Pirates Of Gohar

Chapter 6

Blade guessed right. Thrayket IV, Emperor of Gohar, was well past his eightieth birthday, and would not see many more. Blade learned this quickly, along with many other things. In fact, he learned so much so fast that if he'd really been any sort of scholar he could have written an entire book about Gohar within a few days of reaching the City.

At dawn the morning after the prince's visit, the mountains behind Gohar were visible to the north. So were the masts of another two-decked galley, coming out to meet the convoy. She came alongside Blue Swallow and took Blade aboard. His presence in the City was required, he was told, by the Emperor, by Prince Harkrat, by Baiham Kloret, and by others as well. Baiham was the title of the chief councilor of the Emperor. Literally it meant «Wisest Friend,» but Blade mentally translated it as «Prime Minister.»

Nemyet drew Blade aside before he went aboard the galley. «I don't like hearing Kloret's name in the summons,» he said. He looked around to see if anyone was within earshot, then said, «He's a bad enemy, and almost worse as a friend. He'll be after you, to get you on his side.»

«My friend,» said Blade wearily, «I expect every man, woman, and child in Gohar to be doing that. What can Kloret do that anyone else can't do?»

Nemyet saw officers from the galley approaching and whispered quickly, «If there is anything else, Kloret will think of it.»

Gohar stood on the west bank of the middle one of the three great rivers of the land. The mouth of the river was blocked by a sandbar too shallow for oceangoing ships, unless it was dredged regularly. The Goharans carefully dredged a narrow channel, right under the walls and fortresses of the city. Its hundreds of ships could pass through the channel, anchor or tie up along the river, take aboard cargo, and be completely safe from enemies or bad weather in the open Sea.

North and south along the riverbank ran the quays and shipyards, and behind them the warehouses and the lodgings of Gohar's twenty thousand sailors. Behind them was the old walled city, a huddle of wooden houses looming over dark narrow streets, still holding more than two-thirds of Gohar's people.

To the west of Old Gohar were the new quarters, where the streets were broad and tree-shaded, and walled gardens hid the houses of merchants, wealthy sea captains, and nobles of the court. Here also were the royal palace and pleasure gardens, reaching down to a mile-long stretch of white sand beach.

Still farther out was a semicircle of barracks and small forts, stretching from the seacoast around to the river and the naval arsenal. It had been so long since anyone attacked Gohar by land that its richest citizens were happiest in the open, sheltered only by the ring of barracks and forts.

The galley carrying Blade went straight through the channel and started threading its way through the maze of anchored shipping beyond the sand bar. The rowers kept up a fast stroke, relying on the helmsman to avoid any collisions. Several times Blade held his breath as the galley bore down on a loaded barge or a light skiff, missing it by only a few yards. Then they were through the heaviest of the shipping, bound upriver for the arsenal.

One of the galley's officers pointed at a broad street running up from the waterfront. «That's the Warrior's Way, the oldest street of Gohar. Some thought you'd be going up along it in a procession, to honor your part in the victory. But the Emperor said no procession. He's getting frugal in his old age, it seems.»

«So the Bloodskin prisoners are going straight to Shell Island?»

«Yes.»

Khraishamo wouldn't have to use his knife to keep from being marched through Gohar as a trophy of the convoy's victory. Blade hoped he would now be able to resist the temptation to kill himself at least until he'd reached Shell Island and looked around. With his strength and wits, Khraishamo might find the place a good deal less than escape-proof.

By the time the galley was tying up at the pier of the arsenal, an escort was already waiting. Twenty horsemen in silvered mail surrounded a line of five two-horse chariots. Blade was hurried ashore and pushed into one of the chariots as if he were perishable cargo, to be rushed to shelter as fast as possible.

As he climbed into the chariot, Blade realized that he'd been hurried away from Blue Swallow without any chance to change clothes or even shave. He didn't particularly want to approach the Emperor looking more like the survivor of a shipwreck than an envoy from the future. He also definitely wanted to see how strong his position among the Goharans was, even before he met the Emperor. His life might depend on what kind of orders he could give and have obeyed.

«Hey!» he shouted to the commander of the escort. The man's horse reared and the officer nearly fell off. The Goharans apparently hadn't invented the stirrup. If they had good bows they doubtless used horse archers instead of cavalry charging home with lance or sabre.

The officer rode over to Blade. «Yes, Lord?»

«I am going to the palace. Is that true?»

«Yes, Lord.»

«No need to call me lord each time. Just answer my questions.»

