City of Death (12 page)

So Lee No Cha had died at an early age and had stayed that way in all his lives. He had never been allowed to mature, to develop beyond a young child's fear of punishment.

Bayang's brow lowered as she scrutinized him. “Why this sudden curiosity about Lee? Once you heard about him, you were so horrified that you always avoided the subject.”

Now you've done it. She's sure I'm awake now!
the panicked Voice said.

“I just felt like knowing,” Leech said with a shrug. Then, afraid he had said too much, he pivoted and went to watch a nymph pulling some vines away from a fountain basin.

 

20

Scirye

A short while later a maid announced that the guests' rooms were ready. She was wearing a violet quilted jacket and green trousers.

Scirye's parents parted from her reluctantly, but they needed to confer with Princess Maimantstse on how to handle the charges against Scirye and her friends. So it was the steward, Nanadhat, who guided them into the east wing.

“And may I extend my personal thanks to you, lady, and your friends, for protecting Lady Roxanna,” he said with a smile. “I, like all the House of Urak, am in your debt, and Princess Catisa wishes to thank you in person for saving her great-niece.”

“You're Roxanna's kin?” Scirye asked politely.

“I am———.” He used a Sogdian kinship term that Scirye didn't recognize. “The House of Urak has its caravansary on the edge of the Kr
Ä«
tam near the Eastern Gate. Just look for the sign with—”

“The two palms,” Leech supplied.

Nanadhat dipped his head, pleased. “Just so, Lord Leech.” He led them around a corner, indicating a room. “This is yours. And the badger may have the one next to you.”

Koko jerked a claw at Leech. “I've been around this ugly mug so long that I couldn't get to sleep without hearing him snore. We'll take the same digs.”

Leech tapped Koko's muzzle. “You're the one with the big schnozz. You sound like a trumpet.”

“For that wisecrack, I get the bathtub first,” Koko insisted. For all of his conniving ways, the badger was one of the most fastidious people Scirye had ever met.

M
ā
ka and Tute also elected to sleep in the same room, and it went without saying that Scirye and Kles would do the same.

Only Bayang would be alone, but the dragon could not wait to leave them. She had become as withdrawn and thoughtful as Leech, and Scirye wondered what was happening to her friends.

“Please let me know if you need anything else, lady.” The steward gestured to the maid who had announced the rooms were ready. “Chin will be your maid during your stay.”

Scirye smiled at her politely. “How do you do.” Even as she turned toward her bedroom, Chin scurried around her and opened the door for her.

As Scirye stepped inside the spacious room, the tall latticed windows and high, elegantly arched ceiling made it seem as light and airy as a fairy palace. She suddenly felt out of place in her stained travel clothes.

“I think Koko had a very good idea, Chin,” Scirye said. “I'd like a bath.”

As the maid went into the bathroom to prepare the tub, Scirye took off the hag's belt and set it down on a table whose top was a chessboard with rows of ivory pieces standing ready for play. Maybe she'd challenge one of her parents to a game later.

As she began to take off her clothes, the maid gave a disapproving cough from the bathroom doorway. “Allow me to help, my lady.”

Scirye was about to reply that she knew how to undress herself but hesitated when she saw the maid's disapproving frown. She was back at court now with all of its time-consuming protocols.

“Yes, thank you,” Scirye said and felt like a doll as she stood with her arms held slightly out from her sides.

Chin's fingers twitched the moment she felt the grime on Scirye's fur jacket, but like a true professional, the maid hid any disgust she felt and drew off the garment and then the trousers and boots. The airport coveralls Scirye had worn underneath were even dirtier and smellier. Though the maid did not complain, she made her sentiments clear, though, when she asked, “Shall I burn them, my lady?”

Cheeks reddening, Scirye decided they were still the most practical clothes for her quest. “Try to get them as clean as you can. I'll need them as soon as we're freed.” She almost giggled as the maid picked up the pile, because poor Chin was trying her best to hold her breath. For Chin's sake, Scirye hoped she did not have to carry them very far.

