The Novels of the Jaran (158 page)

“What man would wish to marry a stained woman?”

“If she is the king’s cousin—? Might there not be some advantage to such an alliance?”

“What is a stained woman?” asked Mitya. “And anyway, I’m to marry the king’s cousin, the princess, the one they sent out to my grandmother to foster until we’re of age to marry. Bakhtiian says that if we mean to hold these lands for our children and our children’s children, then we must weave ourselves into their hearts and into their laws and into their royal families as kin.”

“Mitya,” said Jiroannes suddenly, “I would be honored above all things to be asked by you to attend your court as ambassador.”

Mitya smiled, looking heartened and pleased all at once. “I’d like that,” he said, with the casual arrogance that characterized his people. Of course they expected the world to bow down to them; hadn’t the gods granted them a heavenly sword with which to conquer foreign lands? Weren’t the khaja falling before them like the wheat trampled beneath their horses’ hooves?

They separated at the outskirts of camp, and Jiroannes rode with his two escorting guards to his own encampment. Once there, he called Lal to him.

“Bring me the woman,” he said, and he went inside his tent to conduct the interview.

Lal brought her. She now wore Vidiyan silks, bright-hued, brocaded with peacocks intertwined with flowering vines. She cowered in front of him, kneeling, head bent. Her hands lay folded, trembling, in her lap. Her complexion was pale and spotless. The skin of her hands was so soft that Jiroannes felt that just by rubbing it vigorously between his own hands he could chafe it and redden it. Under the silks, he knew that her body, shaved clean of all hair, was as silkily smooth as that of the finest concubine in Vidiya, where such women were raised from childhood and pampered and scented and oiled and bathed to a fine perfection fitting for a nobleman’s use. But now he knew that this woman—the Javani—bore these marks not because she was a slave bred to concubinage but because she was of noble rank.

She did not look up at him. Stillness masked her expression. He could not read her at all, but he knew she cried a little, every night, and then wiped her tears away.

“Syrannus,” he called, “bring ink and paper. I wish you to take a letter to my uncle.” Syrannus entered and sat on a stool, parchment laid over a board balanced on his knees. “Syrannus, how much of the Habakar tongue can you speak?”

“A little, eminence. Perhaps Lal speaks more.”

“Umm. Lal, ask this woman who she is.”

“The Javani,” she answered in a stifled voice when Lal put the question to her in halting words.

“Ask her if she escaped the burning of Hazjan.”

At the name of the city, the Javani burst into tears, a sudden and copious weeping that surprised Jiroannes. She cast herself facedown on the carpets and blurted out a long string of sentences, groveling at Jiroannes’s feet.

“What is she saying?” he asked Lal and Syrannus.

The boy and the old man regarded each other. In low voices, they debated, and at last Syrannus nodded and turned to his master. The Javani lapsed into silence. Her hands lay gripped in fists and her eyes were leaden with tears. Her black hair had slipped free of its veil and now spilled onto the carpet in disarray. Jiroannes loved her hair, and he found that the sight of it here, unbound, naked, aroused him.

“Eminence,” said Syrannus, “we cannot be sure, but we are agreed that she is lamenting that she did not die, or could not die, or was afraid to die. Perhaps that she is ashamed that she preferred to live in shame rather than die honorably. But it is difficult to understand and unlikely in any case that a woman could entertain such masculine sentiments.”

“Yet most men would have chosen to die, rather than live in disgrace,” said Jiroannes thoughtfully, staring at the curve of her body under the soft silken fabric of her robes. “A woman might easily be weak enough to fear death more than shame. Still, I wish you to take a letter to my uncle, asking him for his permission to marry.”

“His permission to marry?”

“Yes. I wish to marry this woman. Once I have ascertained that she is indeed who I believe her to be: a Habakar noblewoman of the royal line. With such an alliance, Syrannus, I can bind myself both to the Habakar royalty and to the advantages we can find there through trade with Vidiya, and to the young prince, who is going to marry into their family as well. If it is true that she was once a holy woman, then I can’t in good conscience keep her as my concubine. And no one else will have her, whether as slave or concubine or wife. I think we can find both profit and blessing in this transaction. Lal, see if you can make her understand what I mean to do. Then take her away and see to her. And—” He hesitated.

“Certainly, eminence,” said Lal, “if she is to be your wife, she cannot be expected to share a tent with a slave.”

