As the girls' robes grew damp with the steam from the bath, they clung more closely. Blade couldn't help noticing that both of them were slim and lovely. The darker one was a bit small-breasted, but from the way the girls were looking at him, he suspected they wouldn't mind the request he was thinking of making.
Then he heard what sounded like an army of horses and chariots approaching, along with drummers, horn players, and men shouting orders. The girls shivered, jumped up, and dashed out of the bath chamber. Moments later they were back, along with the gray-haired man. He was carrying an elaborately embroidered black tunic and silvery-white trousers in one hand, tooled sandals and a belt in the other.
«Quickly, Lord Blade,» he said. «Quickly! The Emperor comes.»
Blade climbed out of the bath and began toweling himself dry. He might not have offended the Emperor by insisting on bathing and dressing before his audience, but being caught in his bath might be a little too much.
Unfortunately Thrayket seemed to have some of his son's impulsiveness and refusal to wait on ceremony. As Blade was pulling on the trousers, footsteps sounded outside the door, a voice bawled, «His Radiance Thrayket of Gohar,» and all the servants prostrated themselves on the tiles. Half-dressed, Blade couldn't have done so if he'd wanted to. There was nothing for him to do but greet the ruler of Gohar barechested and with only one leg in his trousers.
Thrayket looked Blade up and down, and though his eyes were small and squinting Blade got the feeling they didn't miss much. Then he signaled Blade to continue dressing, and a servant to bring a folding chair. With a barely suppressed sigh of relief Blade finished getting dressed, meanwhile stealing looks at Thrayket as often as he could.
Certainly anyone could see that Thrayket and Harkrat were father and son. The Emperor was even taller than the prince, and above the beard his face was a wrinkled, liver-spotted, nut-brown version of Harkrat's. He was also rail-thin and stooping, and his beard was a straggling silvery wisp. Blade had the impression of a man with little physical vitality left, who kept on moving and thinking only by sheer willpower.
At last Blade was dressed and Thrayket spoke.
«Lord Blade, it is said you come from the future to study the past.» The tone was almost skeptical.
«This is so, Your Radiance,» Blade retold his experiences aboard Blue Swallow, and how the people of England seemed to know very little about the true history of the Empire of Gohar and its times.
«If that is what you remember of us, certainly it is time you learned better,» said Thrayket. His voice was soft and somewhat high-pitched, without sounding weak. «Yet I think you can learn enough about us, without everybody in Gohar learning about you.»
Apparently Blade was expected to understand this without further explanation, and he was afraid he did. He realized that he was also going to have to argue with the Emperor.
«If this means that I am to be your prisoner-«
«Lord Blade, that is not a well-chosen word. Say, our guest.»
«Two words for one thing, Your Radiance, and that a thing I cannot accept.»
Thrayket frowned. «You are rather free in choosing when you will obey me and when you will not. With my son you might do well, but do you expect to please me by this manner?»
Blade didn't know if this was a test or if the Emperor was really on the verge of getting angry. But he'd begun by taking a firm stand, and if he quickly abandoned it now he would find it hard to keep the Goharans' respect. Besides, if he was going to be confined to the palace grounds, he wasn't going to be able to carry out his mission in this Dimension. Blade was enormously stubborn when it came to resisting interference with his missions, whether by Soviet secret agents or aging rulers.
«Your Radiance, I do not wish to displease you in any way, but I must please my queen-«
«A woman rules England?»
«Yes. Those of us who travel into the past do so with her blessing, and speak to her of what we have found when we return home. If I am to be held in the palace, I can do nothing but return to England at once. There I will have to say that I could learn little of Gohar, because the Emperor Thrayket did not wish me to do so. My queen and my fellow Historians will have to think that the men of Gohar wish to hide from their children.»
Thrayket frowned again, and his long-fingered hands twisted and knotted themselves in his lap. Blade decided to risk pushing on.
«Your Radiance. Your name has not come down to the time of the English, but among your own people I have heard you called a wise and honest ruler. So I understand why you fear what I may do among the people of Gohar.»
«I do not fear,» said Thrayket sharply.
«I beg your pardon.» That had been a genuine slip of the tongue. «You doubt what I may do, because you know very little of me. I will be happy to stay here in the palace for thirty days, as your guest, so that you may learn about me what you need to know. At the end of that thirty days, I must ask to be allowed either to move freely about Gohar or else return to England with what I have learned.»
Thrayket's frown deepened, and his hands clenched into fists. After a long pause, he nodded. «Blade, I think I understand you now. You do not wish to defy me, merely to do your duty to your queen?»
«Yes.»
«Well, I shall not stand between you and your duty if I can avoid it. Nor do I wish to insult a fellow ruler, even if she is a woman and a thousand years in the future. You will live here thirty days, and we shall watch you. At the end of those thirty days…» He shrugged. «As you wish.»
It seemed the right time to bow. «I thank Your Radiance.»
Thrayket rose. «I will not thank you, Lord Blade, but I must say I now believe you are indeed from the future. No man from any land of our days or our fathers' days could stand before an Emperor of Gohar as you have done, without fear.» He turned and shuffled out.
The Emperor's servants came in to retrieve the chair, and Blade's came in to help him finish the bath. The man's hands were actually shaking, and the girls were so pale that Blade wouldn't have considered bedding them even if he'd still had the impulse.
He didn't. For the next thirty days, he intended to be on his best behavior, assume that he was being watched even in bed, and keep his back to a good, solid wall as much as possible.
Chapter 7
Thrayket IV of Gohar might be a hard man to talk to, but he was also one who kept his promises. After a few days in the villa, Blade began to realize that in fact he was both «guest» and «prisoner.»
The villa had a staff of five-the gray-haired man, the two girls, a cook Blade never saw but who produced delicious meals three times a day, and a gardener who kept up the grounds. They gave him impeccable service, but practically no information about Gohar or even about themselves. The man was a close-mouthed professional servant, the two girls were obviously frightened of talking out of turn, and the gardener was a deaf-mute. Not a natural one, either-his ears had been pierced and his tongue cut out. His silent presence was a useful reminder of the iron hand which might lie inside Thrayket's velvet glove.
The villa stood within an acre of lush garden, and was watched politely but continuously. If Blade took more than a few steps beyond the invisible boundaries of the grounds, Goharan soldiers seemed to spring from the ground or drop from the trees. They were always polite, but they always included archers with bows strung and arrows ready. Even if he'd felt himself in real danger at the villa, Blade would have looked for safer ways of escaping.