And what a fool he had been not to have known sooner! Of course, his own father had died young, in battle, while he, the Marshal, was only a boy. There were no other male relatives. So, it had been left to Rongor, though the fool had given him as much misinformation as fact! Rongor had intimated the Prince was in charge of the P’naki matter. Perhaps Rongor had merely inferred this from the Prince’s lordly manner, but in any case, he had been mistaken. It was the Shah who controlled P’naki, and the Shah had no high regard for the Prince. Idiot Rongor, who had worshipped the Prince and who had not known the truth until it was too late. . . .
And he, himself! He had tried to expedite the delivery of his daughter into the hands of the Mahahmbi! He had left the doors open, so they could come in and get her, and he had gone to the palace to announce that fact. Instead of being congratulated for solicitous behavior, he had been taken prisoner and his guards had been slain before his eyes. Even then, perhaps, things could have been differently managed if he had known the Shah’s true feelings.
“What does this mean?” he had asked, when the Prince and Rongor had involuntarily joined him in the palace guest suite.
“A momentary hitch,” the Prince had said, loftily. “The Shah is merely making a point. When he is finished making it, all will be well.”
“Then there is no danger?”
“I am in no danger, Marshal. Don’t concern yourself. I have seen these little fits before.”
Well, the Prince had been in no danger, that much was true, though the Marshal had foolishly allowed himself to be misled by that fact and by the Shah’s soft words. The Shah had referred to them as his “guests.” The Shah had spoken regretfully about the “misunderstanding” with those on the ship. The Marshal had been lulled.
His comfort had ended that night when the three of them were summoned onto the desert by the Shah’s minister—to admire a comet, so the minister said. There had been no comet, though they had stood awhile in a patch of blood lichen, looking upward at starry heavens. While they were thus distracted, the Shah’s men had surrounded Rongor and cut him down. He, the Marshal, would have moved to defend the Invigilator had not the Prince held fast to his arm. The Prince’s face had remained impassive. He had not even looked at the Marshal as he held him fast.
So were the Shah’s true feelings and power made clear. So was the Prince’s subordinate position illustrated. So was the Marshal’s danger made manifest. While they watched, the Invigilator’s dry-sucked head had been put on a stake in the center of the lichen. A warning, said Ybon Saelan, in a loud clear voice, a warning that this place was unblessed by the Shah,and there could be no P’naki without the blessing of the Shah.
Meantime, the Shah himself had smiled and smiled, at the Prince, at the Marshal, at the others there, letting them all know that P’naki belonged to the Shah, only the Shah, and they had best not try to interfere again.
After that, they had stayed penned in the palace during the so called holy days and while the people of Mahahm-qum prepared for war. Day on day they had sat in the Shah’s throne room, eaten at the Shah’s table, and observed the Shah’s growing irrationality, his putrefying resentment, his erratic malevolence. It was obvious the Shah was teetering on the edge of sanity and standing too near him was to woo death.
While matters were in such flux in Mahahm, the Marshal felt it made good sense for him to be out of reach. It was not quite honorable of him to have left the Prince, true, but since he had learned how much additional life Genevieve’s blood would buy him, honor had seemed less important. He wanted those extra years. He had earned them. He deserved them. And he would return Genevieve to Mahahm-qum to be a candidate for the Prince!
On the eastern side of the Stone Trail, the Frangian ships were plowing steadily southward, toward their enclave on the continent of Mahahm. The Lord Paramount’s airship had been spotted earlier that day, the Lord Paramount’s message had been delivered, and the airship had reinflated itself and flown away northward. Now they had the next duty to perform, which did not trouble them. Being Frangian, nothing troubled them much.