The Three Lands Omnibus (2011 Edition) (92 page)

So distant was she in her thoughts that I reached out and touched her hand lightly. She turned then with a smile, as though I were a lover calling her name. "But he has you as a friend. At least he isn't lonely."
"I don't know whether he is." I leaned back quickly to my side of the windowseat, keeping my eyes fixed on her. "I suppose I know the Chara as well as anyone does, but even to me he is something of a mystery. He's like the Jackal that way."
"The Jackal." Ursula sighed. "I think the Jackal should just talk to the Chara and bring about peace in that way. They're both wise masters – I'm sure they could find an answer to Koretia's troubles. I told John this once, and he said he doubted that the Chara would be interested in speaking to the Jackal because the Chara believes him to be a rebel rather than a god. But now that I've spoken to the Chara myself, I think John is wrong. I'm sure the Chara would be glad to speak with anyone who wanted to talk with him."
I had a sudden memory of Peter, standing a while before, speaking lightly his words of anger. This image halted my thoughts long enough that, before I could reply to Ursula's words, the door opened and John entered.
He paused at the threshold as he saw me. He was wearing his night-dark tunic again, but as before, he bore no weapon. Slung over his shoulder was his satchel; he turned to hang this on the wall. "You're awake early."
"As are you, it seems," I said. "Ursula told me why you were out."
John glanced my way, and then turned his attention back to the satchel.
"Did you find out whether the rumors were true?" asked Ursula. "Was a man killed last night?"
John walked over to the table nearby and put his fingers lightly on the pitcher, tilting it so that he could see the purple-red liquid inside. "Rumors are still winging their way around the city. It's hard to say what happened."
He did not look up as Ursula came over to his side. But as she placed her cup of wine in front of him, he smiled at her. "I'm very hungry. Do you think you could persuade that crotchety laying hen of yours to give me an egg for my breakfast?"
"I will go whisper pretty words to her," said Ursula. "Some bread is left from yesterday if you'd like that."
As Ursula went into the garden, John walked over to the food box. Ignoring the knife sitting there, he tore off a chunk of bread from the hard loaf and brought it back to the table. He sat down in front of the bread, stared at it, and then picked up Ursula's wine instead and began sipping it.
I started to speak but stopped, going instead to sit opposite him at the table. He did not look up as I seated myself, but he said, "If you've come from the palace, then you already know. Brendon told me when I met him this morning at the market."
"What did Brendon say?" I asked carefully.
John did not seem to notice the phrasing of my response. "No more than what he heard from the supply-keeper. He said that the man was evidently murdered by the Jackal, that he was the governor's spy, that he was a Koretian, and that he had taken the work, not out of greed or disloyalty to Koretia, but because he believed that Emor's rule kept peace in this land." He continued to stare down at the knothole in the rough planks before him as he added, "It isn't my business to ask this of you, but what did the Chara say when he heard of this?"
I was silent a moment, then took the pitcher from next to John and poured myself another cup. "He was very bitter. He said that the Jackal ought to have respected another man's loyalty."
John raised his eyes slowly to meet mine. "Well, then," he said, "the Chara and I are of one mind for once. This murder sickens me, not only for what happened here, but because such things have been happening more and more during the last few months. Have you heard how the riot started in Valouse?"
"No," I said. "The governor doesn't know how it happened."
"Brendon knows; he was there. No Emorians were involved at the start. It was a fight between Koretians, arguing over whether one of the Jackal's recent murders was justified. When I told you things had grown bad in this land, this is what I meant: if these murders don't end, we won't need the Emorians to kill us all, for we will be able to do it ourselves."
"If people are questioning the god's way," I murmured, "then matters are truly bad for Koretia."
John placed his cup on the table with great care. "I am one of those who is questioning the god."
I waited, watching my black-eyed blood brother who could look into the air and see images I had never seen and hear voices that few men had ever heard. Behind us, in the garden, I could hear the faint voice of Ursula as she cooed at the hens. John rose smoothly and unhurriedly, collecting the cup in his palm, and went to stand by the street window, his back facing me.
