Six looked at the two ragged figures, who now were hanging their heads. “Hmm. So they will be taken to prison until sentence is passed?”
Bennel’s face cleared. “Exactly. They will be cared for there. You can do nothing more. Come, come away. We are making a scene. This is most unfortunate. Please—” he tugged at Six’s sleeve, “—come away now.”
Six studied the two children with a distant expression. They now stared back at him with expressionless eyes, their shoulders slumped in acceptance.
“Very well,” he said finally. “Let us go. Which jail did you say they would be taken to?”
“I didn’t. But it would be the Lublank prison – that is the main one here in Mesteta.”
“I see.” Six gazed up at the stolid face of the law enforcer. “Please ensure that they get to the prison building with no further harm.”
The man grunted, but pushed the two children before him as he made his way out, instead of dangling them half a metre off the ground. Six felt his intervention had been at least partially successful. As he walked away he was thinking hard.
BACK AT THE palace, there was dismay at the news. Bennel recounted what had happened to the Lady of Chamber, Namiba, who looked over at Six with a concerned expression in her eyes. But she thrust her doubts away.
“There is no time for all this now. We have to get him ready for the ceremony tonight.”
Six looked quickly at her. “Ceremony? I thought it was just a banquet.”
“Yes. A banquet. The ceremony.”
“WHAT ceremony?”
“Your marriage, Valhai Six. To the lady Diva.”
“Oh, that.” Six considered. “Very well. Might as well get that ov— that is, I shall start my preparations immediately.”
“Your bath is awaiting you.”
Six opened his mouth, and then closed it again. “When on Lumina …” he was heard to mutter. Resigned to his fate, he allowed himself to be escorted to the sunken bathtub. He should have known he wouldn’t be able to avoid this.
“Get out, all of you!”
“But—”
“I will have the bath, but I’ll be hanged if I allow it to become a spectator sport!”
“As you wish.” The minions departed, leaving Six to soak in his Mesteta wine bath. They would have been horrified if they had known what he was intending to do after the ceremony.
Chapter 11
DIVA WAS LOOKING spectacular. Her hair had been brushed until it shone, her Coriolan Ceremonious Robe was shimmering with the gold threads which ran all the way through it, and her teeth could have lit up the whole of the Widowmaker.
“Sacras, Diva! You could have toned it down just a little,” Six greeted her.
Her eyes flashed. “Trust a Kwaidian not to appreciate the good life!”
“Yeah. You and I might differ somewhat in our definitions of good life.”
“I suppose you think trekking over an icy mountain in a blizzard is more fun?”
“No-o-o. But I wouldn’t classify this as exactly fun either. Still, I suppose you look all right.”
“Gee, thanks. Is that all you can say?” Her eyebrows clenched together and he held up a wary hand, and stepped back.
“I said you look all right,” he said defensively. “What’s wrong with that?”
“What’s wrong with th—? Oh, never mind. I suppose I can’t expect very much from a trogling like you.”
Six looked pained. “I had a wine bath in your honour.”
She almost laughed at the aggrieved tone. “Wow! A bath! They must have put all the flags up on Kwaide. I hope your Lady of Chamber stopped you drinking it.”
He glared. “Very funny.”
“What do you expect? You haven’t even bothered to put the Ceremonious Robe on.”
“I trip over the edges. Don’t know how you can walk in these things. Bennel said I could just put it on over these clothes for the actual ceremony.”
Diva sighed. “I suppose.”
“Hang it all, Diva, you never told me I would have to wear dresses!”
“That is NOT a dress, moron. It is—”
“—a robe, I know. I feel like an Elder.”
She had to smile at that. “You certainly don’t look like one. All right. Whatever. Just put it on for the ceremony, if you have to. Let’s get going.”
“There is just one thing I wanted to mention …”
Diva listened as a bell began to sound throughout the palace compound. “It will have to wait. We are going to be late for the banquet.”
“But …”
“Tell me later … Come ON, Six!”
He trailed after her with an assumed air of dejection, drudging his feet along the magmite floor deliberately. She gave him an exasperated look, opened her mouth, saw that there were guards listening avidly, and closed it again. Her eyes flashed, and she directed a gimlet eye at him, threatening dire retribution later. Six pretended not to notice, a subterfuge he knew from past experience was bound to infuriate her.
THE BANQUET AND the following ceremony went off as badly as Six had expected. He was famous for his hatred of speechifying and dull meetings, so the combination of both on Coriolis was agonizing for him. The only thing that made the whole evening bearable was the sight of Vion and Mercy, who looked just as pleased to see him. They managed to catch up with all the news, especially how Ledin was getting along. Vion still seemed concerned, but not unduly worried. Six looked sideways at him. Married life was certainly agreeing with the doctor, but even so, he hadn’t been able hide the sudden stillness that had come over his face when he had first seen Grace again on Kwaide. However, Six no longer blamed Vion for his decisions. He had learnt the hard way that decisions involving family were never quite as simple as you thought they were going to be.
Maximus finally stepped forwards with a scroll. He read interminably from it, and then, just when Six was contemplating slitting his own throat as a viable alternative to listening to the man, came to the crux of the matter.
