The Emperor

by Norman, John;

  There was the blow of a boy’s switch and a cry of pain from a slave. “Do not touch the food,” he said.

  “I am hungry, Master!” she wept.

  “You are a beast,” he said, striking her twice more, sharply. “You will be fed, if fed, only as a beast is fed, only as its owner sees fit.”

  “Yes, Master,” she said. “Forgive me, Master.”

  Food was given, by hand, to some of the slaves kneeling beneath the tables, which provender they took eagerly.

  One slave was cast on her back across one of the tables. Others found themselves put to the pleasure of their owners beneath the tables or on the rush-strewn floor.

  The serving slaves, tears in their eyes, picked their way carefully amongst churning, roiling bodies, and then one, her vessel of kana spilling, was seized by an ankle, and drawn herself to the floor.

  “The guests,” said Ingeld, “grow somewhat unruly.”

  “One rewards, one punishes, one governs,” said Abrogastes. Then he cried, “bror!”

  A lovely brunette hastened to the dais and, ascending the dais, and careful not to meet the eyes of a free person, poured hot bror into the drinking horn of Abrogastes.

  “See her left breast,” said Abrogastes, “inscribed there, by a marking stick, the sign of Lars Red Sleeves.”

  The slave hurried away.

  “The dice were kind to the Borkon,” said Ingeld.

  “Herman Two Ax,” said Abrogastes, “won three. I watched.”

  “His boots will be well polished,” said Ingeld.

  “Three beauties will soon compete for the privilege,” said Abrogastes.

  “The luck of the Dangars is celebrated in more than one song,” said Ingeld.

  “So are the habits of Dangar dice,” said Abrogastes.

  “It grows late,” said Ingeld.

  “Men will sleep in the hall,” said Abrogastes, “many with a slave tied by her neck to his ankle.”

  “Doubtless you will soon retire to your chamber,” said Ingeld.

  “Huta awaits,” said Abrogastes.

  “You are fond of her, are you not?” said Ingeld.

  “Not particularly,” said Abrogastes. “But it pleases me to own her. It was she, when a priestess of the Timbri, who, with her false magic and honeyed words, led Ortog astray.”

  “Ortog was a storm, and clouds were gathering,” said Ingeld. “If it had not been Huta, it would have been another. The sky menaced. Ambition flourished. Lightning would flash.”

  “Another, such as you?” asked Abrogastes.

  “Surely not,” said Ingeld.

  “It is rumored,” said Abrogastes, “that Ortog lives.”

  “That cannot be,” said Ingeld. “You slew him, in this very hall, here, on Tenguthaxichai.”

  “I think that I shall retire to my chamber,” said Abrogastes. “Huta languishes, unfulfilled, unroped, unbraceleted, lonely, uncaressed, absent from love shackles.”

  “What misery for a slave,” said Ingeld.

  “She will soon be helpless, in the embrace of her Master,” said Abrogastes, regarding Ingeld closely.

  “Of course,” said Ingeld.

  Abrogastes rose to his feet. “Perhaps it is time,” he said, “that you, too, retire to your chamber.”

  “I am eager to do so,” said Ingeld.

  “Seed the fair Viviana abundantly,” said Abrogastes. “We are looking to reap a harvest from that belly.”

  “Of late,” said Ingeld, “she grows warmer, and more helpless.”

  “We can always put her in a collar,” said Abrogastes. “After a month in a collar, the most frigid of women will thrash, moan, and beg, and, if permitted, conceive at as little as a snapping of fingers. The breeding sheds are filled with such once tepid, haughty stock.”

  The breeding stock, at the time of its breeding, is hooded, and also at the time of its delivery of young. In this way entanglements or attachments are eliminated. Needless to say, verbal communication is forbidden to the stock at the time of breeding, and the matches or pairings, the crossings, are arranged by the stock owners involved.

  “The collar has an interesting effect on a woman,” said Ingeld.

  “And the whip,” said Abrogastes.

  “Of course,” said Ingeld.

  “And, if things proceed slowly, or poorly, we can always sell her,” said Abrogastes.

