Azel strolled to a tradesman's entrance, knocked. A soldier opened a peekhole.
"What you want?" he demanded.
"I got to see Colonel Bruda about the cut flowers he ordered." He grinned. Theguy wouldn't know what the hell was going on, but he'd have a damned goodidea, what with all the guys coming around about flowers for the Colonel. Hecould not be unique, could he? What the hell would a Colonel do with a ton ofposies?
The Herodian bolted up behind Azel. In his own language he told his partner,
"I'm going to take this gink up to Bruda. Hold the fort."
The partner grunted. He had not bothered to look up from his lap. Too long ingarrison, Azel figured.
His guide led him through dusty, seldom-used passages. He amused himselftrying to estimate Government House's backdoor traffic from the disturbancesin the dust. He played the same game every time.
The guide turned into the long north-south hall. Azel glanced back. Nobodybehind them. Nobody up ahead. There never was, but you had to check. Youdidn't let up.
Should he do it?
Why the hell not? There wasn't a damned thing they could do. He grinned.
He got his weight behind the punch and buried it in the soldier's left kidney.
The man folded around the blow, then crumpled. Azel leaned against the walland waited. When the soldier finally began to get himself together and lookedup, there were tears in his eyes.
"Gink, eh? You gotta learn not to let your asshole overload your brain." Hesaid it in Herodian vulgate, not the formal, upper-class Herodian mostoutsiders learned.
He saw something stir behind the soldier's eyes. "Don't even think about it.
I'd tie your ears in a bowknot." He extended a helping hand. "Let's go see theMessenger of the Faith." Though most everyone, including the common Herodiansoldiers, used old-fashioned designations, among themselves the true believersused ranks that were religious.
The man let Azel help. He started off unsteadily, bent slightly, head hanging.
"I don't reckon I hit you that hard, but if you start pissing blood you bettersee your regimental doc."
The soldier said nothing. He took Azel up several floors and into a room wherea Herodian ensign, still looking forward to his first shave, jumped up andopened another door, said something to someone on the other side. Then he toldAzel, "He'll see you in a minute."
The soldier shuffled out
"What was the matter with him?"
"Made a mistake. Made an ethnic slur."
The boy did not meet his eye. Azel grinned, moved to a window, looked out atthe bay. Hell of a view of the harbor. He wondered if he'd ever go to seaagain. Not likely. That was a young man's game. A young, stupid, blind man'sgame. If you saw or figured out what you were walking into you didn't walk.
"Rose?"
Azel turned. Colonel Bruda beckoned him. Azel followed him into the other room, grinning. He was not a tall man himself but he could see the top ofBruda's shiny head. "I figured out how you guys can win every battle from hereon in."
Bruda faced him, frowning.
"You just pick a sunny day for the fight, put all your officers out front, andhave them bow to the enemy."
Bruda's frown deepened. He did not get it.
"I never seen a one of you guys that was over twenty-five that wasn't bald asa lizard's egg. You'd blind them with the reflections. Then you could just gofinish them off."
"Your sense of humor is something we don't need, Rose."
"You need some of my talents, you take them all."
"Consider the possibility that you may not be as indispensable as you'd liketo think, Rose."
Azel grinned. Bruda was as predictable as sundown. "Hell. You know, GovernorStraba said something just like that when he still thought I worked for himand not for Cado."
Bruda lost some color.
These Herodians were something. Hell on a six-legged camel in a gang, withtheir vaunted discipline and religious fervor. But catch them solo with acrack like that and they drizzled down their legs.
Of course, Bruda was the investigator of record in the hard, messy death ofGovernor Straba. Not a very good investigator, Colonel Bruda. He hadn't caughta whiff of the truth. He had no idea that Azel wasn't the killer.
Let him think whatever he wanted if it kept his knees knocking.
Azel had traced the murderer but had kept that to himself. It might be usefulsomeday.
"You'll have to wait a few minutes, Rose. He's with someone. But he knowsyou're here."
"All right." Azel went to the window and contemplated the harbor. For theserenity of the sea ... The serenity that masked the darknesses moving in thedeeps, beneath the turquoise surface. Heavenstone, the Dartars called it. Ha.
Nothing to do with heaven. Gorloch knew.
Gorloch knew that behind every facade there was nothing but shadow.
Ultimately, there was nothing but The Shadow.
Gorloch knew.
Bruda made little noises behind him as he tried to work but could not concentrate. Azel heard his sigh of relief when the room's second door opened.
"Rose?"
Azel turned. "Ah. My favorite courtier."
The man's name was Taliga. Like all the Herodian aristocracy he was short andbald. Azel made no secret of the fact that he thought Taliga an incompetentasshole who would starve to death quickly if ever Cado-his brother-in-law-gotan attack of smarts and planted a boot in his butt.
On some level Taliga was aware that he was a parasite. He hated Azel forwaving it in front of him, in public. He was Azel's deadliest living enemy.
Azel knew that. He had created Taliga deliberately. Someday the Herodianswould deem him a greater liability than an asset. When that decision was madehe wanted the sanction handed to an incompetent first. Taliga was his alarm.
He did not bait the man today, beyond the initial crack. He attempted smalltalk, grinning all the time. Friendliness, too, would set Taliga's teeth onedge. It was a Herodian maxim that your enemies were at their friendliest andmost solicitous just before they sank the knife in your back.
The military governor awaited them in a small, spartan room on the highestlevel of Government House. His own quarters. He took the admonitions of hisfaith personally. He said, "Thank you, Taliga. Good morning, Rose. It's been awhile."
Azel waited till Taliga was out of the room. "Hasn't been anything worth coming in about."
"What did you do to Taliga this time? He was severely distressed."
"Nothing, General. I was the soul of civility. I asked about his wife anddaughters. I commiserated properly when he reported that your sister has beensuffering from a recurring flux."
"You're a dangerous man, Rose. You know us entirely too well."
"Sir?"
"And you dissemble altogether too convincingly. But I suppose that's whyyou're so good at what you do and I should be thankful you work for me and notfor my enemies."
"There's truth in that, sir."
"You're also altogether too blunt. It makes you needless enemies. SomedayTaliga will try to kill you."
"To carry bluntness a step further, sir, if he tries that they'll find piecesof him in every quarter of Qushmarrah." "He's not much, Rose, but he'sfamily." Azel restrained a smile. Something had given unflappable, pudgy, buttough-as-shield-leather Cado a sour stomach and he wanted to work it off withsome verbal fencing. "I like working for you, sir. But I like being alive evenbetter. I ain't let nobody push me since I was seven years old. Ain't likelyI'd start now. It's like, anybody who ever leaned on me and had to pay theprice belonged to somebody's family."
"So. Let's stop being bull apes pounding our chests. You're here after a longdrought. Does this mean there's finally something worth reporting?"