«Yes, I, — . Yes.»

«Good. And when we reach the palace, I am to go straight before the Emperor?»

«Yes.»

Blade shook his head. «Not before I've bathed, shaved, and found some proper clothing.»

«But, Lord Blade, the Emperor's orders-«

«Are now changed, as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure the Emperor didn't know I would look like this, or he'd have changed the orders himself. I will not appear before Thrayket as I am now.»

«But-«

«Captain, let me ask you this. You know who I am, and where I come from. Are you willing to have me return to my own people and my own time and tell them that the soldiers of Gohar are so stupid that they will even obey orders which make no sense?»

The officer seemed to be struggling with several impulses, one of them being to draw his sword and run Blade through. Blade softened his voice. «Captain, I am sorry to have been harsh. I fear I am not the best man to send across the years.

One with a smoother tongue might have been better. But I am here, and must do my best. Do you really think the Emperor will be pleased if I come before him looking as if I'd just escaped from Shell Island?»

The captain's anger seemed to fade, and at last he shrugged. «Certainly the Emperor wishes to see you. But he has also said we should hear your wishes.» He took his hand from his sword. «Very well. I shall send a man ahead to warn your servants.»

The messenger rode off in a cloud of dust, and then the chariots and their escort were moving. Blade hung on, thinking over what he'd learned. He had at least the position of a man whom no one wanted to openly offend until they knew a great deal more about him. So he was going to have to play the Mystery Man, concealing anything which might be considered a weakness, until he had a few reliable friends and allies. This was an old game he'd played for high stakes in half a dozen different Dimensions. If he hadn't learned to play it well, he wouldn't be riding toward Emperor Thrayket's palace now.

The road from the naval arsenal was paved and lined with carefully planted and pruned trees, but beyond the trees was open countryside. Blade saw villages of squat wooden huts with thatched roofs, green fields, and more fields of squat wooden huts with thatched roofs, green fields, and more fields on terraces rising up the foothills of the mountains to the north. Sometimes they passed mounted men with bows slung across their saddles or carts drawn by red-brown beasts, which looked like a cross between a water buffalo and a rhinoceros.

After about half an hour they came to a long blue-painted wall, and turned through a well-guarded gate into a garden which seemed to go on forever. The chariots and horses slowed down, crunching softly along gravel roads and across bridges over sluggish streams and the arms of ornamental ponds. Eventually they stopped at a small villa of whitewashed brick, with a roof of pink tile and bronze screens in place of windows.

The escort commander turned to Blade. «If you still wish to bathe and dress before seeing the Emperor-«

«I do.»

«Very well. Here is the house the Emperor ordered given to you while you are among us. You may use it as you see fit, and we shall wait for you. But be quick, in the name of the gods!»

«I shall be as quick as I care to be, Captain,» said Blade, climbing out of the chariot. He was not going to be hurried or pushed around, even by the Emperor's orders, if he could avoid it.

The villa had six rooms, three large public ones and three small bedchambers, plus a bath, all luxuriously furnished. A gray-haired man with three fingers gone from one hand took Blade's weapons, while two girls in flowing yellow robes led him to the bath.

Blade realized he probably should hurry, but it was hard to resist all the delicious sensations of his first hot bath in weeks. The herb-scented water steamed, perfumed oil and rough sponges scoured away dirt and sweat and salt, the girls perched like two bright-feathered birds by the side of the bath and handed him everything he asked for.

As the girls' robes grew damp with the steam from the bath, they clung more closely. Blade couldn't help noticing that both of them were slim and lovely. The darker one was a bit small-breasted, but from the way the girls were looking at him, he suspected they wouldn't mind the request he was thinking of making.

Then he heard what sounded like an army of horses and chariots approaching, along with drummers, horn players, and men shouting orders. The girls shivered, jumped up, and dashed out of the bath chamber. Moments later they were back, along with the gray-haired man. He was carrying an elaborately embroidered black tunic and silvery-white trousers in one hand, tooled sandals and a belt in the other.

«Quickly, Lord Blade,» he said. «Quickly! The Emperor comes.»

Blade climbed out of the bath and began toweling himself dry. He might not have offended the Emperor by insisting on bathing and dressing before his audience, but being caught in his bath might be a little too much.

