"We are still here," he said.
"Only just," she replied.
"You do not sound very triumphant."
"Let idiots like Elakar make speeches about victory. I know, you know and Azaar knows that the real war has only just begun."
"You think the Dark Empire will intervene soon."
"We both know that it has intervened already. You fought with the Nerghul in Morven. You saw what their agent Zarahel got up to in the mountains. I just wonder what their next surprise will be. I fear it will not be long till we find out."
Rik was forced to agree. She smiled brightly. “Now, let us continue your education in the principles of sorcery.”
“No rest for the wicked,” said Rik.
“No rest indeed.”
Chapter Four
Rik looked out the window as the coach approached Parliament Square. Its wheels clattered jarringly on the cobblestones. Above Karim, Asea’s deadly South-born body-guard, rode beside the driver, his bow in his hand even here. A month after its fall Halim was still dangerous enough to require that. Some of the crowd filling the square looked well-off but there were plenty of starving people who knew their situation was only going to get worse as winter approached. Their pinched faces and patched clothes contrasted with the graceful lines of the beautiful old buildings. Halim was an enormous city, constructed on a monumental scale. It had been built to be the new capital of the Terrarch Empire only a few years before that Empire had torn itself apart. Now it had a curiously sick and sinister look, like an age-ravaged beauty dressed in the gown bought in a more prosperous year.
The coach swept them into the square. On its western side, the Temple's great dragonspire rose towards the sun. To the north lay the vast colonnaded frontage of the parliament building. To the east was the Royal Palace. It was a fairly traditional arrangement found in all the old cities of the Terrarchs. All of the buildings were gigantic, and had a curiously decayed look. Their upkeep was patchy at best but they had been built to intimidate, and they performed that function still. The sheer size of them spoke of the permanence and power of Terrarch rule. Humans had never built anything so big or so beautiful. For all their size they had a loveliness of line that moved the heart. In niches in the walls, enormous statues of Terrarch saints and dragon-riders and heroes gazed down upon the living, dwarfing them, reminding them of who ruled this world, and why.
Beside Rik, Asea sat garbed in formal courtly attire. Her hair was piled high revealing her pointed ears. Subtle makeup accentuated her large eyes, high cheekbones and broad-lips. The price of the jewelled Elder Signs around her throat could have fed the whole crowded square for a week. Rik studied them with the interest of a former professional thief. In his earlier life he would never have believed it possible he could be sitting so close to a queen's ransom and yet have no designs to steal it. How things change, he thought.
"Nervous?" Asea asked. She sounded like a bright young woman going to her first ball, not the two thousand year old near-immortal she in fact was. Her constant shifts of mood and image were hard for him to grasp. He had expected a formidable being set in her ways, not this mercurial personality. He suspected that if you dug deep enough you would find that truesteel core, but she was adept at hiding it. He supposed she had enough time to practise that.
"No," he lied. He had been less nervous on nights when he had risked his life on a big theft or before a battle. Today, he was going to be ritually presented to Princess Kathea, now formally in residence in her Palace and awaiting the high holy day of her coronation, and he was uncomfortably aware that she, even more than Asea, was in a position to change his life. She could grant him rewards beyond the wildest imaginings of a street boy from Sorrow.
He ran his mind over the rituals Asea's Master of Etiquette had taught him. He knew exactly how close he should come to the royal presence and exactly how deeply he should bow. He knew he was not to raise his face until the Queen-to-be told him he could look upon her countenance. He was certain he knew what he was doing. He had a good memory for such things. He had been told he could keep wearing his sword. It was a mark of special favour for a half-breed like him. He supposed the future Queen must trust him. After all, if he had wanted her dead, he could have killed her at any time during their long trek back to Morven after their escape from the Serpent Tower.
"You look very handsome," said Asea. He ought to. She had spent a fortune on the clothes he wore. He could sell this gold-braided dark red tunic for enough money to feed a family outside for months. He stroked the trim on the folded cuff with the fingers of his right hand.
"You are going to have to stop doing that," she said.
"Doing what?"
"Thinking about how much the clothes cost. A Terrarch Aristal never does."
"Are you reading my thoughts, Milady? I thought you said the Elder Signs you provided me with would prevent such a thing." He smiled so that she would know he was joking.
"No, Rik. It's just I have come to know you quite well over the past few months." For a man as secretive as he was, it was terrifying to contemplate that someone could read him so well, but if anyone ought to be able to do so, it was Asea. She had centuries of experience of the moods and body language of mortals. How much of her apparently magical divinatory abilities were simply the result of those ages of experience, he wondered?
"Are we so transparent to you?" he asked.
"You are anything but transparent, Rik. There is as much guesswork as certainty in my observations." He wondered whether that was true or if she was just flattering him to put him off guard. He wondered whether she could read those thoughts in his face too. If she could she gave no sign.
"I was thinking about the cost of the clothes," he said, not quite sure why he was letting her confirm the accuracy of her observations.
"Don't."
"I am not a Terrarch Aristal."
"You will be soon. You will be adopted into my house. I have already written to Queen Arielle asking for the patent." Despite himself he was surprised. It must have shown on his face.
"I told you I would," she said. "I always keep my promises. For good or ill."
That was true, too. She paid all her debts, of honour as well as blood. Rik decided that now was as good a time as any to ask her what was on his mind.
“Why has Kathea not been crowned? If it were up to me, she would have been made Queen as soon as we took the city?”
Asea smiled. “There are two reasons.”
“And the first is?”
“That Terrarch coronations always occur on the Feast of Saint Balthazar. It is auspicious and we are a very conservative people.”
“I suspect that is not the main reason.”
“And your suspicions are correct. Invitations have been sent to every Aristal family in Kharadrea. There must be time for all of them to receive and acknowledge those invitations. Those who do not attend will be known as traitors to the crown. Their properties will be forfeit. A number of our Talorean noble families are looking forward to increasing their estates in Kharadrea. Such things must always be done according to correct legal procedure.”
“You expect that some families will not attend.”
“I am certain of it.”
The blare of golden trumpets announced their arrival. They passed through the great archway into the inner court of the Royal Palace. A moment later the destriers pulling the coach came to a stop and liveried footmen put the wooden steps into place that would allow them to get down from the interior with ease.
Rik got down first and then helped Asea to descend. The flowing, belled skirts of her billowing gown were not exactly practical for such purposes. They strode along the crimson hued carpet and under the arched doorway. A Palace servant greeted them fawningly and began to lead them through the maze of corridors.