Already he had proven his worth. For over six months the Empire had been quiet under the iron grip of Axantucar. Since Mara's visit to the Holy City to see the Keeper of the Seal, Imperial Whites had intervened three times in what should otherwise have been a dispute between neighbouring nobles. Axantucar's justification was that the Empire needed stability, but Saric had sourly noted that somehow the new Warlord always managed to tip the scales in favour of those who had supported his rise to power. Repayment of political debts was common currency in the Game of the Council, but involving Imperial Whites in what amounted to border quibbles was excessive and showed an enthusiasm for bloodshed that rivalled the Minwanabi's.
The Acoma benefited by default, since Tasaio had been forced to assume a posture of quiet patience. As the Warlord's most powerful rival, the Minwanabi Lord needed no adviser to predict how Axantucar might react should his family find itself overextended. The man who wore the white and gold ruled as ruthlessly as his predecessor, but even more unpredictably. Even on his near-impregnable estate, Tasaio dared take nothing for granted.
The guild runner reached the steps, rousing Mara from reverie. Glistening with sweat, and clad only in a loincloth and an armband bearing his guild's insignia, he bowed. 'Lady of the Acoma?'
Mara said, 'I am she. Who sends a message?'
'No one, Lady.' The runner straightened from his obeisance and flipped back sweat-damp hair. 'For the good of the Empire, my guild sends word to all Ruling Lords and Ladies.'
For the good of the Empire . . . With that phrase the runner indicated his guild had thought this matter of grave enough importance that they acted without recompense. Concerned now, Mara asked, 'What has occurred?'
The messenger seemed not to mind that her request came without any offer of refreshment. 'Lady, the Empire stands imperilled. The gods have turned their anger upon us. The renegade magician, the former Great One, Milamber, has returned.'
Mara sensed a stir of movement behind her and knew that Kevin had joined her. In a note of rising excitement, the Midkemian said, 'Then the rift is opened once more!'
'As your slave observes, my Lady,' the runner answered, looking only at Mara. 'More. The Warlord sought to capture this magician, using allies in the Assembly. There is no clear account of what occurred, save that a battle was fought in the palace between the Imperial Whites and an army led by Kamatsu of the Shinzawai.'
The air seemed suddenly to lose brightness. Mara clutched her robe around her shoulders, unaware that her knuckles had gone white. With a calm she did not feel, for there could be no doubt that Hokanu would have marched beside his father, she prompted, 'A battle in the palace?'
'Yes, mistress.' Unaware of her personal discomfort, the messenger seemed to relish his dark news. To this end: the Warlord was pronounced traitor and has been put to dishonourable death.'
Mara's eyes widened. Dishonourable death could only mean hanging. Only two powers in the Empire could order such an execution, and Axantucar had allies among the magicians. 'The Emperor . . .?'
Barely able to restrain his excitement, the messenger confirmed. 'Yes, Lady, the Light of Heaven condemned the Warlord and now himself suspends the right of any Lord to sit upon the white and gold throne.'
In the shocked interval that followed, Mara did little but try to order her reeling thoughts. The Emperor condemning the Warlord! The event stunned, breaking as it did all former tradition and precedence. Even in times of gravest threat, no Light of Heaven had dared to act as did Ichindar.
The messenger summed up. 'Mistress, the High Council is dissolved and will not assemble without the Emperor's command!'
Mara struggled to show no surprise. 'Is there more?'
The messenger crossed his arms and bowed. 'Nothing in common knowledge. But no doubt official word should follow.'
'Then visit the kitchen and eat,' Mara invited, ‘I have been remiss in my courtesy, and would invite you to replenish your strength before you make your next call.'
'My Lady is generous, but I must depart. By your leave?'
Mara waved the young man on his way. As he hurried down the road at a run, she bent a keen look at Saric. 'Get Arakasi back here as soon as possible.'
Her urgency needed no explanation. For if the runner's news was accurate, this was far and away the most momentous event ever to occur in her lifetime. Now the rules of the Great Game were forever altered, and until such day as the Light of Heaven changed his mind, he was the absolute power in the Empire. Unless, Mara thought, with a twist of irony like Kevin's own, someone decided otherwise by killing him.
