Circle's End

by Lisanne Norman

  There was some collateral damage where missiles had caused cracks in the walls of the tunnels that opened up into the crossroads and courtyard area. These he was painstakingly researching himself and then issuing the builders orders to fill the cracks with mortar. Doing this enabled him to start compiling a map of his own of the tunnels and what was located off each one and then check them with the master plan that Telmaar had.

  He was working on this project when one of the Emperor’s black-clad bodyguards accosted him, telling him his presence was wanted now.

  “I’m covered in dust and debris. I should change before going to see the Emperor.”

  “His Majesty, Long Life be His, will not be concerned about that,” said the aide. “Just follow me.”

  “Long Life to Him,” murmured Kusac, handing his papers to M’yikku. “Carry on,” he said, following the bodyguard.

  * * *

  “Ah, there you are, Nayash,” said Kezule, getting up from behind his desk as Kusac was shown into his office. “This is a momentous day today. One that sees us seal a partnership that will benefit us both.”

  “Majesty?”

  “I have a gift for you. Delivered several days ago to my harem, she has been being trained by my own harem master, Keshti, for you. Since I knew you had no wife, and it’s time you married, I decided that one of the women entrusted to me—and a virgin, of course—would be the perfect gift to cement our alliance.”

  Struck utterly speechless with surprise, Kusac had difficulty finding anything to say.

  “Well, speak up!” frowned K’hedduk.

  “I’m stunned, Majesty,” he said truthfully. “I could not have looked for, or anticipated, such a gift from you,” which was utterly true.

  “She’s from one of the mountain tribes, captured when my men were doing a routine patrol of that region. She was out alone, so naturally they picked her up and brought her here.”

  “As they should,” said Kusac. “No worthwhile female should be seen out without a male escort of her husband or some other close male relative.”

  “Glad to hear you’re a traditionalist. These mountain women can be way too independent; they need firm handling. Keshti runs training sessions for the other court ladies from too relaxed environments, like Ch’almuth, once a week. You are welcome to have yours attend.”

  “Sounds ideal to me,” he said. “I’m sure she’ll benefit from it. Thank you, Majesty. An obedient wife is the only kind to have.”

  K’hedduk nodded. “Well, Keshti will have her here in a few minutes. You’d best take the rest of the day and tomorrow off to organize your own harem. She’ll come with a drone servant to look after her, of course. I don’t expect my Generals to have to look after their wives themselves.”

  There was a knock on the door. Then it opened to admit the male drone Keshti, head of the Palace harem and the Emperor’s own seraglio.

  “Majesty.” He bowed low before entering. Behind him came two females, one wrapped from head to foot in exotic cloth. “I’ve brought the young female as you requested, but she isn’t fully trained yet.”

  “Lord General Nayash has said he will send her to your weekly harem sessions so you can continue training her,” K’hedduk said. “Now show this prize to her new Lord.”

  “As your Majesty wishes,” said Keshti, reaching out toward the draperies covering her. With the flick of his wrist, the outer cloth was whisked aside to reveal a young female of average height, her coloring a blush of red and tiny blue iridescent scales across her face. She stood there in her long figure-clinging blue gown, swaying slightly and blinking her overly large round eyes.

  “She is still under the influence of the training drugs, of course, Majesty. It will be some time before they wear off.”

  “Yes, yes, we know that. Tell Nayash what her name is, and anything else relevant that he needs to know today.”

  “Her name is Mahzi, Majesty, and she comes from the mountains. As such, she is one of the more intelligent of the M’zullian females, on a par with those from Ch’almuth. A prize, indeed. Females like her are much sought after as wives as they confer status on the owner. Turn around, Mahzi, let your new Master see you from all sides,” he said, his tone not unkind.

  Obediently, the female turned round, her gaze passing over him with no reaction from her. In fact, there was virtually no reaction to anything in her almost lifeless face.

  “Neshol, her drone servant, has a case with the training medication in it,” said Keshti. “May I respectfully suggest that the Lord General keep his wife to be as she is now until he has finished her training. It should only take another few sessions. They learn better when under the influence of these narcotics.”

  Kusac was having a hard job suppressing the anger he felt at the young female’s plight. He couldn’t help seeing the face of Zhalmo imposed on hers and remembering what K’hedduk had done to her. Common sense suddenly took over and told him that if this female was still a virgin, then K’hedduk wouldn’t have touched her, and likely his sadistic methods of so-called training had never been used on her.

  Kusac swept a low bow to the Emperor and, as he rose from it, made sure a smile of pleasure was firmly plastered onto his face. “Majesty, this is indeed a gift beyond any I could have looked for. I can see just how advantageous our alliance is going to be. I must tell you that I’ve spent the afternoon avoiding Inquisitor Ziosh. He’s getting most insistent. How would you like me to handle him and his threats?”

  “Play him along for a while if you can, see what he tries to offer you to side with him, then just tell him straight you have allied yourself with me, Nayash. As I said, take the rest of the day and tomorrow off to settle your new female into your harem. Keshti, send a sedan for her on Fridays for your training class. Now, I really must get back to work.”

