Yadan paused and then cried out,
"You, a man who could become the White Elder and rule the millions of hearts, were bought for an opportunity to have a house in Los Angeles suburbs and to work eight hours a day!"
"Get out!" Ashinik squealed.
"Have you forgotten how you talked to the gods, Ashinik? Have you forgotten how they took you alive to the sky, how thousands of ears listened to you in the way that nobody listens to anybody in this whole stupid Galaxy?"
"And what have the gods spilled out to me? That you were born out of a golden egg? That one could stop a laser ray with a spell? That Earthmen were demons? Great things your gods have told me!"
"You are a fool, Ashinik," Yadan grinned, "and Earthmen are demons. Do you know that they built this spaceport for a war between Gera and Earth and that when this war commences, it will start raining bombs on our planet. They made our world a lawn where elephants will tread and nobody will get two cents for it except Shavash who collected six million out of it! Wouldn't you call it demons' work?"
"Bullshit," Ashinik replied, "there is as much bullshit here as there is in the fable about you hatching out of a gold egg."
"Do you know that Giles works for Federal Intelligence?"
"I built this spaceport and I know that it's a civil port!"
"And do you know how much they steal there? Do you know how much of our Motherhood they rob via this spaceport?
Right then, light steps sounded in the corridor and Inis flitted into the room.
"Get out of here," Ashinik told Yadan quietly but furiously, "I am not afraid of all of you anymore."
"You don't talk to the gods anymore, do you?" Yadan grinned.
Having risen quietly, he slid by Inis to the door. Ashinik didn't notice how Yadan covertly threw a grain of yellow substance into a barely smoking brazier while leaving.
He sat on the bed with his hands wrapped about his head. Yadan's last words stung him sharply. He really didn't speak to the gods anymore. And though today's Ashinik new very well that only mad people talked to the gods, he remembered these conversations deep in his mind and he remembered that it had been a proof of him being chosen.
Inis approached him and stroked him on his head and Ashinik was surprised to see an antique necklace of bluish Assaisse pearls.
"Where have you been?" irritated Ashinik asked her.
"Well, I walked around the town."
"Where did you get this necklace?"
"It's a gift from Idari," the woman replied quickly. "I received it today in a basket."
Such a quick answer put Ashinik on his guard.
"Is it a gift from Bemish?" he bared his teeth.
Inis put her hands on her hips.
"And so what?!" she cried out, "If you don't give me beautiful things you shouldn't at least forbid other people do it!"
"You still love him, don't you?" Ashinik screamed.
"Shame on you!"
"You love him! You were just jealous of this bitch Idari! Everybody knows that she had slept with Shavash before Kissur! And then she and Bemish hit it off together! You whored with me to punish your Terence!"
Ashinik could no longer hear what he was screaming; his eyes darted wildly as if they were trying to follow something invisible filling the room. His vision became obscured by a red wavering veil that seemed to separate this place from the otherworld and it could fall apart any moment. Noises and voices were buzzing in his ears as if a TV set had fifty channels on simultaneously… Ashinik was quite familiar with this state — it used to precede an event that his brothers in sect called an "appearance of gods" and Earthmen called a fit.
"Give it to me!" Ashinik screamed grabbing the woman and falling onto the bed with her and he started tearing the necklace off. But the necklace was strong and small and it wasn't easy to either tear the thread or take it off Inis.
"You slept with him, didn't you," Ashinik shouted, "in exchange for this thing?"
"So what," Inis grinned suddenly. "Or are you going to buy a necklace for me with your stipend? What would you have become without Terence, Ashinik? Would you be entertaining a crowd at a fair with your talks about demons?"
Something exploded in Ashinik's mind and white light blazed across it and he heard a familiar voice telling him,
"Kill the demoness! Kill the demon's lover or she will get knocked up and a demon will be born that will destroy the whole world!"
