Faces of Deception (3 page)

Still clasping Atreus’s hand, he bowed first to the bedridden queen, then to the man with the golden crown. Atreus was about to do likewise when Jyotish scurried up and hurled himself to the floor.

“This is not my doing!” The chamberlain spoke so rapidly that Atreus could barely decipher his thick accent. “I could not stop them!”

Rishi turned toward Jyotish. “We were meant to wait?” He allowed his jaw to drop in a purely artificial expression of surprise. “The queen did not summon us forward? Apologies! Apologies many and profuse! Then I was much mistaken in the impression that she wished to meet this man—this man who has journeyed many months across land and sea all the way from the parched wastes of the far side of the world, and only so he might bask in the divine radiance of Edenvale’s queen.” Rishi tugged sharply on Atreus’s hand. Taking the hint, Atreus bowed first to the queen, then to her husband. “Please excuse the interruption,” he said, feeling rather clownish with Rishi’s shirt draped over his head. “It was not my intention to disturb your court.”

Rishi finally released Atreus’s hand. “Allow me to present Atreus Eleint, a noble prince of Erlkazar—”

“Loyal citizen!” Atreus corrected, horrified. In Erlkazar, such a gross misrepresentation could cost a man his tongue. “I am not even a lord.”

Rishi continued without missing a beat. “Our honored traveler is a man of no small consequence, bearing a royal letter of introduction from the King of Erlkazar himself.”

Queen Rosalind shifted her gaze to Atreus, then spoke to him in Realmspeak as modern as Rishi’s. “Is this true?”

“I have it here, Your Majesty.” Moving slowly so as not to alarm the queen’s bodyguards, Atreus reached into his cape and withdrew the parchment. “It is from His Royal Highness, King Korox of Erlkazar.”

Atreus held out the letter, expecting someone to take it from him and break the seal for Queen Rosalind, as was the custom in western lands. The action drew an astonished groan from Jyotish and stony silence from the queen’s retinue. Atreus tipped his head back and saw that he was pushing the letter toward the Royal Husband.

“What are you doing?” Rishi hissed. “You must present the letter to Her Radiance, not her husband!”

“I beg your pardon.” Atreus stepped to the edge of the queen’s bed and offered the parchment to her. “In my own land, one does not approach the king—er, monarch— directly.”

Rosalind’s voice grew as icy as it was frail. “Yes, I am aware that customs differ in the west.”

With great effort, she lifted her hand to accept the letter. Atreus placed the parchment in her shaking palm. She passed it to the Royal Husband, then let her arm fall to the bed before dragging her hand back to her lap. Atreus suddenly felt thankful to the warden for insisting that he cover his hideous face. The last thing he wanted was to scare the poor woman to death.

The Royal Husband broke King Korox’s seal, then turned to Rosalind and read in a deep voice free of accent.

“Greetings and Good Tidings to Her Royal Majesty Rosalind, Most Radiant Queen of the Great Land of Edenvale.

“We hope that this missive finds you as well as we are in Erlkazar. Be it known that the explorer bearing this letter, Atreus Eleint, is a man of no small ability and a particular friend of ours. We ask that you grant him every courtesy due a man of high station and help him along his way. We eagerly await our chance to repay you in good kind.

“With high regards, His Royal Majesty Korox.”

No sooner had the Royal Husband finished reading than Rosalind looked to Atreus. “Well, explorer, how can we help you and make your king happy with us?”

Atreus could not help smiling behind his makeshift hood, for it had not occurred to him that he was an explorer until he heard Korox’s letter. “I am planning a journey into the Yehimal Mountains. Any assistance you can provide by way of a guide and porters would be greatly appreciated. I will, of course, pay all the necessary expenses.”

“Then how very fortunate it is that I am standing here,” said Rishi. “My affairs in the ginger business—”

“At the moment, Rishi, we are not interested in your ginger,” said Rosalind, cutting off the Mar. “But we will be in a better position to help our explorer if he cares to tell us what he is seeking. Unless, of course, it is a secret.”

The queen fixed her eyes on Atreus’s view hole and waited, leaving no doubt in his mind that the help he received would come in direct proportion to his candor.

“I am happy to name my goal,” Atreus said. “I am searching for three peaks called the Sisters of Serenity.”

“My goodness, what a happy coincidence!” exclaimed Rishi “By a great good fortune, it happens I passed there just last—”

Scowling, the queen filled the air with an angry torrent of short syllables and guttural clicks, chastising the Mar in his

own, language.

