want Ctuchik dictating Nyissan policy.’
‘You won’t get any arguments from me there, Polgara.’
‘Good. Now, then, I’ve weaned her off some of the more
incapacitating narcotics, but let’s reduce her intake of the others as well. I
know there are certain compounds she has to take regularly to
keep her from visibly aging, but let’s cut her dosage to an absolute
minimum. Who’s her apothecary?’
‘Speaking,’ he said with a faint smile.
‘Really? It’s very unusual for a pharmacologist to be in a position
of power in government.’
‘Not in Nyissa it isn’t, Polgara. Here in Sthiss Tor, the key to the
queen’s drug cabinet is the key to power. It may sound immodest,
but I’m the most skilled pharmacologist in all of Nyissa. in a land
of addicts, the apothecary rules, but it’s all sort of under the table.
It might be nice to be official.’
‘Shall we take our Salmissra in hand and make a real queen of
her then, Rissus?’
‘That might be nice. A real queen would be sort of a novelty. We
could achieve that stability you want – set up strict procedures for
poisoning opponents, limitations on the use of professional
assassins, and all that.’ He leaned back reflectively. ‘Things have
been chaotic here in Nyissa for the last century or so,’ he noted.
‘Maybe it’s time for us to set up some rules, and around here,
nobody’s going to pay attention to rules unless they’re handed down
from the throne. Yes, I’ll agree to your proposal. Let’s go ahead and
make a real queen out of Salmissra.’
And so we did that. From earliest childhood, Salmissra had never
had a real friend. At the first sign of her affection for any of those
around her, the sound of the tops coming off all the poison bottles
rattled the windows. She was desperately lonely and more than a
little afraid. I assured her that nobody in his right mind would try
to poison me, and she opened her heart to me with an almost
childlike trust. Actually, it was rather touching. I discovered a simple
uncomplicated little girl under all the trappings of her royalty, and
I became genuinely fond of her.
That’s happened to me on occasion. The most impossible
friendship I’ve developed is the one I have for Zakath. That one should
have stopped the sun. My affection for Salmissra didn’t even come
close to that one.
I had a professional interest in Nyissan pharmacology, so between
us, Salmissra and I ran poor Rissus ragged. When he wasn’t giving
her lessons in practical politics ~ Nyissan style – he was introducing
me to the exotic world of Nyissan herbs. Oddly, there were even
some roots, berries, leaves, and twigs in the jungles of Nyissa that
were actually beneficial – under tightly controlled circumstances, of
course.
After I’d been in Nyissa for a half-year or so, the twins advised
me that father had stopped by Eingaard and that he wanted to see
me. Salmissra wept when I told her that I was going to have to
leave soon, but I’d carefully insinuated Rissus and Salas into her
affection, so I was sure that they could fill in the gap in their queen’s
life. To insure that they’d never betray her-childlike trust, I told
them that if they did, I’d come back to Nyissa and feed them to the
leeches that infested the River of the Serpent. You wouldn’t believe
how fervently they promised to be good after that little exchange.
Then I went to the throne-room and said goodbye to the Serpent
Queen. She wept and clung to me, but I gently untangled her arms
from about my neck, kissed her cheek, and handed her over to
Rissus and Salas. Then I left.
It was early in the winter when I reached the Vale, and the snow
was piled deeply around father’s tower. I swooped in, resumed my
own form, and braced myself.
‘Well, Pol,’ he said as I came up the stairs. ‘I was sort of wondering
if you’d decided to stay the winter in Nyissa.’
‘That’s the rainy season down there, father,’ I reminded him.
‘Sthiss Tor’s bad enough already without adding a steady
downpour. You wanted to see me?’
‘I always want to see you, Pol. I yearn for your company all the
time.’
‘Please,’ I said, ‘spare me. What’s bothering you now?’
‘Did it occur to you to let me know what you were doing?’
‘Not really, no. It wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle, father.’
‘I sort of like to stay abreast of things, Pol.’
‘There wouldn’t be any problem if that’s all you did, father, but
you’re nosey.’
‘Pol!’ he protested.
‘But you are, father, and you know it. Oh, I met Chamdar down
there. I don’t think he enjoyed our meeting very much, but I certainly
did.’
‘Was he breathing the last time you saw him?’
‘I think he was breathing fire, father. I spiked his scheme by
exposing him to Salmissra, and she put a price on his head.’
‘Slick,’ he complimented me.
‘I rather liked it. Have you got anything to eat around here? I’m
positively famished.’
‘There’s something in that pot over there. I forget exactly what it
is.’
I went to his fireplace and lifted the lid. ‘Was it pea-soup,
perhaps?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Maybe we’d better throw it out, then.’
‘Why?
‘Because it’s green, father. I think you might have let it age a little
too long. Go down to the pantry and bring up a ham. I’ll fix us
something to eat and tell you all about what Salmissra and I did to
poor old Chammy.’
Father laughed uproariously when I gave him a slightly
embellished account of my adventure in the land of the Snake
People.
‘You did very well, Pol,’ he approved when I’d finished. Were
you really that fond of Salmissra, though?’
‘She wasn’t at all like most of the others, father,’ I told him a bit
sadly. ‘I believe she was quite a bit like the one who had Corek
assassinated. I think I felt much the same about this one as you did
about the other one. She’s very vulnerable, and once I showed her
that I was her friend, she was very affectionate. She even cried when
I left.’
‘I didn’t think anybody named Salmissra even knew how to cry.’
‘You’re wrong, father. They all do. They’ve learned not to let it
show is all. Oh, I saw movement on the south caravan route on my
way here.’
‘Yes. The Murgos have reopened trade with Tolnedra. That’s a
polite way of saying that we’re going to go back to seeing spies
every time we turn around again. You’d better go on to Cherek and
let the twins come back home and start digging into the Mrin again.
If anybody’s going to make sense out of it, it’ll be them.’
‘First thing in the morning, father,’ I told him. ‘Oh, that
whatever it-was you had growing in your cooking pot is in that bucket by
the head of the stairs. I’d take it out and bury it, if I were you. I
think it’s getting very close to coming alive, and I don’t believe
you’d want it crawling into bed with you.’
And so I went on back to Eingaard to take up my task again, and
the twins went back to the Vale to take up theirs. My sojourn in
Nyissa had been something of the order of a vacation, but every
vacation comes to an end eventually, and it was good to get back
to work again.
Then, in 5300, the twins made another breakthrough, and they
confidently announced that this was the century of the Godslayer.
I spoke at some length with Geran, who was by now quite elderly,
and with his son, Darion, a stone-cutter. Geran, as I said, was quite
old, and he was just a little vague. I don’t think he really understood
when I told him that we were going to have to move to Sendaria.
‘I think it’d be kinder if we left him here, Aunt. Pol,’ Darion told
me. ‘He won’t leave mother’s grave anyway, and I don’t think he’d
understand why it’s necessary. Why don’t we just say that we’re
going on a trip and let it go at that? After a month or so, he probably
won’t even remember us. I’ll get someone to stay with him here,
and he’ll be all right.’
I didn’t like it, but Darion was probably right. Geran was
doddering on the edge of senility right now, and I knew of no quicker
way to kill him than to uproot him at his age.
Darion, his wife Esena, and their ten-year-old son, Darral, went
With me to Val Alorn, and we took ship for Darine and traveled on
down to Medalia, where I bought us a house and set Darion up in
business as a stone-cutter. The products that came out of his shop