* * *
It took nearly two weeks to recall Arakasi, given the circuitous methods he insisted upon. Throughout the delay, Mara fretted, while rumours ran rampant through the Empire. Contrary to expectation, there came no official tidings of the upheavals surrounding Axantucar's execution. Yet the days dawned damp and humid, and the afternoons brought fine drizzle and showers, as they did each year at this season. Plots and speculation abounded, but the Emperor indisputably remained alive and in power in Kentosani. Word held that eight of his slaves had died of various exotic poisons left in dishes of food, and that three cooks and two imperial chambermaids had been hanged for connected acts of treason. Commerce went on, but uneasily, as if in the calm before a storm.
The oppressive weather made even fidgeting uncomfortable. Mara spent restless hours at her writing desk, penning notes to her various allies. Only missives sent to Jiro of the Anasati remained unanswered, which came as no surprise. Mara sighed and reached for another parchment, then checked the next name on her chalk slate. She dipped her nib, and the soft scratch of her pen wore away yet another afternoon.
Kevin tended to wilt in the heavy, moist air of the wet season. Less volatile than Mara when it came to intangible matters, he lay dozing upon a mat in the corner of her study, lulled by the soft tap of rain from the eaves, or by the scrape of Mara's pen. Into the grey-green gloom that lingered from yet another shower came a shadow.
Mara started upright, her breath stopped in her throat. Her movement roused Kevin, who scrambled up on a fighter's reflex, his big hands grasping for a sword that was not there.
Then the Midkemian relaxed with a self-deprecating chuckle. 'Gods, man, you gave me a fright.'
Arakasi stepped in from the rain, a heavy black robe slapping around his calves. His sandals were sodden, and slicked with bits of grass, which meant he had come in by way of the needra pastures.
Mara subsided in relief. 'You took long enough to get here.'
The Spy Master bowed, a silvery fringe of droplets falling off his hood and running down his aquiline nose. 'Mistress, I was very far afield when your recall reached me.'
Mara clapped for her maid. 'Towels,' she demanded. 'And a dry robe, at once.' She motioned for her Spy Master to sit and help himself to a cup of chocha from the tray at her side.
Arakasi poured himself a steaming drink, then bent a keen gaze on his mistress. 'Lady, I ask that you not tell anyone I am back. I slipped past your guards and took pains not to be seen.'
Which explained the pasture grass caught in his sandals, but not the reason behind it. When Arakasi did not elaborate on his own initiative, Mara was forced to make inquiry.
Her Spy Master twisted the fine porcelain cup in his hands in uncharacteristic agitation. He frowned, thought, and ignored the towels and dry clothing left for him by the maid. Still in his black, and still dripping, he said, 'My informants . . . Something may be amiss. The possibility exists that we've been compromised.'
Mara raised her eyebrows and with unerring intuition, tracked his thought to a long-past event. 'The ambush set for Keyoke?'
Arakasi nodded, ‘I think the late Lord Desio let our man escape at the time, to lull me into believing our other agents in the Minwanabi household were undetected. If so, then the promotion of one of my men to Tasaio's personal service . . .'
'Is suspect?' Mara finished as his words trailed off. She waved her hand in dismis
sal. 'Deal with that problem as you wish. If you think a Minwanabi spy may have insinuated himself upon my lands, dig him out. At this moment, I wish to know what actually happened in Kentosani.'
Arakasi sipped at his chocha. For an interval he seemed reluctant to leave the subject of a possible breach in his network, but as Kevin had settled back in his corner, and as Mara seemed rarely out of patience, the Spy Master turned to the requested subject. 'Much occurred, but little was public' Arakasi put down his cup so softly the china made no sound. 'I lost an agent in the fighting.'
Mara did not know the man who had died, and never would, but he was an Acoma servant. She bowed her head in respect, as she might at the word that one of her warriors had lost his life in her service.
Arakasi shrugged with none of his usual lightness. 'The man was simply at the wrong place when the fighting started. He was killed by a stray arrow, but the loss was regrettable. Candidates for posts in the Imperial Palace are carefully screened, and he will be very difficult to replace.'
