Once A Hero (37 page)

Being so honored both gratified and terrified me. I must admit pleasure at how readily the men of the Steel Pack agreed to wearing the gloves. What the Red Tiger and I had created as the solution to a problem, they embraced proudly as a newborn tradition. A greater troop of warriors I could not imagine commanding, and I admit to feeling a thrill when I heard ballads sung in our honor.

I had agreed to the title only because the Red Tiger trapped me into it. If I had no title, then the honor the Steel Pack showed me would be thought a fraud, and I would dishonor them by refusing a title. I bargained hard, so the purview of the Knight-Defender of the Empire was to go where I wanted, do what I wanted, all the while answering only to the emperor himself—that latter coming only if I wanted to answer to him, too. The position included a stipend, which I didn't want, but it proved useful for keeping Shijef in sheep so he'd stop eating dogs and cats.

A messenger skidded slightly as he rounded a corner and burst into the chapel with youthful exuberance. He sucked in a great breath as he regained his balance and tugged his tunic into shape. "My Lord Knight-Defender . . ."

"Neal will do, there." I squinted at him. "Clarmund, is it?"

He looked surprised. "Yes, sir, my Lord. Ah, my Lord, I have been sent by the emperor to request your presence in the imperial audience hall. An embassy has arrived, and he deems it important for you to be present."

I smiled. As much as I eschewed anything that had the vaguest hint of officialdom about it, I had been looking forward to seeing whomever my brother might have sent to represent the Roclaws in the imperial court. Not having spent much time in the Roclaws since Tashayul's death, it occurred to me that I might not have any clue as to who the ambassador might be, or where that person stood amid the various Roclawzi factions, but seeing a fellow countryman would be a joy nonetheless after all this time.

I followed Clarmund out from the chapel and around to the staircase that spiraled up and around the tower. It had a twin on the far side with which it danced around but never intersected. That stairway had been cut more broadly and had been decorated with carvings that must have excited the Reithrese. Mercifully the Red Tiger had their artwork covered with tapestries, and not a few rugs hung to the same end. While that stairway served well for formal parties going to the second level of the tower, I preferred the plain servants' stair, because ostentation makes me itch and you can't beat a servants' passage as a place to pick up great gossip.

The imperial audience hall had been designed and decorated by a Reithrese who appeared not to have been as lugubrious as the chapel's architect. The whole room had a woodland feel, with columns carved to look like trees, their branches spreading out and up to form the ceiling vaults. The ceiling rose high enough to break up through the next level, and little viewing galleries had been carved within the branches so anyone in the chamber above could took down upon the proceedings. The walls had been painted with pastoral and woodland art, though the creatures represented ran long toward predators, and more than once Men were pictured as the object of a hunt.

Though I should not have thought it odd of a people who have gems for teeth, the throne was a remarkable piece of work. Fashioned from a smoky quartz, the throne's back appeared to be a giant incisor. The seat and arms were shaped from molars, and two long, upturned fangs arced up and out to curve above the emperor. The fittings that joined all of these teeth together were gold and set with gemstones which, I knew from previous examination, were Reithrese teeth and were rumored to have been taken from Tashayul's rivals for power.

What I did not know, and really did not want to know, was if the giant teeth were carved by artisans or had graced the mouth of something far too big to make me comfortable.

The chamberlain was about to announce me, but I waved him to silence and wandered down through the stone garden to where a small delegation of four stood speaking with the emperor. I recognized Aarundel but didn't question his presence initially, because he had met my kin in the mountains. His presence made sense. It was not until I saw him gesture with his right hand that I realized in it he held the hand of the woman standing next to him. I mentally revised that to sylvanesti next to him and felt my heart begin to beat faster.

Beltran looked up and eased the crown back on his head. "Ah, my Knight-Defender hath arrived. You know him, of course, Ambassador."

The Elf standing opposite Aarundel on the left side of the throne turned and nodded in my direction. "He served as vindicator for Aarundel when he and my granddaughter Marta were wed." His voice remained neutral, but I felt a bit of respect when he inclined his head toward me. "I am pleased to see the Reithrese have not yet harvested you."

