night. A narrow, sheathed sword hung from his right hip, a long dagger from his left.
'You fetch maps for my generals now, DeWar?' UrLeyn asked, amused. The General of generals of Tassasen, the commoner who commanded nobles, was a relatively small man who by dint of the bustling, busy force of his character made almost everybody feel that they were no taller than he. His hair was brindled, grey and thinning but his eyes were bright. People generally called his gaze 'piercing'. He was dressed in the trousers and long jacket he had made the fashion amongst many of his fellow generals and large sections of the Tassasem trading classes.
'When my general sends me away from him, sir, yes,' DeWar replied. 'I try to do whatever I can to help. And such actions help prevent me dwelling on the risks my lord might be exposing himself to when he has me leave his side.' DeWar tossed the map on to the table, where it unrolled.
'The borders… Ladenscion,' UrLeyn breathed, patting the soft surface of the old map, then looking up at DeWar with a mischievous expression. 'My dear DeWar, the greatest danger I expose myself to on such occasions is probably a dose of something unpleasant from some lass newly brought in, or possibly a slap for suggesting something my more demure concubines find excessively rude.' The General grinned, hitching up the belt round his modest pot-belly. 'Or a scratched back or bitten ear, if I'm lucky, eh?'
'The General puts us younger men to shame in many ways,' DeWar murmured, smoothing out the parchment map. 'But it is not unknown for assassins to have less respect for the privacy of a great leader's harem than, say, his chief bodyguard.'
'An assassin prepared to risk the wrath of.my dear concubines would almost deserve to succeed,' UrLeyn said, eyes twinkling as he pulled at his short grey moustache. 'Providence knows their affection is rough enough at times.' He reached out and tapped the younger man's elbow with one bunched fist. 'Eh?'
'Indeed, sir. Still, I think the General could=
'Ah! The rest of the gang,' UrLeyn said, clapping his hands as the double doors at the far end of the hall opened to admit a number of men — all clad similarly to the General — and a surrounding flock of aides in military uniforms, frock-coated clerks and assorted other helpers. 'YetAmidous!' the Protector cried, walking quickly forward to greet the big, rough-faced man leading the group, shaking his hand and clapping his back. He greeted all of the other noble generals by name, then caught sight of his brother. 'RuLeuin! Back from the Thrown Isles! Is all well?' He wrapped his arms round the taller, thicker-set man, who smiled slowly as he nodded and said, 'Yes, sir.' Then the Protector saw his son and bent down to lift him into his arms. 'And Lattens! My favourite boy! You finished your studies!'
'Yes, Father!' the boy said. He was dressed like a little soldier, and flourished a wooden sword.
'Good! You can come and help us decide what to do about our rebellious barons in the marches!'
'Just for a while, brother,' RuLeuin said. 'This is a treat. His tutor needs him back on the bell.'
'Ample time for Lattens to make all the difference to our plans,' UrLeyn said, sitting the child on the map table.
Clerks and scribes scuttled over to the great wooden map lattice on one wall, fighting to be first. 'Never mind!' the General called after them. 'Here's the map!' he shouted, as his brother and fellow generals clustered round the great table. 'Somebody already…' the General began, looking round the table for DeWar, then shaking his head and returning his attention to the map.
Behind him, hidden from the Protector by the taller men gathered about him but never more than a sword length away, his chief bodyguard stood, arms casually crossed, hands resting on the pommels of his most obvious weapons, unnoticed and almost unseen, gaze sweeping the surrounding crowd.
'Once there was a great Emperor who was much feared throughout what was then all the known world, save for the outer wastelands which nobody with any sense bothered about and where only savages lived. The Emperor had no equals and no rivals. His own realm covered the better part of the world and all the kings of all the rest of the world bowed down before him and offered him generous tribute. His power was absolute and he had come to fear nothing except death, which comes eventually for all men, even Emperors.