Rishi gasped at the rebuke. “Oh no, I would not want that, Most Radiant Queen! I am so sorry of the mistake and from this moment onward shall say nothing more. It is not necessary to trouble the Royal Husband, as no harm was mean! or intended or expected, and I will be forever silent until you again give me leave to speak. I was only trying to be helpful, as I have journeyed into those same mountains a hundred times and would happily spare your Brilliance the trouble of seeking a guide for our esteemed—”

Atreus heard the hiss of a dagger blade clearing its sheath. The Royal Husband growled, “Rishi!”

The little Mar fell instantly silent.

Rosalind spoke to Atreus. “Tell me, explorer, are the Sisters of Serenity to be your final destination?”

Atreus could tell by the way she asked that the queen knew the answer. “No, I am seeking the Valley of Langdarma.”

The answer drew a chorus of snickering from the Ffolk on the dais, though the Mar remained silent.

The queen looked past Atreus and said in perfect Thorass, “That’s enough! I will not have an envoy from a foreign kingdom laughed at in my court!” The sniggering died away, then she spoke again to Atreus in modern Realmspeak. “I wonder, explorer, if you would be kind enough to take the shirt off your head.”

Atreus hesitated, recalling how the simple effort of accepting a letter had caused the queen’s hand to tremble. “I am happy to grant any request you make of me, but I must warn you, the Mar claim I have the face of Ysdar.”

“Most certainly!” added Jyotish. “It would be better for all if you did not look on it, Most Radiant.”

“There is no need for concern, Jyotish,” said Rosalind. “If the explorer were truly as ugly as Ysdar, would you be here to warn me off?”

Jyotish nodded. “Of course, Most Radiant. Not even Ysdar could make me crazy enough to leave your service.”

Rosalind laughed, then gestured to Atreus. “You may remove the shirt, explorer. Forewarned is fair-armed. I doubt the shock will kill me.”

“As you wish.”

Atreus bowed his head and pulled the shirt off, returning it Rishi. He gave the queen a moment to grow accustomed to the misshapen contours of his ungainly skull, then raised his chin slowly, allowing her ample time to brace herself as each disfigured feature grew visible. When his head had risen high enough for him to observe her mouth, he saw that she had pasted a charitable smile on her lips. The smile wavered occasionally as the rest of his face came into view, but it never vanished entirely, not even when she found herself struggling to gaze into both of his cocked eyes at once.

“There,” she said, though Atreus knew she was speaking more to herself than him. “That isn’t so bad.”

“Majesty, it’s better not to make light of it,” said Atreus. “I know what I look like, and pretending otherwise only makes us both uncomfortable.”

At once, a look of great weariness replaced Rosalind’s smile. “I am so glad to hear you say that, Atreus. It makes it easier to tell you what I must.”

Atreus nodded, well-accustomed to seeing doors close because of his looks. “I understand. If you can’t help me, King Korox will take no offense.”

“I can help you, explorer,” said Rosalind. Atreus’s head snapped up, and the queen’s eyes grew soft. “But I fear it is not the aid you seek.”

“I would be most grateful for whatever you can do.” “I hope that will be true when I have said what I must.” The queen turned away, looking out the window across the rooftops of her city. In the distance, floating on a cloud of hazy green hills, stood the soaring wall of white-capped peaks toward which Atreus had been traveling for more than four months.

“The Yehimal Mountains are a mysterious and vast place,” said Queen Rosalind. “There are many legends about what can be found in them. Diamonds as large as mountains, rivers that run yellow with gold, valleys filled with heavenly beauty … perhaps those legends are even true, but it does not matter. Those who seek such places never return except as jabbering lunatics, too crippled and mad to make sense of what they say. The Mar claim it is because Ysdar still roams the wilderness, preying on those foolish enough to trek where they don’t belong. We Ffolk have another explanation. We know that these places exist only in the minds of those who seek them.”

Rosalind turned away from her window but could not quite bring herself to look upon Atreus again. “You see, there is only one way I can help you, and that is by sending you back to King Korox sane and sound.”

“But Langdarma does exist,” Atreus insisted, growing concerned. “I have it on the… highest authority.”

The queen began to look impatient. “What authority could possibly be higher than my own?”

