Part 21 (1/2)
”What the fat man did was a crime against G.o.d Himself....”
”No, Habibullah.”
The amba.s.sador turned.
Yasmid said, ”You hate him because he made a fool of you.” To Ragnarson, ”The men of my people can forgive a wound, an insult, a murder. Habibullah has. But he can't forget the pain of being made a fool before his friends in the Invincibles. No.
Habibullah, admit it. He told you those stories and showed you those tricks, and you believed he was your friend. You spoke for him to me. And he tricked you. That's why you risked another war to get him.”
”Who are you? Marshall?”
Ragnarson smiled, licked his lips. ”Mr. Habibullah, I think you suspect already.”
Yasmid dropped her veil.
Habibullah stared. And it wasn't her boldness that astonished him. ”No. This's some trick, Marshall. Have you leagued with the minions of h.e.l.l? You call up the dead to mock me?”
”I think Habibullah was in love with me. I didn't realize it then. I think a lot of them were.”
”My Lady.”
Ragnarson gaped as Habibullah knelt, head bowed, and extended his arms, wrists crossed. It was an ultimate gesture, the surrender to slavery.
Ragnarson could no longer doubt her genuineness.
”Rise, Habibullah.” She replaced her veil.
”What would My Lady have of me?””Speak honestly with the Marshall.”
”I've gotten what I needed. Except this: Can you escort the lady to her father?
More successfully than you did my friend?”
Habibullah became El Murid's amba.s.sador once more. ”Why?”
”I've got no use for your boss. I wouldn't shed a tear if somebody stuck a knife in his gizzard. The world would be better off. That's why I don't bother bin Yousif any more than I have to to keep the peace with Hammad al Nakir.
”But that peace is critical to me now, with s.h.i.+nsan sticking its nose into Kavelin.
I'm grasping at straws. I need my flanks free. Yasmid implies that she'll be the go- between in arranging a truce between her father and her husband.”
”Her husband?”
”Bin Yousif. You didn't know?” Got him now, Ragnarson thought.
”It's true,” Yasmid said. ”And it was my choice, Habibullah.” She explained how she had engineered the recent peace.
”Unlike the Marshall, I'm not concerned with s.h.i.+nsan. But I'll play his game to keep my men from murdering each other.”
”Are there children?” Habibullah asked. ”He mourns the fact that he has no grandchildren. The wars cost him that hope.”
”A son. Megelin Micah bin Haroun.”
”That would please him.” El Murid's name had been Micah al Rhami before the Lord had called him.
”It would make more sense to send your son,” Ragnarson observed. ”That way each princ.i.p.al holds the other's child hostage.”
”No. Megelin would murder his grandfather.”
”The risks should be equalized.”
”I've decided, Marshall. I'll take the risks.”
”Amba.s.sador?”
”Yes?”
”Will you escort her? Or are you committed to this war you've made almost inevitable?”
”I haven't kissed the Harish dagger. I didtft realize the results would be so grave. One fat man. A nothing, from the slums. Who'd notice? Who'd care? I still don't understand.”
”And I don't understand why you want him after so long.”
”I'll do it. For the Lady Yasmid.”
”Good. Let me know how it goes. Oh. A favor. Whenever you get another wild hair, get approval from Al Rhemish.”
Habibullah smiled thinly. ”My Lady?” He offered a hand. ”Is there anything else?””No.” She rose.
”Then we'll go to the emba.s.sy. We'll leave as soon as guards can be a.s.sembled.”
Ragnarson saw them past the door of Derel's office. Already they were playing remember when.
He settled in to wait for Oryon, Valther and Mist. He should get at that paperwork.... Instead, he closed his eyes.
It was strange, the twists fate could take. So Haroun had a wife. Amazing.
FIFTEEN: The Stranger's Appointment
They jumped him when he left the inn. There were three of them again, and this time he wasn't ready. But they weren't professionals.
He was.
The plain-hiked sword made a soft schw.a.n.g sound as it cleared his scabbard.
One of them knicked his arm, but that was it. They weren't very good. Peace had reigned for a long time in Hammerfest. He cut them up and laid them down in twenty seconds, before they could scream for help.