Instead of tearing the necklace, his hands tightened it around Inis' neck. The woman screamed and thrashed. "Pull it! Pull it!" the voice screamed in Ashinik's mind. "Pull it, my son!"
X X X
Ashinik regained his senses only in the morning. He lay supine on the red carpet and the morning sun seeped through the blinds. He didn't remember anything except the very beginning of the quarrel.
"Inis," Ashinik called.
There was no response. "She left," a thought passed through Ashinik's mind, "she left for the Earthman!"
Somebody knocked into the door.
"Who is there?" Ashinik asked hoarsely.
"Breakfast," the answer came.
Ashinik walked unsteadily to the living room and opened the door.
A cute maid looked at him with certain sympathy — the young financier's suit was wrinkled and bedraggled and the suit's owner stood there swaying with disheveled hair and black circles under his eyes.
"When did my wife leave?" Ashinik asked hoarsely.
"I don't know," the maid answered and winked slightly at the man, "but if you need a woman…"
"Go away."
The maid rushed out of the room.
Ashinik climbed into the bathtub and washed and shaved himself recovering slowly. His recollections were becoming clearer and now he was absolutely sure that he indeed had had a fit yesterday. Damned Yadan! He drove Ashinik to it with his forked tongue. But how could Inis walk away when he was in the middle of a fit? Did she leave her helpless husband rolling on the floor?
Wincing, Ashinik swallowed two cups of coffee and walked back to the bedroom to change his clothing. Only now he noticed what he had not noticed half an hour ago — a white woman's arm on the carpet, on the other side of the bed, closer to the window.
Ashinik moved nearer and froze.
Inis lay on the carpet on the other side of the bed and the pearls set in silver were scattered all around her — the necklace did snap. A red mark darkened her neck but that was not all of it — her body was hacked and covered in blood and a knife with a bone handle lay next to her.
"Inis!" Ashinik screamed desperately clutching at his wife's face.
Ashinik stood up from his knees in fifteen minutes. He was completely covered with blood now. He swayed. His thoughts darted around like hungry mice in a cage. His memory was getting clearer and clearer. An ugly quarrel had happened at first and a fit followed it. Is it possible that he killed his wife during the fit? It's possible. The police will certainly think along these lines. It will be a gift worthy of an Emperor for Shavash…
What if it was not him? He refused to follow Yadan's orders — Yadan knows that Ashinik loses himself completely during a fit; one of Yadan's men could have been there watching them and he could have punished Ashinik for being obstinate!
It just had to have happened like that!
Though why would the sect need a scandal that would certainly hit it? The "yellow coats" will squeeze everything out of Ashinik! Does Yadan hope that Ashinik will run back to the zealots for help? "Only they can help me," Ashinik thought, "Only they can hide a corpse and hide me."
Or maybe it's not Yadan. It could be a spy of Shavash's. It could be anybody who hates Ashinik. Who hates Ashinik? The whole world hates him! His only home is the sect but the Earthmen took it away from him!
Bemish! Terence Bemish will understand him!
X X X
In seven minutes Ashinik, pale but already groomed, climbed out of a taxi at the main spaceport building. He didn't have an ID that allowed access to the servi
ce floors anymore but a manager recognized Ashinik and walked him upstairs.
Thankfully, Terence Bemish was in his office. He immediately stood up greeting Ashinik.
"Oh my God, Ashinik! What happened to you? Are you sick?"
"I had a fit," Ashinik said. "What am I saying," a thought glanced in his mind, "When they find Inis, he will immediately think about the fit. On the other hand, I am going to tell him everything…"
But at that point something beeped and whined at Bemish's belt.
"Yes," the Assalah director shouted into the receiver. Having turned it off in five minutes, he said, "Ashinik, I need to go!"
"I will come with you!"
"No, it's ok. Get yourself a coffee and I'll be back in a moment."
He disappeared through the door.