“Only that of a goddess … my goddess, Sune Firehair.” Atreus’s reply drew a gentle murmur of laughter, and this time Rosalind made no attempt to silence the mirth. “Sune herself commanded me to seek the valley. I am to return with a vial of—”

“Your goddess is not worshiped in the Yehimals,” Rosalind said. “She is barely remembered here in Edenvale, and so it is impossible that she knows of Langdarma.”

“Then who gave me this?”

Atreus reached into his cape and withdrew the map he had received in Duhlnarim, so worn from folding and unfolding that it was beginning to tear along the creases. He unfolded the map and laid it on the queen’s lap.

“As you can see, it is a map to Langdarma,” he said. “All I ask is a guide to help me find the Sisters of Serenity, or, failing that, the best instructions you can offer.”

Rosalind studied the map, her eyes silently scanning the names of the mountains and valleys. After a few moments, she looked up and sadly shook her head.

“I am sorry. Someone has deceived you. I do not recognize any of the names on this map. The Sisters of Serenity are as much a myth as Langdarma itself.”

“Begging your pardon, Most Radiant Majesty, but perhaps that is not so,” interrupted Rishi. He turned to Atreus. “As I have said, I visited these Sisters only last year in the company of a—”

“Silence!” commanded the Royal Husband. “Were you not warned?”

The Royal Husband glanced at Rosalind. When she nodded, he signaled to two guards, who snatched up the Mar as quick as a snake and carried him to the windows beyond the queen’s bed.

“Please, please—no!” Rishi flailed about madly, kicking and writhing like a cobra in the claws of a mongoose. “Have mercy, good sirs! Do you think I am a bird? I cannot fly!”

Without replying, the guards hefted Rishi through the window and stepped back. The Mar’s loud scream quickly faded, then ceased altogether. Atreus found himself staring slack-jawed out the window, wondering at the harshness of the queen’s punishment.

The Royal Husband grimaced at the sight of Atreus’s gaping mouth. “There’s a roof outside that slants down to the moat,” he explained. “The Mar will be fine.”

“Which is more than we shall be able to say for you, explorer, if you insist on this search,” said Rosalind.

“Langdarma is real,” Atreus replied. “I myself saw Sune’s face in the Pool of Dreams, but it is clear you cannot help me. If you will return my map, I will trouble you no more.”

He extended a hand, but Rosalind jerked the map away.

“I fear I cannot permit what you wish,” she said. “What would King Korox say if I allowed any harm to come to a ‘particular friend’ of his?”

An angry knot formed in Atreus’s stomach, but he forced himself to answer in an even voice. “As I have said, he will take no offense if you can’t help me.”

“But as I have said, I can help you.” Rosalind nodded and her guards seized Atreus by the arms. She turned to the Royal Husband and passed him the map. “Dispose of that and have an honor guard take this ‘explorer’ back to the Doegan Shores. They are to place him on the next ship to the Sword Coast.”

“A wise decision.” The Royal Husband wadded Sune’s map into a ball and pitched it out the window. “The last thing we need is this Atreus Eleint sneaking around the Yehimals. The Mar will think he is Ysdar himself!”

The avenue was cramped and crooked and crowded. The smell of spice—ginger and cinnamon and curry—masked the stench of the refuse spoiling in the gutters, and the din of jabbering voices filled the air with a constant drone as loud as it was maddening. High tenement buildings loomed along both sides of the street, their battered awnings and rickety second-story verandahs grazing the elephant’s flanks as it ambled past. On many of the balconies stood hissing Mar, hurling small sticks at the poor beast and clapping their hands to drive its passenger from the city.

Atreus feigned indifference to their insults and kept his gaze fixed to the front. He was sitting in the crowded howdah on the elephant’s back, with two Ffolk guards kneeling on the floor behind him. There were also a dozen riders struggling to clear the street ahead and another dozen riders bringing up the rear with Yago. Although the soldiers were dressed in the ceremonial livery of an honor guard, their surly bearing and wary watchfulness made plain that the only thing they were guarding against was Atreus’s escape,

Atreus fought to hold his growing anger in check. As betrayed and insulted as he felt by Queen Rosalind’s decision, he would gain nothing by venting his rage now. Better to wait a few clays, until his escorts’ horses began to suffer in the hot muggy terrain of Doegan, then escape to another of the Five Kingdoms. Edenvale was not the only realm bordering the Yehimals and he had heard a person with money could buy anything in Konigheim.