The Blood-stained Belt (19 page)

Jainar took a
step forwards so that he was standing squarely across the doorway.
He replied evenly, 'Yes, my lady. Later would be much better. This
evening would be best of all.'

Mecolo got up,
moved to the outer door, then stopped there and said to us, ‘Well,
it’s been so nice talking to you. I hope that I will see you
soon.’

Jainar said
brusquely, ‘They also have their duties, Lady Mecolo.’

‘Yes, of course
they do – and I’m sure that you know how to keep them busy, General
Jainar.’ Mecolo wrinkled her nose again, waved lightly, and was
gone.

Jainar grunted
and looked at us suspiciously with narrowed eyes. Then he ushered
us through the door.

The inner room
was the exact opposite of the antechamber. It was spacious and had
a luxurious, sumptuous air, with its deep-piled carpets, large
tapestries, and heavy drapes that reached from ceiling to floor.
Although it was mid-morning, all of the drapes were drawn, so that
the room had to be lighted by lamps. I felt as if, in one moment, I
had been transported to a secret cavern in a fabulous land. It was
so surprising that I stopped abruptly, causing Sharma to collide
with me at which he muttered something uncomplimentary and gave me
a discreet shove in the middle of my back. I stepped forwards,
blinked, and took in more of this surprising scene. A huge table of
heavy wood dominated the room. The surface was so highly varnished
that I wondered incongruously if Vaxili and his aides used it to
play some game or other -- perhaps an exotic game in which polished
counters were pushed to and fro. All around the table there were
large chairs with high, carved backs and upholstered seats. I
stumbled against one of the chairs, stubbed a toe, and swore under
my breath. Sharma pulled me backwards and muttered something that
was probably no more complimentary than his words of a few seconds
earlier.

From behind us,
Jainar said loudly, 'Your majesty, may I present Deputy Commanders
Sharma and Jina?' Peering into the semi-gloom, at last I located
Vaxili. He was sitting at the head of the table with the lamplight
falling on him obliquely so that half of his face was illuminated
while the other half was in deep shadow. It was disconcerting, like
encountering a man who wore only one half of a mask. Furthermore,
the direction of the light exaggerated the effect of the scar under
Vaxili’s right eye, so that he appeared to be glaring at us with an
eye narrowed in suspicion. He looked so inhospitable that I
wondered if we had come to the wrong place.

Sharma plucked
at the hem of my tunic. I glanced at him, saw that he was standing
to attention, and followed suit. We saluted but Vaxili only
acknowledged us with a negligent gesture and motioned to us to be
seated at the foot of the table. When Jainar went up to Vaxili and
murmured something to him, Vaxili scowled, pursed his lips, and
looked us up and down as if he had just been told that we were
infected by the plague. I guessed that Jainar had told Vaxili that
Mecolo had been with us in the antechamber and my stomach muscles
tightened in apprehension. This was not a good way to start the
meeting.

Jainar settled
down in a chair between Vaxili and us and there was a deep silence
until Jainar coughed discreetly and Vaxili nodded as if he had just
remembered that he was in charge. He cleared his throat, coughed
again, and said, ‘Welcome, deputy commanders Sharma and Jina. We
are pleased to see you.’

We gave the
standard response: ‘We greet your majesty.’

Vaxili waved a
finger in acknowledgement and looked at Jainar expectantly. Jainar
said, ‘His majesty has invited you here so that he can thank you
for your role in the attack on Asjolorm. He wishes to inform you
that you will be decorated with the Order of the Defenders of
Keirine.’

Sharma and I
exchanged glances. I could see that for some reason Sharma didn’t
want to speak first, so I tried to look knowing and appreciative
and replied, ‘We thank your majesty. It is a great honour.’
However, the fact was that I had never heard of this decoration --
or any other Keirineian military decoration, come to that.

Vaxili looked
at Sharma enquiringly. Sharma straightened and responded stiffly,
‘We thank your majesty. It is an honour.’

