He tried to quickly cover his wrist tattoo with his hand, but it was too late. She’d already seen it.
Amyar spoke before he could answer. It was the one thing they had not yet spoken about, even though they had been together alone for hours. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know, but he did know one thing for sure.
“Mother. He saved my life.”
“No mind. I now know why Eppon was so amenable to my putting you in his care,” she finally said.
“What?” asked Rouden.
Amyar was just as curious and confused as Rouden sounded.
The Matriarch smiled. “Eppon likes keeping his circle small. He’s had a great career in our military, but he’s never been receptive to suggestions or recommendations from me. Usually, I work through an intermediary when I want something from him or when I want him to do something. It makes things run more smoothly. In any case, he was very cooperative, unusual for him, when I told him that I wanted you to join him in Tanshar for the negotiations. He probably wanted you all along so he could use you as a hostage, but then the rebels threw a kink into the works. I should have been suspicious of Eppon then.”
“But how could you have known what he was up to, Mother?”
“It’s my job to know,” she said.
“You have a security intelligence apparatus, yes? Your people must either be incompetent or compromised then,” Rouden said.
Amyar was stunned. He’d never heard anyone talk to the Matriarch like that. If she were surprised or offended, she didn’t show it. Instead, she scrutinized Rouden through her amber-colored eyes. For his part, Rouden appeared to have become more relaxed. Amyar had to admit that he admired Rouden’s ability not to be stunned by anything, even royalty.
“I agree, but first we must deal with the most immediate issue.”
“Which is?” Amyar felt like he should be able to guess, but there seemed to be so many issues that needed attention.
“Stopping Eppon and his cabal, including and especially that viper Timendum.” When she said her cousin’s name, her lip curled in disgust. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. That branch of our family was always problematic. I have at times doubted that Timendum is really Thasali at all.”
Amyar was shocked at how she talked about other Thasali family members, particularly in front of Rouden, who was not only a stranger, but someone who’d been working to push Thasali out of Tanshar. Thasali loyalty was highly prized. He’d never heard any member of his family speak disparagingly of another family member.
“One more thing, Mother. The other man involved… Lerion. Does that name sound familiar to you?”
The Matriarch didn’t reply. Instead, she pressed a button under a table top. A moment later, the plain-looking woman, his mother’s personal assistant, entered. Amyar again was amazed that someone so unprepossessing could have caught and held his mother’s attention for so many seasons. He couldn’t even remember her name. The Matriarch asked the woman to find out what she could about a man called Lerion.
After the woman left, Rouden asked, “Does Eppon know you’re here?”
The Matriarch regarded Rouden with what Amyar read as grudging respect. He was taking a risk speaking so freely, and it was paying off.
“I hope not, although, given that he’s been able to keep his plan a secret from me all this time, I wouldn’t be surprised if he does know. It seems that his people may not be as incompetent or compromised as you suggested mine may be,” she said. She hit the button again. This time Leardic walked in with food.
It all smells so good, thought Amyar.
His mouth started watering, and he realized how famished he was, not just for food but for food that was not bread and beans. As grateful as he was to Rouden for keeping him fed during his captivity and their journey, he was glad not to see beans or hard, stale bread on the plates when they were brought in. Instead he saw burninga yogurt. The raw milk from this animal was an ingredient in natash, a drink for poor people in some regions of the planet Oranto, but when fermented and processed it made the richest yogurt. He saw flap cakes so thin and delicate that they look like lace. These were dressed with pagvee berries and syrup from the Omple tree. It was all accompanied by smoked tralicot fish and fresh Tanshar water.
Amyar took large bites of everything. He’d never felt so hungry. This triggered a scowl from his mother and a worried look from Rouden.
“What?” said Amyar. “It’s all so good! This is the best food I’ve ever had!”
“Son, don’t chew with your mouth open. We have issues to discuss.”
