Mistress of the Empire

by Raymond E. Feist

  Which of his agents, Arakasi wondered in anxiety, had been found out?

  10

  Interval

  Mara fretted.

  The debilitating effects of her poisoning passed too slowly for her liking. Two months since the event, and still she was too weak to travel. She regarded the afternoon sunlight that striped the carpet in her study, and frowned. She ought to be in the Holy City, attending the semiannual convocation of the Emperor's advisers. Frasai of the Tonmargu, the Imperial Overlord, had lost his health; some whispered in corners that he was becoming senile. The rumors were baseless, but even in his vigorous years as Clan Warchief, the Lord of the Tonmargu had ruled with an uncertain hand, trying to please divergent factions. Mara worried. With Frasai's authority crumbling, and the Imperial Chancellor, Hokanu's father, Kamatsu, hampered on all sides by traditionalist attacks that threatened not only his own prosperity, but that of his allies and supporters, this autumn's meeting could easily become a battleground.

  The bloodier days when the Game of the Council had been played under rule of a Warlord were still too recent to be forgotten.

  Mara hit her thin fist on her writing desk in an unwonted display of frustration, and arose to pace. That she was too weak to walk without the aid of a cane made her flush with annoyance. The servants who attended her needs, and even the runner boy by the doorway, turned their faces away from the emotions that played with embarrassing plainness across their Lady's face.

  But today, she was too exasperated to waste effort keeping up a proper Tsurani façade. Kevin the barbarian, had he been there, would have teased her for that. Mara felt a pang in a place she had thought hardened over with callus. 'Damn the man,' she muttered, and banged down her cane for emphasis.

  A gentle voice chided from the doorway. 'The Empire won't fall apart, just because its favorite Servant is too unwell to go to council.' Clad in little more than an overrobe dampened from sweat from his arms practice, Hokanu stepped in, the limp in his stride nearly gone. As Mara rounded on him in a fury, he caught her wrists. She had no strength; his fingers could circle her bones like shackles, she was so thin, and he had to take care not to bruise her. He spoke again with a firmness that of necessity he withheld from his grip. 'My Lady, Lord Hoppara will have things well in hand. The council will not go to pieces because you're not there.'

  She looked up, her eyes snapping. After a moment, she said, 'Stop treating me as though I were made of glass. You and I know the traditionalists will be vicious in their plotting, and not half of what happens will take place in the council chamber. Bargains will be made, terms set, and conditions agreed upon, and many who would otherwise act with caution will not, because I am not there!'

  Hokanu smiled, freed one of her wrists, and straightened a fallen wisp of her hair. As he wound it back under what he guessed was the correct jade pin, he hid his pain that her dark locks had lost their shine, and her skin no longer had the luster of corcara shell. Her dancer's litheness had gone, through her weeks in a sickbed. She still looked peaked, and not even Lujan could get her to rest through the heat of the afternoons, imperial politics aside, pretty bird, I've taken the liberty of assembling your maids. You have a visitor.'

  'Dear gods, state clothing?' Mara's fury changed course toward annoyance. 'I'll suffocate. Whose father has come this time, hoping to touch my robe hem to gain the luck to find auspicious husbands for his five ill-favored daughters?'

  Hokanu laughed, clasped her waist, and lifted her wholesale into his arms. 'How bitchy we are today. Did you know that Jican was approached by a merchant who offered him metal for your cast-off clothing? He wanted to sew the rags into ribbons to sell for souvenirs.'

  Mara stiffened in affront. 'Jican didn't tell me that!'

  'He knew,' Hokanu began, and grunted as the wraith-like woman in his arms caught him in the diaphragm with an elbow. He shifted her out of reach of a stiffening bruise gained at sword drill, and manfully continued speaking. 'Your hadonra didn't tell you. He knew you'd ask to have the poor man whipped off the estates, and he deemed that inappropriate hospitality, even for a rude schemer.'

  As her husband stepped into the hallway, Mara said a word that certainly would have tarnished the reverent image of her held by the commoners. Then she poked her husband in the arm. 'So who is this visitor that Jican and you have decided it's safe for me to see?'