“Of course. Just what I was about to say. See that Samae is lodged somewhere else. Samae can act as her handmaiden for now, but I think—” He bit at his lower lip.

“Perhaps, eminence, I can find a woman in the guards’ camp to act as her body servant. That way she may have a woman of her own people as her companion.”

“Ah, a fine idea, Lal. But not a peasant woman. Indeed, perhaps one of the merchants left in the suburbs has a niece or daughter he would be willing to sell into our service.”

Lal knelt beside the woman and, like a handler coaxing a spooked horse, spoke to her gently and soon enough led her out of the tent. Syrannus’s pen scratched across the parchment. Jiroannes leaned back in his chair and sipped contentedly at the cool sweet tea Lal had brought him earlier.

“When you are done, Syrannus, we will go ask for an audience with Bakhtiian. No, with Mother Sakhalin, I think.”

“With Mother Sakhalin, eminence?”

“You don’t think I’m fool enough to marry her without getting permission from the jaran, do you? Or at least without advising them of the situation? Not while we live in their power. If they come to think well of me, then there will be fewer obstacles in my path four years from now.”

“Four years from now, eminence?”

Jiroannes felt a surge of pleasure, seeing Syrannus at a loss for once. Always, before, he had felt that Syrannus knew better than he did what was going on; now, at last, Jiroannes felt that he was beginning to control his own life, to build his own destiny. There was more to life than a Companion’s Sash. There was a greater world than that contained in Vidiya. Jiroannes intended to rise as high as he could, no matter how far it meant he had to travel. He had grown up in the Great King’s court. And now he had seen the jaran. He was no fool. He could see to whom Heaven had granted her favor.

And what if the jaran collapsed and their conquests were scattered to the winds? What if the Habakar king or his nephew regained his lands? Well, then, Jiroannes still had possession of the Javani, “the king’s ear and mouthpiece.” Either way, he would benefit.

“Syrannus,” he added, rising and pacing the length of the tent and back again, “we will go first to the Habakar priests. I know there are some in camp, hostages, guests, whatever they are called. They must identify her and give their blessing, and then, armed with that knowledge, we can present our petition to the old woman. Yes. Yes. This will do very well.”

Syrannus’s pen marked the parchment with his flowing script. Jiroannes sat back down and drank his tea.

CHAPTER TWELVE

“N
OW WHAT?” ASKED DAVID
of the little council gathered in Charles’s tent. “By Rajiv’s calculations, the actor is 24.7 kilometers away from us, up in the hills.”

“And,” added Maggie, “we’ve got a shuttle available for rendezvous anytime in the next three days. It might have been possible to distract Grekov, but Nadine doesn’t miss anything. I don’t see how we’re going to manage bringing down the shuttle
and
picking up Hyacinth, especially with her eagle eye upon us.”

Inside the tent, there was room enough for them all to sit in the wood and canvas folding chairs that Charles favored, although Marco stood and Jo lounged on the floor. Rajiv sat hunched over the table, manipulating data on the modeler sunk within the table’s surface.

“I’ve plotted their course,” said Rajiv, “and it’s not unreasonable to predict that they’ll move another five to ten kilometers northeast tomorrow, which, depending on our course, could put them within ten to fifteen K range of us. But our paths will begin to diverge in another two days.”

“Landing sites?” asked Charles.

Rajiv brought up a flat geological map that took over the entire smooth surface of the table. It was detailed to the ten-meter range, shaded to show elevation and vegetation and water patterns. “I’ve marked them here. But given that it’s a Chapalii shuttle, we’ve got a fair amount of leeway. They can land with relative silence and minimal damage in most terrain.”

“Why is the actor staying up in the hills?” asked Jo. “Wouldn’t he be safer traveling north down through this valley?”

“Not if he’ll get executed if he’s caught,” said Marco. “What about the people with him, Charles?”

Charles steepled his fingers together and rested his chin on his fingertips. “Difficult to know. Hyacinth and his stolen gear will have to come with us, of course. His companions can either travel on, on their own, or—No.” He shook his head.

“We can’t give them our protection?” asked David. “It’s ridiculous that they were punished so severely for homosexuality. It isn’t even a crime. But I suppose it’s all of a piece, when you consider how primitive this planet is.”

“Why, David,” said Marco, “you’re singing a different tune these days.”

David shrugged.