"And I am pleased to see you again, Sidalric Consilliari." I stopped and bowed formally to him. As I straightened up, I smiled at Marta. "And you. Lady Marta." Turning back toward Sidalric, I racked my brain to remember Marta's mother's name, for I felt certain she had to be the veiled sylvanesti attending the ambassador. Grationa, that's it.

As I started to speak, the sylvanesti stepped away from the ambassador and, with hands sheathed in fawn leather, raised the white veil she had worn. Words died in my throat, though my mouth did remain open. I blinked, twice and again, then forced myself to resume breathing. "Doma Larissa, I am honored."

"It is my honor to be in the presence of the Knight-Defender of the Empire." She gave me a smile that set my heart to burning more fiercely than the old emperor's sword ever had, and I hoped it was a fire that would never go out. "Tales of your bravery and ferocity have reached even unto Cygestolia."

I coughed into my hand, then shook my head. "My Lady, you are far too wise to believe even a portion of them, for you know they are nine parts lies to one part rumor."

Larissa just smiled serenely. "But even if those rumors were nine parts exaggeration, the one part truth in them would make you more than worthy of the praises sung in your name."

"You are most kind, my Lady."

Beltran clapped his hands. "You are indeed special, Lady Larissa. I have fought for a month to get Neal to acknowledge his part in our victory, and he evades it as if praise were a whipping. You tame him with a glance and a turn of phrase."

I gave him a stare of pure poison. "She's had years of dealing with stupid animals. Majesty."

"Centuries, actually."

I clutched my chest with my left hand. "And in all that time, never so deftly did you wound one so deeply."

"I'd vouchsafe never had she dealt with one so contrary as my Knight-Defender."

"I believe you will recover, my Lord." She smiled at me teasingly.

"Your words are balm to my wound, my Lady."

"Wit and charm from Neal?" The Red Tiger scratched at his beard. "My Lady Larissa, you are a miracle worker. Though I regret being parted from your company, I might suggest you minister to my Knight-Defender in the stone ocean on this level. And you, Aarundel, if you would care to show your lovely wife yet another part of this tower, the ambassador and I can begin some discussion of issues common to his realm and mine."

I bowed deeply toward the throne. "Then, my Liege, I beg of you leave to escort Lady Larissa to the ocean."

Beltran frowned. "I believe I prefer reluctance to satire."

"Your wish is my command."

"Get out of here, Neal!" he shouted in mock command. "My Lady, go with him, cure him if you can, and give me back the Neal of old. If you cannot, this one you may keep with my compliments."

Though built by the Reithrese, I found the stone ocean interesting. The room in which it had been placed had been constructed to appear to have been rough-hewn out of black basalt. The floor had been covered to a depth of nearly a foot with knucklebone-sized marble stones of the purest white. Big jagged hunks of azurite and turquoise decorating the floor erupted through the white stone ocean like fangs tearing through flesh. I knew they were meant to be islands, but because of the throne, the tooth image stuck in my mind and would not go away.

A mahogany shoreline hemmed the ocean in and provided enough of a walkway for observers to circle the ocean and study it from all angles. Caretakers—once slaves, now respected freemen and part of the imperial household—raked the marble stones into patterns that corresponded to constellations or anything else that struck the caretakers' fancy, I imagine. The patterns were not openly representative, but held shapes the way clouds do when you take the time to look at them on a lazy afternoon. Depending upon the angle and your mood, the still waves of the stone ocean could form anything.

I had taken to spending a lot of time there. I appreciated the quiet, yet liked being nearby in case a question arose upon which the emperor might like or tolerate my opinion. I also know the stone teeth and the white stones reminded me a lot of the Mountain Men trapped to the south and also reminded me of my home. I found I did a lot of thinking in that room, which is not a bad thing in and of itself, but having spent my life preferring action to contemplation, it marked a new and slightly scary change.

Larissa's face brightened as she passed through the threshold. "Oh, this is magnificent."

I blinked away surprise. "You like it?"

