“Orichalcum. It has many properties and is a compound of gold, copper, and silver, but in what proportion of each is the guarded secret of the smiths.”
One of the merchants arose to greet the Lady Aiee. “Indeed the Flame favors me this day, that the Sunborn lady and her lords find it their pleasure to visit my unworthy shop-”
“Indeed, Krafiti, if you will fashion masterpieces, then you must continue to tempt us past forbearance. I have heard much of a certain pearl headdress-”
“Let the Sunborn but be seated and it shall be brought for their inspection. A-Ham”-he spoke to his assistant-“bring forth the crown of one hundred and ten.”
“Now we shall see true beauty,” Cho told Ray in a whisper. “Krafiti is a master craftsman, and his agents bring him the finest stones from all over the world.”
The assistant reappeared bearing a tray of ebony. On its black surface rested the life-sized bust of a woman, also of the same dark wood, and on the head was the crown.
A net of rose-shaded pearls was meant to confine the wearer’s hair in the back, and over the forehead rose the nine-headed serpent constructed of the same gems, some as large as Ray’s thumbnail. The Lady Aiee put forth a finger and stroked the head of the serpent before she spoke.
“Well do you design your temptations. Now that I have looked upon it, I cannot rest until it is mine.”
“But, of course! Did I not fashion this thinking of the Sunborn? To none else would I offer it. If you do not wish it, then it shall be broken apart and the pearls used otherwise.”
“It is mine. Let it be brought to the courtyard. Now show us armlets, for I owe homecoming gifts to the warriors who have seen duty in far places.” She smiled at Ray. “It is the custom among us to present small treasures to those returning from difficult journeys. Choose you one of these and wear it with good fortune.”
Ray looked down at a bewildering array of gemmed arm bands. Then he glanced up at her. “You choose for me; it is your gift.”
Her smile deepened, and he knew she was pleased.
“This then-” She took up a band carved from jet in the form of nine-headed serpents, small diamonds making the reptilian eyes. “The serpents are for wisdom, which all men need. And it is unlike all others-”
“Save this one,” Krafiti answered. He held out one of
milky jade, made to the same design, but with ruby eyes.
“Then that is yours, Cho, if it pleases you.”
“As it well does,” he replied promptly.
“Upon the inner side you shall set names,” the Lady Aiee ordered. “For the black ‘Ray,’ for the jade ‘Cho,’ and send them with the crown.”
“It is done, Sunborn.”
Ray looked at them lying together, black against white, and both the brighter seeming for that contrast. Serpents-they appear to revere snakes here, he thought, not to hold the prejudice of his own time against that species. The arm band was beautiful in its craftsmanship, a work of art, and it was a gift of friendship. Yet somehow-He did not know why he wished it would remain where it now was, to be worn by another.. It was as if that black band held some dire promise.
He got to his feet quickly, suddenly conscious the others were waiting for him. And the Lady Aiee was watching him closely. “What is it?” she asked a little sharply. “Nothing. The contrast, black against white, makes them more arresting-” She looked to the bands. “Yes, that is true. And that is all?” “All,” he replied firmly. He was going to have no more of forebodings born in the imagination-they seemed to be far too easily nurtured in this world.
THOUGH life in the courtyard of the Lady Aiee might have luxurious outer trappings, it was not, Ray discovered, an idle one for any of them. His own task seemed to be learning the Murian script for reading of the book rolls. And it was not easy. In the passing of time Ray began to note that there were portions of Murian life that were not as open to him as those rolls over which he pored. The Lady Aiee vanished for hours, active in temple duties. That was the one major building in the city that he had not been invited to visit. It was, he gathered, the very heart of the land. Why had they neglected showing it to him? Or was it neglect, Ray asked himself one morning when he had gone to the window to rest his eyes on the greenery without. He had caught a word or two between Cho and his mother that very day, enough to know that Cho was going to the temple for a special ceremony devoted to those lost at sea. Yet nothing had been said to Ray concerning this. Was he-had he walked again by night in answer to what the Lady Aiee seemed sure was another’s will? If he had, he did not know it. Did they still hold him in a certain supicion so they would not take him into any shrine they held in respect? – The Sun was the symbol of their supreme being. That had been easy enough to understand, and it was one of the oldest of all beliefs. But there was a Flame to which they alluded now and again, also a sign of religious power. So far he had kept within the bounds he thought they had set for him, going only on such errands around the city as he had been invited to share, to the market, to the docks with Cho, and once on a pleasure party on the river, where the Lady Ayna and her hostess in the city had also been guests. What he had seen, Ray stored away, to mull over privately. But there was always an uneasy feeling, now growing ever stronger, that what he was shown were only surface things and that all that really mattered in this land was kept from him. In spite of the ease of manner and friendly attitude of those about him, he remained ever the stranger.
“My ford-”
So intent was he upon his own thoughts that he was startled by those words from the doorway. And in his surprise a small suspicion sprang to life. Perhaps he was never really left alone. He glanced back at the serving man.
“Yes, Tampro?”
“A messenger, lord, from the Great One.”
“The Lady Aiee, Lord Cho, they are gone-”
“The messenger would speak with you, lord. He came in haste.”
A royal messenger, for him?
“Admit him.”
But Tampro had already gone, and a moment later a man in the uniform of the palace guard stood in his place.
“To the Sunborn, greeting. The Great One asks for your presence in the Hall of the Sky.”
Ray nodded. His thoughts were jumbled, and he forgot the formal phrase that should answer that. He followed the other to a litter, noting that again the curtains were drawn after his entrance so that he could neither see nor be seen. Why? His imagination supplied a score of answers in almost as many moments, and each wilder than that which had preceded it. The bearers moved at a jog trot, which suggested the need for speed.
He heard the challenge of sentries, a low-voiced reply from his escort. Then they were out of the bustle of a city street into comparative quiet. Finally the bearers came to a halt and set down their burden.
Ray emerged, but not in the same fountained court
yard he had visited before. This was a narrow space between two high walls. No plants grew here to break the starkness of those white stone stretches, and there was a promise of grim purpose that awoke wariness. Directly before him was a door giving entrance to a tower.
The white surface of its sides was smooth except for the door. But, as Ray looked up, he saw symbols of gold set above. And for all his past patient study, these he, could not read. The messenger-officer stood in the. doorway motioning for Ray to join him.
“The Great One waits!” Impatience was in his tone. “Above- ” He stood aside to wave Ray onto a stair that curved about the inner wall of the tower. And the.’
‘ American climbed that alone, the officer remaining below.
There was a curious simplicity to the inner portion of the tower, as if it had been deliberately designed to copy an older and ruder form of architecture from a day when men built in rough stone and learned skills even as they so built. The stair came through an open well into a room that occupied the whole of the tower’s interior, an empty room. Again the stair curved up, leading higher, through a second empty room and, a third.