They discussed Eppon and how he might be stopped, eventually coming to the conclusion that they needed to get to the Thasali military compound near Tanshar’s capital. There they would most likely find Timendum and others involved in the plot.
“Rouden, what is your place right now in the rebel movement?” the Matriarch asked.
“I don’t know. We ran into some rebels on the way here who thought I had been kidnapped, but I may be a marked man. Wyke may have figured out what really happened and put a price on my head.”
“I’d say none of us is assured safety no matter what course we take,” Amyar added.
Silence settled once again on the meal. They finished eating and the Matriarch signaled for the dishes to be taken away. After the servant had left, she revealed her plan.
“Rouden, you will be a harem boy once more.”
He gasped and protested. “No, I won’t. I left. I won’t go back.”
The Matriarch pointed at his tattoo. He pulled his arm away and covered the tattoo with his hand.
“This is the only way to keep you safe with us. I wouldn’t want to have you accidentally executed by either us or the rebels, especially since Amyar seems so smitten with you.”
A part of Amyar felt that bit of despair he remembered feeling when he wondered who he could trust after overhearing Eppon’s plans for Tanshar and for his family, but it wasn’t as sharp as it had been then. At least now he wasn’t alone. There was his mother, of course, but most of all, there was Rouden. He was falling in love with the scruffy rebel. Or was he really a harem boy? People left the harem all the time. No one was a hostage, but it was increasingly clear that the harem left more of a mark than just a wrist tattoo.
Rouden stood and began pacing. Amyar held his hand out to him.
“What is it?” asked Amyar.
Rouden took a quick glance at the Matriarch before taking Amyar’s hand in his hands. “I was just thinking about something.”
“Tell me,” Amyar said.
“I know I should think about the task immediately ahead, but I can’t help wondering if I’ll ever be able to go back to the rebels. They’re my people.” A deep sadness crept across Rouden’s face. “But they already suspected me of being a Thasali spy because of my time in the harem. What now?”
The Matriarch said flatly, “After this, there may be no place for you in Tanshar at all. If they already doubted your loyalty, then helping my son, helping me, will cement their view of you as a traitor.”
Amyar felt Rouden’s grip on his hand tighten slightly.
“I’ve always been Tansharian! My time in the harem didn’t change that. Helping your son hasn’t changed that. I helped him because I thought that my fellow rebels’ plan to murder him would be bad for us and for Tanshar now and down the road,” Rouden said. “And it’s just plain wrong.
“That isn’t the only reason you helped my son. Is it?”
Rouden shook his head.
Pleased, Amyar brought Rouden’s hand to his lips and kissed it.
“I respect your loyalty to your homeland,” the Matriarch said. “I can even respect your loyalty to the cause for independence, but don’t expect your rebel friends to take that loyalty into account when you do see them again. If they know you helped my son and helped me, that could very well be something they can never forgive you for.”
Rouden’s shoulders fell. He pulled his hand away from Amyar’s
and let out a deep sigh.
The Matriarch stood. “Now, we must get to the compound and fast.”
Rouden let out an abrupt laugh. “How will we do that without being seen by the rebels or Thasali soldiers?”
“The same way that I was able to get here—by hoverskip.” She looked pleased and determined.
Rouden looked puzzled.
“Is it like the hovertrain?” Amyar asked, excited.
“It is, but smaller, of course. It’s big enough for us, though,” she said.
“What are you talking about?” Rouden asked.
Amyar realized that Rouden had probably never seen a hovertrain or hoverskip. They were still new to Amyar, too.
“You’ll see. We don’t have time to explain now. We need to get going,” he said.
Rouden and Amyar decided to change back into the Tansharian rebel clothes they had worn to the palace. If confronted by rebels, they were just loyal Tansharians. If they ran into Thasali, Amyar was a prince and Rouden was a harem boy so special that he got to leave Resedna. Rouden kept scratching at his harem tattoo, but he otherwise seemed more comfortable.
Of course, the Matriarch was the Matriarch.
