"You misunderstand where my power comes from, Your Greatness. It is not me who is powerful, it is Airend-Ur who imparts it to me when I do His will. And I shall serve no other god."
"Of course. Spoken like a true prophet faithful to his god. But I know the truth. When the gods have touched someone they are touched forever, even if they turn away. And there are many gods in the world Ilim, you know that. Mine tell me that you must die and that if I bring you to them then they shall hold nothing back from my hand. However, if you agree to serve them and me, they will spare you. Your power and counsel could make my every word and act a great success." The light in her eyes grew bright until they burned like tiny amber-colored sons.
Before him it seemed that he saw a snake in the guise of a mortal woman. The queen was mad and he dared not say much more, especially about her son. And he knew of another child from that stock, from that sinister family. But not all branches of that family were rotten. He knew this. He closed his eyes in silent prayer, fighting down fear and revulsion of this mad woman on the throne. And the temptation of her offer to free himself from a horrible death.
"You know, I have lived through all to become what I shall become, a goddess. It was not an easy journey but I am touched by the gods like you Ilim, and blessed by them. We two are special. It is one thing for a man or woman to take power and grab it but another thing entirely when they are truly chosen and we are the chosen ones, but I am the stronger. I was always the strongest child in my family. My mother saw to that. Do you know what she would do, Ilim?" He shook his head silently. She went on and it seemed that she no longer realized he was there.
"I had an older sister once. She was two years older. My mother would keep pet scorpions and from them she would feed us tiny portions of venom from them to strengthen us and protect us from assassination, or so she said. My sister would beat me and bite me and cut off my hair. I went to my mother one day for help and she told me the strong survive and the weak find their place beneath the strong. Those were her exact words. Once, my sister took a blade and slashed me many times in the face. So one day I stole the basket with my mother's scorpions. All of them. I went to my sister's room and put them in her bed while she slept and they killed her. My mother was proud of me and from then on she taught me the true art of ingesting venom and poisons slowly over time, how to transform them. She herself had learned these things from a female alchemist of the Black Guild; a way with poisons and venoms so that the body becomes accustomed to them. No one can poison me and when I got to the point of mastery of this art I killed my mother in her sleep before I was even fourteen. The story is that she slipped and fell from her balcony. By then, I had learned much from her. Such as how to beautify one's self, fix scars and what potions to use to remain young. How to gain loyalty from some servants and how to silence others and how to spy and watch and learn. After that, I became queen of the House of Seht."
"While your uncle was busy plotting against your father and killing his own brothers in the process." He said. She nodded and arched a brow.
"We come from an ambitious family."
He feared her but there was something in him that pitied her too.
"I wonder what would you have been like if you had not been raised in that nest of vipers and scorpions?" His voice softened. At this she turned white with rage. With whip-like quickness she was out of the chair and she struck him with her flail and he fell over, crying out.
"You would strike an old man?" He cried.
"You forget yourself you Aishanna-La dog! You pig in the mud! How dare you pity me! It is you who misunderstands the situation! I did not tell you this to receive your pity or your mercy. I believe in no such thing. No mercy! It is for fools and people who deserve death!" She unleashed a violent torrent of curses at him in Egian.
Blood beads slid down his temples. He felt as if he had been struck with a rod. She was surprisingly strong. As he saw her now, her skin, depending how she turned in the light, looked even more like the glistening scales of a snake. Like the monstrous snake she had with her. The serpent watched them both silently, coiled by the chair, its eyes the same odd color as the queen's. Its scales, too, glistened faintly, with many colors. Ilim backed farther away into a corner of the room. She stepped forward, her face a hideous display of hatred.
"I told you those things to make you understand the weapon that I have become, what sort of person my father and mother raised me to be. I will be a god before the end and one does not become what I have become and what I will become without being what I am."
A monster. he thought. Ilim found his courage again.
"You have become what you are by usurping the throne. It is all well and good to talk of what you have earned, but you, like Khalit, usurped the throne. The Divine Purpose of the First One will not be outmatched. Khalit chose his own will against God's and failed. You will fail also. And so will anyone else who dares to thwart what is already ordained." He expected to be punished severely for these words. She laughed, this time harsh and animal-like. The sound rattled his nerves.
"Have you forgotten whom you address, old man? No matter. I see you have chosen death. When the festival of the high sun is upon us and it is but a little time away, I will flay you alive and then I shall have you scourged until you are nothing but a mass of quivering shreds of flesh. Then I shall offer you up. Do not worry. I will make sure you suffer and remain alive through it all before you die, Ilim, chosen one of the gods! My high priestess and astrologers have assured me, when the shade of the dead sun crosses the sky, all will be in place and you will have your place in the festivities." She sneered. "You will feel unspeakable pain before you die. That will be important. Perhaps then you will realize that your pity was misplaced." Ilim then turned and began praying loudly to drown out her voice. She laughed again.
"Pray all you want, you stupid old goat! He will not protect you from me now. He allowed you to be caught up by my men like a bird in a net. Enjoy your respite down here. Perhaps it will give you good memories before your death." She turned and left the room, the door locking firmly behind her.