He said quietly, "The Jackal God issues his commands to the Koretians and says this man should die or that man. It was bad enough when Emorians were dying, some of them good men, but now the god has decreed that friend shall betray friend and brother kill brother. If the god can speak to us to command us, why can't he explain to us what the reasons are for his commands? For I do not understand why the hunting god has chosen to hunt his own people."
I stood up from the table and went over to John. Through the back window I could see Ursula on her knees, leaning over to smile and cluck at a hen. I began to walk in front of John, but something held me back. Standing behind his shoulder, I said, "John, you've always been the one who has visions of the gods, and I can't help you to understand why they act as they do. But Ursula and I were speaking just now of the laws of the Chara and of how they are to the people of Emor what the gods are to the Koretians. So I'm reminded of the one time in which I disobeyed the command of the Chara, and how I almost killed an unarmed man as a result. If the Chara had explained to me the reason for his command, I wouldn't have believed him, for I did not yet know how dark my temper was. The Chara knew better than I did what I should do, and if I had simply trusted him, all would have been well. So perhaps you should accept that the gods know what they are doing when they issue their commands, and trust them."
John stood for a while looking at the street or the gods or nothing – I could not see his eyes. At last he said, "Will you excuse me for a minute?" He went out the back door without looking my way.
After a while I looked through the back window and saw him standing with his back to me, talking to Ursula in the chicken coop. I could not hear what he was saying, but he was evidently telling her of the murder, for her head hung low. Then I saw her nod, and John gathered her into his arms. I turned away.
When John returned to the house, he was alone. He said, "I've decided to go up to the priests' house until this evening. After today, I don't know when I will be able to go there again, for the danger is too great in this city for me to leave Ursula alone any more. I don't want to leave her alone even for this one day, so would you be willing to stay with her until I return tonight? It is much to ask, but you are my blood brother, and I know that you will keep her under your care."
"The Chara has no need of me today, so I will stay," I said. "It is very little to ask from a blood brother. Make your peace with the gods."
Late afternoon light soared lazily through the street window, bounced off the windowseat, and landed assertively on the wooden floor of the house, where it took its rest. I was sitting on one of the benches, having vacated the windowseat in favor of Ursula, who was stretched out there as she mended a gown. She had a tendency, though, to jump up every few minutes and chase a spindle of thread that was trying to make its escape.
She reached over now to grab the spindle, which was teetering hopefully on the edge of the windowseat. As she did so, she asked, "What else did the Chara do for you?"
She had nearly drained me dry of anecdotes about the Chara by now. I ventured further into the dark passage of my memories before saying, "One incident I learned about years after it happened, by way of Lord Carle's free-servant. It occurred a few months before the Chara's enthronement, when he was still Lord Peter. It seems that Peter tried to convince Lord Dean and Lord Carle, who were in charge of arranging the enthronement, that I be allowed to take part in the ceremony as a representative of the palace slaves. Both lords said no, of course, and since they had to give a reason why, they argued that only free-men could attend the enthronement. I suppose they believed that it was too sacred a ritual to be attended by mere slaves, though that didn't keep the High Lord from ordering that the slaves work till dawn three nights in a row to prepare the Court of Judgment and the rest of the palace for the ceremony."
Ursula jerked the gown she was mending to one side, which caused the spindle to jump hastily from the windowseat. Having released her frustration in this manner, Ursula let the spindle lie where it was. "Did the Chara know about this?"
"Not until afterwards; then he was furious. But that's not the end of the tale. Peter was still being tutored by Lord Carle during the previous winter, and Lord Carle asked him, as a final exercise, to prepare a sample proclamation making a major change in the interpretation of the law. The way that such proclamations are written is that the Chara lists firstly his interpretation of the law-structure, which is the base of Emorian law, then the relevant court cases, then his reasons for desiring a change, and only in the end does he announce what change he is making to the law. So Peter was able to read his proclamation all the way to the end, with Lord Carle nodding his agreement the whole way through, before Lord Carle learned that Peter interpreted Emorian law to say that slaves are a category of free-men."
