Part 17 (1/2)

”The life it is my right to deny you.” He sounded rather reasonable about it, even though his words were daunting. ”Do you deny that?”

Mitsu looked as if she was about to say something far more defiant, but then changed her mind.

Instead she simply stared resolutely ahead.

”You have acted in a manner that is disgraceful. That brings dishonor to your name, and to the dragon throne. Honor must be restored.”

I felt a chill gripping my spine. I didn't know where this was going, but I couldn't say I liked the drift of it.

The Imperior clapped his hands briskly three times. In a moment, three young women dressed in silk kimonos ran in quickly. They moved lightly, almost as if they were dancing upon their toes. With their hair done up identically and the same sort of makeup, they were almost impossible to distinguish one from the other.

”Your handmaids. They have missed you,” said the Imperior.

”Choose one.”

”Choose...?”

”One. To die in your stead and so preserve your honor.”

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was madness. Madness. Certainly she would say something to intercede, come up with some way to save the life of an innocent young woman who had done nothing to deserve...

Mitsu pointed at the one in the middle. ”That one,” she said carelessly, as if she were randomly picking out a frock to wear.

But... surely the handmaiden would protest. Cry. Plead for her life. Put forward her sense of betrayal, or...

The handmaiden promptly dropped to her knees, pulled out a small dagger, and plunged it into her perfect breast. ”It is an honor,” she said, and then fell forward so softly I never even heard her hit the floor.

At which point I knew I was definitely in an asylum that had been taken over by madmen.

I had gone through my life encountering people who had no sense of honor, or else possessed honor in a way that was personally convenient. Here in Chinpan, honor had been taken to the opposite degree.

It had been elevated to a point where it superseded compa.s.sion or wisdom or even basic humanity. Lifeitself had no meaning other than to lay it down at the most capricious of whims.

The Imperior didn't even glance at the handmaiden who had taken her own life on behalf of his daughter. Instead, to my gnawing horror, he turned his attention to me. ”And this?”

I waited for her to provide an explanation for me. To come up with some way of finessing a way around the obvious fact that I was like nothing her father had ever seen... which would inherently be fatal.

Silence.

”Well?” he prompted.

More silence. I risked a glance in her direction, surrept.i.tiously under one of my arms. Her lips were thinned, her face impa.s.sive.

She wasn't going to say a d.a.m.ned thing.

My mouth was suddenly very dry as I realized I was about a sentence or two away from death.

Fortunately enough, it was when I was at my most desperate that I was usually at my best.

Keeping my eyes resolutely upon the floor, I ventured, ”She does not answer, O Divine One, because she is aware that you already know the answer.”

There was a pause during which--not for the first time--my life flashed before my eyes. I couldn't say I was any prouder of it this go-around than before.

”Indeed,” he said.

”Well... of course. How could you not?” Gaining confidence, however misplaced it might have been, I said, ”After all, you are the...”

Blood from the fallen handmaiden was trickling toward me. I moved my feet carefully, trying not to be ill. ”You are the chosen of the G.o.ds,” I continued, my voice not shaking only through great effort.

”Naturally it would be unthinkable that you would not know who I am and from where I hail.”

”Yes. It would be unthinkable.” He paused. ”So tell me... what you think I know.”

”I... think you know that my name is Po. That I am an amba.s.sador from the state of Isteria, from the ruler known as Runcible.”

”And you have, of course, brought me an offering from your king.”

I froze for a moment, but then reached into the hidden compartment on my staff and extracted several Isterian coins. ”These are exceptionally valuable. Very limited in number. He wanted you to have them.”

Without looking up at him, I extended the coins. It was just a couple of sovs, nothing special. But they had the king's features imprinted upon them.

The Imperior took them and studied them thoughtfully. ”Very generous,” he said. ”And, of course...

you are able to guess how your king knew of our land.”

My brain froze. I cursed myself for a fool. That simple notion had not occurred to me. I didn't havethe slightest inkling how King Runcible--or, in point of fact, any monarch I might have served back in my homeland--could possibly have come to have knowledge of the land of Chinpan.

But then I calmed as I realized I didn't have to know. The whole point of this wasn't to cover my knowledge; it was to cover the Imperior's lack of same.

”I could not guess that, Imperior,” I told him with a carefully manufactured hint of embarra.s.sment, and a generous helping of subservience to boot. ”I am but a humble messenger. When I am told to go, I go. It is not for me to question my ruler, or to ask how he came by certain knowledge. Certainly it is enough that he know, you know, and the G.o.ds know. What matter if a humble creature such as I am aware of the truth of the matter? As long as those whom I obey know the true nature of things, that is more than sufficient.”

”As it should be,” said the Imperior judiciously. ”Rise. Rise, messenger Po.”

I was afraid to relax as I did so. For all I knew, I was being asked to stand up in order to make a simpler target for a large man with a large sword.

”My understanding,” said the Imperior, his hands folded within the sleeves of his garment, ”is that you were in the fish market with my daughter. That you were attacked.”

”That is right, Imperior.”

”By members of the Skang Kei family... they themselves allies of the Forked Tong.”

”That is correct again, Imperior,” I a.s.sured him. I sounded utterly subservient, and was perfectly comfortable doing so. He seemed to prefer it that way, and if it was going to enable me to keep myself alive, I was happy to do it.

Slowly the Imperior shook his head, his long white beard waggling from side to side, making him look like a human-shaped goat. ”It is obvious why they were there,” he said. ”They sought to attack my daughter. To take her from me and make her a prisoner in hopes that I would bow to their will.”

”b.a.s.t.a.r.ds,” I whispered in indignation.