Ashinik mechanically sat down in the office owner's armchair. He was confused and deeply offended that Terence hadn't even heard him out. Several minutes had passed before Ashinik moved. It was not the first occasion when he was sitting in this armchair as the Assalah director's deputy but then he had used his own password…
When Bemish returned to his office in three hours, he didn't find Ashinik there.
"He figured out why I called him to Weia," Bemish thought. He leaned back in the armchair and dialed Ashinik's hotel room number. Nobody picked up a receiver — the room was empty. Bemish called his villa and his headman told him that the mistress hadn't arrived yet and that everything was ready for her arrival accordingly to Bemish's orders.
With a smile Bemish called the border control chief — just in case — and told him not to let Ashinik and Inis off the planet. Time and again later he blamed himself that he hadn't called police at once, though it would have made no difference by then.
X X X
In two days at five in the morning, a phone call woke Bemish up at the villa. It was Shavash's personal secretary and Bemish's heart skipped a beat because a phone call so early could be only about Inis — she and Ashinik had disappeared out of the hotel room without a trace like a rotting mushroom would disappear in the earth in the fall.
"Mr. Bemish?"
"Yes."
"Have you seen today's Blue Sun?"
"No, I haven't seen it."
"Take a look."
The secretary hung the receiver.
"Where are the newspapers?!" Bemish screamed rushing out at the terrace.
His secretary, pale with fear, handed the newspapers to him. The front page had it all, "The Earthmen are building a military base next to the capital — Weia is now a hostage in the superpowers' fight." The second page boasted another title, "The last bribe of Shavash's. What's the price of your country?" The phone rang. It was Kissur.
"Terence? The Emperor wants to see you. You should be in the Fragrant Solemnity Pavilion in half an hour."
The phone screamed again.
"I am not here, not here, I am already flying!" Bemish shouted leaping out of his bathrobe. A helicopter was beating his transparent wings at the landing field behind the white wall.
Bemish spent half an hour in the helicopter studying the damned Blue Sun, a shitty newspaper that belonged to the rebels. "I've always known that it would come to that," he thought. The newspaper lied only in the minor details. The bribe received by Shavash had actually been thirty percent higher. Terence Bemish was called "a professional spy, an experienced agent who wormed his way into the confidence of some people close to the sovereign." There was even some bullshit story about Bemish being kicked out of Gera three years ago for espionage — it didn't speak in favor of his spying skills.
They were already awaiting him in the carved halls. Sweetish smoke was rising out of the silver corollas of the braziers. The gold peacocks, cast during Empress Cassia's rule, stood on the both sides of the forbidden door and gawked at the Earthman with bewilderment and condemnation. The Emperor, confused and pale, sat in an armchair. Dressed up Shavash faced the Emperor expressionlessly and the first minister Yanik stood to the right. He was devouring Shavash with his eyes.
"How do you do, Mr. Bemish?" the Emperor said.
Bemish felt himself blushing as if he were a boy caught in a supermarket while stealing a chocolate bar and not the man responsible for the largest military scandal of the century.
The sovereign paused and added, "It's not my place to judge but, really, should the Emperor of the Country of Great Light find what you do to my country out of newspapers?"
Precisely at that moment, the doors of the golden peacocks moved apart and another character — Giles — walked in.
Bemish turned to him and said vengefully, "Well, what have I told you? We got it."
"I am very upset, Mr. Bemish," sovereign Varnazd continued, "I considered you to be an honest man. I am always wrong about people."
"Bemish has nothing to do with it," Giles said, "Our company was supposed to get the license. It took us a while to persuade Mr. Bemish so that he agreed to build it our way."
"And how much has it cost you for Mr. Bemish to agree?" the Emperor smiled.
Bemish became as red as the apples on the tapestry behind the Emperor and said, "It cost them nothing. I thought that if I had to screw around, I would at least do it for free."
"Just a moment," Giles was astonished, "What do you mean, "for free?" You received…"
Bemish turned and started walking towards Giles.