  A grin spread across Hokanu's handsome face. 'You'll want your makeup. It's Lady Isashani of the Xacatecas.'

  'Here?' Mara's voice was shrill with dismay. She reached up and worriedly began to pat at her hair.

  Since that was the first moment anyone had seen her have a care for her personal appearance since her miscarriage, Hokanu silently thanked the provocative beauty who waited in Mara's best sitting room. Maybe after today the Lady of the Acoma would hear sense, and stop spending the reserves she needed for healing on frazzled nervous energy. The healing priest had judged that the antidote had rescued Mara from the very gates of the Red God's hall, and that with rest and a calm mind, it would take three months for her bodily recovery, then another to regain her full strength. But Mara's emotional state after the death of another baby and a near-miss on her own life had been anything but restful. Hokanu feared it would be longer than three months before his wife became her former self.

  An emphatic squirm from his wife reminded Hokanu painfully that her fitness had not been the only one to suffer. If he did not sweat through a hot bath, and soon, he was going to be wretchedly stiff. She interpreted his grimace, as she was wont to do.

  'You must not be long at your bath, dear man. If Isashani's come, there will be subtleties and intrigues about her as thick as perfume. It will take a handsome face to flatter the information out of her, and since I'm not male and a favorite of hers, you are placed on your honor as Acoma consort to attend.'

  Hokanu was neither so tired from his exercise, nor so deaf to nuance, that he did not hear the underlying fear in his Lady's voice. 'What troubles you, Lady? Normally you would be delighted by a visit by Lady Isashani.'

  Mara looked up at him, her eyes black in the thicker gloom of the hallway. 'The Great Game,' she murmured. 'It turns too often toward bloodshed, and once more there are rumors of a plot against the Emperor.'

  Hokanu's face went hard. 'I'll be there. But after my bath, and after you women have a chance to renew your acquaintance.' Dangerous politics might be the reason behind the Xacatecas dowager's visit; but Hokanu was damned if he would forfeit the chance to have Mara benefit from the former Ruling Lady of the Xacatecas' shrewd insight and wit.

  Mara looked like a lost waif in the enveloping weight of her finery. She entered the sitting room with small, demure steps, not for the sake of dainty appearance, but because of weakness. The luster of her emeralds and jade outshone her eyes, and the bow she gave the tall woman who awaited her presence in purple-and-gold robes was of necessity shallow and brief. Prolonged obeisance of any form would have seen her on her knees on the floor, and stubborn pride prevented her from having a serving man along to steady her.

  Lady Isashani of the Xacatecas arose from her cushions in a sweep of fine silk and perfumes. Her eyes were rich brown, and exotically slanted. Her hair had silver mixed in with its auburn, and the thyza powder she had used to burnish her distinctive cheekbones must have been mixed with sparkling bits of ground shell. The effect glittered with tiny points of light, and enhanced the milk-and-rose skin that had retained its glow of youth as if by a magician's spell. Renowned for her beauty, feared for her shrewdness, and acknowledged as a matchless manipulator, the dowager Lady of the Xacatecas hurried forward and supported Mara's elbow.

  'You're obviously not hale, my dear.' Her voice was fine-grained, mellow as the tone of a treasured old instrument handed down through generations of players. 'And formalities are wasted between friends.'

  Mara sank gratefully into deep cushions. Her own voice sounded dry as the scratch of sand as she opened with the time-honored words of greeting toward one
of higher social position. 'Welcome to my house, Lady. Are you well?'

  Isashani inclined her head, a saucy smile dimpling her cheeks, 'I thank the Good Servant for the undeserved courtesy,' she answered, her tone one of genuine pleasure at Mara's reversal of their ranks. While she was Mara's senior in age and experience, she was but a former Ruling Lady and Mara was Servant of the Empire. 'I do well enough, but you look like hwaet gruel left in the sun for the livestock. My dear, have you given up eating altogether?' That her words were direct as a spearcast did not surprise Mara, but that bluntness had unbalanced many an opponent of House Xacatecas whose wits were left muddled by the Lady's alluring loveliness.

