Snare (94 page)

‘That doesn’t matter.’

‘Idres, other people will make it matter. There’ll be all sorts of gossip about your scandalous wife.’

‘So? They can hardly blackmail you, can they? I already know the truth. And it won’t matter because it doesn’t matter to me. Now let’s go hunt up Indan. He can draw up the papers.’ He paused, studying her face. ‘You do want to marry me, don’t you?’

‘More than anything in the world, yes. Did you think I was looking for an excuse not to?’

‘Just that.’ He smiled, then let the smile fade. ‘I’m not sure of anything, any more, not after the things I’ve seen. I’ve got a lot to tell you, Bavva, and some of it is the strangest damn stuff you can imagine.’

The baby woke, yawned, stretching out a tiny fist, then fell back asleep.

‘You must have a maidservant,’ Idres said. ‘Call her to take the baby, and we’ll go downstairs. Everyone needs to hear the best news of all. The ChaMeech are converting to the one true faith.
One of their leaders – and she’s a female, believe it or not – but anyway, she’s decided to preach to her people.’

Before she could stop herself, Lubahva laughed aloud, a hysterical sort of giggle, quickly stifled. So that’s the Fourth Prophet we’ve been hoping for! A female, all right, but not one of ours. She realized that Idres was studying her face in some concern.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘I’m all to pieces now. I’m just so glad you’re safe.’

‘I feel the same about you,’ Idres said, smiling. ‘Now call that servant. I’m hungry, and I want to sit down.’

Through her contact with the orbiting ships, Sibyl could record and display the new Great Khan’s triumphal entry into Haz Kazrak. Loy and Arkazo sat on the floor and watched somewhat blurry images of crowds lining the streets to cheer the weary army as it marched towards the palace hill. Jezro himself rode at the head of the procession. He was dressed in beautiful clothing of red and white; his black horse had been curried to a high sheen; his saddle and bridle dripped with silver and jewels. He carried a long lance, held upright as if it were the staff of a pennant or flag, but the thing on the end of it was not made of cloth.

‘Merde!’ Loy said. ‘That’s a severed head.’

‘Gemet’s, yes,’ Arkazo said, grinning. ‘It’s the custom.’

‘How lovely for you all.’

He laughed, leaning forward to study the hologram. ‘There he is!’ He sounded vastly relieved. ‘My uncle. Thanks be to God that he’s safe!’

That night Loy walked in the green garden of N’Dosha. The galaxy hung directly overhead, millions of silver lights against the dark, shining upon worlds she would never see. And yet, she thought, we have a world here, and I’ve only begun to understand it. All at once she smiled.

‘It’s true,’ she said aloud. ‘We have a whole world here. And it’s just damn well going to have to do.’

Many thanks to: Brian Carnright, who keyboarded the first draft from a typescript; Mark Kreighbaum, who saved Jezro Khan’s life; and especially, Alis Rasmussen and Amanda Weinstein, who know how to reassure a despairing author.

Katharine Kerr was born in Ohio in 1944 and now lives in San Francisco. Her extensive reading in the fields of classical archaeology and medieval and Dark Ages history and literature has had a clear influence on her work. Her novels, including the epic
Deverry
series, have been published around the world and she is a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic.

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