  “‘Sell her’?” asked Ingeld.

  “Certainly,” said Abrogastes. “Hrothgar’s Alacida will do just as nicely for our purposes.”

  “Surely I have priority,” said Ingeld. “I am the second son.”

  “You may have priority amongst the Drisriaks, dear Ingeld,” said Abrogastes, “but if Hrothgar has a son, it is he who will sit as regent, the Otung deposed, on the throne of Telnaria.”

  “I see,” said Ingeld, darkly.

  At this point, Abrogastes turned away, preparing to leave the dais, but then turned back, and faced Ingeld.

  “Tonight you received the hero’s portion,” said Abrogastes.

  “Thanks to my beloved father,” said Ingeld.

  “See that you prove worthy of it,” said Abrogastes.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  “What is this you tell me!” cried Sidonicus, his great bulk leaning forward from the chair in his private audience chamber.

  “Put aside your sweets,” said Ingeld. “It is bitter news I bring.”

  “Impossible!” said Fulvius.

  “I cannot believe it,” screamed Sidonicus. “Abrogastes! On Tenguthaxichai!”

  “Yes,” said Ingeld. “I have seen him, I have touched him, I have embraced him, on Tenguthaxichai.”

  “He lives?” said Sidonicus.

  “Yes,” said Ingeld.

  “Surely he was slain with his rebel son, Ortog, days ago, in Telnar, in the deepest basement of the house of Dardanis,” said Safarius.

  “You should have remained there, to witness the executions,” said Sidonicus, “rather than squeamishly withdrawing, with your guards.”

  “You said yourself,” protested Safarius, “you would have behaved similarly.”

  “It would not have been seemly for a ministrant of Floon, let alone the exarch of Telnar, to witness so bloody a spectacle,” said Sidonicus.

  “Nor for the primarius of the senate,” insisted Safarius.

  “Nonsense,” said Sidonicus. “The two cases are in no way comparable. A ministrant is concerned with holy matters, matters pertaining to the koos. Being primarius of the senate is a secular post. It has nothing to do with the koos. It is concerned with mundane matters, matters political, profane, and such. You should have witnessed the executions, even seen to the matter.”

  “I withdrew, with my guards,” said Safarius.

  “You are sure of the matter?” Fulvius asked Ingeld. “That you encountered Abrogastes on Tenguthaxichai?”

  “It is indisputable,” said Ingeld.

  “You are fortunate you were not torn to pieces on Tenguthaxichai,” said Fulvius.

  “Abrogastes does not associate me with what occurred in the house of Dardanis,” said Ingeld.

  “Nor the exarch, I trust,” said Fulvius.

  “No,” said Ingeld.

  “Good,” breathed Sidonicus, leaning back in his chair, and reaching for a sweet.

  “Who then would he see as having been involved in his detention and incarceration?” asked Fulvius.

  “Otungs, of course,” said Sidonicus.

  “And who then to his rescue?” asked Fulvius.

  “It is obvious,” said Sidonicus.

  “Who, your blessedness?” asked Fulvius.

  “His own people,” said Sidonicus, “obviously Drisriaks.”

  “Do we know that?” asked Fulvius.

  “Who else could
it be?” asked Sidonicus.

  “I see,” said Fulvius.

  “This can work out well for us,” said Sidonicus. “It can further enflame the ancient enmities, and hereditary hatreds, betwixt Drisriaks and Otungs.”

  “That is not clear,” said Ingeld. “Abrogastes, on Tenguthaxichai, alleged he was absent, buying slaves.”

  “I trust,” said Fulvius, “that you betrayed no skepticism or astonishment.”

  “I am not a fool,” said Ingeld.

  “I do not understand the silence of Abrogastes,” said Fulvius. “Obviously he escaped or was rescued.”

  “The Far-Grasper is subtle,” said Safarius.

  “It seems he does not act,” said Sidonicus.

  “I trust he is not drawing together the cords of a net,” said Safarius.