  Mara dropped her eyes from the dazzle of gleaming violet silk trimmed expensively with gold thread, and as quickly glanced away from the tray of sweetmeats and sliced fruits left by the servants for her guest's refreshment. She evaded. 'You surely didn't come here to hear me complain of my health.' In fact, nourishment held no savor. The poison had left her stomach nervous and delicate.

  The reply from the Lady came barbed as a riposte. 'I certainly didn't come here to indulge you by watching you sulk.'

  Mara repressed a flinch. From anyone else she must interpret such rebuke as an insult; but Isashani's deep eyes held sympathy that stung her like a slap because it was genuine. She sighed, and emotion that had hardened since her miscarriage eased a little. 'I 'm sorry. I didn't realise my mood was so transparent.'

  'Sorry won't suffice.' Isashani reached out a perfectly groomed hand, selected a plate, and served up a portion of the fruit. 'Eat, or else I'll call your maids and have them bundle you straight off to bed.'

  She would, too, Mara thought, and her perfidious maids would probably obey without pause to question that the wish of their mistress might not be in accord. Isashani handled authority like an irascible field general, and folk in her presence tended to march to her tune, and think the better of their actions afterward. Since Mara did not feel strong enough to argue, she began to nibble a slice of jomach. She, too, could be direct. 'Why did you come?'

  Isashani gave her back a look that measured; then, as if reassured that Mara's inner fiber was not as depleted as her physical resilience, she poured herself chocha from the pot upon the snack tray. 'Lord Jiro of the Anasati has made overtures toward my late husband's oldest bastard son.' Her voice was hard as rare barbarian steel, at odds with her fragile beauty.

  Mara set aside her half-eaten fruit slice, unthinking. A frown marked her brow. 'Wenaseti,' she said, quietly questioning.

  An elegant nod from her guest confirmed that this was the name of the bastard in question; Isashani returned a small smile in salute. That Mara knew the name at all was impressive, since the late Lord Chipino had sampled concubines and courtesans like fine wines. His bastards were numerous as vermin, and though all had been raised in evenhanded fairness by House Xacatecas, their temperaments and characters varied like weather. The old Lord had shared his sheets as readily for beauty as for brains, and though none of the mothers he got with child had been able to successfully challenge Isashani's preeminent position as Lady and wife, some had been bitter in their defeat, and had taught their resentment to their offspring. The current heir, Hoppara, relied on his dowager mother's shrewd grasp of family politics to keep his sprawling collection of siblings and bastard relations in line.

  'It is our great good fortune,' Isashani added with a spark to her eye that suggested a sharpness of circumstance smoothed over, 'that Wenaseti is a son loyal to his bloodline. Jiro was rebuffed.'

  Mara's frown did not ease, and the glint in Isashani's glance did not soften. As second-in-command to Lord Frasai as Imperial Overlord, Lord Hoppara of the Xacatecas held a pivotal position in the Emperor's court. That he was young for such a powerful post made him vulnerable; his staunch advice and quick perception often stiffened Lord Frasai's suggestible nature to take action in time to avert setbacks from the traditionalist factions that sought to undermine reform and reinstate the abolished office of Warlord.

  Lord Hoppara removed meant a key defense lost: a dangerous step closer to bloodshed and the barely stayed threat of civil war. Something in Isashani's mien gave warning.

  Mara said, 'You've had an assassination attempt.' Isashani's face went motionless as porcelain. 'Several.' Mara closed her eyes. She felt weak to her core, pressed of a sudden by a weariness that made her long to give up the greater fight, and to narrow her hopes and her efforts toward Acoma survival in the face of perils that closed like a ring of naked swords. Yet she was Servant of the Empire, and no longer the inexperienced girl torn from service to Lashima's order to take over a beleaguered house. The enemies of the Emperor were Acoma foes also; for she was as the king post that holds the weight of a great roof. To bring down imperial rule, Jiro and his allies must first cut off her support.

  The thought that followed hard after was that the Hamoi Tong had been far too successful in its assassination attempts against friends and allies and family. For as long as Jiro ruled, the Anasati would continue to stoop to the hiring of assassins; the tong had become a liability no longer safe to ignore. Mara would never forget the horror of near strangulation, or the pain of the miscarriage brought on by poison. For the rest of her days she would suffer grief for Ayaki's death. Wrapped in bleak thoughts, Mara was made aware of Hokanu's entrance only by Isashani's words of formal greeting.