Unfortunately Thrayket seemed to have some of his son's impulsiveness and refusal to wait on ceremony. As Blade was pulling on the trousers, footsteps sounded outside the door, a voice bawled, «His Radiance Thrayket of Gohar,» and all the servants prostrated themselves on the tiles. Half-dressed, Blade couldn't have done so if he'd wanted to. There was nothing for him to do but greet the ruler of Gohar barechested and with only one leg in his trousers.

Thrayket looked Blade up and down, and though his eyes were small and squinting Blade got the feeling they didn't miss much. Then he signaled Blade to continue dressing, and a servant to bring a folding chair. With a barely suppressed sigh of relief Blade finished getting dressed, meanwhile stealing looks at Thrayket as often as he could.

Certainly anyone could see that Thrayket and Harkrat were father and son. The Emperor was even taller than the prince, and above the beard his face was a wrinkled, liver-spotted, nut-brown version of Harkrat's. He was also rail-thin and stooping, and his beard was a straggling silvery wisp. Blade had the impression of a man with little physical vitality left, who kept on moving and thinking only by sheer willpower.

At last Blade was dressed and Thrayket spoke.

«Lord Blade, it is said you come from the future to study the past.» The tone was almost skeptical.

«This is so, Your Radiance,» Blade retold his experiences aboard Blue Swallow, and how the people of England seemed to know very little about the true history of the Empire of Gohar and its times.

«If that is what you remember of us, certainly it is time you learned better,» said Thrayket. His voice was soft and somewhat high-pitched, without sounding weak. «Yet I think you can learn enough about us, without everybody in Gohar learning about you.»

Apparently Blade was expected to understand this without further explanation, and he was afraid he did. He realized that he was also going to have to argue with the Emperor.

«If this means that I am to be your prisoner-«

«Lord Blade, that is not a well-chosen word. Say, our guest.»

«Two words for one thing, Your Radiance, and that a thing I cannot accept.»

Thrayket frowned. «You are rather free in choosing when you will obey me and when you will not. With my son you might do well, but do you expect to please me by this manner?»

Blade didn't know if this was a test or if the Emperor was really on the verge of getting angry. But he'd begun by taking a firm stand, and if he quickly abandoned it now he would find it hard to keep the Goharans' respect. Besides, if he was going to be confined to the palace grounds, he wasn't going to be able to carry out his mission in this Dimension. Blade was enormously stubborn when it came to resisting interference with his missions, whether by Soviet secret agents or aging rulers.

«Your Radiance, I do not wish to displease you in any way, but I must please my queen-«

«A woman rules England?»

«Yes. Those of us who travel into the past do so with her blessing, and speak to her of what we have found when we return home. If I am to be held in the palace, I can do nothing but return to England at once. There I will have to say that I could learn little of Gohar, because the Emperor Thrayket did not wish me to do so. My queen and my fellow Historians will have to think that the men of Gohar wish to hide from their children.»

Thrayket frowned again, and his long-fingered hands twisted and knotted themselves in his lap. Blade decided to risk pushing on.

«Your Radiance. Your name has not come down to the time of the English, but among your own people I have heard you called a wise and honest ruler. So I understand why you fear what I may do among the people of Gohar.»

«I do not fear,» said Thrayket sharply.

«I beg your pardon.» That had been a genuine slip of the tongue. «You doubt what I may do, because you know very little of me. I will be happy to stay here in the palace for thirty days, as your guest, so that you may learn about me what you need to know. At the end of that thirty days, I must ask to be allowed either to move freely about Gohar or else return to England with what I have learned.»

Thrayket's frown deepened, and his hands clenched into fists. After a long pause, he nodded. «Blade, I think I understand you now. You do not wish to defy me, merely to do your duty to your queen?»

«Yes.»

«Well, I shall not stand between you and your duty if I can avoid it. Nor do I wish to insult a fellow ruler, even if she is a woman and a thousand years in the future. You will live here thirty days, and we shall watch you. At the end of those thirty days…» He shrugged. «As you wish.»

It seemed the right time to bow. «I thank Your Radiance.»

Thrayket rose. «I will not thank you, Lord Blade, but I must say I now believe you are indeed from the future. No man from any land of our days or our fathers' days could stand before an Emperor of Gohar as you have done, without fear.» He turned and shuffled out.

The Emperor's servants came in to retrieve the chair, and Blade's came in to help him finish the bath. The man's hands were actually shaking, and the girls were so pale that Blade wouldn't have considered bedding them even if he'd still had the impulse.

He didn't. For the next thirty days, he intended to be on his best behavior, assume that he was being watched even in bed, and keep his back to a good, solid wall as much as possible.