The Gods of Amyrantha (15 page)

She smiled. 'Well, the
good
news is that having been confronted by a Tide Lord and walked away from him without doing a single thing he ordered me to do, I know for certain now that I'm a Scard.'

'And the
bad
news?'

'The Empress of the Five Realms is back, Declan,' she said, all trace of amusement evaporating with her announcement. 'And you can bet she's planning to bring the rest of her Tide-forsaken family with her.'

CHAPTER 13

It was several weeks before the Imperator of Torlenia agreed to receive the Glaeban ambassador. Arkady wasn't permitted to attend the meeting, of course, so she had to settle for pacing the seraglium for half the morning until Stellan returned from the royal palace to tell her what had happened.

The importance of this meeting could not be underestimated. If it went well, then Stellan had some hope of resolving the issue of who owned the Chelae Islands, which meant they could return home sometime before they both died of old age. On the other hand, if it went badly, it might set their cause back years. The Imperator was a fickle and difficult young man, by all accounts. Although Chintara only rarely mentioned her husband, when she did speak of her lord and master, it was in glowing terms of his strength and honour.

At the sound of the outer door of the seraglium opening, Arkady turned in time to see Stellan stepping into the hall. He was still dressed in his court finery. He'd obviously come straight from his audience with the Imperator.

'How did it go?' she asked without preamble.

'All right, I suppose,' he said, shrugging off his formal velvet Glaeban-styled coat with its fine, embroidered cuffs and lapels, tossing it aside with relief. He looked ready to wilt. It must have been awful for him, sitting through an entire audience with the Imperator in such cumbersome attire.

'Did you get around to mentioning the Chelae Islands?'

Stellan shook his head and sat on the couch,, loosening the high collar of his shirt. 'Tides, no! That would have been far too easy. We spoke of the weather. And horseracing. Lots and
lots
of horseracing. Have you noticed these people are obsessed with horseracing?'

Arkady forced a smile and took a seat opposite her husband, pouring him a drink from the wine jug on the low enamelled table between them. 'Yes, I've noticed that. Will he agree to meet again to discuss Chelae, do you think?'

Stellan nodded. 'I imagine so. It was a pleasant enough audience, so he may not mind seeing me a second time. You're disappointed, aren't you?'

'A little,' she admitted. 'Although, I don't know why. It's a miracle you got in to see him at all after your predecessor's less-than-diplomatic tantrum. I never expected the Imperator to invite you over for tea and resolve an issue on your first meeting that's been a bone of contention for two hundred years.'

'The wheels of diplomacy turn very, very slowly, I'm afraid,' he agreed, studying her closely for a moment. 'Are you so desperately unhappy here, Arkady?'

'I'm not sure I'm unhappy,' she replied with a shrug. 'I'm bored, I'm homesick, I'm fed up with going out in public wearing a sheet and I'm certain I'll never be truly cool again as long as I live, but unhappy? No, I don't think so.'

Stellan smiled. 'I'm glad to see you still have your sense of humour.'

'They haven't actually outlawed laughter here yet, but let's not say it too loud, dear, someone might overhear us.'

Stellan shook his head with a rueful smile. 'It is a bit like that, isn't it? But at least you have Lady

Chintara for company. Even the Imperator mentioned how much his wife enjoys your visits.'

'Visits?' she asked with a raised brow. 'More like royal command performances. I keep wondering what she'd do if I tell her I've made other plans the next time she tells me she'll "see me tomorrow" as if I had a choice in the matter.'

Stellan's smile faded. 'I thought you liked her?'

'I do,' she assured him. 'She's just a bit ... imperious ... at times.'

'Well, imperious or not, she obviously has her husband's ear. I got the impression I was only permitted to visit the Imperator because Chintara suggested it.'

'Does he have a name?'

'Who?' Stellan asked, taking a sip from his wine and then replacing it on the table.

'The Imperator? That's all you ever hear him called. Doesn't he have real a name, like Henri or Jorge, or something?'

'Of course he does, but only his closest family are permitted to speak it.'

'So how does the population keep track?' 'Keep track of what?'

'Of who's in charge? Do Torlenians just number the Imperators so people can tell which one it is? I mean, we have "King Enteny the Fourth", and Mathu will be "Mathu the Second" when he takes the throne. What do they call their king here? Imperator Number Sixty-Four?'

Stellan smiled. 'Why don't you ask Lady Chintara?' 'I might. What's he like anyway, Imperator Number Sixty-four?'

Stellan thought for a moment before answering. 'Truly? If I had to describe him briefly, I'd say a callow boy.'

The description shocked Arkady. The last impression she would have formed from the way Chintara spoke of him was of a callow boy.

'A callow
boy?
Are you certain you were talking to the right Imperator?'

'Oh, yes, he was the right one. But he's very young. Eighteen, perhaps, maybe nineteen — certainly no older than Mathu. His skin is still pimpled. He's indecisive, insecure and struck me as being more than a little nervous, although that could be Jorgan's fault. After our last ambassador lost his temper with him, the boy probably has reason to fear unpredictable Glaebans.'

She shook her head, unable to picture Chintara married to anyone as vacillating and unappealing as the young man Stellan described. 'That doesn't sound like the man Chintara calls her lord and master.'

'She calls her husband her "lord and
master"?'

'What of it?'

He smiled. 'Do you call
me
your "lord and master"?'

Arkady wasn't nearly so amused as her husband. 'Only when I'm forced to, Stellan, so don't let it go to your head.'

'I wouldn't dream of it,' he assured her, rising to his feet. 'Are you visiting with Chintara again today?'

'Oh, yes,' she told him with a sigh. 'I've been commanded to appear for lunch.'