The Spy Master was taking the loss personally, Mara realized, and despite her wish that he would address the matter directly, his lapse was unusual enough that she waited for him to resume of his own accord.
Arakasi tucked folded hands under the cuffs of his robe and seemed to come back to himself. Briskly he said, 'In any event, the magician Milamber, though banished from the ranks of the Great Ones, has returned by way of a rift.'
'Where is this rift?' Kevin interjected, suddenly not half so sleepy as he appeared.
Mara frowned at him, but it was Arakasi's look of withering scorn that caused the Midkemian to fall silent, ‘I do not know yet,' the Spy Master conceded pointedly to his mistress. 'Milamber was taken captive in the city of Ontoset, by two magicians who served Axantucar. He, two companions from his homeworld, and another Great One were taken under guard to the Imperial Palace.'
Mara interrupted. 'The Warlord took a Great One prisoner?'
'It could be argued that the two Great Ones restrained one of their fellows,' Arakasi corrected dryly. 'About the Warlord little is known, though speculation abounds. At a guess, Axantucar was not content to wear the white and gold. He may have been harbouring greater ambitions.'
'Murder the Emperor?' Mara cut in. 'There were rumours that someone tried poison.'
'Half of such hearsay is true.' Arakasi tapped his fingers, and water puddled from his sleeves onto the polished wood floor, ichindar gave that reason for the execution. And since one of Axantucar's pet Great Ones turned in his loyalties and brought testimony, who can doubt the truth of the issue?'
Mara's eyes opened at that. 'A Great One denounced him?'
'More.' Warming to his subject at last, Arakasi qualified. 'Two Great Ones, brothers, lent their aid to this Warlord, as they had to his uncle.' Mara nodded. She remembered the pair well, as they had been instrumental in proving her innocence in the tangle of conflicting accusations that had culminated in the ruin of Jingu of the Minwanabi.
Arakasi continued. 'Brother turned against brother, with one Great One now dead, and the other publicly denouncing all who conspired against Ichindar. At the moment no one moves in the Great Game, for fear of retribution. But for our own part, I judge this a time for caution. If Tasaio believes himself to be the most powerful among the Lords of the Empire, he may choose to strike.'
Mara held up her hand for silence while she thought. After a moment filled with the sound of rain dripping from the eaves, she said, 'No. Not now. Tasaio is too clever to attempt to steal a march when so many swords are unsheathed. Who commands the garrison at the Imperial Palace?'
'Kamatsu of the Shinzawai,' Arakasi replied. 'He acts as the Emperor's Force Commander, though he wears the armour of a Kanazawai Warchief, not the Imperial White.'
Mara's brow furrowed as she weighed political ramifications. 'So, for the moment we may surmise that the Alliance for War is done, with the War Party shattered as well, since only the Minwanabi dominate that faction.' She tapped her chin with a finger, then said, 'We can assume Jiro of the Anasati will distance himself from both the Omechan and Tasaio, and that the Anasati and other families of Clan Ionani will turn firmly back into the fold of the Imperial Party. No, the Blue Wheel may not be the most powerful faction, but they sit at the Emperor's right hand, and at this juncture that counts for a great deal.'
Arakasi added, 'As for the council, two attempts by Minwanabi to call a formal session have been openly rebuked by Ichindar. The Light of Heaven reiterates his command that the High Council is dissolved until he decides to recall it.'
Mara was silent a long time. 'I know there is more to this than treason,' she concluded at length. 'Something else is at play. We have had attempts upon Warlord and Emperor before, but neither ever resulted in suspension of the High Council.'
'Maybe this Emperor has more brains or more ambition than his predecessors,' Kevin offered from his corner. 'I'd stake my guess that he desires absolute rule.'
Mara shook her head. 'To take over by these methods would court revolution. If Ichindar truly desired power, to turn the council to his bidding, he would make them his dogs. The imperial court can do many things, but it cannot govern the Empire. Our system is not like yours, Kevin, with both ruling lords and their servants all subject to a king.' She made a frustrated gesture that showed such concepts were alien to her still.