“If we give them our protection,” said Charles softly, “then what becomes of them once we leave? As we inevitably will. I’ve thought of that, David, but I don’t see how we can manage it. Still, they’re the least part of our problem. We need to bring in that shuttle and transfer the medical equipment for Cara onto the pack animals. Without alerting our escort.” Charles grinned suddenly. David had long since realized that Charles enjoyed himself most when he confronted a seemingly insolvable problem. “Any suggestions?”

“Kill them all,” said Marco facetiously. “That solves the problem.”

“Except we have to explain it to Bakhtiian once we arrive at the army. Anyone else?”

“Well,” said Jo, “that’s not so far from the mark, though, Charles. We have to render them unconscious somehow. Drug them. I don’t know. So we can send out an expedition to bring in the actor and pick up the supplies.”

“But how do we explain how we found Hyacinth?” demanded Maggie.

“As you see,” said Charles, “this kind of masquerade gets more and more difficult to bring off. Jo, can you drug them?”

“Probably. But how do we explain it to them when it wears off? They’d wonder, surely.”

“Wait a minute,” said David. “You know these people drink like fish. Get them drunk, add just enough of a dose of—whatever—to make them sleep late and wake up with terrible hangovers. If we can get within ten K range of Hyacinth, that should give us enough time to pick him up and rendezvous with the shuttle, and get back by mid-morning. If we leave before dawn. Don’t you think?”

They all regarded him openmouthed, all except Charles. Charles rose and paced over to the table, placing his hands palm open, flat, on the surface, examining the topographical model laid out before him. “That’s perfect, David. Perfect.”

“I admit it might work,” began Maggie.

“Mags, your praise overwhelms me.”

“Quiet, you. But what possible reason do they have to get drunk in the middle of a long trip south? And at the pace we’re riding, too?”

Charles straightened up. He smiled. “A perfect reason. We haven’t celebrated Nadine Orzhekov’s marriage yet. Remiss of me, as her host. We’ve made good enough time that I can excuse an early stop tomorrow, and a late morning start the day after.”

All of David’s triumph in thinking up a brilliant idea burned away to ashes. Charles was right, of course: celebrating Nadine’s marriage provided the perfect excuse. It didn’t mean he had to like it. “Well, if that’s settled,” he said brusquely, “I’ve some things to attend to. Are we done?”

Charles glanced once, sharply, at him, but mercifully only nodded. David escaped out into the camp. He strode out to the fringe of camp, to the screen of straggling trees that hid the pack train. The animals grazed peacefully, some hobbled, some on lines. Packs stretched in neat rows along the ground. About one hundred meters away, a mob of horses milled beside a pond, jostling for drinking space. Three jaran riders supervised this chaos. David recognized two of them instantly. One was the quiet boy, Vasha. The other was Feodor Grekov.

He sighed. Was this what it meant to be in love? Purely, simply, David was jealous of Feodor Grekov. In the ten days since Nadine had rejoined their party, David had found it impossible to address the young man with any semblance of politeness, so he avoided him instead. Only Marco twitted him about it; perhaps only Marco noticed. No, Charles must know. Charles knew everything. But by and large, Charles respected privacy to an almost extravagant degree since he valued it so keenly for himself. Now David had leisure to reflect on Bakhtiian. No wonder Bakhtiian had looked daggers at him, all those months ago, thinking that David had slept with his wife. Then, David had feared that he had violated some taboo. Now he understood that Bakhtiian’s anger stemmed from jealousy, from possessiveness, perhaps even from fear. And why shouldn’t Bakhtiian be afraid? Tess belonged to David’s kind, she belonged to Earth—to
Erthe
—not to the jaran.

Only, maybe she didn’t. Maybe she did belong to the jaran now. Or at least, for now, for a time. Nadine didn’t belong to the jaran; that was one thing that angered David. Nadine deserved better, deserved more than to be a brood mare for her uncle’s convenience. She wanted more.

“David!” The voice made him wince. He spun, to see that he had not been paying attention well enough. If he had seen her coming, he would have fled. She grinned down at him from her seat on her horse. Dusk shadowed her, but she seemed cheerful enough. “Walking sentry duty tonight?” she asked. If she knew that her husband rode herd on the horses close by, she gave no sign of it. “I just spoke with the prince. I don’t suppose, since he insisted, that I can refuse the honor of a celebration given by him.”