“…hereby declaring the official marriage of Divina Magmus Senate of Coriolis to … err—” his voice dropped one complete tone, as if in the hope that nobody would hear his next words, “—Six of Kwaide. Procreation has already taken place, which invokes the irrevocable right of the children to married parents, thus annulling the rights of just impediment. I therefore confirm this marriage and announce the right of one of the firstborn offspring of the union to the future leadership of the meritocracy. May Sacras bless this union!”
Six noted a distinct lack of enthusiasm in Maximus’s last words, but looked around with a smile all the same. He was now part of the ruling house of Coriolis. He had, it seemed, come a long way from the uninhabitable zone on Kwaide. All the same, he had to bite back a growl. He felt like a cloth puppet.
“You may kiss your wife.” Maximus nearly choked on the words, so Six found a perverse pleasure in watching the man’s face as he dutifully pecked his new wife on her cheek. Maximus looked as if he were about to be sick. Then Six glanced at his wife. Diva’s eyes were challenging all about her, daring them to make some sort of comment. She looked as if she would slit someone in two with her dagger, given half the chance. Six grinned down at her and gave her arm a squeeze. This only had the effect of transferring her glare to Six himself, so he dropped her arm, and gave a small sigh. “Don’t expect any more favours,” he whispered to her. Her eyebrows snapped into a fierce frown, which deepened even more as Six leant forward to kiss her on the other cheek.
There was polite applause, and then – mercifully – the ordeal was over. The attending dignitaries shuffled out of the chamber, and Six was able to pull the robe off over his head. He looked around at his new step-family.
“Well,” he said brightly. “Down to business. How do I get a pardon for a couple of thieves?”
There was a deathly silence. Indomita looked at Maximus. Maximus stared at Six. Diva was looking suspiciously at her husband.
At last Maximus answe
red. “Can’t be done,” he said.
Six looked at Indomita. “You did it,” he said. “You saved us.”
She gave a deep sigh. “I did,” she said, “but that was a special event. I invoked meritocratic privilege to do it – and my husband disowned me.”
“Then I shall do the same thing.”
“What is this all about?” asked Indomita.
Six explained about the Widowmaker, about the two young thieves, and about their short-term future as exhibits inside a block of rexelene in the museum.
Maximus spread his hands. “Why should you care?” he demanded. “Serves them right, if you ask me. They were stealing, weren’t they?”
“Yes, they were. But why did they have to?”
“Because they must be Namuri children. That is what the Namuri do. I think you will agree that we have the right to protect ourselves from them?” Maximus’s face took on the red tinge of outrage. “They reject the meritocratic system.”
“Perhaps they are only trying to protect themselves from you?” suggested Six, a steely tone creeping into his voice. “Has anybody tried to help them at all in their lifetime?”
Diva was staring at him, but Six couldn’t tell exactly what she was thinking this time. It disconcerted him, but he went on, “What would you do if you had nothing to eat?”
Indomita waved a hand. “That is a most unlikely scenario. We have plenty.”
“EXACTLY!” Six strode around the room like a caged catumba. “You have plenty and they have nothing. You must do something about it. I must do something about it. You simply cannot encase people in rexelene for stealing when they had no other choice. Can you?” He looked around the chamber.
Diva found herself looking around at the ornate and gilded room, and there was a sudden shift in her perception. The room seemed to shrink as she idly looked it over, and she realized with a very unnerving jump of her heart that she was an outsider staring into what was really opulent privilege. She blinked, but her perception of her home planet didn’t change. It was as if, all these years, she had carried a false picture inside her. She shot a look to her right, to the figure standing nearby, intent on taking on any and all comers to defend two young thieves, and she was suddenly filled with an enormous pride for him. A wave of memories of the last five years washed over her, and left her breathless. There was a long silence. Six seemed to intuit something of her thoughts, for he turned in her direction, a questioning look in his eyes.
Diva shifted rather uncomfortably, not yet ready to let go of everything she had been brought up with, yet aware of her government’s faults. “Six is right,” she said, causing a shiver of apprehension to run down her mother’s neck, and giving rise to a look of incredulity from her father. “It is time to change some of these archaic customs.”
Indomita looked from one to the other. “It will not be easy,” she said.
Maximus gave a small scream of anger. “You cannot be thinking of abolishing the museum law,” he said. “Where would we put all the offenders? We would have to keep them in prison – feed them. It would cost a small fortune!”
“You can use mine,” said Six. “I don’t need it.”
“Wh-wh-what … ?” spluttered Maximus. “You don’t want … what on Lumina are you blathering on about?”
“I believe I am entitled to a palace, servants, a stipend? Well, we can give it to the poor so that they wouldn’t need to steal, can’t we?”
Diva’s mother found herself giving a small smile. “You have only been a part of our family for five minutes,” she pointed out. “You could have waited a bit longer to turn us on our heads.”
“I couldn’t. I have to save those two children. I saw part of myself in them. You have to listen to me!”
Diva stood up. “I find myself in agreement with my husband,” she said slowly.
“But … but you are going to live here …” Maximus looked so red now that they were afraid he was about to suffer apoplexy.