For the next
ten minutes, Vaxili talked with us about the attack on Asjolorm.
While doing so, he became quite animated as if discussing a
successful attack on the Dornites had cleared away his earlier mood
of indifference. As the discussion drew towards a conclusion,
Vaxili put up a finger, smiled sardonically, and, with his head a
little to one side, looked at Sharma shrewdly. After a pause, he
said, ‘It appears that you find service on the frontier productive,
Deputy Commander Sharma. Would you agree with me?’ He continued to
look at Sharma in the same way.

‘Your
majesty?’

Vaxili said,
‘You looked down towards Asjolorm, you saw the possibilities, and
you conceived the plan for the attack – not so? Now, if you had not
been based where you were --’ He broke off and looked closely at
Sharma.

Sharma
swallowed hard and replied in a subdued voice, ‘It wasn’t all my
doing, your majesty.’

‘No?’

Sharma looked
at me quickly and replied, ‘My comrade Jina also had a lot to do
with it.’

Sharma was
always good at acknowledging the contributions that others made. It
was one of his most attractive qualities and one that he cultivated
as he climbed the ladder of his aspirations. Right now, however, it
struck me that he was trying to deflect attention away from himself
rather than share the glory with others.

‘Yes, so you’ve
already said. And as I’ve already said, I’m grateful to both of
you.’ Vaxili gave the same fleeting smile and asked, ‘Do you also
find service on the frontier stimulating, Deputy Commander
Jina?’

‘I serve
Keirine wherever I’m called to do so, your majesty.’

‘One posting is
as good as another, eh?’

‘No, your
majesty.’

Vaxili's eyes
widened and he asked, ‘No?’

‘What I mean
is, your majesty – I mean that I prefer to be on active service.
That’s how I serve Keirine best.’

‘Ah! You prefer
active service? You really do?’

‘I would like
to be wherever I can oppose our enemies directly, your
majesty.’

Vaxili nodded
thoughtfully and drummed his fingers lightly on the top of the
table. Then he half-turned in his seat and looked at the wall that
was covered in drapes. There was a long silence. Suddenly, still
looking in the same direction, Vaxili said reflectively, ‘Killing
Drunuk, rescuing my daughter, and now Asjolorm -- they make a good
team, don’t they, General Jainar?’

‘Indeed they
do, sir.’

Vaxili turned
to face us. He leaned forward, hands clasped, and asked quietly,
‘Do you also prefer active service on the frontier, Deputy
Commander Sharma?’ Vaxili leaned further forward and looked at
Sharma closely.

Sharma licked
his lips and replied cautiously, ‘I prefer to be wherever I can
serve Keirine best, your majesty.’

‘Anywhere at
all?’

Sharma paused,
swallowed, and replied, ‘Yes, your majesty. I am a soldier first
and foremost. It is my duty to serve Keirine wherever I am
placed.’

Vaxili grunted
and drummed the fingers of his right hand on the table, producing a
light, incessant tic-tic sound. With his left hand, he stroked his
throat slowly as if he was trying to rid it of an obstruction.
After a while, he looked up and asked sharply, 'You are both from
Lower Keirine, not so?'

'Yes, your
majesty.'

Vaxili looked
at us thoughtfully as if we were goods that he was turning over
while he was pricing them in the bazaar. Then he asked, 'Would you
not prefer to serve your own people?'

'Pardon, your
majesty?'

Vaxili smiled
quizzically as if he didn't believe the surprise in our voices. He
asked, 'Surely your first loyalty is to your own people? Surely you
would want to serve them first? Isn’t that only natural?'

Jainar got up
quickly, bent over Vaxili's shoulder, and whispered to him
urgently. Vaxili inclined his head and then waved Jainar away with
a brush-off motion. He looked at us with a sceptical smile and
asked, 'Well? What do you say?'

Sharma said,
'Your majesty, it is not a question of where we come from.'

'No? What,
then?'

I could hear
Sharma taking a deep breath before he answered cautiously, 'Your
majesty, the elders of Osicedi sent us here to serve the Kingdom of
Keirine. That is why we came here. We are soldiers of Keirine. That
is our profession and that is what we want to do.'

