All the floors were tiled, as were the lower parts of the walls. There were both solid panels and lattices to pull across the openings to provide privacy. The only thing truly disgusting about the place, Genevieve thought, were the toilets cut into the city walls, tight little tiled closets with a hole in the floor over which one squatted. Several times each day, silent, rag-clad malghaste came from somewhere in the bowels of the place to pour buckets of water down these channels to clear them. The waste ran, so said Aufors, through a cloaca to a subterranean reservoir outside the city which was washed out by a diversion from the subsurface river. The system had been built long ago, when the oasis was still here, when the people may have been quite different in their manners and perceptions.
“If so much is known about all this,” Genevieve murmured to him, “if this place was surveyed long before settlers came, then why is it all so mysterious? Galul either existed then, or it didn’t. Even if the archives don’t mention anything seen by ships, surely they have access to the presettlement reports.”
“Presettlement maps,” Aufors replied, keeping his voice low, “show only an ice-field at the southern end of Mahahm. Whatever exists there now, it’s come there since the Inundation.”
The ship and its crew remained where they were for the time being and the first few days were spent in shifting additional supplies, mostly foodstuffs, from the cargo nacelle to the house. Once the ambassadorial group had settled in and considered itself secure, the Captain planned to return across the straits to the nearest island, half a day’s flight away, where a camp could be established for the men while they awaited a summons from Delganor or the Marshal.
Two of the guards had been with the Prince on former trips to Mahahm-qum; they spoke the local dialect and were able to slip out anonymously to fetch what foodstuffs were available in the market, some local, some imported, some—milk and cheese and meat—from the sheep that grazed the piles of seaweed along the shores. Everything else they would need, they had brought with them.
They had been in residence only three days when, rather late in the evening, the man on guard heard a knock at the small gate that opened into the city streets. He opened the spy hole, conferred with the person outside, then came to report to the Prince, who was in the large courtyard with the Marshal, Genevieve, and Aufors.
“One of the foreigners who live here in the city, sir,” he said. “A Danian. His name is Thusle.”
“Upstairs,” whispered Aufors to Genevieve. “Don’t let him see you.”
“Oh, Aufors,” she whispered in return, “can’t I stay? I haven’t seen anyone new . . .”
He shook his head. “The presence of a woman is private information. We can vouch for our staff, but we can’t vouch for some garrulous old cuss who blathers on about this female he just met. Besides, the Prince and the Invigilator . . .”
She grimaced. “You’re right. I’ll just listen from upstairs.” Aufors frowned, casting a quick look around. Delganor had already gone to greet the guest. The Marshal and the Invigilator were in one of the lengthy and private conversations they seemed to be having a good many of lately.
He murmured, “Keep out of sight.”
She went to her own quarters and pulled the grilles across the arches that opened into her room. Sitting just inside, she listened avidly while the old man was greeted, given wine and a dish of olives.
“Well, so you arrived safely,” he said. “I was afraid you would not. There has been some talk in the marketplace. Some talk of Mahahmbi rebellion against the expectations of the Lord Paramount.”
“He is Lord Paramount of Mahahm as well as of the rest of Haven,” said the Invigilator in his cold, forbidding voice.
“He is Lord Paramount in absentia,” the old man murmured. “Who here has ever seen the Lord Paramount? No, they welcome visitors who come on ordinary business. Your Highness knows, for Your Highness has been here before. Perhaps welcome is too strong a word, but you catch my meaning. It’s this effort to increase the P’naki they don’t like. If this visit was an ordinary visit, there’d have been no trouble at all. It’s this other thing that has them upset.”