The Scarab Path

'Yes, but the people like you. Everyone out on the street there remembers how you won the war. They fought alongside you. They watched you go out and send the Wasp army packing. People — I'm talking about that majority without political aspirations — respect you. That's one reason why I'm going to be seen shaking hands with you in as many places as possible.'

'Why should I prostitute myself like that?'

Drillen's grin resurfaced. 'Because I make sure that you get what you want. I was almost the only person backing your Vekken initiative, when you put it forward, but I wrestled enough support to push it through. You're not as detached as you pretend, old soldier. You don't give a fig for power, but there are things you want done, and for that you need people like me. Which is convenient, because people like me need people like you in order to defeat people like Helmess Broiler.'

Stenwold scowled, but he had no argument to hand that could refute the other man's logic.

'I need to trump Broiler's atlas if I'm to get enough lots cast in my direction to secure the Speaker's podium,' Drillen explained. 'Now, I could just match him, map for map, but I have no guarantee that my fraudulent cartography would be any better than his, so I rather thought I might produce something genuinely scholarly, just for the fun of it.'

'That is not the thing the political future of the city will hang on,' Stenwold told him.

'Believe me, stranger things have been known. Our cousins, our kinsmen, our estranged family of Khanaphes … I have planted a few seeds of rumour already. People are already beginning to talk about it. I will raise some pertinent questions at the Assembly, and you …'

'What?' Stenwold said finally. 'What do you want from me?'

'Your seal of approval. I happen to know a little more about Khanaphes than most. You remember Kadro the antiquarian?'

'Vaguely, yes. I haven't seen him around recently.'

'I'm not surprised, as he's been in Khanaphes for several months. He'd followed the Solarnese trail long before anyone was looking in that direction. I know because he's been writing to me for money, and I've been sending it. That makes him my man.'

'And what has your man found out?'

'My man has been keeping his cards close to his little Fly chest.' Drillen grimaced. 'Which is why there will be an expedition sent to help him out. The first official Collegiate expedition to Khanaphes. Our ambassadors will extend the hand of friendship to our estranged brothers. Master Kadro will receive his due, but I need results.'

Stenwold nodded patiently, letting the quietness spin out until he was finally forced to ask. 'So where do I come into all of this?'

'Aren't you roused by the sheer academic challenge of it all?' Drillen asked, still grinning like a fool.

'As it happens I am, but where do I come in?'

'You propose the expedition, which I then agree to sponsor and fund.'

'Do I now?'

'Because if I tried it myself, then Broiler would be all over me, and I'd be fighting tooth and nail every step of the way to stop him making it his expedition and his triumph. You, though … Broiler hates and loathes every inch of you there ever was, but more than that, he doesn't have the guts to take you on. If it's your expedition, he'll mutter and complain, but he won't dare stick his neck out, and you know why.'

Stenwold cocked a surprised eyebrow at Drillen, seeing that his own suspicions about Broiler's loyalties were obviously not unique. He shrugged philosophically, waiting for the catch.

'Please, Stenwold,' Drillen said, in a pleading tone that surprised both of them. After an awkward pause the fat man continued, 'I'm a devious bastard whose only aim is my own betterment, I freely admit it, but I'm also on your side. A coup involving Khanaphes could be enough to swing the voting next Lots. We need each other.'

Stenwold sighed. 'This sort of politics has always been exactly the sort of thing I've tried to avoid. So you want me to go to Khanaphes?'

'No, no, I need you here to continue shaking hands with me in public. I just want you to drum up a few scholars to go there in your name, with my money. So people will like me more and Broiler less. And also the academic knowledge of the College will be expanded by another few feet of shelf space. That's a secondary consideration for me, but I do still care about it.'

'I know,' said Stenwold tiredly. 'That's the only reason why I've been listening to you for this long.' Inside he was fighting his own battle. There was a lot of him saying that once he started making these deals he was on a slope — and his kinden were notoriously clumsy. That the future of Collegium might depend on closet conspiracies like this one made him feel sick about the whole business. Drillen was right, though: Stenwold needed support in the Assembly, and he must pay for any services rendered.

And he was intrigued. Despite himself and despite everything he was intrigued. A Beetle-kinden city located beyond Solarno. What might we learn there? And on the back of that, another thought — the possible solution to another personal problem.

'I'll do it,' he said. 'I'll regret it, but I'll do it.'

'That's my old soldier!' Drillen clapped him on the shoulder with a meaty hand, and poured out another two goblets of wine.

Stenwold took his and drank thoughtfully, turning implications over in his mind. 'I suppose you'll want everything to look spontaneous,' he mused.

'Oh, of course,' Drillen agreed heartily. 'The serendipitous meeting of two great minds.'

'Best if it looks that way,' Stenwold muttered darkly. 'I'm not thinking about Broiler now, but about the Imperial ambassador.'

Drillen blinked at him blankly.

Stenwold looked unhappy as he continued. 'Think about it: Stenwold, implacable enemy of the Empire, entering into secret negotiations that will send agents to a city that is not so very far from the Empire's southern border.'

'The war's over.'

'The war isn't currently active. Both the Empire and I understand the distinction.'

Drillen shrugged. 'Whatever you want. You're in charge. It's your expedition.'

She was still in mourning, but mourning was difficult for her.

In Collegium the official colour of mourning was grey. True, it was not customary any more for widows and grieving family to parade around the city in drab vestments for tendays, or even just days, but for funerals at least, grey was the order of the day.

For Cheerwell Maker, though, grey was his colour, therefore a life colour, the colour of her happiness, in the same way that black and gold had become colours of death. She could not make grey the colour of her mourning because that would be a negation of his life.

In the end she had tracked down a Moth-kinden, a pallid trader from Dorax, and not left him alone until he had explained the customs of his people. For the Moths, the concept of colour seldom entered their lives, since they lived in a midnight world where they could see perfectly without need for sunlight or spectrum. For death, though, they made an exception. For shed blood, they took on the hue of blood. She learned how Mantids did the same, dressing their honoured dead in scarlet, and then entrusting them to the red, red flames. The Moths, who had been the Mantis-kinden's masters since time immemorial, had become infected by such superstitions.

And red was the colour of the Mynan resistance, their emblem of red arrows on a black background proclaiming their impossible triumph over the Empire. And Myna had been where he had died, for her, though he had been so many miles away.

So Che wore red, and thus caused public comment. She wore a tunic of deep wine colours edged with black, or else black arrowed with resistance scarlet. Even though she also wore a Moth cape of grey sometimes, nobody realized that she was mourning.