When Scirye entered the bathroom, she saw that there was a basin for Kles as well as a tub for her. The perfumed water had already filled the room with jasmine-scented steam.

Caution had made Scirye keep the otter and Pele's charms with her until she was safely alone with Kles. She hung the charms now on a peg meant for a bathrobe.

When she climbed into the tub, she luxuriated in the feel of hot water again. She stretched out her arms and legs, letting the bath ease away the aches that constant travel and battles had caused. As she floated in the warmth, Roland and magical arrows seemed faraway for the moment.

But then someone tapped at the door. “My lady, you have visitors,” Chin said from the other side.

Scirye was about to tell the maid to send them away, but Kles asked, “Who is it?”

“The High Mage herself,” Chin squeaked in a frightened voice as if she had already been changed into a mouse.

“We're not wearing any griffin charms,” Scirye said to Kles. “What do you think the High Mage wants?”

Kles hopped out of the basin so fast that he nearly tipped it over. “I don't know, but the High Mage is one person you don't want to keep waiting.” He began shaking himself like a dog and flapping his wings to get off the excess water.

Chin took that for permission to enter and while the griffin toweled himself dry, the maid fussed over Scirye, first with a towel and then a hairbrush, trying as gently as she could to get some of the tangles out, but without much success.

When Scirye had put the charms around her neck, she glanced at herself in a mirror. She looked more or less presentable now, but thank the goddess her parents had seen her bruises and cuts when they were half-healed or they might have taken a different attitude about her adventures, Tumarg or not.

In the bedroom, a robe of blue silk with red garnets about the collar lay across the bed while a pair of matching boots stood on the floor.

When she had dressed with Chin's help, the maid finally opened the bedroom door. “My lady will see you now.”

Kles had brushed out his fur and feathers by now. “Better leave the talking to me.”

Scirye was only too glad to follow Kles's suggestion when the High Mage entered the room with such small, mincing steps that she seemed to glide. She was a tall, stately woman, made even taller by the hat with the crown split into the twin spires of wisdom and foresight that added another yard to her height. Her robe was a dazzling white with small gold suns, moons, and stars forming intricate patterns as if she were a compact galaxy.

Behind her came a train of lesser mages as well as a freshly scrubbed M
ā
ka, still dressed in her tinkling robe. Tute padded after her, looking wary, but M
ā
ka seemed awed.

Kles fluttered into the air and gave one of his most elegant bows. “Your Wisdom, my lady apologizes for keeping you waiting. How may we help you?”

The High Mage turned her head, annoyed. “What is making that infernal racket?”

Tute simply gazed up at the High Mage insolently, but M
ā
ka bowed with a clinking of bracelets and chiming of bells. “I think it might be me, Your Wisdom.”

The griffin waved a wing grandly at M
ā
ka and Tute. “This is Lady M
ā
ka, who also follows the True Path, and her companion, Tute.”

The High Mage had a habit of tilting back her head so she seemed be looking down her nose at everything. She gave a skeptical sniff but was too polite to call Kles a liar. “Well, stand still, girl. I can't hear myself think with all the noise you make. And put your pet on a diet. No cat should be that fat.”

Tute's ears flattened and his eyes narrowed. “I'm the right size for a lynx, and I'm no one's pet.”

M
ā
ka immediately wrapped her arms around her friend to make sure he did not pounce on the High Mage. “Now, now, Tute. She's just concerned for your well-being.”

Wanting to win some respect for their new friend, Scirye spoke up before the griffin could. “We would have failed in our quest if M
ā
ka and Tute hadn't come to our aid.” She made a point of indicating them with her open palm so her visitors could see the goddess's mark glowing there, the reminder of Her favor.

It had the effect Scirye had hoped for. The High Mage cleared her throat. “Forgive me, Lady M
ā
ka. My devotion to the True Path occasionally causes me to neglect such things as courtesy.”

Giving Scirye a warning glance to be quiet from now on, Kles smoothly asked, “How may we be of assistance, Your Wisdom?”

