The old duke blinked. Behind him Zaranda saw two more elderly noblemen mounting the steps.
'Good even, Countess Morninggold,' said the taller, a very distinguished gentleman with a neat gray mustache. 'I wonder if we might discuss an important matter with you.'
Zaranda gestured toward the crowded plaza. 'As long as you don't mind discussing it in front of fifteen thousand people or so.'
'Not at all,' the nobleman said. 'In fact, the more who hear, the better. I am the Lord Inselm Hhune, and this is my friend and associate, the Lord Faunce.'
'Honored, my lords,' said Zaranda. She made no effort to rise. She wasn't being rude, merely exhausted. 'Lord Hhune, is it? Killed a dragon once, didn't you?'
'Indeed. Now, Countess, we have a proposition to make to you.'
Lord Faunce, shorter and rounder than Hhune, dropped to one knee before her. 'We crave that you do us the honor of agreeing to be crowned queen of Tethyr.'
Zaranda swayed. 'I beg your pardon?' she said.
'For some time Lord Faunce and I have belonged to a movement dedicated to restoring monarchy to the land of Tethyr,' Hhune said. 'Obviously, we had to keep our activities discreet until very recently. We had our reservations-'
'Now more than vindicated,' said Faunce.
'— about the former Baron Hardisty, but we felt that restoration of the monarchy was of paramount importance, and so opted not to oppose him. Now, however, we are prepared to offer the crown to you without reservation. Your heroism has saved our land.'
'With all due respect, my lords,' Zaranda said, 'this is crazy. This morning I was a convict under sentence of death; I'm not even supposed to be alive.'
'I have already attempted to apologize for that unfortunate turn of events,' Hembreon said stiffly.
'That was a gross miscarriage,' Faunce said, 'and as members emeritus of the city council we add our sincere regrets that it occurred. On the other hand-' his eye twinkled '-the throne might not be considered poor recompense by some.'
'Oh, it's more than generous-can you please help me up here?' Hembreon aided her to her feet. 'It's just that I'm having a hard time taking it seriously.'
'I assure you-' the duke began.
Zaranda waved a hand at him. 'I believe you.' She took a few paces away, feeling a need for room.
A small form pushed out of the crowd and knelt on the bottom step. It was Simonne of Gond. 'I hope you won't hate me for saying this, Zaranda,' she said, 'but you'd make a very good queen.'
'I know you mean that as a compliment, Simonne, but-'
The spectators nearby took up Simonne's words and made them a chant: 'Queen Za-RAN-da! Queen Za- RAN-da!' In a moment it had spread across the square.
Zaranda held her hands up. 'Wait!' she cried. 'QUIET!'
The crowd subsided. 'Didn't anybody listen to what I told the city council when I was being tried by them? You don't need kings or queens. You need to learn to look out for yourselves and one another. If you don't do that, nothing else means anything.'
The Zazesspurians looked at each other. The chant began again, slowly at first, rapidly swelling: 'Za-RAN-da! Za-RAN-da! Za-RAN-da!'
She shook her head in disgust. Hembreon tapped her on the elbow. She inclined her head toward him.
'If you are not ready to be crowned,' he said, 'there is no need to rush into anything. But like it or not, you have just been acclaimed ruler of Tethyr.' He smiled gravely. 'Would it not be wisest to accept your fate with grace?'
'Well, several times today I've met kicking and screaming what I thought was going to be my fate. I guess it can't hurt to try something new.' She turned to the crowd and held both hands clasped above her head-an idiot gesture, she thought, as if she had just won a footrace.
'All right!' she cried as the chant subsided. 'I'll do it! Ill be your chief executive, or whatever.'
The mob cheered rapturously. And then hundreds of hands were pointing skyward, and voices were crying, 'Look!' in tones of mingled fear and wonder.
Zaranda looked up. Selune hung overhead, in a state even the most confirmed pessimist would have to acknowledge was past half-full, with her Tears a glowing trail behind her. Against the moon's face a great shape wheeled, winged and dark.
'Don't worry,' she called to the crowd. 'She's with me.'
She turned to Hembreon. 'If you'll excuse me, I have some personal business to attend to.' He frowned. 'If you could find it in you to say a few words-'
Brightening visibly, the old man stepped forward, raising his arms. 'Friends, fellow Zazesspurians, countrymen and — women-' he began. The mob booed lustily.
As she reached the top floor, a young man in black police armor called out to her. In a burlap sack, he was carrying something large and round.
'Countess? I'm Constable Watrous. We were sent in a few hours ago to secure the building from looters. We searched the quarters of the false priest Armenides-' His handsome young face went a shade paler. 'You wouldn't believe what we found there.'
'Oh, yes I would,' Zaranda said. 'Now, what's on your mind?'
'Well, we found this there.' He reached into the sack and lifted up the brazen head. 'It, ah, it's been demanding to be brought to you.'
'And so I have, and I must say you took your own sweet time about it, boy.'
Zaranda sighed. 'Hello, Head. It's been a while.'
'Well, now that you've dispatched L'yafv-Afvonn back to the depths of hell-my personal thanks, by the way; you can't imagine how trying it was being compelled to speak for that horror-but now that you've established yourself as one of the foremost heroes of the age-of this or any age, and should I say heroine? be that as it may- unquestionably you'll want to learn the secrets I have to offer-'
Zaranda took the head from the youth, putting a hand over its mouth in the process. 'Thank you, Constable Watrous. You did a good job.' The youngster saluted, looked as if he wanted to say something, then turned and marched briskly away.
'Rmmph!' the head said, so emphatically Zaranda shifted her hand. 'That young man clearly admired you. However, if you have a taste for more mature companionship, I can certainly provide-'
'Shut up,' Zaranda said, 'or I'll march you back down to the catacombs and chuck you in the lava.'
The palace roof was flat. It was dotted with low cement blocks of varying sizes, to what purpose Zaranda couldn't imagine. Maybe they were meant to serve as pedestals for statues. They might just as well have been meant to serve some otherworldly evil aims of Armenides' or L'yafv-Afvonn's.
From the noises drifting up off the plaza, a general celebration had broken out below. A familiar slight figure sat on one of the blocks, her back to the stairs. She didn't stir as Zaranda approached.
Chenowyn whipped around when Zaranda laid a hand on her shoulder. She made as if to knock it away, then covered her face.
'Thank you for saving us today,' Zaranda said.
'That wasn't me,' the girl sobbed. 'That was some monster. Some freak.'
'That was you. You chose to help us. You found a way. I'm glad, anyway.'
'I hate myself.'
Zaranda shook her head. 'Don't talk that way about my friend.'
'I'm nobody's friend. I'm not even real. I'm just a construct.'
'No,' Zaranda said, hunkering beside her. 'You're Chenowyn. You're a young girl; you're my apprentice; you're somebody I love and don't want to see hurt. And that's all that matters.'
Vast wings boomed. Zaranda looked up to see a great draconian shape settling toward them, scales glinting purple in the light of moon above and city below.
The dragon touched down, and then a woman was walking toward them. Zaranda straightened.
'An amethyst dragon? How come you're so obsessed with sapphires?'