'He determined to try and cheat death too-by building a monumental palace so great, so magnificent, so spell-bindingly sumptuous that Death itself — which was believed to come for those of royal birth in the shape of a great fiery bird visible only to the dying — would be tempted to stay in the great monument and dwell there and not return to the depths of the sky with the Emperor clutched in its talons of flame.
'Accordingly the Emperor caused a great monumental palace to be built on an island in the centre of a great circular lake on the edge of the plains and the ocean, some way from his capital city. The palace was fashioned in the shape of a mighty conical tower half a hundred storeys tall. It was filled with every imaginable luxury and treasure the empire and kingdoms could provide, all secured deep within the furthest reaches of the monument, where they would be hidden from the common thief yet visible to the fiery bird when it came for the Emperor.
'There too were placed magical statues of all the Emperor's favourites, wives and concubines, all guaranteed by his holiest holy men to come alive when the Emperor died and the great bird of fire came to take him.
'The chief architect of the palace was a man called Munnosh who was renowned throughout the world as the greatest builder there had ever been, and it was his skill and cunning that made the whole great project possible. For this reason the Emperor showered Munnosh with riches, favours and concubines. But Munnosh was ten years younger than the Emperor, and as the Emperor grew old and the great monument neared completion, he knew that Munnosh would outlive him, and might speak, or be made to speak of how and where the great cache of riches had been placed within the palace, once the Emperor had died and was living there with the great bird of fire and the magically alive statues. Munnosh might even have time to complete a still greater monument for the next King who ascended to the Imperial throne and became Emperor.
'With this in mind, the Emperor waited until the great mausoleum was all but finished and then had Munnosh lured to the very deepest level of the vast edifice, and while the architect waited in a small chamber deep underground for what he had been promised would be a great surprise, he was walled in by the Imperial guards, who closed off all that part of the lowest level.
'The Emperor had his courtiers tell Munnosh's family that the architect had been killed when a great block of stone fell on him while he was inspecting the building, and they grieved loudly and terribly.
'But the Emperor had misjudged the cunning and wariness of the architect, who had long suspected something just like this might happen. Accordingly, he had had constructed a hidden passage from the lowest cellars of the great monumental palace to the outside. When Munnosh realised he had been immured, he uncovered the hidden passage and made his way to the ground above, where he waited until the night and then stole away on one of the workers' boats, gliding across the circular lake.
'When he returned to his home his wife, who thought she was a widow, and his children, who thought they were without a father, at first thought he was a ghost, and shrank from him in fear. Eventually he persuaded them that he was alive, and that they should accompany him into exile, away from the Empire. The whole family made their escape to a distant Kingdom where the King had need of a great builder to oversee the construction of fortifications to keep out the savages of the wastelands, and where everybody either did not know who this great architect was, or pretended not to for the sake of the fortifications and the safety of the Kingdom.
'However, the Emperor heard that a great architect was at work in this distant Kingdom, and, through various rumours and reports, came to suspect that this master builder was indeed Munnosh. The Emperor, who was by now very frail and elderly and near death, ordered the secret opening-up of the great mausoleum's lower levels. This was done, and of course Munnosh was not there, and the secret passage-way was discovered.
'The Emperor ordered the King to send his master builder to the Imperial capital. The King at first refused, asking for more time because the fortifications were not ready yet and the savages of the wasteland were proving more tenacious and better organised than had been anticipated, but the Emperor, still nearer to death now, insisted, and eventually the King gave in and with great reluctance sent the architect Munnosh to the capital. The architect's family treated his departure as they had the false news that he had been killed, those many years ago.
'The Emperor at this time was so close to dying that he spent almost all his time in the great death-defying palace Munnosh had constructed for him, and it was there that Munnosh was taken.
'When the Emperor saw Munnosh, and knew that it was his old chief architect, he cried out, 'Munnosh, treacherous Munnosh! Why did you desert me and your greatest creation?
''Because you had me walled up within it and left to die, my Emperor, Munnosh replied.
''It was done only to assure the safety of your Emperor and to preserve your own good name, the old tyrant
