The Grace of Kings (56 page)

Luan Zya whispered to Kuni, and Kuni nodded.

After a few minutes, Kuni got up, held his stomach, and asked an attendant for directions to the toilet. Mün Çakri followed him out.

“Lord Garu feels unsafe even going to the toilet alone?” Pering sneered, and those sitting near him tittered.

“Lord Garu ate and drank too quickly,” Luan Zya said evenly. “Mün just finds it hard to sit in a tent. He prefers to be outside with other fighting men.”

Pering whispered directions to Ro and a few other guards. They left to make preparations.

Mata Zyndu was too softhearted to believe that his old friend posed a danger, but Pering wasn't going to let Kuni Garu slip away. This was the best chance to get rid of him, away from his loyal followers and soldiers. Once Kuni Garu's head was on a stake, his men would have no choice but to surrender.

Half an hour later, Pering became agitated. Kuni Garu and Mün Çakri had not come back. And Ro, who had left to check up on the two, was also nowhere to be seen.

“Luan Zya, where is Lord Garu?” Mata Zyndu asked.

Luan stood up and bowed deeply. “I must apologize for Lord Garu's rude departure. But he's feeling unwell and has already returned to his camp. He left gifts for Marshal Zyndu, and I will present them now.”

Luan Zya brought up trays of jewels and antiques, and Mata smiled and thanked Luan Zya. Inwardly, he was quite annoyed. Kuni's departure smacked of fear, as though he didn't trust Mata to not harm him. After Mün's speech, Mata was afraid that others might really think he was jealous of Kuni.

Torulu Pering could no longer contain his frustration. He jumped up and grabbed the
kunikin
in front of him and smashed it into pieces at his feet. “It's too late!” he said, to no one in particular. “This is a mistake that will haunt us all.”

Luan Zya bid the assembled lords farewell and left.

Two days later, soldiers clearing the latrines found the body of Ro Minosé. He had evidently been too drunk when he went to the toilet and fell into the dirty water and drowned himself.

As soon as Kuni Garu and Mün Çakri returned, Kuni's men moved their camp along the shoreline of Lake Tututika until they were on a hill so that they could see the approach of any pursuit from far away. The horses were readied, and everyone prepared to evacuate at the first clear sign that Mata Zyndu would attack.

But the attack never came. Marshal Zyndu was apparently satisfied with Kuni's apology, and Torulu Pering's outburst was treated as merely an embarrassing lapse in decorum from an old, drunk man.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

A NEW WORLD

PAN: THE FIFTH MONTH IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE PRINCIPATE.

Mata Zyndu sat in his tent, contemplating the new seals that he was supposed to hand out.

He picked one up and caressed it, running his fingers over the cool jade surfaces and the intricate patterns that could be pressed into wax to make the logogram of power, the symbol of a new Tiro state's authority. He held on to it as though it were a part of himself.

He sighed and put it down, and picked up another seal.

King Thufi gave his view of the matter in a letter to the marshal: In spite of the relatively puny contributions made by Kuni Garu to the success of the rebellion, given that he
did
fulfill the terms of King Thufi's promise, the king hoped that Marshal Zyndu would honor the original promise and create a new Tiro state in Géfica to be awarded to Kuni.

Mata threw Thufi's scroll onto the ground in disgust and ground his foot against it until all the wax logograms had fallen off and were illegibly mixed into the mud. He was finished with listening to that shepherd boy. Henceforth he was done with the old title of Marshal of Cocru. He had defeated the empire, and that made him the hegemon. So he would reward people as he saw fit.

Indeed, if one new Tiro state was going to be created, why not two? Why not ten or twenty?

On Wolf's Paw, the kings of the Six States had shown themselves to be unworthy of the respect accorded them, so why should they bene­fit from what Mata Zyndu had achieved? The ranks of nobility had become polluted over the years, Mata realized, and that was why so many men and women of noble birth had behaved so ignominiously.

He was in charge of the fate of Dara now, and he would cleanse their ranks and restore honor to the old titles. He would remake the world to be more perfect. As for justification? Wasn't it enough that he had the largest army? If anyone was unhappy, let them speak to him on the battlefield.

The heads of the Six States had sat around in endless debates while their countries burned and their people died. He would not make that mistake. He would not hesitate to act.