This time the gown slipped to the floor as Ursula bent over and buried her face in her knees to smother her laughter. My own expression remained serious. I waited until her mirth had subsided before I added, "It wasn't so amusing an incident, actually. Lord Carle punished Peter by making him spend a week in his quarters, memorizing a series of unimportant laws."
"But Andrew, just
think
of what Lord Carle's face must have looked like when he realized that he had been fooled!"
My gaze drifted away from Ursula. I stared at the thread wound tight around the spindle as I said in a detached tone, "I would rather not think about it. If you had ever seen Lord Carle when he was angry, you would understand what I mean."
For a minute, the only sound was a rustle of cloth as Ursula bent down to retrieve the gown. Then she said in a hushed voice, "But the Chara says that the only way to deal with Lord Carle is to keep your sense of humor. He says that, if you can do that, then you find that Lord Carle really is not—"
The rest of her sentence was cut off by a series of thumps at the door. Before I could stop her, Ursula poked her head out the window. She said calmly, "It's a soldier. Perhaps it's a message for you from the palace."
"Do you want me to answer the door, then?"
"Please do," she said. "My Emorian is good enough for me to understand what other people are saying, but my grammar is atrocious. John has always wanted to teach me how to speak properly, but he has never had the time."
I got up and walked toward the door, reflecting, as I did, that we had spent all day talking about me, and I still knew almost nothing about John's wife. Surely, I thought, I ought at least to ask her about her blood kin. She could not take offence at such a question if it came from an Emorian.
I opened the door and was forced to step back hastily as I was nearly hit in the face by the soldier standing there. His flustered look told me that he had merely been preparing to knock louder. He was perhaps forty years of age and wore the blue-border trim of a subcaptain, but he looked as nervous as a suitor meeting his beloved's father as he said, "John the trader?"
"No," I replied with my usual coolness. "My blood brother is out for the day. Would you like to speak to his wife?"
He looked uncertainly from me to Ursula. She, having chosen not to speak, was communicating with a broad and friendly smile. "I'm not sure," the subcaptain said. "The trader said that John was the man I should speak to."
"The trader?"
"A Koretian by the name of Brendon." The subcaptain was still running his eyes over me, obviously trying to ascertain both my land loyalty and my rank. "I met him at the army headquarters; our supply-keeper buys goods through him regularly. I got to talking—" He stopped, and then suddenly gave a sheepish grin that made him look very young. "I got to shouting, actually, about all the ways in which the Koretians are ruining this land. I thought he was going to challenge me to a duel for a while there. Then he suddenly laughed and said that the person I should be speaking to was John the trader – that John was an expert on such matters and could tell me whether my ideas had any worth."
Standing a few feet behind me, Ursula said in Koretian, "Invite him in, Andrew. John always listens to anyone who is troubled with a problem. He wouldn't want us to send the soldier away."
Seeing the subcaptain's blank expression as Ursula spoke, I thought to myself that part of this land's troubles might come from the governor's army officials not knowing the native tongue. I raised my hand in the free-man's greeting and said, "My name is Andrew, and this is Ursula. You are welcome to come in if you would like to wait a while for John. I am not sure how long he will be."
I had made the free-man's greeting without thinking; here in Koretia, even the most snobbish nobleman would hesitate before rejecting such a greeting from a lesser free-man. Already I had forgotten what it was like in my adopted land, and I was momentarily puzzled as the subcaptain began to raise his hand, and then let it fall. I opened my mouth before closing it quickly again. Even in Emor, the question of my rank had never been fully settled, so there was no way I could advise him on this matter.
The subcaptain covered his own confusion by saying as rapidly as he could while I closed the door, "I am Gladius, Subcaptain of the Koretian Army under Captain Malise, lately of the Garrison of Valouse."
Ursula's smile dropped from her face like a leaf torn from its branch by a chill winter wind. The subcaptain noticed this and hesitated on the point of sitting down. I said dryly, "Then you are fortunate that Brendon chose not to challenge you; he is lately of Valouse as well. Please be seated, Subcaptain."