Moments later they were standing on the tile floor outside of the Chamber of Peace. Here they waited for half an hour. A harried-looking court attendant finally stepped out to greet them, his hands fluttering as he apologized. “I’m so sorry the Queen isn’t here yet, but she’s been delayed by some very important business that can’t be interrupt ”
“I’m warning you, Kherda, the next time you hold me up like that when I’m closing for the kill, I’m going to have someone cut off your hand!”
Pelmen recognized the voice immediately as belonging to Ligne. It was coming from the spiral staircase at the far end of the hall, and growing louder as she descended. He edged his way back among other members of the troupe, positioning himself behind Gerrig’s broad back.
“I don’t know why you’re complaining,” Kherdft protested defensively.
“You won, anyway.”
“Much to my dismay,” added a little man coming down the stairs behind Kherda and Ligne. His scarlet and purple cloak marked him immediately as a merchant of Uda. As the little group walked toward them, Pelmen noted the cloak’s material and its costly cut and guessed him to be not only a merchant, but an Elder as well. “In fact,” the man continued,
“I think Kherda was really trying to help you, Ligne, not harm you.
When he replaced his losses with his star instead of his disc, it was me he was arming to battle with, not you.”
Pehnen smiled to himself. The important business that had kept the Queen from meeting with them sooner had obviously been a game of full Drax. It was the language of this three-sided table game that they were speaking.
“Say what you like, Jagd, he was deliberately undermining my strength.
I had a chance for total conquest.” Ligne spat at Kherda in disgust.
“But you knocked it down to a marginal victory.”
“Which is, as they say, just as much a win.” Jagd smiled beneficently.
“Besides, Ligne, you appeared to me to be totally unaware of my cube, and I fear ”
“My Lady,” the court attendant tremulously interrupted, “the travelling players have arrived, and ”
“I have eyes, don’t I?” Ligne bellowed at the man, and he swiftly bowed his way out of their presence, backing into the Chamber of Peace.
Ligne looked at the group before her with a hint of distaste playing around her lips, then abruptly smiled a warm smile. “Welcome! Gerrig, hello! Yes, I remember your face,” she said to Yona Parmi, waving away his bow. She looked into Danyilyn’s eyes for a moment, craning her neck as if to see into the darker corners of the actress’ mind, and asked, “Weren’t you here before, too?”
Danyilyn scraped the floor with the hem of her skirt as she curtsied gracefully. She smiled a pleased, awed smile, perfectly conveyed her joy that the Queen should deign to remember her. Of course, she was a professional, but Pelmen still had to admire the skill with which Danyilyn communicated that feigned pleasure.
Now Ligne brushed past Gerrig and stared into Pelmen’s face, squinting to try to see through the greasepaint. “And you?” she began, almost with a tone of suspicion.
Gerrig broke in hastily. “This is Follomar the fool, a new addition to our troupe, and this is Magrol, Jamnard…” He continued, moving through the group. Ligne didn’t follow him. She reached out to try to touch Pelmen’s face, and he ducked out of the way.
“Why are you wearing makeup?” she demanded.
“Why do you?” he quickly responded.
“To improve my appearance, of course
“There’s my reason as well.”
“But you’ve covered your whole face.”
“An improvement, believe me. But if my Lady doubts my word, let me propose a contest. Let her remove her makeup and I’ll remove mine, and we shall see who needs it the most.”
Ligne’s sharp blue gaze threatened him only momentarily; then the woman blinked and her nose wrinkled into a grin. “A genuine fool! How amusing, Kherda.” She turned and pointed a finger at her Prime Minister. “Listen, you sour old parchment pusher! Lose me another game like that, and I’ll put this one in your office!”
“You didn’t lose,” Kherda groused. He sighed with exasperation.
“Everyone else in the group is new,” Gerrig broke in nervously. “It’s been a hard year for us, and some of our best drifted off to join other organizations. But we are ever so grateful to you, Queen Ligne, for allowing us to ”
“Spare me,” the Queen said, and she turned around to stalk into the Chamber of Peace. Gerrig looked inquiringly at Kherda, who jerked his head toward the door and frowned. Gerrig followed Ligne into the opulently furnished chamber. “I hear you now perform a masterful play with me as the subject.” Here Ligne turned, and her cold blue eyes ran Gerrig through. “Your last appearance inside these walls was not so masterful.”
“But, they, I…” Gerrig stammered, flustered by her manner.
“Don’t stammer at me! I’m tired of bearing mumblings that make no sense.”
Gerrig shut his mouth, and resolved to keep it closed unless she asked a direct question. His tongue had long been his fortune, and he was anxious to keep it safely in place.
“I recognize that at that time this wasn’t my court, and that you were under the influence of that tedious Pelmen. I trust that during your present stay you’ll refrain from commentary on my morals and my politics?” She looked at Gerrig expectantly, and he nodded with all the sincerity he could manage to muster. “Fine. I’ve a number of things on my mind these days I’m in no hurry to see you perform.
Perhaps you won’t mind sampling the pleasures of the court for a few weeks?”
“Wh why, my Lady, we would be honored to spend ”
“To spend my gold on your extravagant appetites? Of course you would.
Realize, however, that when I do wish entertainment, I require it at a moment’s notice. You may find it wise to be prepared when I call on you. Craftsmen who disappoint me often find my displeasure painful.”
Ligne then glided grandly out of the Chamber of Peace, passed the troupe without a glance, and headed back for the staircase, calling over her shoulder, “Come on Jagd. Let’s play another.”
Kherda followed her, his sandals flapping as ever. “My Lady, there is a drought in the southeastern provinces and ”
“You told me that at breakfast.”
“If you could give your approval for the relief goods to be accompanied by a contingent of the Golden Throng, I could dispatch ”
“Have you ever tried the sweep-flip opening, Jagd?” Ligne asked the merchant as they reached the stairs and started up. “Someone told me that in Lamath it’s called the Hanni opening, because that house originated it.”
“Doubtless a Hanni merchant who told you so. It originated with Uda. I don’t think very much of it myself, however, since it wastes too many valuable pieces early in the…”
Pelmen strained to hear the rest of Jagd’s explanation. He was a Drax player himself, though it had been months since he’d played. Even then, it had been only a game of Green Dummy Drax he’d played against Dorlyth. But the hall was ninety feet long, and Jagd’s quiet voice didn’t carry very far. The merchant and the Queen disappeared into the upper levels of the palace.
Kherda stood at the foot of the stairs, shaking his head.
Almost as an afterthought, he turned to call back to the actors; “Go see the Lord of Entertainments. I’m sure one of you will remember where his office is. He’ll give you lodgings, and I’ll give you a more thorough orientation in the morning.” Kherda sighed; then, scooping up his skirts, he assumed a dignified expression, and flapped up the stairs.