To begin with, he would divide the world into new pieces and hand them out to people he thought more deserving. Mapidéré's error had been to trust people who lacked the necessary qualities. In contrast, he would hearken back to ancient times, when the foundations of the world were laid. Like the great Ano lawgiver Aruano, he would also create a new world order that would last millennia. He would measure the world against the rigid grid of his heart and put each man in charge of a domain no more and no less than his just deserts.

“You should hold on to Géfica,” Torulu Pering said. “It has the richest farms in all of Dara, and Lake Tututika gives plenty of fresh water for irrigation. It's easy to defend, given Thoco Pass and the Miru and Liru Rivers, and yet easy to attack from if you can dominate the sea. Whoever controls Géfica would be able to feed a larger army, and by that means gain an upper hand over the other Tiro states.”

But Mata felt that might lower his esteem among the others. He didn't want Kuni to have Géfica, so taking it for himself might appear too greedy. He wanted the power to draw lines on a map, but he also wanted to be seen as a wise and generous lord.

“I'm from Cocru,” he said to Pering. “The whole point of leaving home to accomplish great deeds is so that one day I could
return
home to receive the adulation of my homeland. Géfica is too far from Tunoa.”

Pering sighed. Advising Zyndu was often frustrating. He cared so much about honor and display and so little about the real foundation of power.

Mata decided that instead of keeping Géfica, he would divide it into three pieces—North, Central, and South Géfica—and hand them out to Théca Kimo, who was also from Tunoa and fought well at Wolf's Paw, Noda Mi, who was in charge of provisions for the army and had always done a good job, and Doru Solofi, who had led the scouting party that first discovered Kuni Garu's treachery at Goa.

“That makes no sense, Lord Zyndu,” Pering objected. “None of these men have much experience with governing, and it seems that you are rewarding them for their personal loyalty to you, rather than weighing the contributions of the commanders from all the Tiro states fairly. Rebel leaders of the other Tiro states will not like this.”

Mata Zyndu ignored Pering. If they didn't like it, too bad. The people who meant the most to the rebellion were the people who helped him, and that was that.

On the other hand, the Xana home island of Rui was also made into a new Tiro state, and as its king, Mata Zyndu settled on Kindo Marana. Granting the empire's greatest commander and the man Kikomi loved such a boon would be seen as a grand gesture and cement his own reputation for compassion and forgiveness. He felt this was right and just—Torulu Pering was always telling him how Kuni was trying to win the hearts of the people; this would show the people just who was the more honorable lord.

“That cannot be,” Pering said. “Marana is associated with the hated empire, and he would be despised by the people of Rui for losing the war, especially since so many of the young men who heeded his call are now at the bottom of the sea feeding Tazu's sharks.”

“That's his problem, not mine.”

As for the kings of the Six States, Mata Zyndu decided to shrink their territories and reduce their power. He still seethed at the treachery of Princess Kikomi, but he also felt some measure of sentiment for her, and after all, it seemed wrong to punish Amu for what she had done out of her own misguided, foolish feminine love. He compromised by restoring King Ponadomu to the throne in Müning, except that Amu would be deprived of all her territories on the Big Island and be confined to Arulugi.

Likewise, King Dalo of Gan was a coward, and his kingdom would be reduced to just Wolf's Paw. And to add insult to injury, the isles of Ogé would be taken away from Gan to be made into a new Tiro state, to be administered by . . . ah, Huye Nocano, the Gan commander who finally decided to join the Battle of Wolf's Paw only after it was clear Mata had won. He made a small contribution, so he would get a small domain. That was fair. And the assignment would annoy Gan to no end, which would be delicious.

Mata laughed at his own joke.

Torulu Pering shook his head but held his tongue.

On and on Zyndu went, redrawing old borders and rewarding whoever he pleased.

When the results were revealed, many whispered that his decisions seemed odd, whimsical, nonsensical.

But Mata saw a deeper order, an order that others simply did not appreciate.

For example, some scholars shook their heads as they saw that although the rebellion had only begun because of the courage of Huno Krima and Zopa Shigin, the hegemon refused to grant their families or their followers any title or fief.

But Mata understood that to do so would be to encourage further rebellions against the established order. Sometimes those who lit the spark that began a conflagration must be consumed by it lest the fire burn on indefinitely.

Others complained that despite the bravery of King Jizu of Rima, the hegemon carved Rima into six tiny new Tiro states all clustered around Na Thion like pigs feeding at a trough.