. . .
His mind was racing. There had to be a reason he was caught. Of all the great powers he was able to perform and narrow ways he escaped her nets why was he caught now? There had to be a reason. Now was no time to doubt. She talked of barbarity in her blood but there was the blood of the Reshaim in her and Khalit. The First One's Purpose would not be outmatched. Could not be. But as for now, Ilim felt utterly beaten. Her words and her strange eyes had shaken him badly. There had to be a reason why he was here, otherwise what was his commission for? Would it end with him and his god being humiliated before the moon goddesses? And what of Anet and Rapheth? They were of this evil bloodline, yet they had not grown up in evil. But still, would evil tendencies come out later, in either of them? Was it only how a child was raised or would there be dark consequences for taking on that responsibility? Had he nurtured serpents under the eyes of God? Was evil in the blood? He took this from his mind. Do not be ridiculous! My feet have been set upon the path, the Red Path. It is too late to doubt now or all is lost! The only thing he could do was pray, for Anet, for Rapheth and for all the people who were yearning for something better than the abuses under the last two rulers. In this dungeon it was the only power left to him.
. . .
"She will begin the transformation tonight. The elixir is ready. I saw her take it already, I think."
"You think you know everything. What difference does it make to you?" He asked. Vala purred and stretched herself lazily across the stone altar.
"I shall be a queen along with mistress. That is the difference. She has kept me by her side all these years. Of course I know everything. I shall ascend along with her."
"You will not ascend. I shall. It is my venom she uses. And besides, I have always been by her side as well. Even before you came along I was her mother's pet before she was brought into the Seht household."
"You wer
e a servant in a basket," said Vala disdainfully, "only here to be her pet hunter and killer. I have always been her true companion. It is my intelligence she uses to know what goes on in the palace." The serpent, now far larger than before, his colors glistening faintly, seemed born of the cold, brilliant blue tiles in the temple. Sometimes he seemed to be arrayed with many colors and others times none at all, blending into the surroundings. She watched him carefully from the corner of her eye, sensing his deepening, cold anger at her gloating.
"Come now, why fight? We are both messengers of the gods of Egi." She said. He suddenly reared up like a bolt of lightening at the altar. A hair second before she sensed his desire to strike, the cat lept higher upon a ledge that put her upon the lap of Nimnet herself. Nimnet save me now!
"You shall never catch me. I do not know why you continue with this nonsense."
"One day I will be no one's pawn. I am tired of both you and mistress. She uses me as she uses you. I cannot kill her now for she is immune to my bite. Perhaps I will find some other way to gain my freedom. Perhaps I shall become a god myself when she ascends." The snake slithered out of the altar room, retreating into the shadowed darkness. She heard the unmistakable note of grim laughter echoing out of the darkness as he slid away. Vala hated him. And he was becoming more interested in the power she had being the favorite. Did he think that he could supplant her? He was becoming more and more important, she had to admit - an uncomfortable fact. His venom made mistress the strong one she is and now she would transform soon. In fact, she was transforming now and recently, on some days, she had to wear veils to hide this fact.
Vala would have to find a way to destroy the serpent. Seht may be the house of the snake but cats were also sacred in Egi. No slithering, ground-dwelling thing would rob her of her right to rule by the queen's side. She would see to that. Like a silent shade she passed through secret passages and paths through the temple, the way she often traveled through the palace, plotting a way to escape the serpent's schemes and to gain supremacy.
Chapter Seventeen
Parso was parched and felt he was dying for water. He was tired of wine, tired of beer and milk. He wanted water with a bit of sea salt. Thank God my destination is not Jhis! Traveling, finally by wagon, he had persuaded a group of farmers on their way to the blue bazaar if he could ride in one of their wagons. Now, his feet better rested, he had a chance to pay attention to his surroundings. It had been many long years since he had last been to Rhuctium. Much had changed and much had remained. Not as large as Jhis, it rivaled Egium in beauty, but Rhuctium's schools remained as high marbled and grand as ever. Marble imported from Pallinona. Some of the very best and most beautiful architecture rested here with its schools. They even had several architectural schools here from which men from all over the world would come to study. Its streets were well paved with smooth stones and lined everywhere with orange trees, date palms or lemons trees and their fruity fragrance permeated the air. The lines of the schools, official buildings and its temples were long, clean and symmetrical. Physical perfection. The gardens and courtyards were built using mathematics and many men bragged about what equations or formulations they used to build their houses, gardens and courtyards. The houses of the nobility and wealthy mimicked this tradition. Even the houses of the middle class and the poor, though made of mudbrick and sometimes with no windows, had small courtyards full of desert flowers, blooming. Rhuctium was a window of light in Hybron, or at least it seemed that way on the surface. It is good to be back. He thought.
After disembarking from the wagon and even helping some of the farmers arrange their produce in their stalls he wandered from stall to stall. A gift to the woman who took care of the house would be a good thing since he would be one more person she had to see after. He saw the old wine shop he used to frequent. This shop owner had close family ties with the wild peoples, of the Arvadite tribe, who lived in southern Hybron in what they themselves still called the land of Arvad. This shop, in Parso's opinion, had the best wine in all the city, in all the land, except for those wines found in a tiny wine shop in Gamina.
