Emperor Mage (19 page)

"I
can't imagine why," Daine muttered.

"What
is that supposed to mean? Are you uncomfortable with slavery?"

Yes.

"It's
the first time you've mentioned it."

The
girl shrugged. "Ma always taught me that when you're visiting someone
else's house, you shouldn't be carping about the way they clean. Besides, we're
supposed to be on our best behavior here. The peace between us is more
important— that's what Duke Gareth said." Thinking of those warships the
night before, Daine shivered. To a girl whose family had been murdered by
raiders, those ships were a bloody promise. She would do anything to prevent
its unfolding.

Kaddar
picked up Kitten and led the way to doors behind the blue pillars. "And
what do you think of slavery? Don't worry—I won't repeat it." To Kitten he
said, "And no one's listening, right?" The dragon nodded vigorously.

"It
makes me think of cages," replied Daine. "And cages make me feel like
I can't breathe."

Me,
too, said Zek, peering up at her. They put us in a cage. Then they took my
family away.

"I
know," she whispered, stroking his fur. "He reminded me that he was a
captive," she explained to the prince.

He
looked at them. "I thought it must be wonderful, to be linked to animals
the way you are, but it isn't always, is it? I have a bad enough time just
knowing human sadness, let alone the sorrows of every other living
creature." He shifted Kittens weight to his hip, so that he could carry
her one-armed. "You aren't anything like what I expected."

He led
her into a huge, high-ceilinged room" where plants grew and fountains
played. Daine stopped, awed by the great mosaics that lined the walls. Kaddar
followed her, still carrying the dragon, as she went to inspect each one.
Mosaics were a Carthaki specialty, but these were splendid even by their
standards. Each panel, ten feet by ten feet, depicted a craft or branch of
learning. One showed Carthak's famous dyes: a woman dipped cloth into a vat to
turn it a rainbow of colors. One panel was dedicated to mages: a red-robed man
was halfway transformed from human to horse, a yellow-robed woman
  
had
  
plants
  
growing
  
from
  
outstretched palms, and behind them a black-robed figure, back to the
viewer, opened a fiery portal in a nighttime sky. Other panels were dedicated
to astronomy and engineering, as well as to glassmaking, weaving, and metalworking.
The picture Daine liked the least was of a soldier in the scarlet tunic and
gold armor of the Red Legion, standing with one foot on the back of a fallen
black man who reached vainly for a spear.

To his
left, a brown woman in green brocade lifted her hands, pleading; to his right,
a pale woman in the tall headdress and tiered gown of Ekallatum pushed forward
two naked children, a boy and a girl, in chains.

"Our
glorious heritage." Kaddar s voice was very soft; his lips barely moved.
"The splendid empire. We loot our conquests until they can no longer feed
themselves. Then we take the money from what food and goods they buy to pay for
wars to acquire more conquests."

She
stared up at him, astonished.

He
noticed, and smiled crookedly. "It's true. What's the matter?"

"You're
not exactly what / expected, either," she said frankly.

"And
what did you expect?"

She
brushed Zek's mane with her fingers as she considered her reply. "Someone
who enjoyed being imperial more. What did you expect of me?"

He
grinned and tweaked her nose. "Someone who ate with her fingers."

"There
you are.'" Lindhall approached, hands out in welcome, open robe flapping
behind him. "I am late—forgive me. I just found a reference to
ich-neumenons, and I was trying to locate its source. Come.1 I think perhaps
the Analects of Utuhegal the Blasphemer, or perhaps it was Thorald
Moonaxe..."

Kaddar
rolled his eyes at Daine as they followed their host down a long corridor.

"I
do nor eat with my fingers," she whispered, trying not to smile.

"The
improvement in the emperor's birds is astonishing," Lindhall told Daine
over one shoulder. "It's impossible to tell if they were ever ill. He is
very pleased with your work. Don't be surprised if he invites you to remain,
and even offers you a bribe to do so."

"There's
nothing he has that I want," Daine said. "I was just glad to help the
birds."

"Which
is as it should be," the mage said with approval. "Is she
heavy?" he asked, looking at the prince and Kitten. "Could I hold
her?"

"Kit?"
Daine asked, and the dragon nodded. Kaddar gave her to Lindhall, who looked
startled. "She hasn't the weight I would expect of a creature

of her
mass."

"Dragons
are hollow-boned, like birds," the girl explained. "Numair found a
scroll that told all about dragons from when they lived in the mortal
realms."

"He
Draconian Codex" Lindhall and Kaddar said together, and smiled at each
other.

Making
several turns down long corridors, they finally reached their destination, a
door with a bras^ nameplate bearing the words: Master Lindball Reed— Plants,
Animal Behavior and Habits.

"Let
me in, dolt," Lindhall said, and the door opened.

"That's
how he talks to the key spell," explained Kaddar.

"I
almost feel as if there is a sprite at work, not a spell." Lindhall placed
Kitten on the floor and dumped his robe next to her. "A small, not very
clever, spiteful one." The robe glided through the air to drape itself
over a hook on the wall. That spell Daine had seen before, in Numair's tower.