But Mata understood that Jizu had been made into something like a saint, a symbol around which people could rally. Such symbols were the most dangerous because they could be made to say whatever those who held the symbol wished. He had to prevent the cult of Jizu from getting out of hand and maintain order.

And as far as Mata was concerned, Haan had done nothing during the rebellion. Indeed, worse than nothing—Luan Zya had been instrumental in the thievery of Pan. So he decided to install King Cosugi in a new Haan composed of only Ginpen and a crescent-­shaped slice of land fifty miles around it. Even parts of Lutho Beach were now no longer encompassed in this tiny Tiro state, but incorporated into one of the three new Tiro states he made out of Géfica.

This is madness,
Pering thought.
These fanciful borders will cause
endless trouble
.

As for Faça, King Shilué, ambitious yet cowardly, greedy yet indecisive, had long recognized that Mata Zyndu was a man of hot passions and quick impulses. Flattering him could guarantee no favor. The best strategy, Shilué had decided, was to stay out of his way and out of his sight.

Therefore, ever since the Battle of Wolf's Paw, King Shilué had kept a low profile, though he gave Mata Zyndu whatever he wanted when Zyndu's emissaries came to demand more aid—troops, money, food—in the war against the empire. This strategy now paid off, as nothing the man had done stuck out in Mata's mind as either parti­cularly good or bad. He decided to leave Shilué in charge of Faça as it was.

But many knew of Shilué's numerous plots and betrayals against his nominal allies. He had orchestrated the politics of Jizu's Rima from Boama, his fair, foggy capital. He had sought to snatch Ogé from Gan when the very survival of the Six States was uncertain. To these observers, it now seemed as if Shilué was being rewarded for his crafty ways. Pering explained that not punishing Shilué would chill the hearts of friends and breed further discontent among the allies.

But Mata was in no mood for counsel. He saw men like Shilué as undistinguished and therefore harmless.

Mata Zyndu reserved most of Cocru for himself as the new King of Cocru and Hegemon of All Tiro States. To compensate Thufi, he decided to install the man as the king of the remote and barely popu­lated Écofi Island. Since King Thufi began as a shepherd, why not send him somewhere where he had plenty of land to open up new ranches? He laughed at his own wit.

Of course it was a bit awkward for the former Marshal of Cocru to now dictate terms to his old king and lord, but Hegemon Zyndu decided that once King Thufi moved out of Cocru, no one would remember who he was.

That still left the problem of Kuni Garu, however. The man who had actually entered Pan and captured Emperor Erishi. Mata had to give him something more than Zudi, but what?

Mata Zyndu's eyes roamed over the map until he saw the island farthest from the Big Island.

Tiny Dasu had nothing to offer but spicy foods and unsophisticated fishermen and peasants, barely better than savages. Not only was it far away, it was also blocked on the way to the Big Island by Rui, where Kindo Marana would be king and could keep an eye on Kuni Garu's every move like a watchdog. It was perfect. Dasu would be the jail for the former jailer, and Kuni Garu would stay on his minuscule island prison until the day he died.

And Mata would keep Jia and Kuni's children near Çaruza. Oh, Mata Zyndu wouldn't mistreat them, but they would act as excellent hostages to guarantee Kuni's good behavior. There would be no more tricks out of Kuni, no more surprise attacks.

Torulu Pering had gone on and on about the threat posed by the ambition of Kuni Garu. Well, with this bit of “reward,” Kuni Garu's ambition would no longer pose a problem.

Pering had to agree that at least on this point, the hegemon was indeed very clever.

Though Mata had told her that she needn't feel obliged to do anything, Mira couldn't just be idle.

She felt awkward sitting all day in the small tent that Mata had installed her in, next to his own. On the day he had brought her back, he had sent her a box filled with gold and silver and jewels, more wealth than she had ever seen, but he had then left her alone, busy with his own affairs.

The servants and maids all treated her as though she were already Mata's woman, speaking to her with exaggerated courtesy and serving her elaborate meals. When she asked to help around the camp, the servants responded by kneeling and asking her in terrified voices whether their service had been unsatisfactory in some manner. It was suffocating.

So she simply decided to start doing things around the camp. She didn't know what Mata's intentions were, but she wasn't going to be a kept woman. She would make herself useful.