He turned his attention back to the long hallway, trying to ignore the stares from those sitting on the sofas and chairs that lined the room. At least a hundred people sat, or stood facing them. Isak recognised the hostile expressions, even if the faces were unknown.
There was a wide range of dress and colour, but Isak noticed a good many red sashes bearing the crest of the Runesword of the Devoted, and several clusters of white-shawled women. One of the parties of women included a man in their group, though the others appeared to have male escorts at the side.
As King Emin and the Krann began to walk down the hall, talk recommenced, though Isak noticed the women in white watched silently. He began to feel rather like an insect that had crawled on to the best carpet: a particularly large and interesting insect, but still not one they intended to touch.
King Emin, for his part, appeared to notice nothing. Nodding to smiling faces as they presented themselves, he swept down the corridor with all the confidence of a crowned monarch. This, Isak thought in passing, was what Tila had been trying to drum into him.
And here was the first lesson. The king commanded the room immediately, dominating the attention of all, secure enough to merely note those faces that didn't smile at him. The tangible air of confidence Emin brought with him made up for the fourteen inches he conceded in height to Isak. Even the brisk stride he had adopted to keep up with Isak's long legs contained no element of rush or hurry.
The corridor led to a small arched doorway, similar in style to the main entrance, but blocked by a brass-bound door. On either side stood a soldier of the Kingsguard, resplendent in dress uniforms – but however beautifully etched, the spearheads were still sharp, and lethal. Off to the left lounged three more obviously armed men: Doranei, Veil and a particularly tall man with ash-blond hair and a rough scar down his cheek that spoiled his otherwise good looks.
They straightened as their king approached, and the guardsmen pulled the doors open to display a circular pool some eight yards across, steam gently rising from the surface. The walls were tiled in tiny ceramic pieces: this mosaic detailed a scene of feasting and relaxation and stretched all around the chamber, disappearing behind a partition the height of a man that ran along the wall opposite the door.
Marble nymphs sprawled at the edges while another statue of Baoliss sat at the far end, a trickle of steaming water running from her hands into the pool. Busts of the Gods sat in alcoves, the eyes of each picked out in expensive colour: sapphires glinted from the blank face of Nartis, gold shone from Death's cowled head. It was the brilliant emeralds shining from the Lady's perfect features that caught Isak's attention. She was a curious choice, for the Lady was not of the Upper Circle. He didn't doubt that the king had a good reason for her presence.
Doranei and his colleagues marched straight in and headed for the far wall, where there were three high windows, about six feet off the ground. Without breaking his stride, Veil raised one foot and placed it on to a ledge that Isak could now see running the length of the wall, two or three feet high. From there he leapt easily up on to the sill, a dagger drawn but hidden, and peered through the open windows to the outside wall. His search for spies satisfied, he gestured to the others.
Doranei retrieved a pole from one corner and passed it to Veil, who used it to hang heavy pieces of linen attached to rods over the open windows, obscuring the view for any outside observer, but leaving the room still light enough to see each other's faces. Isak thought it rather excessive, but this was Emin's city.
'Lord Isak.' The king stood by the wall that sectioned off part of the room and beckoned him over. 'I'm afraid we don't have time to enjoy the comforts of these restorative waters. Perhaps you would take my word that they are excellent and follow me?'
Isak gave the man a quizzical look as he disappeared behind the partition. Coran stood back impassively, just far enough to permit Isak's passage. He looked around: Doranei and his colleagues – Isak guessed the scarred man was one of the Brotherhood too – waited on the other side of the pool.
With Mihn close behind, Isak followed the king behind the partition to find a polished wooden bench opposite a small stone shrine at the far end. The shrine, the height of a normal man's chest, had empty slots for incense sitting before an icon of each God of the Upper Circle.
'Excessive piety has its uses,' commented Emin as he indicated the shrine. 'Would you be kind enough to move that to one side? It should go very easily for one of your strength; it pivots about the right-hand side.'
Isak looked suspiciously at the shrine, but he could detect no magic anywhere so he nodded and gripped the sides carefully. The shrine did indeed twist to the right with almost no effort. The wide base moved aside to reveal a hole in the ground. Isak peered in, he could see nothing. The king smiled and bowed in mock thanks, then stepped past the Farlan Lord and crouched down to the hole.
'The city worries that I have some distressing skin condition. I spend many hours at the baths, so they naturally fear the worst. My doctor is well paid to possess a creative imagination, and by half a dozen others to reveal all he knows. He's starting to enjoy it now, I think.'
He smiled and dropped through into the black depths. The Krann
turned and caught Mihn's amused expression. He still couldn't see
anything, but if the king had taken that fall so easily, how could he
not? Another lesson, it appeared, whether intentional or not: find out
how deep the hole is before you show it to anyone else! Isak reached
a hand out into the space before him and concentrated. It was easy
now. Within a few seconds a faint blue glow began to emanate from
his fingertips, then it increased in intensity, creeping out to caress the
smooth walls of the tunnel below and the floor, perhaps seven feet
down.
Emin waited casually to one side, one eyebrow raised theatrically at Isak's use of magic. 'Come, my Lord, time is a-was ting.'
Isak dropped down, followed by Mihn, and then Coran lowered himself down carefully and deliberately. Isak was puzzled until he saw Coran drop the last few feet on to his right leg. Interesting, Isak thought: given the recuperative powers of most white-eyes, either that damaged leg was a recent injury, or it had been a very severe one.
The king reached out and touched his fingers to a rope that ran all the way down the side of the wood-beamed tunnel. With the light Isak still brandished it was unnecessary, but Emin still trotted his fingers along the rope as he walked off down the slightly sloping tunnel, followed by Coran and then, with a shrug, Isak and Mihn.
As Emin chattered idly away, the hole quietly closed up behind them.
CHAPTER 3O
'Your Majesty-'
'Please, interrupted the king, 'that's a little formal for these surroundings, don't you think? Call me Emin – at least when there's no one around to sniff at the breach in protocol!'
'Of course,' Isak said. 'What I wanted to know was why you use the "heart" rune.'
Emin turned, the weak light casting a strange shadow on his face. 'For the Brotherhood?' He shrugged. 'A whim, nothing more. Did Fedei tell you that?'
Isak nodded.
The king didn't seem at all irritated at all by the Seer's revelation, merely curious. 'My only requirement was a basic design that could be recognisable, even when so small. I decided on a core rune because they are very simple, and chose "heart" because it can mean "kernel" or "stone" in certain contexts, like a cherry stone, for example. I thought that apt for Narkang: rich and sweet, but under the surface not so vulnerable. If an enemy takes too great a bite, he'll break his teeth, I promise. That's all, nothing more sinister.' He laughed. 'Why?'