palace, exiting through the atrium where all guests entered. And then he gasped audibly at the great crowd of women standing before the building. Catching himself up again he stalked forward, looked at them with what he hoped was icy hauteur, and said, “How dare you cause a disturbance before the palace of Hetar’s emperor?”
“We dare because the women of Hetar have had enough!” Lady Gillian shouted back at the vulpine creature before her. She knew Jonah well enough to realize his mind was even now considering ways of punishing her for this breach of etiquette. “We wish to see the emperor, my lord.”
“The emperor cannot see you,” Jonah said, as those before him had said.
“Then we will wait,” Gillian replied.
“It will be a long wait,” Jonah retorted.
“What is he so busy at?” a faceless voice in the crowd called out. “Taking pleasures with his beautiful and vapid empress, who surely is young enough to be his daughter? Shame! Shame!”
Jonah found himself completely stymied. The group numbered at least a thousand women. Where had they all come from? Why were they here? “What is it you desire from the emperor?” he finally asked them. “Perhaps I can help you.” He had softened his tone and was making every effort to sound sympathetic to the women.
“We will speak only with the emperor,” Lady Gillian said implacably.
Jonah shrugged and walked back into the palace.
The spring sun grew warm as the day passed, beating down upon the heads of the women who waited. The day ended and still the women remained, though seated now. Wisely they had brought water with them but there was little food. They carefully rationed what they had. The night was damp and chilly as the dew fell, but they waited on until finally the dawn of a new day broke and the sun rose to warm them once again.
The emperor had finally been informed by Tania, for no one else dared to tell him, of the crowd of women waiting outside his palace.
“What do they want?” Gaius Prospero asked.
“They will not say, my lord, to any but you,” Tania answered.
“Are they armed?” His voice quavered nervously and he put a protective arm around the lady Shifra.
“They do not appear to be, my lord,” Tania said.
“How many of them are there?”
“Hundreds, my lord.”
“And they waited all night?” Gaius Prospero was surprised.
“You must see them, my lord,” Tania told him. “They will not go away otherwise, I fear. They are women, nothing more.”
“Has Jonah spoken to them?” Gaius Prospero wanted to know.
“He has, my lord, but they want you,” Tania responded. “You must go then, my dear lord,” Lady Shifra said. “I will come with you.”
“Nay,” he protested. “I do not want you in danger.”
“We will garb ourselves in our finest robes, and your trumpeters will proceed us as we go,” Shrifa said. “It will charm the women to see that both their emperor and empress have come before them. They probably want nothing more than for you to release some grain from your storehouses so the price of bread may be lowered. They are thinking of their children and their oldsters, my lord. Let us go and treat them with courtesy and with kindness.”
The emperor looked first to his wife and then to Tania.
“The empress is wise. You should follow her advice, my lord,” Tania said.
Gaius Prospero nodded and immediately Tania called to the servants to fetch the royal garments. The emperor and his wife were garbed in cloth of gold embroidered with rubies, sapphires, diamonds and emeralds. Shifra’s long red-gold hair was topped with a small crown while her husband wore a larger headpiece. And while they were being dressed Tania found the imperial trumpeters, who hastily gathered up their instruments.
Jonah saw the preparations and attempted to dissuade the emperor from his course of action. “If you give in to this rabble of women, then other groups will come with an endless stream of complaints they want you to correct. And when you cannot they will be angered, mylord. I but try to protect you and the empress.”
“It is the empress’s suggestion that we greet these women and treat them with courtesy,” Gaius Prospero said. “You have not, despite the authority I have given you, been able to disperse these women. If seeing me will do so then they shall see me and my gentle empress. And arrest a half dozen of them when they go back through the gates of the Golden District.”
“Lady Gillian is among them,” Jonah said. “She has, so far, done much of the talking.”
“Indeed,” Gaius Prospero replied. He made a
They walked together through the wide gates of the palace. Gaius Prospero’s eyes widened momentarily as he viewed the great crowd of women before him. But then, Shifra on his arm, they stepped forth into the late morning sunshine. The women were silent as they had been all along. It was eerie. The emperor held up his hand in greeting to the assembled. Then he spoke.
“Women of Hetar, what is it you desire of your emperor that you would put all manners aside and besiege my palace?”
And they answered him with one great voice.
11
GAIUS PROSPERO FELL back, aghast at the great sound the voices of the women made. Did they not understand? he wondered silently to himself. But then he realized that of course they could not possibly understand. They were only women. A paternal rush welled up in him. He held up his hand to still them and they did indeed grow silent.
“Women of Hetar,” he began, “you must understand that we are threatened by the terrible magic forces of Terah. If we do not strike first, if we do not bring the battle to Terah, they will fall upon us like rabid wolves. We go to war to protect Hetar. To protect you and your children. And Terah has much land to be settled, many riches to be shared. Hetar is a peaceful land. We do this to keep the peace.”
“You do it to enrich yourself and your friends further!” a voice in the crowd called out.
“We do not want our menfolk slaughtered needlessly!” cried another voice.
Lady Gillian stepped forward and the women grew silent again. “My lord emperor,” she said politely and she bowed to him. “There is no real proof that Terah threatens Hetar. The Coastal Kings have traded for centuries with them and at no time did Terah ever evince hostility toward Hetar. Rather, they strove to avoid us. Our ships have never been permitted to sail into Terahn ports. Indeed, no Hetarian other than Lord Jonah has even been allowed to visit Terah.
“You promised the citizens of Hetar that the colonization of the Outlands would bring us all prosperity. It has not happened because, rather than distributing the land fairly, you have parceled it out among the magnates and you have transported the poor into positions upon their farms that make them little better than slaves. The few who have gained their own land have fallen into debt with the high prices needed to purchase equipment and build their shelters. We have problems here in Hetar that need correcting. We do not need another war. We will not support another war,” Lady Gillian told him implacably. “Will you send your son, Aubin, into war, my lord? How many of the magnates’ sons, the sons of the Crusader Knights, will be sent?”
“What has that got to do with the threat that Terah poses to us?” the emperor demanded.
“You are quick to send our sons into battle!” one of the women cried out. “But not your own lad. Why is he better than our boys?”
