cautioned them as they sat in one of the audience chambers while Emban and
the emissary exchanged pleasantries near the door. ‘In some ways he’s even
better than Emban. Be just a little careful oF what you say around him.
Tamuls are quite sensitive to the nuances of language.’ Emban escorted the
silk-robed emissary to the place where they all sat. ‘Your Majesty, I have
the honour to present his Excellency, Ambassador Oscagne, representative of
the imperial court at Matherion,’ the little fat man said, bowing to
Ehlana. ‘I swoon in your Majesty’s divine presence,’ the ambassador
proclaimed with a florid bow. ‘you don’t really, do you, your Excellency?’
she asked Him with a little smile. Well, not really, of course,’ he
admitted with absolute aplomb. ‘I thought it might be polite to say it,
though. Did it seem unduly extravagant? I am unversed in the usages of your
culture.’
‘You’ll do just fine, your Excellency,’ she laughed. ‘I must say, however,
with your Majestys permission, that you’re a devilishly attractive young
lady. I’ve known a few queens in my time, and the customary compliments
usually cost one a certain amount of wrestling with one’s conscience.’
Ambassador Oscagne spoke flawless Elenic. ‘May I present my husband, Prince
Sparhawk?’ Ehlana suggested. ‘The legendary Sir Sparhawk? Most assuredly,
dear lady. I’ve traveLed half-round the world to make his acquaintance.
Well met, Sir Sparhawk.’ Oscagne bowed. ‘your Excellency,’ Sparhawk
replied, also bowing. Ehlana then introduced the others, and the ongoing
discharge of diplomatic pleasantries continued for the better part of an
hour. Oscagne and Mirtai spoke at some length in the Tamul tongue, a
language which Sparhawk found quite musical. ‘Have we concluded all the
necessary genuflections in courtesy’s direction?’ the ambassador asked at
last. ‘Cultures vary, of course, but in Tamuli three-quarters of an hour is
the customary amount of time one is expected to waste on polite
trivialities.’
‘That seems about right to me too,’ Stragen grinned. ‘if we overdo our
homage to courtesy, she becomes a bit conceited and expects more and more
obeisance every time.’
‘Well said, Milord Stragen,’ Oscagne approved. ‘The reason for my visit
is fairly simple, my friends. I’m in trouble.’ He looked around. ‘I pause
for the customary gasps of surprise while you try to adjust your thinking
to accept the notion that anyone could possibly find any fault in so witty
and charming a fellow as I.’
‘I think I’m going to like him,’ Stragen murmured. ‘You would,’ Ulath
grunted. The ambassador’s flowery speech was contagious. ‘I exaggerated
slightly for effect,’ Oscagne admitted. ‘i’m not really in all that much
trouble. It’s just that his Imperial Majesty has sent me to Chyrellos to
appeal for aid, and I’m supposed to couch the request in such a way that it
won’t humiliate him.’ Emban’s eyes were very, very bright. He was in his
natural element here. ‘I think the way we’ll want to proceed here is to
just lay the problem out on the table for our friends in bold flat terms,’
he suggested, ‘and then they can concentrate on the real issue of avoiding
embarrassment to the imperial government. They’re all unspeakably clever.
I’m sure that if they put their heads together, they’ll be able to come up
with something.’
Dolmant sighed. ‘Was there no one else you could have selected for my
job, Ehlana?’ he asked plaintively. Oscagne gave the two of
them a questioning look. ‘It’s a long story, your Excellency,’ Emban told
him. ‘I’ll tell you all about it someday when neither of us has anything
better to do. Tell them what it is in Tamuli that’s so serious that his
Imperial Majesty had to send you here to look for help.’
‘Promise not to laugh?’ Oscagne said to Ehlana. ‘i’ll do my best to stifle
my guffaws,’ she promised. ‘We’ve got a bit of civil unrest in Tamuli,’
Oscagne told them. They all waited. That’s it,’ Oscagne confessed ruefully.
‘Of course I’m quoting the emperor verbatim – at his instruction. You’d
almost have to know our emperor to understand. He’d sooner die than
overstate anything. He once referred to a hurricane as a ‘little breeze’
and the loss of half his fleet as a minor inconvenience.’
‘Very well, your Excellency,’ Ehlana said. ‘Now we know how your emperor
would characterize the problem. What words would you use to describe it?’