"It is beautiful. Of course I like it."

"But it's so devoid of life, I thought . . ."

She stopped and looked at me. "You spend a lot of time here, do you not, my vitamora?"

I nodded.

She smiled and stretched out her arms. "I can feel your presence. This may once have been a Reithrese place, but you have made it your own. And as you love this place, so do I."

We sat down in silence, studying the flow of stones. Though no signal passed between us, I knew we were letting our eyes track across the same frozen waves and swirls in the pattern. As we traced our way through the ocean's currents and eddies, the two years since we had seen each other evaporated.

"It has been so long, yet it feels as if we danced together yesterday." I wanted to reach out to her, and started to, then withdrew my hands. "It is very good to see you again."

Her chin came up and her eyes sparked with mischievous fire. "We have seen each other since then, my love. There have been dreams."

I blushed. "The dreams, I remember many. I often feared for my life if I mumbled in my sleep, since your brother and I often shared a tent or a room during the campaign. Never did I dare tell him about the dreams."

"Nor did I speak to my husband of them."

I frowned. "You speak as if we had the same dreams."

"We did, Neal." Larissa knelt on the floor and delicately shifted a stone from the crest of one wave to the next. "This is but an aspect of being vitamorii. My brother would never have noticed your midnight whispers because likely he was sharing dreams with Marta. At least, she says it was so."

I smiled, but felt cheated. Had I known those dreams were more than just my imaginings, I would have clung to them more tightly and fought to remember them. "I had no idea."

She pressed a gloved finger to her lips. "Nor do any of the others. If they imagined we shared dreams, there is no telling what the reaction would be. This is our secret."

"Agreed." I leaned back against the wall. "How is it that you have come here?"

"When Beltran's missive arrived in Cygestolia, the Consilliarii decided to send an ambassador to open relations with this new Human empire."

I did not conceal my surprise. "That is a change from the last time they dealt with a Human empire."

"And that change is largely your fault, my vitamora." Larissa plucked at a fold of her skirt and smoothed the cloth against her thigh. "Your example helped blunt the forces that wanted a second crusade."

"Of that, then, I am thankful. Still, that explains why Sidalric is here. Why have you come?"

"I had no choice." She adjusted the folds in her brown dress's skirts. "As vindicatrix, I had to be present at the time when Marta presented her Petition of Fecundity to the Consilliarii."

"Her what?"

Larissa nodded, her eyes narrowing for a moment; then she smiled. "When Levicius and Alosia created us, they gave little thought to reproduction. For them it was sufficient that there was a mechanism by which we could increase our number. They chose, therefore, to make Elven women fertile for the period of a month or so after ingesting the fruit of the apple tree."

"Apples?"

"Not the red and green fruit you know, but a special apple with golden skin that grows in a single grove in Cygestolia. Because we have long lives, we determined that access to that fruit should be limited and only those who have done something remarkable should be allowed to bring offspring into the world. This is why Elven children are rare and treated as a great gift to the parents and to both of their families."

Part of me thought that tyranny; then I remembered seeing hordes of children running through the streets with no one to tend them or care about them, and I wondered if the Sylvan system might not have advantages. "Marta has petitioned the council to be allowed to have a child?"

"She has, and the Consilliarii have granted the petition." Larissa shrugged. "As much as they might like to deny it, Aarundel's exploits here in the Manworld have been remarkable, and having a child will mean he wilt not venture from Cygestolia for the next half century."

Half century? She said it so matter-of-factly, yet I knew I would be dead and gone before that time had passed. "So you accompanied Marta here so she could tell her husband about the petition grant?"

"Yes, and for another reason."

My spirit buoyed up. "And that was?"

"I am the vindicatrix and you are the vindicator. As we stood with them at their wedding, it is our duty to stand with them when they are given the golden fruit."

I folded my arms over my chest. "But we don't have to be there for the conception part, right?"

Light Elven laughter filled the room, forever banishing the last bit of gloom from it. "No, we do not, though remembering those dreams, were my brother to require instruction, you would be an excellent tutor."