Retribution

‘Who is this man?’

‘You saved my daughter’s life,’ the queen announced.

I hadn’t noticed the queen approaching until she spoke to us. There was a renewed firmness in her voice and only now did I realize how tall she was, how much presence she possessed within a group of people. That others bowed at her arrival only added to her lustre of a goddess among them.

The sun was almost ready to set now and an orange light washed across the scene. Leana, Sulma Tan and myself were kneeling by the sprawled body of the attacker. The crowd were separated from us by a ring of twenty soldiers in the blue and black of the equestrian regiments. Surrounded by a coterie of eunuchs in red gowns, Nambu was standing between two soldiers. Her expression was one of embarrassment, though she had no reason to feel that way. Perhaps, with youthful pride, she felt that she could defend herself now thanks to Leana’s lessons in swordplay. Still, at least she had witnessed just how talented Leana could be in combat.

‘It was my duty.’ Leana never liked a fuss being made over her, but she was probably going to have to put up with what was coming.

‘You are a hero of this nation,’ the queen declared, loud enough for anyone nearby to hear. ‘You have protected the Sorghatan lineage. I knew it was wise to leave her in your skilled hands.’

‘Again,’ Leana bowed her head, ‘please think nothing of it. You entrusted your daughter to our care. This is our job.’

‘You shall be rewarded,’ the queen declared. There was no getting out of it. But, as if the previous conversation had not happened, she snapped her fingers at the corpse. ‘Who is this man?’

‘I hoped you might be able to shed some light on the matter.’ The words escaped my mouth before I had a chance to think. Even Leana looked surprised.

‘Why?’ the queen glared at me. ‘Do you think I know him?’

There was a tension thickening the air between us. Though I represented the Sun Chamber, I knew I had to be respectful before a royal — especially one who clearly did not suffer fools, or challenges to her authority.

But it was Nambu, surprisingly, who came to my assistance, pushing forward from her eunuch escort into the parted circle. ‘He means, Mother, that he’s not stupid.’

‘Do not speak to me like that, girl.’

‘You don’t just hand me over to strangers without being seriously worried for my safety in the palace. He knows that. We both know that. If he thinks there might be more to this, he’s entitled to know.’

The crowd were utterly silent. Birds shrieked from the nearby treetops and the banners could be heard snapping in the wind. The queen’s gaze moved repeatedly between her daughter and myself. I was anxious to see how a subtle tyrant queen might react to her daughter’s indiscretion.

She gave a command for the soldiers to widen the circle and to disperse the crowd. They held aloft their glaives and the crowd, naturally fearful, stepped back. The horses began to canter clockwise, edging out more and more until the nearest person was a good hundred paces away.

‘Now that any spies are out of earshot. .’

Or rather, I thought, now anyone else at all was out of earshot.

The queen now stood in a noble pose, her head tilted up, her face stern. Her make-up was cracking slightly. ‘First you should realize this: I know very little about the attack, the attacker, or indeed why Nambu is being targeted. I am the queen and yet I remain in the dark — this is not something I am accustomed to. You will notice I have very few servants compared with many other rulers — this is not representative of how we are as a people. Indeed, as a result of my father taking over Koton by military might, to make a show of his power he possessed hundreds of servants, many of whom were barely more than unsanctioned slaves. No, the reason I surround myself by so few is because I trust so few people. A guard may slip a knife into one’s back with remarkable ease.’

Though I never spoke the thought, it did occur to me that her father had claimed the throne with a military coup, and that he may well have passed on his paranoia to his daughter. ‘And you fear that would happen to Nambu — that one of your guards would hold some grudge against your family?’

She remained perfectly still as she regarded me. ‘I do not know what others think. I can judge only on what I see. But what I do know is this: there have been moves in the past, within the palace, to take Nambu. To take her from under my eye. Two men we caught previously were both killed while trying to escape. One cut his throat before my guards could get to him.’

A silence fell upon the scene, and I contemplated the efforts to claim Nambu. It did not seem prudent to divulge that there had been another attempt recently. The queen did not need to know such things at the moment.

‘Do you know of any schemes to end your lineage?’ I asked.

The queen laughed. ‘I suspect schemes are being planned all the time,’ she replied. ‘But it is nearly always talk cooked up in taverns known for their political discussions.’

‘People wish for more say in the affairs of state?’ I asked.

‘What good would it do? They would only derail our nation’s progress with their own trivial desires. They would seek to redistribute wealth among their own kind and say it is for the good of people. Petty men with petty ideals make up my government. They are ill-suited to lead and to bring about progress. They would have the women of our nation at home weaving again, instead of being my secretary,’ she gestured to the quiet Sulma Tan, ‘or a future queen’ — a gesture to her daughter. ‘No, old feuds coming to the fore are the usual reason for talk against me. But as I say, this is only talk. But there is action to take a young girl and do Nastra-knows what to her. That is why I wanted her to go with you, so she would not follow the predictable rituals of state. So whoever it is who has repeatedly breached my court will not have an easy opportunity.’

She steered me back towards the corpse. All of us stood in a circle, staring down at the attacker. Leana knelt down and turned him over.

‘I do not recognize him,’ the queen said.

‘Is it possible he comes from some secret organization?’ Leana asked.

‘A religious group maybe?’ I added. ‘Or fanatical cult?’

‘Sometimes,’ Leana muttered, ‘I find it hard to understand the difference between such things in Vispasia.’

There was a smile on the queen’s lips. ‘This is why we have only the one major religion in Koton.’

‘It could well be a professional assassination attempt on the princess.’

Nambu looked at me, her wide eyes betraying little. She shrugged. ‘I don’t know what all the fuss is about.’

‘Quite,’ the queen snapped, lifting her chin, ‘and we’ve enough to worry about as it is with good friends and powerful people being murdered, let alone a further conspiracy. Astran’s mercy. .’

‘With greatest respect — and I ask only to aid my investigation — what happens if neither yourself nor Nambu are on the throne? To whom does power devolve?’

‘An interim government would be formed, much like in Detrata,’ the queen replied without hesitation. ‘The next in line will be sought and that could mean either of two of my cousins, one of whom is a lay preacher in the community of Astran and Nastra, and the other is confined to a faraway temple — because she is a leper. The preacher wouldn’t be permitted to rule since we have a separation of the temple from the affairs of the state — unless he chose to forgo his religious calling.’

‘They are not exactly challengers to the throne then,’ I added.

She looked down at the body one last time. ‘Not exactly, no. We will hang this one’s corpse as a warning.’ Then, to her daughter, she said, ‘Come.’ For the first time there was something resembling normal affection — a gentle hand on her shoulder as she was led away. Sulma Tan followed while Leana and I knelt beside the corpse, staring hopelessly at its resting form as the sun dipped below the horizon.

Within a minute guards came to take the body away.

‘Search his possessions thoroughly,’ I said to them, but judging by the haphazard way they tried to lift him, I doubted their job would be anything like thorough.