'Well, let me know if she says anything about the meeting, would you?' Stellan said, picking up his coat. 'I'd like to meet with her husband again as soon as I can, and if you're able to speed up the timing of our next meeting even by a few days, I'd be very grateful. You're not the only one who's feeling homesick.'

'Have you heard from Jaxyn?' Arkady asked, guessing that was the reason behind Stellan's comment.

'No. He's probably having too much fun at a court to think of writing me.'

'He's supposed to be looking after your
interests
at court,' she reminded her husband. 'That should warrant the odd letter now and then, don't you think?'

He shook his head, sighing. 'You still don't like him, do you? Even when he's on another continent?'

Arkady wished she could tell Stellan why she despised his lover so vehemently. But how do you describe colour to a blind man? Stellan didn't even believe the Tide Lords existed. There simply weren't the words to tell him he'd been callously used by an immortal as he clawed his way up the ladder to the Glaeban throne.

And even if she could convince Stellan that Jaxyn had used him; even if she could somehow make him realise Jaxyn was an immortal and no more loved him than he loved the Crasii he'd ordered to commit suicide just to convince Arkady he could, what was the point? Her husband would never accept he might have endangered — however unwittingly — his king or the Glaeban throne.

'I think he's ... unreliable,' she conceded, unable to think of a better word.

'You were the one who convinced me to send him to court in the first place,' he said. 'Now you're claiming he can't be trusted? What's happened in the last few weeks to make you change your mind?'

There was no answer to that so Arkady said nothing.

Stellan waited for a moment but when she remained silent, he shook his head. The mood had changed in the last few seconds, the mere mention of Jaxyn Aranville's name enough to set them at each other's throats. 'While we're on the topic of lovers,' Stellan said, all trace of his former humour gone. 'I don't suppose you're pregnant, are you?'

His question cut her to the quick, but she knew the reason he asked it. 'No.'

'Pity,' he remarked. 'I suppose I'll have to write to Enteny and tell him the bad news.'

'Bad
news? I thought you'd be delighted to discover I wasn't carrying a convicted murderer's bastard.'

Stellan hesitated before he answered, perhaps realising that he, of all people, had no claim on the moral high ground. 'I'm sorry, Arkady. It just would have been easier, that's all, if you were with child, regardless who fathered it.'

'It would be easier if you hadn't caused the problem by lying to the king and telling him I was pregnant.'

Stellan frowned. 'As it would have been, had you not forged my signature on Kyle Lakesh's release papers so your murderer lover could go free,' he retorted. 'Let's not get into a game of who did what, Arkady. Neither of us is on very solid ground.'

She nodded, conceding he was right, smarting nonetheless over the realisation he was still peeved with her. After she'd kept the secret of all his lovers — and specifically their gender — without complaint for so long, she felt she deserved a little more consideration.

'I wasn't trying to pick a fight, Stellan. It's just...'

To her astonishment, Stellan's expression softened. He actually looked as if he sympathised with her dilemma. 'I understand, Arkady. Really, I do. Do you miss him much?'

She shrugged. 'More than I should. Less than I thought I would.'

'Perhaps you're not as in love with this man as you imagined,' he suggested gently.

'I'm not sure I ever
was
in love with Cayal, Stellan.'

'You still refer to him as if he's an immortal,' he noted, as if it were a curiosity, rather than a fact.

Arkady was long past trying to convince her husband of it, however. The truth would come out soon enough. Declan had pointedly assured her of that. In the meantime, it was easier not to argue about it.

'Perhaps it's easier for me to believe he was.'

Stellan nodded with a wan smile. 'Oddly, Arkady, that actually makes sense.'

* * *

A few minutes before the appointed time, Arkady was led in to the consort's chambers as usual by Nitta, who was quite pleasant these days, apparently under orders not to offend the Glaeban ambassador's wife any more than she already had. When they reached the entrance to the main hall, however, Nitta held her arm out to block Arkady's way.

She stopped as low voices reached them. Across the chamber by the couches, a saffron-robed monk knelt at Chintara's feet.

'... and tell my lord I anxiously await his arrival,' Chintara was instructing the monk, who seemed afraid to look the consort in the eye.

Arkady smothered a smile. Poor man. He'd probably have to do penance for a month after being admitted into the presence of an unshrouded woman, let alone one as enticing as the Imperator's Consort.

The monk lowered his head, but spoke clearly, as if reciting something learned by rote. 'My lord also said to tell you that he, too, anxiously awaits the return of his queen to his side, his companion to his table and his lover to his bed.'

Chintara rolled her eyes. 'He's not the only one anxiously awaiting the latter, I can promise him that.' She glanced across the room and spied Arkady. A momentary frown flickered over her lovely face — almost too quick to register — and then she smiled at her guest. 'Ah, Arkady! You're early! Come! Brother Ostin was just leaving us.'

Nitta lowered her arm and allowed Arkady to enter the hall. She crossed the tiles to where the monk had risen to his feet, although he kept his eyes averted.

'Arkady, Duchess of Lebec and wife of our Glaeban Ambassador, this is Brother Ostin,' she said, when Arkady reached them. 'He's a follower of the Way of the Tide.'

'Yes,' Arkady agreed. 'I recognise his yellow robes. I did not expect to meet a male in the royal seraglium, Brother Ostin. Are you not bound by the same rules as other men regarding unshrouded females?'

He shook his head, surprising Arkady by answering in Glaeban. 'I have been granted a dispensation, my lady.'

'Really? A dispensation? By whom?'

'The head of his order,' Chintara told Arkady before the monk could answer. 'You may go, Brother Ostin.'

The monk took the hint and, after bowing quickly to both Chintara and Arkady, hurried from the hall, followed by Nitta. Arkady watched him leave and then turned to Chintara. 'Do you often use a third party to communicate with your husband?'

'I beg your pardon?' the consort asked with a blank look.