  She opened her eyes to see her husband bowing over the Lady of the Xacatecas' hand. He was self-conscious as a boy, an odd mien for a man who had commanded armies in the name of his Emperor, and whose own social grace had made Mara the envy of unmarried daughters of great houses. Yet Isashani's skills at confounding men were so facile that it was rumored that she was secretly a witch who manipulated her admirers through enchantment. Hokanu was one of her favorites, and her soft, bantering flattery set him at his ease at once. Men she did not care for had been known to stay tongue-tied in her presence for remarkable intervals of time.

  Still half dazzled by Isashani's charm, Hokanu took a seat beside his wife. He folded Mara's hand inside his own and said, 'We also are weary of playing mo-jo-go against the tong.' He referred to a card game often played for heavy stakes. 'Really, it would be a relief to us all if Ichindar would sire a son. A male heir to the imperial throne would do much to damp the fires of the traditionalist faction.'

  Isashani's dark eyes flashed amusement. 'It has been a dull few years for matchmaking, I'll agree, with every highborn son taking concubines instead of wives, in the hope of winning an imperial daughter for marriage. The parties are getting quite vicious, with so many unwed girls spitting at each other like sarcat cubs.'

  From there the subject turned to the trade war between a consortium from the Omechan Clan and a Kanazawai Clan group, which was causing Hokanu's father setbacks in the resin market. Frustrated by the resultant shortage in the production of laminated hide, the armorers' guild was on the verge of joining the fray, with the shipmasters and stevedores in Jamar upset by embargoes that disrupted sailing schedules. Since the Acoma had needra hides mildewing in warehouses in Sulan-Qu, and the Anasati did not, the consensus was that Jiro's allies were behind the disturbance. It did the Omechan no good to recall that their own disunity had provided the opening that had given the Emperor absolute power to begin with.

  Afternoon blended into evening. As Mara's weariness became evident, and she excused herself to retire, Isashani at last took her leave. Seated in her litter in the dooryard, with her bearers in place to depart, she raised her dark eyes to Hokanu and planted one last barbed comment. 'Really, young master, you had better take pains to see that your wife eats, or the gossip will go round that you are starving her to an early grave, in the hope of joining the circle of suitors who pant after Ichindar's eldest daughter.'

  Hokanu's eyebrows rose as though he had been sword-pricked. 'Lady, is that a threat?'

  Isashani smiled with poisonous sweetness. 'Depend on it. My late husband was fond of Mara, and I don't want his shade
out to haunt me. Also, my Hoppara would probably challenge you to a duel of honor over the issue, were he to see your Lady so sad. After her heroics during the Night of the Bloody Swords, he compares all the young women he meets to her.'

  'Indeed.' Hokanu's voice turned serious. 'No man in the Empire cares more for our Good Servant than I. And your visit has done more for her than you can possibly know.'

  Lady Isashani's visit at least inspired Mara to resume normal care for her appearance. She called upon the skills of her maids, and if at first her improved complexion was solely attributable to makeup, Hokanu was careful not to badger her. If she still kept long hours over her reports, she at least made an effort to eat more; and once she took up the practice of meditating in a small boat upon the lake, her pallor disappeared soon after.

  'It's very hard to worry with the water all around, peaceful under the sky,' she said, stepping ashore one evening when the afterglow of sunset turned wavelets and landscape all to gold. Holding her in his embrace, Hokanu hated to disrupt the moment. But soon enough she would find out, and unless he wished to provoke an explosion, he dared not hold back fresh news.

  'Arakasi is back.'

  'So soon?' Mara lifted her face, kissing her husband's lips with the absentee air of one already preoccupied. 'He must have heard of the attempt on Lord Hoppara before I sent out my summons.'

  The moment of warmth was cut short as the Lady hastened to meet her Spy Master. Hokanu accompanied her into the estate house, through hallways dimmed with evening shadows, and past the servants who dispersed to light oil lamps. Faintly, from one of the courtyards, came the echoes of Justin's happy shouts.