I tended to doubt it would be any Racter, for they attempted, for all their evil, to work through legal means. And for the Panvals the same held. There were many parties and factions ready to strike if the emperor died; now they were muzzled; but any one of them could own and instruct Ashti Melekhi in her evil designs.
The emperor insisted these days on guards hired from the Chulik mercenaries. The Crimson Bowmen, like the Archer Guard of Valka assigned to duty around the emperor, had been sent off on distant expeditions into the country.
Naghan Vanki, who, I knew, or thought I knew, was the emperor’s spymaster, had recently, after his good work with the Chyyanists, been rewarded by being made Vad of Nav-Sorfall. The province was lush, rich with ponsho pastures, situated just east of Vomansoir. Because of this addition to his estates Naghan Vanki, the new vad, was off in Nav-Sorfall busily at work consolidating his position. I could not turn to him for immediate information on the plots and intrigues surrounding the emperor. To think, the woman who had bribed a doctor to poison the emperor was now held in great esteem by her intended victim! She would strike again, and soon. I stirred myself. The singing would begin soon; but because there were so-many Chuliks, the singing promised to be half-hearted and short if the yellow-tuskers did not remove themselves, as they usually did when there were not many of them. The last piece of information amused me. Queen Lushfymi, the Queen of Lome, whom men still called Queen Lush, despite the emperor’s strict injunctions against the loss of dignity, was rumored to be hot on her way to the emperor’s side.
If the old devil married her, I’d heave a sigh of relief. That would take a deal of weight off Delia’s and my shoulders.
The Maiden with the Many Smiles shone down brilliantly as I wrapped my cloak about myself, pulling it up to my eyes, and set off for the palace. The first moon of Kregen showed those mysterious markings that had so often tantalized the astronomers of Kregen. Up there, on that world floating in space, were continents and islands and seas, and an atmosphere. The ever-changing radiance gave her her name. In that soft and fuzzy roseate moonlight I strode swiftly through the pink-tinged shadows. Vondium went about the usual pursuits of the great city after the suns had set and the moons ruled the skies. I avoided all entanglements. This time there was another Rapa guard at the Jasmine Tower beyond the Canal of Contentment. He went to sleep peacefully and I opened the plastered niche and, pulling the revolving stone free, passed swiftly down the slimed stairs.
The lantern showed nitered walls, dripping thick with green slime, and the darkly patterned stairs. That first Rapa guard had recovered, all right, and said nothing, greeting his relief with a hearty: “All’s well!”
So do mortal men’s sins find them out and aid hairy old villains like me. Reaching the secret panel that led onto the emperor’s chamber, I paused. He had plenty of bedrooms to choose from. Maybe he wouldn’t relish sleeping again in the room in which he had so nearly died. I’d find him, though, if I had to roam all through the palace.
What I really wanted to do was take voller and fly as swiftly as I could after Delia, on toward Ba-Domek and Aphrasoe. But I conceived I had a duty to the emperor; the old devil owed me, and I suppose, really, I owed him. He was Delia’s father. I could not let him be killed. I could not abandon him to his fate.
I pushed the panel in soundlessly.
Anyway, I did not want the forces controlling Ashti Melekhi to slay the emperor and gain their coveted powers — I did not want them to win.
Intrigue, dark plots, the shadows of night, the hushed footfall — these were games I would play, I decided, as I padded into the chamber. The room stood empty, a few faintly glimmering lamps reflecting from the old polished furniture. The wide bed lay with its covers turned back. A golden tray rested on a low table at the side. Miscils, palines, purple wine of Wenhartdrin in a golden vessel with two golden cups — the old devil was all set up for the night, then.
A noise at the door, the oiled creak of its opening, light splashing sharply across the rugs of Walfarg weave. I moved back into the shadows of the overhanging draperies. He walked in with a few handmaids and servants, scolding them, full of good humor. Eventually, when he was dressed in a long crimson brocaded gown he shooed them out. As the door closed he shouted out jovially past them to the corridor: “And mind you stand a good watch, my bonny Chuliks.”
They were bonny all right, working for anyone who paid them. If someone else had crossed their yellow palms with more gold than the emperor, they’d as lief slit his throat as stand a good guard. He started up when I stepped out into the lamplight. His face worked with shock. His hand darted to the golden bell.
I put my hand over his and the bell hung mute.
“Ha!” he cried. “Murder, is it?”
“No.” I held him gently. “I mean you no harm, as I have told you often enough. I wish to talk to you. For the sake of your daughter and your grandchildren, will you bear me out?”
The bell must be removed from his clutching fingers, for I would not trust him, as I trust no one save a very few on Kregen and Earth.
“Talk? You talk big, son-in-law. But you desert me when danger-”
“You banished me. Forget that. You remember nothing of your illness?”
He shook his head. For a space, so long as I offered him no violence, he would humor me and listen. .
“No. I remember nothing. I was ill. Ashti cured me.”
I let him go but I did not step back. I stared at him. “Listen to me, emperor, and mark me well. You were poisoned.” He started up angrily at this, but I went on doggedly. “The name of the poison was solkien concentrate-”
“I know it! Cottmer’s work!”
“Aye. And you were fed it, lovingly, spoonful by spoonful.”
“I do not believe — how could I? I was cared for, nursed, no one — Ashti would not have allowed it
— you lie!”
“I do not lie. I pass over your intemperate words. I tell you the truth.”
For a moment he stood there, tall and bluff and robust, filling his crimson gown with the golden cords. His face showed a sudden crafty intelligence. “I know of solkien concentrate. Once it gets a hold on the system its evil results cannot be averted. I was ill, very ill. Ashti told me. If you speak sooth then I could not have been cured.”
“Not by normal men. I agree.”
He looked bewildered. “But-”
I bore down on him. “You called out in your delirium. You asked your daughter, you begged Delia to take you to those who could cure you, as they had cured her.”
His eyes widened.
“Yes — yes — I do not remember — but I would — I did! The Todalpheme of Hamal.”
“Your daughter Delia took you there. You were cured. If you do not remember, then that is probably better. Now you are back in your palace, fit and well. Delia did that.”
“Solkien concentrate.” He wet his lips and took up the golden vessel, poured wine. He did not pour for me. I let him drink. Then I said: “Suppose that wine is poisoned, also?”
He choked and spat and the purple wine sprayed all over the white linen of the bed. He swung to face me. He was trembling. “If I believed you, your story, if I did — you have not told me who did this thing.”
“Ah,” I said. I used the old formula out of spite, watching him squirm. “I wondered when you’d come to that.”
“Tell me! I can find out if you speak truth. I can seek and find the answers to my questions-”
“Oh, aye. You can have folk tortured to your heart’s content.”
“Tell me, you insolent cramph!”
“I wonder, sometimes,” I told him, “why I suffer myself to bother with you. Only for Delia’s sake. Otherwise, I really think I would let you go your own way to damnation.”
His face shook with his rage, cunning and powerful, used to absolute obedience. “Tell me!”
“Ashti Melekhi.”
He gaped at me.
Then he laughed and sneered, all in one, and sank back in the ornate brocaded chair at the bedside. The golden tassels shook with his sarcastic mirth. He brayed at me.
“You onker! Your sorry story is a pack of lies. The woman cut you down to size and you resent that. Ashti —