  As K’hedduk went back round behind his desk, Keshti carefully threw the length of gauzy material over the female’s head, twitching the folds into a pleasing arrangement.

  “Follow me, Neshol, and bring your Mistress with you,” said Kusac, as he bowed himself out of the room.

  Inwardly, he was seething as they made their way back to his apartment amid many curious looks. What better way to see he was kept on a short leash than by giving him a wife and a drone servant to spy on him in his own home! Angrily, he used his communicator to call up M’yikku and order him to leave the overseer of his team in charge and return to the apartment.

  “Do I even have a harem?” he wondered out loud.

  “Lord General, all Palace apartments have a harem in them,” said Neshol. “Usually, it adjoins the master bedroom. It is unlikely your late father allocated it to another purpose. We will be able to make do tonight if at least you have a guest room free.”

  “Right,” he said. “Make do tonight,” he said, suddenly realizing he had to explain this to his true wife, Carrie! Come to think of it, he had to explain it to the others. He began with a brief outline to M’yikku.

  * * *

  Once back at the apartment, he saw the drone female and his “wife to be” installed in the harem, which was unaltered as Neshol had said it would be. He left her with instructions not to give Mahzi any more drugs. Telling M’yikku to give the news to Laazif and the rest of their group, he headed for his office and shut himself in there to tell Kaid and Carrie the news.

  Not again! she fumed. I will not tolerate you having another Valtegan lover!

  Not my fault, Carrie. I didn’t ask for this, and I can’t refuse it either. We’ll just have to hope this Mahzi is willing to pretend to be my wife in return for obviously better treatment at my hands than she’d get from anyone else.

  You’d damned well better hope she is! With that, she cut the mental communication.

  I’ll do what I can to talk sense into her, Kusac, sent Kaid. There’s nothing you could have done, and when she calms down, she’ll real
ize that.

  I hope so. We’ll talk again later.

  * * *

  It was after dinner when a knock on the office door disturbed them all from their work planning a new Lordship for Rezac and their next mission.

  Flipping papers over the map, Kusac called out “Enter!”

  It was Neshol. She stood just inside the doorway to give her message. “You asked me to let you know when the drugs Mahzi was given had worn off. They have done so.”

  “Right, I’ll come with you. I need to talk to her,” he said. “Carry on,” he told the others as he left the room.

  The harem room was overdone and fussy, very feminine with ruffles and flounces on the curtains that framed the four posts of the bed. Overall though, there was an older air to it, a genteel shabbiness.

  Mahzi sat before a room heater at a small table. She was still wearing the blue dress she’d worn before.

  “You can leave us, Neshol. I’ll send for you if I need you.”

  “Yes, Lord Nayash.” She bowed before leaving.

  Mahzi stood up as he entered. “I demand you release me at once,” she said. “I’m a free female of the mountain tribes; you have no right to keep me imprisoned.”

  “I didn’t imprison you. It was the Emperor’s soldiers that found you out alone and brought you in,” said Kusac, shutting the door behind him.

  She had the grace to look embarrassed at that, and as color flooded her face, she looked away from him. “It makes no difference. I demand you return me to my family.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that. The Emperor now considers you property and gave you to me. I can’t let you go without offending him and getting into a lot of trouble.”

  “I don’t care about you—” she began.

  “You should,” said Kusac, drowning her voice out with his. “Because all that stands between you and your family being murdered by the Emperor’s soldiers is me! If I let you go, have no doubt he would get you back, and your fate would not be one I would like to imagine. Being raped by his troops is not something I’d wish on you. Meanwhile, he’ll also have put the whole village to the torch and burned it to the ground as a lesson to all not to go against his wishes.”

  “You wouldn’t let him do that!” she said, this time turning pale as ice and sitting down abruptly.

  “No, I wouldn’t, but this Emperor would do it without a second thought,” he said, taking the other easy chair and sitting down. “Perhaps we could talk sensibly now you know the reality of your situation. First, have you eaten?”

  She looked up at him, startled. “Yes, I remember they brought food for me about two hours ago.”

  “Good. You have been given to me by the Emperor to be my wife.” He held up his hand as she began to speak. “Just listen, if you please. Apparently mountain-bred females like yourself are much prized as wives by the nobility. However, I don’t want to marry you for several reasons.”

  “You don’t?”

  “No, nor do I want to take advantage of your quite obvious charms,” he said with a slight smile. “This means we have to pretend we’re married, even if we have to go through with the ceremony.”

  “We can’t do that! I’m promised to N’abui! I want to marry him!”

  “You can’t, at least just yet,” he said. “It’s vital for both our sakes that the Emperor thinks you’re married to me. We can’t afford him to think otherwise, as I’ve explained to you.”

  “I can’t. I promised him, and if I marry you, I can’t ever marry him!” She put her head in her hands and began to cry.

  “What village are you from,” he asked.

  “Nayash village,” she wept.

  Kusac got to his feet and began to pace the room. This just got better and better! Not only was she obviously the daughter of one of his tenant farmers, but she wasn’t much more than a child if he judged her behavior correctly.

