He was too solitary for favourites. Even the death of his wife appeared to have made no difference to his regime. He did not hunt or drink. He rarely laughed. He was too cautious to be caught in a mistake.
Nor had he even the customary swarm of relations on whom to bestow patronage. His brothers were dead, his sister lived far away. SartoriIrvrash passed muster as that impossible creature, a man without faults, serving a king who was full of them.
In a religious court, he had only one point of vulnerability. He was an intellectual and an atheist.
Even the insult of his atheism had to be overlooked. He tried to convert nobody to his way of thinking. When not occupied with affairs of state, he worked on his book, filtering truth from lies and legends. But that did not stop him occasionally showing a more human side of his nature and reading fairy tales to the princess.
SartoriIrvrash’s enemies in the scritina often wondered how he — so cold-blooded — and King JandolAnganol — so hot-blooded — kept from each other’s throat. The fact was, SartoriIrvrash was a self-effacing man; he knew how to swallow insults. And he was too remote from other people to be offended by them — until pressed too far. That time would come, but it was not yet.
‘I thought you weren’t coming, Rushven,’ said Tatro.
‘Then you must learn to have more faith in me. I always appear when I am needed.’
Soon Tatro and SartoriIrvrash were sitting together in the pavilion and the princess was thrusting one of her books at him, demanding a story. He read the one which always made the queen uneasy, the fairy tale of the silver eye.
‘Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled over the kingdom of Ponptpandum in the West where all the suns set. The people and phagors of Ponptpandum feared their king for they thought he had magic powers.
‘They longed to be rid of him, and to have a king who would not oppress them, but nobody knew what to do.
‘Whenever the citizens thought of a scheme, the king found out. He was such a great magician that he conjured up a huge silver eye. This eye floated in the sky all night spying on everything that happened in the unhappy kingdom. The eye opened and shut. It came fully open ten times every year, as everyone knew. Then it saw most.
‘When the eye saw a conspiracy, the king knew about it. He would then execute all the conspirators, whether men or phagors, outside the palace gate.
‘The queen was sad to see such cruelty, but she could do nothing. The king swore that whatever else he did, he would never harm his lovely queen. When she begged him to be merciful, he did not strike her, as he would have done anyone else, even his advisors.
‘In the lowest dungeon of the castle was a room guarded by seven blind phagor guards. They had no horns, because all phagors when they grew up sawed off their horns at the annual fair in Ponptpandum, so as to try and look more human. The guards let the king enter the cell.
‘In the cell lived a gillot, an old female phagor. She was the only horned phagor in the kingdom. She was the source of all the king’s magic. By himself, the king was nothing. Every evening, the king would beseech the gillot to send the silver eye up into the sky. Every evening, she did as requested.
‘Then the king saw all that was happening in his kingdom. He also asked the old gillot many searching questions about nature, which she answered without fail.
‘One night when it was bitterly cold she said to him, “O King, why do you seek such knowledge?”
‘“Because there is power in knowledge,” replied the king. “Knowledge sets people free.”
‘To this the gillot said nothing. She was a wizard and yet she was his prisoner. At last she said in a terrible voice, “Then the time has come to set me free.”
‘At her words, the king fell into a swoon. The gillot walked from her dungeon, and commenced to climb the stairs. Now the queen had long wondered why her husband went to an underground room every night. On this night her curiosity had got the better of her. She was descending the stairs to spy on him when she encountered the gillot in the dark.
‘The queen screamed in terror. In order that she should not scream again, the phagor struck her a heavy blow and killed her. Roused by the sound of his queen’s much-loved voice, the king woke and ran upstairs. Finding what had occurred, he drew his sword and slew the phagor.
‘Even as she fell to the ground, the silver eye in the sky began to spiral away. Farther and farther it went, growing smaller and smaller, until it was lost to view. At last the people knew they were free, and the silver eye was never seen again.’
Tatro was silent for a moment.
‘Isn’t that an awful bit where the gillot gets killed?’ she said. ‘Would you read it again?’
Raising herself on one elbow, the queen said, teasingly, ‘Why do you read Tatro that silly story, Rushven? It’s a pure fairy story.’
‘I read it because Tatro likes it, ma’am,’ he said, smoothing his whiskers, as he often did in her presence, and smiling.
‘Knowing your opinion of the ancipital race, I cannot imagine you relish the notion that humankind once looked up to phagors for wisdom.’
‘Madam, what I relish about the story is that kings once looked up to others for wisdom.’
MyrdemInggala clapped her hands with pleasure at the answer. ‘Let us hope that that at least is no fairy story…’
In the course of their Ahd, the Madis came once more to Oldorando, and to the city bearing that name.
A sector of the city called the Port, beyond the South Gate, was set aside for the migrants. There they made one of their rare halts, for a few days. Celebrations of a modest sort took place. Spiced arang were eaten, elaborate zyganke were danced.
Water and wool. In Oldorando, the garments and rugs woven during the Journey were bartered with merchants for a few necessities. One or two human merchants had gained the trust of the Madis. The tribes always needed pans and goat bells; they were not workers of metal.
It also happened that some members of the tribe always arranged to remain in Oldorando, either until the tribe next returned or permanently. Lameness or illness was reason for leaving the Ahd.
Some years earlier, a lame Madi girl had left the Ahd and gained employment as a sweeper in the palace of King Sayren Stund. Her name was Bathkaarnet-she. Bathkaarnet-she had the traditional Madi face, part flower, part bird, and she would sweep where she was put to sweep without tiring, unlike the lazy Oldorandans. While she swept, small birds would cluster round her without fear, and listen to her song.
This the king saw from his balcony. In those days, Sayren Stund had not surrounded himself with protocol and religious advisors. He had Bathkaarnet-she brought to him. Unlike most Madis, this girl had an active gaze which could focus like a human’s. She was very humble, which suited the nervous Sayren Stund.
He decided to have her taught Olonets, and a good master was employed. No progress was made until the king was inspired to sing to the girl. She sang in response. More language came to her, but she could never speak, only sing.
This shortcoming would have maddened many. It pleased the king. He found that her father had been human and had joined the journey when a youth, running away from slavery.
The king, despite contrary advice, married Bathkaarnet-she, converting her to his faith. Soon she bore him a two-headed son, who died. Then she bore two normal daughters who lived. First Simoda Tal, and then the mercurial Milua Tal.
Prince RobaydayAnganol had heard this story when a boy. Now, as Roba, and dressed as a Madi, he made his way from the Port to one of the gates at the rear of the palace. He wrote a note to Bathkaarnet-she, which a servant bore away.