He knocked on the side of the door post and then entered. A young man was sitting down behind a large counter. As usual, the shop was filled with small and large amphoras, filled with wine and sealed. The shop was made of wood and mud brick and inside was more spacious and airy than it seemed from the outside. There were several small windows in the front room. The man looked up from his work of organizing tablets.
"Yes?" He asked, smiling. He very much favored the old man Parso once knew.
"Excuse me, is Urijah here? It has been a very long time since I have been here." The man's face fell slightly.
"My grandfather passed away seven years ago."
"Oh, I am so sorry."
"Do not be sorry. You did not know."
"Were you the little child I would see playing around the wine vessels so many years ago?"
"That was me!" He grinned again. They talked for a few moments of news in the land and Parso told him tidbits of his travails. Finally, they got down to the business of wine.
"My brother, I need a good wine to go with perhaps a red stew. I am in town visiting and do not want to come to the house of my host empty-handed."
"Ah, I see. Perhaps this red wine here, from an old vine. Not too sweet and good with any sort of strong, red meat. Not too expensive." He pointed to a small, sealed, red clay amphora with a dark green stripe.
"Would you happen to have something from Gamina?"
"Oh no. Those have not come in yet. Perhaps I can have a message sent to you when they do come in?"
"That is fine. I shall take this one you suggested at the first. The wines here have always been good, as I recall."
"Thank you! It pleases me to hear it!" The young man beamed with pride. Parso payed for his wine and went on his way. While wandering the bazaar he also bought peppers, onions, leeks, a truska melon and raw honey on the comb.
The bazaars of Rhuctium were immaculate compared to many other markets and looked more like palaces than city marketplaces. He eavesdropped on his way, winding through the crowds; watching the housewives and servants running back and forth on business, the merchants stationed in the bazaar and the merchants traveling in caravans who had come to rest at the caravanserai, water and feed their animals and to trade. All had gossip or news. He got wind of many things. Disturbing things. He had stopped for kata flower petal tea at a shop, drinking it alone, listening to a group of tribal merchants seated at another table. They looked like Elapu and Arvadite from their garb.
"She is mad I tell you! And that rat of hers. They seek to do the same thing to the water sources here that they have done in Jhis, to blind the people to what is really going on."
"And what is going on? I am never sure anymore."
"She plans some evil. Sacrificing thousands on the day of the dead sun is what I heard. Someone called it: "Ascending to the Gods." Or something like that."
"Do not be ridiculous! I have never heard of anyone ascending to the gods while still alive. If this is her plan then perhaps it is a lucky one for us."
"And why would it bother us? I live in the desert with my kin and my brothers." Said another.
"Perhaps her policies have not yet touched your tribe, my friend. Nearly one third of the Raea have been wiped out!"
"What!"
"Yes, yes! The town of Rhe, where many of them, some of them cousins of mine, would settle for part of the year before they would go wandering again, it was wiped out and now there is a vast mining operation there."
"Mining for what?"
"Iron, gold, silver, nickel. All sorts of other rocks and things." The tribesman said in disgust.
"That is not all. In the foot of the mountains they have attacked and killed many people. They came in the night and took them by surprise as they did to the people in Rhe. Some, along with their families were massacred and now they have set up mining operations there for it said that star rock
has been found in the Habad."
Diamonds. Thought Parso. He shook his head in disbelief and disgust. People dying for mere rocks!
"Then there is the new feast day she has instituted for her gods. We know what that will require. They are thirstier than the gods of Zapulia! Nimnet is now the patroness of Galieh, Jhis as well as Egium. The queen will institute this feast day for Nimnet all over the land and enforce it."
"I doubt she will enforce it."
"I do not."
"Do not forget the burning of her temple in Galieh."
"Aich! I do not know if that was a good thing or not. Tribal people were blamed for it and were killed at the foot of the mountains, impaled on stakes like meat for eating. The wealth they stole from the families that lived there was great. She gave it to the city officials to repay the damage and now the tribes are being hunted out of the Habad all for these precious rocks."
"There is also a plague spreading. An evil one. It was many years ago that it came down on the land and I see signs of it again. All sorts of maladies one would have thought gone are creeping their way back into the cities again. It is why I do not stay long in the city these days."
"This woman's rule is disastrous and she does nothing but sit in her cool, jeweled palace pretending she is a goddess."
"Do not let others hear you say such things. To many she is a goddess."
"To those who drink the water in Jhis and have been led astray by it. Not to a man or woman whose faculties have not left them altogether."
"What about the scions? Do they not help anyone these days?"
"They remain locked up in their fortress. After the battle in Gamina they do not stir outside of the place much. It is too dangerous for them."
"There is more than that. When we came up by the Golden Road we saw that Beth-Ayin was being fortified. It is bigger than it used to be. More people live there now. It has become a major, fortified town. I am sure all the gold and silver and star rock have paid for that."
Red World Trilogy Page 48