  “Just stop crying, Mahzi,” he said, “Nayash village is mine. We’ll find a way round this. Tomorrow we’ll go and see the village Leader.”

  It was like the sun had come out. “We can? My Mam will be so worried. How long have I been here?”

  “I don’t know, when did you go missing?”

  “On the sixteenth or seventeenth I think.”

  “Then about a week,” he said. “I’ll leave you for tonight. If you need anything, you have a way to call for Neshol?”

  She nodded. “Lord Nayash, why are you helping me? Why don’t you want to marry me?”

  He hesitated. “Let’s just say I don’t want to be married at all and leave it at that. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  * * *

  Back in his office, he gave vent to his anger. “She’s not much more than a child, and promised to a lad in my village because she’s one of my villagers!”

  “Could you talk to her?” asked Rezac.

  “Yes, but she won’t go through a sham marriage with me because it would mean she couldn’t marry this N’abui!”

  “She thinks the marriage would be forever whereas we know differently,” said Cheelar. “We can’t tell her that.”

  “No, but we have to talk sense into her. I’m taking her up to the village tomorrow, to see her parents. She’s been missing for nearly a week; they must be beside themselves. Maybe in gratitude that I’ve rescued her they can talk some sense into her. Me threatening her won’t do any good. She’ll just dissolve into tears.”

  “K’hedduk, being the micro manager he is, will want to see you married himself,” warned M’yikku. “How can you avoid that without her agreeing to it?”

  “Get married tomorrow in the village,” said Rezac thoughtfully.

  “I’m already married, or had you forgotten that?” he asked sarcastically.

  “No, not you get married, get her married to her sweetheart tomorrow and pretend to K’hedduk you married her in the village ceremony. He’ll be mad, but there’s not much he could do about it except demand you go through another ceremony at the Palace. If that happens, it will be a sham one as she’s already married. She should agree to it in those circumstances.”

  “Even she will be able to see that she isn’t actually getting married to you,” said M’yikku.

  “All this depends on the village Leader and his wife’s support, as well as that of the parents of both these youngsters. In fact, we suddenly have the whole village in on a conspiracy to cheat the Emperor,” said Kusac.

  “It’s to save one of their own this time, not like it would be if you asked them to back you against the Emperor,” said Rezac. “By doing this, you just got them committed to helping you in the future.”

  “I hope you’re right,” sighed Kusac. “Let’s get back to planning that raid. Not for tonight, though. We’ll have to leave it for a few more days.”

  Prime world, same evening

  The Watcher ship had landed gently in the spaceport just outside the walls of the City of Light. As it taxied into one of the bays, Noni began to release the safety webbing from her bed. Not designed for passenger transport, it didn’t boast any acceleration couches other than those for the crew, but it did have nets over the beds. Grabbing her walking stick, she sat on the edge, her two bags at her feet, and waited for Tirak to come and escort her out.

  Finally, he came. “Are you ready, Noni?” he called out, rapping his knuckles on the door.

  “Yes, just come in,” she shouted back.

  The black-furred U’Churian opened the door and stepped into the cabin. “Well, we’re here at last. They’ve sent an aircar to meet you, and it won’t be long before you’re up at the Palace in comfort. It’s a warm summer night here, so you should be comfortable.” He approached her bed to pick up her bags as she got to her feet.

  “Right glad I am to be here at last,” she said. “Doubt I’ll sleep tonight. My system’s still on Sholan time and there it’s about
midday.”

  “You’ll soon adapt, Noni,” he said as they left the room and began to walk down to the exit. “Can you manage the stairs? There are no landing facilities like you get at space stations, I’m afraid.”

  “I can manage,” she said, “You go first. Then, if I trip, I got a soft landing.”

  Tirak’s rumble of laughter amused her. “Just hold onto me if you need to,” he chuckled. “Or I can carry you down if you like.”

  “You’ll do no such thing!” she snapped. “I’m perfectly able to take a few stairs down!”

  As they started down the steps, she saw that Conner was waiting at the bottom for her. He waved, and suddenly nervous, she timidly put up her hand and waved back. What if he wasn’t pleased to see her? What if they’d been apart too long? Then she was at the bottom of the staircase and staring up into Conner’s bearded face. He smiled and picked her up in a huge hug.

  “Noni! How wonderful to see you! I hope you’re planning a long visit!”

  “Put me down!” she said sharply, secretly pleased at his reaction. “You’ll scandalize everyone!”

  “It’s dark, so there’s no one here to scandalize,” he said happily, setting her back down on her feet, kissing her on the cheek, then tucking her arm through his. “Come, my dear. Time to see your new quarters and get some food into you. Captain Tirak, thank you for bringing her safely to me. Brother Jerenn will take her bags from here. If you could see to unloading the cargo, I’d be obliged.”

  “Don’t worry about the cargo, that’s my job,” he said, handing the bags over to Jerenn. With a crisp salute, he walked back to the Watcher and ran up the stairs to see to the unloading of the plants.

  Conner opened the aircar door and helped Noni into the back seat, then got in beside her, taking a proprietary hold of her hand.