Cho was on his feet, staring after. “He saw-he saw
you in the Red temple. A man close to death sometimes speaks true of the future. May the one above grant that it be as an invading warrior and not a prisoner you walk so!”
“We have grown too complacent through the years.” The Re Mu’s voice cut across Cho’s. “Another day and these traitors might have been beyond our reach. Perhaps we can learn more from Sydyk, since the novice was more timid and but lately recruited to their service.”
He seemed to be musing upon his thoughts and to have forgotten them. Ray expected some dismissal, now that his part had been played, but it did not come. Long minutes dragged by, and there was silence in the chamber, except for now and then a faint scrape as some guard shifted position. What were they waiting for? Ray wriggled on the bench. He wished he dared attract attention and so be released from that attendance without purpose. It seemed to him that even in this white-walled hall there were shadows that darkened and crept upon them and the throne, as if night drew in not in a natural way but as a threat.
The curtain at the doorway parted, and a. guard came, saluting the Emperor and passing to his hand a writing tablet. The Re Mu read and then looked up.
“Sydyk was unknown in person to those he served. And tonight, before he was taken, they forbade him to risk further communication with them. Lord Ray, what was it that he said to you as they took him forth?”
“That he foresaw me in the temple of Ba-Al.”
“The temple of Ba-Al. But not how you came there. Pray to such gods as you acknowledge that he saw only a portion of the truth.”
Cho stepped forward. “Great One, this Sydyk was unknown to his masters in the east, and they will not seek him for a space. Cannot one of us take his place, to enter the heart of the enemies’ land?”
“Those who send spies will be prepared against them in perhaps a far more expedient manner than we have been. What think you, U-Cha? Shall we consider this?” “It is written so in the stars.”
“Then”-Cho was almost breathless-“let me offer myself for that service!”
Slowly the Re Mu shook his head. “We make no hasty decisions. We shall see, we shall see-”
“Great One-” The senior of the Naacals spoke, his voice falling to such a murmur that they could not hear. Ray saw the Emperor nod.
“Lord Cho, it is our will that you search out upon the charts of the Barren Lands such harbors as might give good hiding to any scout from the fleet.”
“Yes, Great One!”
“And you, Lord Ray, will go with Ah-Kam to set into the records all of Sydyk that you heard.”
The younger Naacal stepped away from the throne and waited for Ray to join him.
They went through the second doorway, into a corridor which was less public. Ray thought, perhaps a private way for the Re Mu. He looked inquiringly at his guide and saw the gleam of crystal in the other’s hand. Then from it shot a dazzling beam, blinding his eyes.
10 “-SYDYK of Uighur, of the courtyard of the Lady
Ma-Lin, being son to her marshal, one U-Val. In your fifteenth year you departed for fleet training, serving under-”
Names, a roll of names, ringing through Ray’s head. The voice droned on and on with details from the life of one Sydyk, and though Ray tried to shut his ears, or his mind, to them, he found that he could not. He was held in thrall by that voice, and what it conveyed to his mind could not be erased either, making him conscious of all the minutiae of Sydyk’s life. At the same time, though he could not open his eyes to see, he was aware of hands on his body, sensations on his skin of wet and cold, strange odors.
“You were taken by Murian guards, but you managed to win free, putting the onus of treachery upon the novice Ru-Gen, saying that he had approached you for passage out of Mu and that you had refused him. The crew of the Cleave Wave will also be mind-set in this story. You will follow these orders. Two hours after you drop anchor off the frontier post of U-MaChal, you must contrive to come to shore alone-follow the curve of the beach north until you reach two pointed rocks standing very tall. There you await the coming of a small boat. He who commands it will say, `The east rises,’ and you will reply, `The west falls.’ You will enter the boat and do what must be done.”
What-why? He was caught in a net, vainly trying to fight to freedom.
“For a month you will watch and do what has been set upon you. Then, for a space of three days, a ship of the fleet, disguised as a fruit carrier from the south, will be off the harbor of the Five Walled City. She will fly a plague flag to keep off boarders. You must, if you can, reach her before the fourth day. Do you understand?”
Though he did not, Ray felt his head move in an answering nod.
“You are Sydyk out of Uighur!”
Ray opened his eyes. fie was looking into the reflective surface of a mirror at a man with a brown-yellow skin and black hair falling in greasy locks about a face that, by some art, was older and coarser than his own.
“Your clothing-”
A hand appeared at one side of the mirror and indicated a bundle of stuffs waiting on a stool. He put on the rough cloth undertunic and a leather jerkin and kilt, dyed blue but stained with salt and smelling of sweat and the sea. Instead of sandals, there were sea boots of hide with a small fringe of natural hair left about their tops. His fingernails were rough and had heavy deposits of black under them. (rime lines were deep-etched in the skin of his hands. Where that small tattoo was on his wrist, a broad band of copper braceleted the skin. There was a plain sword belt of black leather and a bronze helmet without a crest.
“It is done, as well as we may,” said a voice behind him, though he saw no face in the mirror over his shoulder. “Remember to slouch as you walk; you are from the far frontier, with no manners. What are you doing?” The voice was sharp, alert. Ray ran a hand along his right arm and then the other along the left. What he searched for he could not quite remember. Black, yes, it was black! And he should wear it here-and it was highly important to him!
He tried again to fight off the mist that imprisoned his mind.
“Black-” In the mirror he saw his lips frame the word. “Black armlet-mine!”
Suddenly he could see it as clearly in his mind as he saw this strange reflection in the mirror. The black armlet was his. He would not stir from this place until they gave it to him! And he fixed upon that with strange stubbornness, as if it offered some safety now.
There was movement behind him, although he could see nothing in the mirror. But now he was able to turn, as if it were a difficult business to get his reluctant body to obey him in even so small and ordinary a thing.
There were three of them. The first an officer by his dress; then one in a serving man’s tunic, who was now busy with a box of small pots and bottles, over whose shoulder hung a towel stained yellow-brown like the new color of Ray’s skin; and, lastly, a Naacal. It was in the priest’s hands that Ray saw what he sought-a black armlet of serpents with diamond eyes. He reached for it.
“It would betray him to the first Atlantean who saw it. No trader would wear such a treasure-” The officer moved to intercept him.
But the Naacal looked at Ray. “I do not know. That he wishes it so strongly now, this is not to be lightly dismissed. Why would you have this, my son?”
To Ray that black band was a smoldering, living thing. He needed it; he must have it-it was his and they could not take it!
“Mine!” His voice was close to a snarl; his hand went to the dagger at his belt. The world, the room, narrowed to the armlet and his need for it.
But it seemed that he would not have to fight for it after all, for the Naacal, still regarding him with that deep, probing gaze, now held it out to him, his other hand waving back the officer.