General Citizen laughed then. “You really are naive. I truly believe that. Because if you’re pretending, the things you pretend not to understand are so… stupidly chosen.”
“Again, I express my ingratitude to my father for the poor design of my education.”
“The reason I was sent to get you is because I maneuvered very carefully to win the assignment. And that’s because there are controversies centered on the Sessamoto Empire older and deeper than the mere matter of the royal family being deposed and the Revolutionary Council being in charge of the World Within the Walls.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” said Rigg.
“It was the decree of Aptica Sessamin, the grandmother of the current non-queen, that only women could rule in the Sessamoto Empire. She gave this decree force by having all her male relatives killed. This put an end to a great many plots centered around removing her-a woman-from the Tent of Light.”
“Tent?” asked Rigg.
“Officially, every royal residence is the Tent of Light when the ruling monarch is in it. Aptica Sessamin murdered all her own sons, as I said, and her reigning daughter, Mutash Sessamin, had only the one child, a daughter, Hagia Sessamin.”
“Hagia-the one who is either my mother or not?”
“So you do know the names of the royal family!”
“Of course I know it now,” said Rigg. “It’s been whispered by half the people we met. ‘He claims he’s the son of Hagia Sessamin.’”
“Cleverly done,” said Citizen. “I was very careful never to mention her name, in case you came up with it. But yes, I did hear the same comments, though I wouldn’t have thought you’d-never mind, I shouldn’t underestimate your cleverness or your powers of observation.”
Rigg showed absolutely no response to this-but by now he understood that to Citizen, not showing a response was, in fact, a response.
“So when Rigg Sessamekesh was born, the first male royal since the death of Aptica Sessamin, the very fact that he was given the suffix ‘ekesh’ was very controversial. That was the suffix given to the male child who was the heir presumptive, back in the days when males ruled. Hagia Sessamin claimed that the suffix only meant that he was the firstborn male child. Since by then the People’s Revolution had made sure there was nothing any royal child, still less a male one, could inherit, the name obviously had no implication of being heir. Others thought he was being named thus to stir up revolt and restore royal power. Still others thought that she was repudiating the law, started by her grandmother, that the Tent and the Stone must pass mother to daughter.”
“Tent and stone?” asked Rigg.
“Yes,” said Citizen. “The Tent that kept alive the memory of the days when the Sessamids were nomads, and the Stone, lost for thousands of years but still revered-its place symbolically taken by a common river rock-which you so kindly offered for sale.”
Rigg said nothing, for his thought now was upon the eighteen other stones, wondering why, when he stood there in Mr. Cooper’s office, he had managed to pick the one that would get him in the most trouble.
Citizen was going on with the story. “So when word came that Rigg Sessamekesh had died as an infant, those who believed the story were relieved. Others, however, thought it was a ploy, that conspirators had stolen away the baby to use him for the purpose of not only restoring the monarchy, but also abolishing female rule.”
“Then I must be an absolute fool to pretend to be him,” said Rigg. “Not only the Revolutionary Council but also those who still approve of the laws of Queen Aptica must want me dead. Any friends that such an impostor might have would be in a hopeless minority.”
“Well, that’s where things get complicated,” said Citizen, chuckling. “Because much of the support for the People’s Revolution was actually opposition to the continuation of female-only monarchy. At the time of the revolution, there was no male royal, so the only way to abolish the rule of queens was to abolish the monarchy entirely. But if a male heir turned up, some of the support of the Revolutionary Council-some say most of that support-would evaporate and regather behind the male child, since there have always been many who considered Aptica to be an abomination and her anti-male law to be sacrilege.”
“I’m surprised the real Rigg Sessamekesh wasn’t murdered the moment they saw his little ding,” said Rigg. “Just to save a lot of bother.”
“You speak as if you were not he,” said Citizen.
“As far as I know, I’m not,” said Rigg. “But I’m also not a fraud. You keep omitting the possibility that everything I’ve said is true. That in my ignorance I’m innocent of any offense.”
“Be that as it may,” said Citizen, “I got this assignment because certain people believed I could be trusted to find out the truth about you.”
“So if I turn out to be the real Rigg Sessamekesh, you can kill me?”
General Citizen smiled at him. “I see I’m not the only one to lay traps.”
For it was indeed a trap that Rigg had laid for him. If the situation as Citizen outlined it was correct, a loyal servant of the People’s Revolutionary Council would not have hesitated to kill Rigg at the first opportunity, since no outcome that left him alive would be good for the Council. Of course he’d disguise it as an accident, but it would happen, because fraud or heir, he would have to die.
“General Citizen,” said Rigg, “it seems to me that you don’t care whether I’m really the Rigg Sessamekesh that Hagia Sessamin gave birth to thirteen years ago.”
“But I care very much,” said Citizen.
“What you care about is whether I can be made believable to the people of Aressa Sessamo-believable enough that the Council can be overthrown and replaced by a regent-you, perhaps?-who will rule in my name.”
“You have made only one mistake,” said Citizen.
“No I haven’t,” said Rigg. “You’re about to tell me that you were really trying to draw me out so you could see if I posed a danger, but in fact you’re perfectly loyal to the Council.”
Citizen said nothing, showed nothing.
“You may or may not be loyal, and you may or may not be ambitious,” said Rigg. “Whatever judgment you come up with, I can’t control. But there is absolutely nothing in what I’ve said or done to suggest that I would be willing to take part in a plan to overthrow the Council. And if I did not take part willingly, no conspiracy could use me.”
“What if the survival of your friends were at stake? Wouldn’t you do as you were told?” asked Citizen.
Would Citizen really count on Rigg’s loyalty to his friends to make him a reliable tool? Father had once quoted an ancient philosopher, who said, “The good man counts on others to share his virtues, while the evil man counts on the virtues of better men. They are both mistaken.” Was Citizen foolish enough to make either mistake?
There was suddenly a great deal of shouting outside the cabin, and in a moment someone shoved open the door. It was a soldier.
“They’ve jumped overboard, sir! And threw Shouter overboard!”
“Guard this prisoner,” said Citizen as he ran from the room.
The soldier closed the door and stood in front of it. “Don’t even try to talk to me,” he said to Rigg.
“Not even to ask who in the world has the horrible name of ‘Shouter’?”
The soldier stood there for a long time, and Rigg had concluded he wasn’t going to answer. And then he did.
“It’s not his real name, sir. It’s what we all call him behind his back. I hope the general didn’t notice.”
“I think you have little chance of that,” said Rigg. “He notices everything.”
The soldier nodded and sighed. “Hope it’s short rations and not the lash for me.” Then he blushed, probably because he shouldn’t have said any such thing to the prisoner.
“Would it help if I told him you were immediately remorseful?”
“No, because that would mean I had talked to you.”
“Which you certainly have not done,” said Rigg, “despite my efforts to induce you to speak.”
Long silence from the soldier. Lots of noise outside. A slackening of the speed of the boat, and then a reversal of direction. Then a return to forward motion. There was a double rap on the door. The soldier opened it a little, stepped through it-never turning his back on Rigg-and in a moment stepped back inside.
“Your friends got away safe, sir,” said the soldier softly, mouthing the words rather than speaking them, which he did so naturally that Rigg imagined this must be the way soldiers communicated when maintaining silence on