Diva looked towards Six and grinned, suddenly ready to take at least one important decision. “No, Father. Neither of us could ever live here permanently. We will visit you from time to time if we are welcome, and you can come to Xiantha when we have custody of the children. But this is not my place – I shall not be the next ruler of Coriolis, although one of my children might be.” She bowed low to both of her parents. “If you like, we will leave in the morning, but please stop the execution of those two children.”
Indomita looked extremely angry. “I cannot,” she snapped. “It takes time to change laws, and while I am prepared to undertake reforms, there is nothing I can do on such a short scale of time.” Six noticed that she lost the dictionary when she was very angry.
“Then we will exercise our meritocratic rights, and pardon them,” said Diva.
“If you do that we must repudiate you. You know that.” Maximus made a huffy sound.
Six watched as his wife lifted her head high on its slim neck. He felt very proud of her as she answered her father.
“Then repudiate us. We will have done what was right.” She turned away, and walked out of the room in a stately fashion. Six raised both hands in a sort of apology to her parents, and then went after her.
As soon as they were on their own she turned on him. “REALLY, Six – did you absolutely HAVE to do that just five minutes after they had taken us back into the fold and made you one of the ruling family? That must have been the shortest span for a meritocrat EVER!”
Six shuffled his feet, and hung his head. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? SORRY? Sorry doesn’t even begin to cover it!”
“Were you very keen on staying here?”
She glowered. “No, but I would have liked to pretend I was for a few days. It would have been nice to enjoy some luxury … just for once.”
Six almost laughed at the wistful tone. “I really am sorry, Diva. It is just something that happened.”
“Things always seem to happen to us.”
He nodded. “They do. But I couldn’t stand by and watch those two children killed and put on display in the rexelene museum. They reminded me of you and me when we first met.”
“I have never stolen!”
“You have too. What about Grace’s family artifacts?”
“That was different! That was for a reason!”
“These kids were stealing for a reason too, you know. Nobody would risk their lives like that unless they absolutely had to, would they?”
Diva suddenly burst out laughing. “Six, you are the absolute limit,” she told him. “You might at least have let me wear some decent clothes for a couple of days!”
“I’ll buy you some.”
“With all that money you have just given away? And Cesis will fall into Cian, I suppose?”
“I really am sorry.”
“Yeah, yeah … I bet!”
“We’ll have to make them stop throwing people to the Tattula cats too, won’t we? OUCH! Those shoes have HEELS! That hurt!”
“You deserved it. Yes, I suppose we will. Now, do you mind if I go back to my palace for the last time, and enjoy just one more Mesteta wine bath?”
Six lifted his hands. “Be my guest!”
BEFORE MORNING BROKE they were on their way down to the Lublank prison, escorted by a confused Bennel and an honour guard of twenty men. They had decided to act immediately; they didn’t want to risk some official acting precipitously and encasing the two children in rexelene before the scheduled appearance in front of the authorities. Bennel was regarding them with an extremely worried expression. He had the feeling that he was about to become unemployed again, and he was kicking himself for ever agreeing to accompany Valhai Six to the Widowmaker in the first place. He should have known that no good would come of it. He had known that the Kwaidian was prone to get himself embroiled in local affairs, and it would have been a simple matter to have arranged for a short-term sleeping draft to be added to Valhai Six’s water. He would have safely slept away the fe
w hours before the ceremony. Bennel walked in front of the newly married pair with dragging steps. Now he would be sent back to Mount Palestron, and he hated the slow country life there. And what would his family do without the money he earned?
Diva was looking around her at the Coriolan countryside. She gave a heavy sigh. It seemed that she was destined to live elsewhere, although she loved the sight and smell of her own planet. She walked beside Six, rather surprised at herself. She had given up the right to rule Coriolis for the freedom of two unknown child thieves, and she didn’t think she was mad. She was just no longer the person she used to be. She had changed. It was a shocking realization. She wondered why she had never questioned her privileged upbringing until Six had shone a mental flashlight on it. Trust him! She looked sideways at him. He was walking along as if he hadn’t a care in the world, and she had hardly closed her eyes all night.
Bennel faltered in his step, and both Diva and Six snapped quickly out of their inward reveries. There was another party on the road, another group of guards protecting a valuable meritocrat.
Diva muttered under her breath as she realized who it was. “Wouldn’t you know?”
“What?” Six didn’t recognize the tall Coriolan who was standing proudly in the midst of his honour guard. “Who is that?”
Diva let out a ragged breath. “That,” she said, “is my esteemed second cousin, Tartalus.”
“Ahh!” Six nodded. “One of the pretenders, is he?”
Diva sighed. “One of my father’s favourites.”
“Hmm. Come to crow, has he? Well—” Six flexed his hands slightly, “—he might live to regret that.”
Diva glanced sideways. “Planning on making more trouble, Six?”
The Kwaidian shook his head. “Not at all. But if he starts it …”
Their small group had by now reached Tartalus’s bodyguards. The handsome Coriolan was regarding their approach with a rather supercilious smile on his face. Six was already itching to wipe it off.
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