His intent was to see this Zozimus dead that very day quarter. To denounce the fraudulent thief who had with breathtaking audacity cozened his way into the bosom of the imperial household. To swear that Zozimus was no servant ofjapone but a rapacious reaver from across the seas, a conspirator in league with vermin more dangerous yet.
Such was Chegory’s intent.
But before the young Ebrell Islander could get anywhere near the throne he was set upon by guards, seized, inverted, punched, booted, slapped, and deprived of his sole weapon — the knife he had found Downstairs and had secreted in a boot sheath.
‘A blade!’ shouted a soldier, brandishing the weapon for all to see.
At the sight of it, the corpse master Uckermark forced his way forward.
‘Hold him, hold him!’ cried a scimitar-wielding warman.
Chegory was held. Arms and legs wrenched out in four separate directions. He kicked, writhed, struggled and convulsed. All to no avail. Someone had him by the hair and was hauling hard, hoping to stretch out his neck for easy decapitation.
‘Get your hands out of the way!’ shouted the scimitarist.
‘Wait!’ said the corpse master Uckermark.
But nobody paid any attention to that man much-scarred and much-tattooed. Not until he seized the down- chopping scimitarist and threw him out of the way. Next moment a dozen blades were out.
‘Stop that!’ shouted the Empress Justina.
Nobody paid her any attention either. So she leapt up, seized the nearest slave and charged into the fray, striking out to left and right with this convenient weapon until she stood triumphant upon the field of battle with dazed combatants in recumbent postures to left and right alike.
[One is entitled to doubt that the battle above-described really took place. In the first place, in courts of imperial power the ruler’s softest word tends to be obeyed instantly, even when the ruler is a woman. Secondly, the behaviour here ascribed to Justina is not consonant with her gender. Equally telling is that use of a human body as a weapon has already been described once — the muscleman Tolon is said to have used Chegory as such when fighting against soldiers Downstairs — and a third party is later described (in virtually identical language) as employing a similar weapon. One is led to believe that the conflicts in question were settled with far less melodrama than the Text would have us believe, and that the employment of human bodies in battle is purely a figment of the Originator’s violent imagination. Sot Dawbler, School of Commentary.]
‘When I say stop,’ said Justina, ‘I mean stop! Does anyone want to argue about it?’
As nobody displayed any wish to enter into further dialectical discourse, Justina dropped her slave, who crawled away groggily.
‘Right!’ said Justina, tucking her breasts back into the confines of the crimson silk from which they had escaped during her exertions, ‘Let’s have some explanations!’
[This is an amusing little anecdote, though it lacks the hilariousness of the Originator’s tale about Theodora and her employment of chickens. However, while this anecdote amuses, it cannot possibly be true. Yet again we find the Originator’s imagination distorting the historical realities which underly the Text. A woman, whether Empress or otherwise, is never so casual about the public exposure of her anatomy. When her shame is revealed she reacts with flinching panic, with blushes and delightful squeals of alarm. I myself have observed this on a number of occasions. We would expect that if the Empress Justina had been exposed in the manner detailed then she would have been forced to withdraw from the public eye to come to terms with her shame and to recover her composure. Sot Dawbler, School of Commentary.]
[One is shocked to find one so venerable as Sot Dawbler ‘amused’ by the grossness he has discovered in the Text directly above. Or by the tale of Theodora and her chickens, which, since it is the vile and disgusting invention of a patent lunatic, has been extirpated from this Text on my order. Drax Lira, Redactor Major.]
The corpse master Uckermark was the first to recover himself sufficiently to speak.
‘The boy,’ he said, ‘the boy is my apprentice. He’s, he has fits of unwittedness, but he’s a good boy, your highness, and the knife he had is but a tool of trade. If we can be gone from here I’ll chastise him mightily once we’re back at the corpse shop. I ask only that — the knife, my lady. It’s consecrated to the work of corpses, hence sacred, hence could we have it back?’
Justina considered.
Chegory’s fate hung in the balance.
Fortunately, Justina was acquainted with the corpse master Uckermark. Well acquainted. Very, very well acquainted. In truth, acquaintance of the kind which existed between the Empress and the corpse master went far beyond the borders of that cautious propriety which should by rights govern relationships between females of imperial standing and males of the lower orders. Thus Justina was inclined to gratify the wishes of her loyal subject Uckermark.
And, while she was about it, to gratify herself.
But first she had some questions.
‘This boy,’ she said, ‘is he a clean living young man?’
‘Oh, very clean living,’ said Uckermark. ‘A virgin in truth.’
‘Is he fit?’ said Justina. ‘Is he healthy?’
‘I guarantee him capable of the most vigorous exertion,’ said Uckermark.
‘Has he learnt his table manners?’ said Justina.
‘That he has,’ said Uckermark. ‘Furthermore, if you wish to have him as a guest at banquet I’ll ensure some revision.’
‘You read my very mind!’ said Justina, clapping her hands together in delight. ‘Then the boy will banquet with me tonight. You will accompany him to banquet.’
Then the Empress seated herself sedately on her throne, her slaves resumed the work of fans, and Uckermark recovered the knife so recently taken from young Chegory Guy and hustled his dumbstruck captive away. Chegory cast one glance of appeal at the conjuror Odolo, but the imperial favourite merely spread his hands in a gesture expressive of helpless amazement.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Chegory was so shattered by fate’s perversion of all his expectations and by the sheer velocity of the events which had overwhelmed his life’s routines that he asked not a single question as Uckermark marched him out of the pink palace, down Lak Street as far as the Cabal House of Injiltaprajura’s wonderworkers, down Skindik Way then through the narrows of Lubos to the Corpse Shop.
‘This is my house,’ said Uckermark when they got there. ‘Not for long,’ said Chegory. ‘It’s on fire!’
The door stood ajar — and black smoke was pouring from within. But Uckermark merely laughed and threw the door wide open. Chegory stepped back as clouds of thick, choking fumes billowed outwards.
‘Come in, come in,’ said Uckermark.
‘You’re mad!’ said Chegory, coughing and choking. Then, as the smoke thinned a little, he saw the fumes issuing from large double-handled pots set just within.
‘In,’ said Uckermark.
‘But — but the — but why the smoke?’
‘Because flies love flesh,’ said Uckermark. ‘In, so I can close the door.’
Chegory went inside. Uckermark put the lids on the smoke pots then closed the door entirely. When Chegory had finished coughing and crying — the smoke was devilish for stinging the eyes — he began to look around and get his bearings. There was death everywhere he looked.
Chegory had seen a few dead bodies in his time but the corpse shop was something else again for it was crowded with the unkempt dead. Flies in their thousands buzzed in manic frustration on the outer side of the gauze