  “In any event,” said Ingeld, “our plans are much awry. I cannot now control the tribes. I cannot now launch them against Otungs. No invasion is imminent. My father’s plan is to seize the throne by guile, and not by expensive, perilous force. Viviana or Alacida is to produce a son of mixed blood, Drisriak and Telnarian, who, once the Otung is deposed, will be seen as emperor, in whose name a regent, myself or Hrothgar, will rule.”

  “All this,” said Safarius, “will be sanctioned by the senate.”

  “Of course,” said Ingeld.

  “As long as Abrogastes lives,” said Sidonicus, “I fear he will oppose the imposition of a state religion, and the elimination of heretics.”

  “True,” said Ingeld. “You cannot expect him to deny the gods of his house and tribe. Too, it is not the empire’s way. The empire has always been tolerant of any religious faith which is not seen as subversive of, or dangerous to, the empire itself.”

  “I might point out,” said Safarius, “as only a secular observation, of course, and thus of little interest, that the faith of his blessedness, the holy exarch, might easily be seen as subversive of, or dangerous to, the empire.”

  “Nonsense,” said Sidonicus. “The faith celebrates the empire. What else will see to the extirpation of dissident beliefs and the eradication of heresy, to the suppression of dissidents and the extermination of heretics. One faith, one empire. The koos must direct the sword, and the sword must defend the koos. The koos guides the sword and the sword serves the koos.”

  “I do not understand,” said Ingeld, “what occurred in the fourth basement of the house of Dardanis. There must have been several present, jailers, and such.”

  “I have inquired,” said Fulvius. “They cannot be found.”

  “I understand,” said Safarius, “that Abrogastes was on Tenguthaxichai.”

  “Yes,” said Ingeld.

  “What of the other,” asked Safarius, “the rebel son, Ortog?”

  “He was not on Tenguthaxichai, nor would he have dared to show himself there,” said Ingeld. “He would have been slain instantly, the treasonous pig, cut down on the spot, or, as soon as the beasts were readied, put to the horse death, torn to pieces.”

  “There is a great enmity between father and son,” said Fulvius.

  “They would kill one another on sight,” said Ingeld. “It was doubtless to slay Abrogastes that Ortog came to Telnar.”

  “Ortog is of no great interest,” said Sidonicus. “He may be dead, and, if not, he is, in any event, estranged from his father and he has few men.”

  “Our plans must be revised,” said Ingeld.

  “How is it,” asked Sidonicus, regarding the Drisriak, “that Viviana is not yet with child?”

  “I do not know,” said Ingeld.

  “I suspect,” said Sidonicus, “that chemicals have intervened.”

  “Let us proceed, rather as Abrogastes planned,” said Ingeld. “I can proclaim that Viviana is with child and near to delivery. Soon there will be time enough for that to be believed. I need then only obtain a male child, on Tenguthaxichai, or elsewhere, and present it as the child, mourning, of course, the tragic death of Viviana in childbirth.”

  “That still leaves two obstacles,” said Fulvius, “Abrogastes, and the usurping Otung.”

  “There are many routes to a throne,” said Sidonicus. “Amongst them, commonly, is assassination. Indeed, both the father and grandfather of Aesilesius were assassinated.”

  “Yet, not effectively,” said Fulvius. “There was no change of dynasty.”

  “But,” said Sidonicus, “in our case, when Abrogastes is removed, Ingeld will rule the Drisriaks, and he is well prepared to abet our plans, and when the Otung is removed, an heir, the putative son of Ingeld, is emperor.”

  “The senate may be depended upon, if necessary,” said Safarius, “to clarify and ratify matters.”

  “What if Julian, he of the Aureliani, of the current party, is proposed?” asked Sidonicus. “He is cousin to Aesilesius.”

  “He would not be first in blood,” said Fulvius. “The child would be the putative offspring of a royal princess, the princess, Viviana.”

  “Further,” said Safarius, “as I see Julian, he would honor the child’s claim. Certainly he would not be likely to plunge the empire into civil war.”

  “I suppose the matter cannot be helped,” said Sidonicus. “We must wait. We must be patient. At least we would not need to silence the batteries of Telnar.”