"What
about your assistant?" she inquired, greeting a very large turtle who
seemed to have full run of the room. He was pleasant enough to Daine, but tried
his best to take a bite of Kitten, who screeched at him. Zek, mistrustful of
anything that tried to bite, climbed to the top of Daine's head and clung
there.

"Out
on fieldwork for the day." Lindhall glared at the still-open door.
"Close up," he said crossly. "I don't want any visitors until
further notice." Meekly the door obeyed. To the turtle he added, "And
that will be enough out of you, Master Sunstone." Picking up the great
reptile, who was pursuing Kitten's tail, he carried him across the room to a
door beside a cluttered desk. He opened it and put the big reptile inside.
Daine, watching, noticed something in there that looked uncomfortably like a
human form on a bier, covered with a dark cloth.

Lindhall
shut the door before she could get a

better
look. "What do you think?" he asked, waving

a hand
to include their surroundings.

Daine
put the odd shape out of her mind and looked around. Along the walls were small
kingdoms in huge glass tanks. Some were landscapes with plants, streams, and
enough room for small animals to live comfortably. One tank was set up like a
pond, with underwater greenery and rocks to I feed and shelter the fish and
frogs who lived there.

"I
inherited the pond from my master. The rest I made, with help. That is the
advantage of a university: someone is always there to help create things, just
to see if it can be done. Mages helped glass-makers with the tanks, or we never
could have made them so large and so clear. I try to keep the environments as
much like the animals' true homes as possible." Lindhall watched as she
examined a tank that housed a trio of large green lizards, whose comblike
crests ran the length of their spines. "They are iguanas, from the Copper
Isles. Are they happy? Do they need anything? I think I would know if they were
pining, but I can't ask them, and I don't wish to be cruel."

Daine
held up a hand, laughing. "Master Lindhall, if you'll wait a moment, I'll
ask!" Well, sun-brothers? she inquired silently. Are you happy in there?

They
rushed to the glass. Lindhall reached in

and
lifted them out, to Zek's dismay.

"They
like you," Daine said, listening to the iguanas. "Their only
complaint is that it gets close in the tank, but since you let them out all the
time, they don't really mind. No, the turtle isn't here right now," she
told the lizards, who had asked. As Kitten and the iguanas sniffed each other,
Daine walked around, talking to the inhabitants of the other tanks. They had
only good to say of Lindhall. Most didn't even know they were confined.

Kittens
voice called her away from these small kingdoms. The dragon stood before an
empty corner expressing indignation as only she could, with a series of
bone-piercing whistles. Before Daine could warn whoever was using the
invisibility spell, the air shimmered, and Numair appeared.

SEVEN

WAKING DREAMS

"You
bad to inform everyone," the mage "
     
scolded
the dragon, scowling. Kitten nibbled on his breeches. He sighed and scratched
the top of her head.

"But
— I
  
saw
  
you,
  
in
  
your
  
room,"
  
Daine protested,
feeling decidedly odd.

"It
was a simulacrum. I'm expressly forbidden to leave the palace."

"What
if one of their mages came around, looking for you? What if the emperor spies
on you?"

"I
embodied it with sufficient amounts of my Gift to deceive anybody. Should
someone try to disturb the copy, it will enclose the room completely, so no one
will enter until I am back inside."

"And
if you're caught?" she demanded. "He'd love to catch you breaking the
rules!"

"Daine,
we had to talk." The voice, surprisingly, was Kaddar's. "There's no
other way we can do it without being spied on."

Daine
faced him and Lindhall. They watched her, not her teacher. "You knew he'd
be here this morning. That's why you brought me."

"I
also wanted you to see my friends." The kindness in Lindhall's voice broke
through her anger. She knew him well enough by now to realize that he was
telling the truth. "You are more than welcome here in your own right, my
dear."

She
smiled at him reluctantly, and nodded. To Numair she said, "You could have
trusted me."

He took
her hands in his. "I do trust you, magelet. I simply didn't wish to
discuss it under Ozorne's roof. You aren't particularly adept at concealing
your state of mind. You would have been visibly apprehensive if I had left with
you and His Highness, whether I was invisible or not"

Since
there was no answer she could make to that, she scowled. "How did you get
here?"

"Hawk
shape. And now, we've little time and much to discuss. Would you mind looking
at the aviary for a while? Or would you rather be privy to our
discussions?"

"I'll
go look at birds," she said hastily. "I'm that tired of secrets. Kit?
Stay or go?"

Kitten,
who loved secrets, shook her head and sat. The iguanas promptly began to climb
on her.

Lindhall
opened another door, different from the room with the turtle. Daine entered a
large, sunny area with a ceiling that was half glass panes, and closed the door
behind her. Under the glass and behind a silken barrier net was an aviary. It
was different from Ozorne's: the plants were northern, not tropical. On the
trees the leaves had turned color and were falling. Something in the room
produced a faint chill, like the kind she'd feel at home at this time of year.
The air was drier, and the birds who inhabited the aviary were northerners:
lapwings, turtledoves, crested larks, nightingales, song thrushes, and green
and gold finches.