"Son of a bitch," he hissed. At that point, Shavash spoke in calm voice, "This is my fault, Mr. Giles. I took some money from you to give to Mr. Bemish but I spoke to him and he refused the money. So, I took it upon myself to keep it."
Absurdly, Giles and Bemish burst out laughing.
"I swear by god's goiter," Yanik spoke through his clenched teeth looking at the small official. But the Emperor didn't pay much attention to Shavash's confession; he was probably used to these things. The first minister started pompously, "They used to boil criminals in oil for selling the country and to crucify them on gates! How can you justify yourself, Mr. Shavash?"
"I," Shavash said, "don't see what I should justify. I signed a treaty that transformed Weia from a pebble in the Galaxy's backyard into an ally of the Federation of Nineteen and its potential member. The way the agreement is defined makes it most profitable for the Weian people. Accordingly to the treaty, three months ago we obtained a seven billion dinar credit that the first minister had conducted unsuccessful negotiations for. I made the most profitable deal for Weia in the last seven years and I made the Earthmen pay for it with a seven billion credit!"
"Well," the Emperor hesitated, "if it is indeed the case…"
"But how will this man justify his actions?" Shavash continued, "He lost his way among his bribes and he is completely incapable of performing his duties. He is ready to destroy the Empire just to destroy me with it. How will this man justify his actions when he delivered the information concerning a classified agreement to the newspapers of the heretics? How will you justify it, first minister?"
Yanik went gray in the face.
"It's not true," he muttered.
"Nonsense! I will prove that it's true and I will demonstrate how you, instead of notifying the Emperor, preferred to let the heretics know about everything!"
"Come here, Mr. Yanik," the Emperor said.
The old minister made one hesitating step forward, than another one.
"Is it correct? Who gave the information to Blue Sun?"
The official paled and his hands started shaking.
"Tell me the truth…"
"I… I…," the old man muttered, "It's the military consul of Gera… I didn't take any actions against it, but… Unfortunately, I don't know what to do…"
"Resign," the Emperor said. The old official desperately threw up his hands. Shavash banged his fist on a brazier.
"Who cares about Gera?" he cried out, "We are now Earth's ally. We should admit that Bemish's company will obtain a military commission from us! We should admit that the Empire has finally drawn a lucky num
ber after seven years of suffering!"
The Emperor faced Shavash with a sick smile.
"Should we appoint you to the first minister position?"
"Yes," Shavash said, "it will confirm that we made a military agreement with Earth and that we will not turn away."
"If Mr. Shavash becomes the first minister," Giles reached out, "Earth will consider it to be a… favorable omen. It would mean that the government's position is firm. We are ready to consider a new loan."
"Sovereign," Shavash said," I haven't taken a single bribe that was not beneficial for our people but you can't have a first minister who betrays his country and his Emperor in order to get even with his personal enemy!"
The Emperor was quiet. Everybody stood motionless. The golden peacocks stretched their necks listening to the silence. The brazier smoke quietly danced atop a sun ray. When the Emperor spoke, it seemed to Bemish that gods on the skies and demons in the underground went still listening to him.
"You are right, Mr. Shavash. It would make sense to appoint you as a first minister. Unfortunately, I can't do it."
"Why?" Shavash asked.
The Emperor raised his grey eyes at the official.
"I can't do it because you are a scoundrel, Shavash."
The official was taken aback. In another place, he would probably make a standard repartee that he had never heard that scoundrels couldn't be first ministers and he would generally comment in detail about this most childish argument. Here, he suddenly closed his mouth and blinked like a gosling.
"I will not appoint you as a first minister, Shavash, while I am alive," the Emperor continued quietly. "You are a scoundrel. When you appoint a scoundrel to such a position, in the end he always causes more harm that good for the country."
He paused and raised his eyes at Bemish.
"Great Wei, what should I do? What would you, Terence, do at my place?"
"I had an honor to present my opinion to you," Bemish answered, "And my opinion was that first ministers should not be appointed by a sovereign, but rather be appointed by the people via their duly elected representatives."
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