'The Great Freedom,' Kevin recited. 'The law that clearly shows the relationship of each man to his master and his servant, so that no one can suffer unjust treatment.'
'A polite fiction, I am certain,' Mara interjected. 'In any event, that's not what I was speaking of; we do not have the system that allows for replacing a corrupt Lord with a noble one. If a Lord falls, his estate falls with him, and if enough of our number fall, the Empire itself must fail.'
Kevin shoved back sleep-tousled hair. 'You're saying the Empire doesn't have the infrastructure to withstand so widespread a change. Tsurani nobles are too spoiled and self-indulgent to administer their own lands unless they're also allowed to be absolute dictators. They won't do it just because the Emperor tells them.'
Mara found Kevin's comments rankling. 'No. What I'm saying is that if the Light of Heaven thinks to turn a body of rulers into no more than clerks by whim, he'll learn that ordering a thing is not the same as doing it, or seeing that others get it done.'
Kevin set his back against the wall and nonchalantly inspected his fingernails, which had dirt beneath the rims. 'I can't argue that with you.'
Uncertain why he should choose this moment to be difficult, Mara directed her attention to Arakasi. ‘I think we need to go to Kentosani.'
Suddenly still, a shape cut from shadow in his dark cloak, the Spy Master said, 'Mistress, that may be dangerous.'
'When hasn't it been?' Kevin questioned with a bite of sarcasm.
Mara waved a hand to silence him without even looking in his direction, 'I must chance that the Emperor would have no argument with a meeting of Clan Hadama in the council chambers. And if some members of the Jade Eye Party are also in the city at the same time, and we choose to dine. . . .'
But the social byplays of politics held no interest for Arakasi this day. 'These are matters to discuss with your hadonra and First Adviser, mistress,' he interjected with the slightest trace of sharpness. 'I must return to my agents and ensure that you are safe.'
Caught up in her own thoughts, Mara missed his abnormal abruptness. 'Do so,' she said in vague reference to words she had interpreted only by surface meaning. 'But I will expect you at my quarters in the Holy City in one month's time.'
'Your will, mistress.' Arakasi bowed with no trace of hesitation. As unobtrusively as he had entered, he slipped through the screen and vanished into the silvery afternoon drizzle. Still deep in thought, Mara allowed him time enough to leave unseen. Then she clapped for her runner and sent for her advisers.
The rain held almost everyone indoors, and within a few moments Nacoya, Keyoke, and Saric entered. Lujan arrived last,
smelling of the oils used to preserve laminated armour. He had been in the barracks instructing young recruits, and his sandals added to the puddles left by Arakasi's black cloak.
Without preamble, Mara said, 'Nacoya, send messages to all the Ruling Lords of the Jade Eye Party, informing them that one month from this day we shall be in residence at our town house in the Holy City. The Acoma would be pleased to host each at a lunch or dinner . . . according to rank, of course.' Almost without hesitation she added, 'Send word to all members of Clan Hadama that a meeting will be held in the High Council hall in six weeks' time.'
Nacoya paused in the act of straightening a drooping hairpin. 'Mistress, many of the Hadama Clan were allied with Axantucar. They will have little inclination to return so soon to Kentosani, despite your request.'
Mara turned a hard glance toward her First Adviser. 'Then make it clear: this is not a request. It is a demand.'
On the point of argument, Nacoya gauged the look in her mistress's eyes. She reconsidered, nodded once, and with poor grace said, 'Your will, mistress.'
From his corner upon the sleeping mat in Mara's study, Kevin regarded the evening's exchanges with a growing sense of disquiet. Something in Mara had changed, he intuited, though he could not put his finger on precisely what. Certain only that a distance had grown up between them, despite his best efforts at patience, he regarded the cold, remote look on the face of his Lady and decided. Whatever the resolve behind her thoughts, this time he was unsure that he wanted any part of knowing it. The game was no game, not in any sense he could understand. And by now familiar enough wjth the politics of Tsuranuanni, he could sense when events led to danger. Changes, he had learned, did not occur in this land except through bloodshed, and the fall of yet another Warlord promised the direst of trouble.
Empire - 02 - Servant Of The Empire Page 62