‘Well,’ Oscagne said, ‘since your Majesty is so kind as to ask,
‘catastrophic’ does sort of leap to mind. We might consider ‘insoluble’,
‘cataclysmic’, ‘overwhelming’ little things like that. I really think you
should give some consideration to his Majesty’s request, my friends,
because we have some fairly strong evidence that what’s happening on the
Daresian continent may soon spread to Eosia as well, and if it does, it’s
probably going to mean the end of civilisation as we know it. I’m not
entirely positive how you Elenes feel about that sort of thing, but we
Tamuls are more or less convinced that some effort ought to be made to fend
it ofF. It sets such a bad precedent when you start letting the world come
to an end every week or so. It seems to erode the confidence people have in
their governments for some reason.’
CHAPTER 5
Ambassador Oscagne leaned back in his chair. ‘Where to begin?’ he
pondered. ‘When one looks at the incidents individually, they almost
appear trivial. It’s the cumulative effect that’s brought the empire to
the brink of collapse.’
‘We can understand that sort of thing, your
Excellency,’ Emban assured him. ‘The Church has been on the brink of
collapse for centuries now. Our Holy Mother reels from crisis to crisis
like a drunken sailor.’
‘Emban,’ Dolmant chided gently.
‘Sorry,’ the fat little churchman apologised.
Oscagne was smiling. ‘Sometimes it seems that
way though, doesn’t it, your Grace,’ he said to Emban. ‘i’d imagine that
the government of the Church is not really all that much different from
the government of the empire. Bureaucrats need crisis in order to survive.
If there isn’t a crisis oF some kind, someone might decide that a number
of positions could be eliminated.’
‘i’ve noticed the same sort of thing myself,’ Emban agreed.
‘I assure you, however, that what we have in Tamuli is not some absurd
little flap generated for the purposes of making someone’s position secure.
I’m not exaggerating in the slightest when I say that the empire’s on the
brink of collapse.’ His bronze face became thoughtful. ‘We are not one
homogeneous people as you here in Eosia are,’ he began. ‘There are five
races on the Daresian continent. We Tamuls live to the east, there are
Elenes in the west, Styrics around Sarsos, the Valesians on their island
and the Cynesgans in the centre. It’s probably not natural for so many
different kinds of people to all be gathered under one roof. Our cultures
are different, our religions are different, and each race is sublimely
convinced that it’s the crown of the universe.’ He sighed. ‘We’d probably
have been better off if we’d remained separate.’
‘But, at some time in the past someone grew ambitious?’ Tynian surmised.
‘Far from it, Sir Knight,’ Oscagne replied. ‘You could almost say that we
Tamuls blundered into empire.’ He looked at Mirtai, who sat quietly with
Danae in her lap. ‘And that’s the reason,’ he said, pointing at the
giantess.
‘It wasn’t my fault, Oscagne,’ she protested.
‘I wasn’t blaming you personally, Atana,’ he smiled. ‘it’s your people.’
She smiled. ‘I haven’t heard that term since I was a child. No one’s
ever called me ‘Atana’ before.’
‘What’s it mean?’ Talen asked her curiously.
‘Warrior,’ she shrugged.
‘warrioress, actually,’ Oscagne corrected. He frowned. ‘I
don’t want to be offensive, but your Elene tongue is limited in its ability
to convey subtleties.’ He looked at Ehlana. ‘Has your Majesty noticed that
your slave is not exactly like other women?’ he asked her.
‘She’s my friend,’ Ehlana objected,’not my slave.’
‘Don’t be ignorant, Ehlana,’ Mirtai told her crisply. ‘Of course I’m a
slave. I’m supposed to be. Go on with your story, Oscagne. I’ll explain
it to them later.’
‘Do you reallythink they’ll understand?’
‘No. But I’ll explain it anyway.’
‘And there, revered Archprelate,’ Oscagne said to Dolmant, ‘there lies the
key to the empire. The Atans placed themselves in thrall to us some fifteen
hundred years ago to prevent their homicidal instincts from obliterating
there entire race. As a result, we Tamuls have the finest army in the world
– even though we’re basically a non-violent people. We tended to win those
incidental little arguments with other nations which crop up from time to
time and are usually settled by negotiation. In our view, our neighbours
are like children, hopelessly incapable of managing their own affairs. The
empire came into being largely in the interests of good order.’ He looked
around at the Church Knights. ‘Once again, I’m not trying to be offensive,
but war is probably the stupidest oF human .activities. There are much more
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107