“We have heard of your many adventures and that my Lady Scirye has won a belt of strange magic unknown to us.” The High Mage's eyes began searching the room until they fell on the belt lying across the chess table. “Yes! The spells are so crude, but they bubble with a raw energy.” Excitement and greed sharpened her voice.

The High Mage's eyes devoured the belt the way Koko would have gobbled down a cake. She didn't realize that Scirye was wearing the otter and Pele's charms, and perhaps that was just as well. With a flutter of his wings, Kles half-turned so he could look back at Scirye.

At Scirye's nod, Kles said, “My lady took it as a prize after her victory over a monster named the Hag. But we haven't had time to study it. Would you be so kind as to examine it and then tell us its properties when you return it?”

“Of course.” The High Mage floated across the room and scooped up the belt in both palms. She gave a curt nod to Scirye, a sniff to M
ā
ka, and then left with a swirl of robes, the other mages scurrying to keep up with her.

When Chin had closed the door, Scirye sank into a chair. “Thank the goddess they're gone. They make me nervous.”

She started to reach for the remaining charms about her neck for reassurance, but Kles swept in close and set his paw on her wrist. “Better not,” he whispered. “For all Chin knows, the things around your neck are personal souvenirs rather than magical objects.”

Scirye glanced at the maid who was going into the bathroom to clean up. “She doesn't look like a spy,” she murmured.

“You're at court now,” Kles replied softly. “Everyone is a potential spy.”

M
ā
ka put her fists on her hips. “How rude! I thought the High Mage would be a fount of wisdom, not some greedy old vulture.”

Scirye and Kles exchanged nervous glances. “She thirsts for knowledge,” Kles said.

And with Kles's warning about Chin fresh in her ears, Scirye asked, “Chin, would you bring us some tea and light refreshments?”

“At once, lady,” Chin said. She dipped her head politely and then left Scirye's suite.

Kles fluttered to the door, peeking out through the keyhole to make sure she was gone. Then, returning to Scirye's shoulder, he cautioned, “We must be careful what we say at court, Lady M
ā
ka.”

“She could have turned you into a toad,” Tute said with a shudder, “or worse, she could have done that to me. And you know how I hate slime.”

“But we are companions of a hero.” M
ā
ka inclined her head respectfully to Scirye. “The High Mage would never harm us.”

Scirye indicated a chair next to her. “I'm no hero. It's my friends who are brave. I was scared stiff the whole time. I just kept going because I didn't want to let them down.”

“And yet you faced the danger instead of running away. So maybe that's what makes you a true hero,” M
ā
ka said as she sat. “Your determination not to let your friends down provides a counterweight to your fear. There's a balance to everything: A beautiful soul inside makes up for an ugly face outside. A greater ability in one thing compensates for a flaw in another.” She sighed wistfully. “Except in magic. It burns inside me, and I bungle every attempt to use it.”

Scirye thought that M
ā
ka might be the one person among her friends who might understand what she herself was going through. “I feel like I'm botching things too,” she admitted ruefully. “Roland's gotten away each time.”

M
ā
ka sat back with the same look of concern she'd worn when she had saved them from the lake. If only the sorceress's magical skills could have matched her kindness. “So you have doubts too?”

“Just like you do.” Scirye shrugged. “Or anyone else.”

It was M
ā
ka's nature to want to help those around her. “I wish I could do more for you. All I can say is that I'll keep trying if you will.”

“That's all any of us can do.” Scirye held out her hand. “Shall we make a pact? As friends?”

“Friends?” M
ā
ka savored the word a moment and then solemnly pressed her hand against Scirye's. “I promise to try my best.”

“And so do I,” Scirye vowed.

She just hoped their combined efforts would be enough.

 

21

Bayang

Dinner had been tailored to each of the friends' tastes and Bayang had made a meal of live squid and other marine creatures flown in at great expense and released into a huge glass bowl the size of a kettle drum, where the dragon could pluck them out one after another. Even the most human-hating dragon elder—and there were many of them on the council—could not object to the princess's treatment of Bayang.