But she surprised Amyar by emerging from her room looking less regal than usual. She was wrapped in a voluminous, slightly coarse material that was dusty brown in color. There were a few pale dirt smears on her face, muting her usual makeup. Wisps of yellow hair stuck out of her brown head wrap.
“Where did you get that?” Amyar asked, touching the large poncho-like garment.
“A gift from an ambassador from one of our more far-flung possessions,” she said. “It will be a kind of cover. The average Thasali can’t tell Tansharian clothing from Pontrucan, so this should work.”
A look of disgust crossed Rouden’s face, but the Matriarch didn’t appear to notice.
“Are you sure you don’t want your people to recognize you?” said Rouden.
“I’m sure. We won’t get very far if they do,” she said. “Besides, if I don’t want to be recognized, I won’t be.”
Amyar found this a curious thing to say. The Matriarch’s likeness was ubiquitous in Resedna, on coins, boxes of sweets, on portraits that hung in every school. Her face was hard to escape. How she thought her own subjects wouldn’t recognize her mystified the prince.
She eyed Rouden critically. “Perhaps you should clean your face.”
“What?” Rouden asked, incredulous.
“Unless you want to be recognized and probably shot on sight by my soldiers, you’ll remove your facial hair. You’ll look cleaner, more like a proper harem boy.”
At that moment, the Matriarch’s assistant returned.
“Your Royal Highness, Lerion is a code name for a member of your intelligence service whose name is listed as Stymer Toten. He is a long-serving member of the service, ma’am,” the woman said. “Before he joined the service, he worked in the Timendum household staff.”
“He worked for my cousin,” the Matriarch said softly.
“My younger brother said he had heard the name Lerion before, but he wasn’t sure where. If my brother has heard his name, then that could mean that he’s had some dealings with us,” Rouden said.
Amyar could see how concerned Rouden was about the possibility that the rebels could have been infiltrated by a Thasali spy.
“Or it could mean that the rebels are simply aware of him because of his work for my family,” Amyar said, trying to allay Rouden’s concern.
“You really do have a lot to learn, my son. Your rebel friend is right to be concerned. If this Lerion has had contact with the rebels, then the rebel movement is compromised, perhaps fatally,” the Matriarch said. She thanked her assistant and dismissed her.
Amyar could see Rouden working his jaw. It clenched and unclenched. Amyar sought out his hand and held it. They left the room to make their way to the roof.
Chapter Sixteen
To the Hoverskip
Rouden hesitated getting on the hoverskip. He’d never seen anything like it in his life. The gray walls were smooth and shiny. It seemed to be resting on nothing. It just hung there in the air. He finally got on it when he saw Amyar step through the door and disappear inside.
The interior was more complex and spacious than the exterior had led him to believe. A driver sat at the front. Rouden settled into a seat next to Amyar. He remembered this kind of comfort from when he was a harem boy. He reminded himself that this was only temporary and no matter what happened, he was loyal in his heart and head to Tanshar. He glanced around and touched the burnished green metal that framed the small window. It was cool. He felt a vibration, most likely the thrum of the skip’s engine. He leaned over to Amyar.
“Have you ridden in anything like this before?” he asked in a low voice.
Amyar shook his head. “Not this one. There’s a bigger one, a hovertrain. It’s only used by the military. It’s longer than this one and more people can ride in it.”
“That explains it,” Rouden said.
“Explains what?”
“Why you weren’t afraid to walk right into this thing.”
“Were you afraid?” The prince seemed incredulous.
Embarrassed and defensive, Rouden said, “Not really. Just a bit unsure.” He had been a little afraid, but he didn’t want to admit that, certainly not to Amyar or his mother.
The Matriarch sat in the front next to the skip’s pilot, who rattled off numbers and names Rouden didn’t understand.
“Your Royal Highness,” said the pilot, “I’m getting a message from the guards. They just apprehended someone, a Tansharian rebel, at the front gate. They say he showed up and asked to speak with you directly.”