  “Palace revolutions are to be preferred,” said Fulvius. “They are less time-consuming and expensive.”

  “We need to find eager daggers, wielders of strangling wires, servitors to administer poison,” said Sidonicus.

  “That may not be easy,” said Safarius. “Abrogastes is surrounded by Drisriaks, the Otung with Otungs.”

  “There are always others,” said Sidonicus, “servitors, envoys, guards, attendants, petitioners, physicians, guests.”

  “Obviously terrible risks are involved,” said Safarius.

  “I do not anticipate difficulties in the matter,” said Fulvius. “Pave a path with gold, and few will refuse to follow it.”

  “Do not dismiss the possibility of slaves,” said Ingeld.

  “Perhaps you have one in mind,” said Sidonicus.

  “A preferred slave,” said Ingeld, “one with easy access to Abrogastes, Huta, a former priestess of the Timbri.”

  “Excellent,” said Sidonicus.

  “The Otung,” said Fulvius, “is popular with the people. If he is slain, there will be unrest in the streets, the threat of local insurrections.”

  “This should all be managed within Telnar,” said Ingeld. “There is no need for worlds to perish.”

  “There have been many transitions in government,” said Sidonicus, “scarcely noticed within the empire. To many worlds, what is an emperor but a name and a mystery? Most worlds, cities, and villages are more concerned with satraps and deputies, with administrators, and headmen, even chieftains, with those who can tax and steal, imprison and execute, those authorized by custom or law to apply force and coercion, those possessing the legal monopoly on violence.”

  “Still,” said Safarius, “the streets in Telnar could rage and flame. Those who wish to loot and burn will not be lacking in pretexts.”

  “Yet,” said Sidonicus, “I think we can take advantage of these propensities, turning them to our purposes, inventing, say, a “will of the people.””

  “The will to profit without effort,” said Fulvius.

  “The people have no will,” said Sidonicus, “until they are given one.”

  “And you will give them one,” said Fulvius.

  “The pretext they wish,” said Sidonicus. “Its nature will depend on the political needs of the moment. We will give them appropriate banners and standards. That is all they want, something to march behind.”

  “To loot and burn behind,” said Fulvius.

  “I shall return to Tenguthaxichai,” said Ingeld.

  “The proper
place for a loyal and devoted son,” said Sidonicus.

  Ingeld then withdrew from the chamber.

  “You can trust your two guards?” asked Fulvius of Safarius.

  “Yes,” said Safarius.

  “Good,” said Fulvius. “Nothing of what transpired here is to go beyond the walls of this chamber.”

  “Of course,” said Safarius.

  Safarius then took his leave, departing from the chamber, followed by his two guards.

  “Your beloved blessedness,” said Fulvius to Sidonicus, “I note that your valuable minion, Corelius, who assisted in silencing the batteries during the raid of Abrogastes on Telnar and who participated in the ensnaring of Abrogastes and Ortog has not been much present of late.”

  “He was not invited,” said Sidonicus.

  “I see,” said Fulvius.

  “The fewer who know of certain matters the better,” said Sidonicus.

  “Of course,” said Fulvius. “The fewer who know of a secret the more likely it will be kept.”

  “Precisely,” said Sidonicus.

  “Corelius has already been privy to much that is sensitive,” said Fulvius. “He knows much of many secrets.”

  “I agree,” said Sidonicus.

  “Too much,” said Fulvius.

  “I agree,” said Sidonicus.

  “I do not see that his services are required any longer,” said Fulvius.

  “Nor do I,” said Sidonicus.

  “Perhaps he should be invited into your chambers, the lower chambers, for a private audience,” said Fulvius.

  “My men cannot find him,” said Sidonicus. “He has disappeared.”

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  “I have received,” said Iaachus, “an unusual message, one conveyed by a guard who received it from an asserted purveyor of food, claimedly an employee of some food shop.”

  The Arbiter of Protocol stood at the opened portal of the private chamber of the emperor, Ottonius, the First, in the royal palace in Telnar.