“They can hardly have apprehended him if he presented himself voluntarily at the front gate,” the Matriarch said.
“Of course, your royal
“What does this rebel want?”
Rouden wanted to know this, too. What rebel would simply walk up to the country palace’s front gate and ask to speak to the Matriarch? Barely anyone even suspected she was here.
“Your Royal Highness, the rebel says he is the brother of the Tansharian who’s already here,” the pilot said.
The Matriarch turned in her seat and looked at Rouden. She looked annoyed. He was shocked.
“Your brother? Do you rebels make a habit of dropping in on me whenever you please?”
“I’m as surprised as you are. He said he was going back to his unit after he left me and your son to make our way here,” Rouden said.
“Mother, we should hear what he has to say. He’s good at getting information,” Amyar said. “If he’s here, there’s something we need to know.”
She turned back to the pilot and said, “Tell the guards to bring the rebel to me. Turn off the engine. We’re not leaving yet.”
“Yes, your royal highness.” The pilot relayed the Matriarch’s orders.
Rouden, Amyar, and the Matriarch got out of the hoverskip as four guards escorting Ingus came into view on the roof. Rouden ran to them. Ingus was not being restrained. Rather, he was surrounded. Two of the guards blocked him just before he got to his brother.
The Matriarch waved her hand, and the guards stepped away just far enough for Rouden to give Ingus a hug, but the guards stayed close.
“What’s going on, brother? Why are you here?”
Ingus’s attention was distracted by the hoverskip. “Good gods, brother! What sort of machine is that? What have you got yourself into?”
“Later, Gus, later. Tell us what brought you here.”
“That name the prince told us. Lerion. I knew I’d heard it before. I was on my way back to my unit when I encountered your comrades first. Only Ankran knew me, but he didn’t give me away as your brother. He told me that Wyke and Alban were meeting with one of our spies to learn about Thasali troop movements. I asked him to show me. Rebel spies aren’t likely to know each other, so I was curious to see who it was. Ankran took me to the ro
om where they were meeting. We didn’t go in, but I could see from the door, which was open a little. He pointed out Wyke and Alban, and then told me that the third man in the room was called Lerion.”
Ingus stopped talking as if he wanted to give them the chance to digest this information.
“Young man, we’ve learned that this Lerion is a member of my intelligence service,” the Matriarch said.
Ingus looked as though he’d been punched in the gut. “What? He works for you? Did you send him to sow chaos in our movement?”
Before he could lunge forward, two of the guards took hold of Ingus’s arms. Rouden couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Ingus so angry. He was angry, too. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Matriarch shake her head. The guards let go of Ingus but kept close to him.
“Brother, we don’t know that for certain.” Rouden placed his hand on Ingus’s arm. “What we do know is that one of her generals and one of her cousins are working with this Lerion to steal Tanshar’s water and overthrow her. We must stop them.”
“I assure you I have nothing to do with Lerion doing whatever it is he is doing,” the Matriarch said. She spoke with venom in her voice.
Ingus pointed at her. “Why should I trust you? Hard to believe that you wouldn’t know what’s going on in your own palace.”
“Hold on there. As your brother said, we don’t know everything yet,” Amyar said.
Ingus turned on Amyar. “You don’t know anything. None of this matters to you. You’ll always be all right! You won’t know hunger. You won’t know thirst. You never will!”
Rouden stepped in between his brother and his lover, but Amyar wasn’t done yet.
“You don’t know that. I don’t know even know that. Before you interrupted us, we were on our way to get answers,” Amyar said. “You should come with us. We could use your help. And you’ll help Tanshar, too”
“Where?” Ingus asked, still sounding suspicious.
Rouden said, “We’re going to the Thasali military compound.” He took his place next to Amyar and took his hand.
“Have you gone off your mind, brother? They’ll murder us on sight! How are we going to get there in time to stop the coup you say they’re planning? Everyone will want us dead.”
Tales of the Thasali Harem Box Set Page 29