Vaxili leaned
back and smiled at us as if he knew something that we didn't. There
was a long silence. Then Vaxili said reflectively, 'Ah, yes – from
Osicedi, eh? I remember Osicedi.' He smiled thinly and nodded at us
as if he expected us to respond his remark. I didn't know what sort
of response was expected, but I was getting annoyed. I said, 'Your
majesty, we were sent here to serve the Kingdom of Keirine. We
weren't sent here to serve Lower Keirine, or Upper Keirine, or any
other part of Keirine, north, south, east, or west. However, your
majesty, if you feel that our loyalty is in question, then please
send us wherever you think that we and our loyalty belong.'

Jainar said
sharply, 'Show respect to his majesty, Deputy Commander Jina!'

Sharma put a
hand on my thigh and gave it a warning squeeze. I opened my mouth
to speak but shut it when Sharma squeezed my thigh even more
sharply. Sharma said quickly, 'Your majesty, our loyalty belongs to
Keirine and to all of Keirine without distinction of place or
region. You may place us wherever you think that we will give the
best service.'

Vaxili was
still stroking his throat and looking at us contemplatively. He
pursed his lips and asked quietly, ‘So, Deputy Commander Sharma,
you wouldn’t even mind being posted to headquarters here in
Koraina?’

‘I wouldn’t
mind, your majesty, as long as that was where I could be
useful.’

Vaxili ran a
finger up his cheek, looked at the finger while he rubbed it with
his thumb, and then said thoughtfully, ‘The question is, useful to
whom?’

‘Your
majesty?'

Vaxili asked
pointedly, ‘You wouldn’t find that there were too many distractions
here in Koraina?’

‘No, your
majesty. I am a soldier of Keirine and I –‘

Vaxili waved a
hand dismissively. ‘Yes, yes, I know – you've said all of that
already. You don't have to repeat yourself. You are good soldiers
and you serve Keirine with all your -- no doubt you believe it when
you say ... well, no doubt, no doubt.’ His tone was ironic. Vaxili
turned to Jainar and said in the same tone, ‘We are fortunate to
have such devoted soldiers in our ranks, General Jainar. Not
so?’

Jainar looked
fixedly at Vaxili and replied firmly, ‘Indeed we are. We should
remember that they have already rendered exceptional services. That
is why your majesty wishes to congratulate them.’ He said it so
firmly that Vaxili raised his eyebrows before he lowered his gaze
and began to drum his fingers on the table. The silence was broken
only by the tic-tic-tic of Vaxili's fingers drumming on the
table-top. Then, suddenly, Vaxili shot a question at Sharma: ‘Are
you absolutely sure that you would not be distracted if you were
posted to Koraina?’

‘I’m certain,
your majesty.’

‘Ah! No
temptations posed by the fairer sex, for instance?’

Sharma hardly
paused before he answered, ‘Not such as would interfere with my
duties, your majesty.’

Vaxili pursed
his lips. ‘Hmm! I believe that you are acquainted with my daughter,
Mecolo.’

‘Yes, your
majesty, I know Lady Mecolo.’

‘You know her
well?’

‘I am
acquainted with her, your majesty. You will remember, on the
expedition to the Great River …’

Vaxili silenced
Sharma with an abrupt gesture. His eyes narrowed and his face went
hard. He said tight-lipped, ‘Deputy Commander Sharma, I know all
about you and my daughter. I do not approve of your relationship
with her.’ There was silence around the table. Then, still
tight-lipped, Vaxili said, ‘I hope that I have made myself
clear.’

'Your majesty
--'

Vaxili silenced
Sharma again. His eyes were as hard as his voice when he said, 'I
will repeat myself. I said that I do not approve of your
relationship with her. You understand?'

Sharma dropped
his eyes and swallowed. ‘Yes, your majesty.’

‘You
understand?’

‘I understand,
your majesty.’

‘Good. We
should be concentrating on fighting the Dornites without having to
deal with distractions at home. You agree?’

‘Yes, your
majesty.’

Vaxili snapped
his fingers. ‘Good! We understand each other. That’s settled.’ He
got to his feet, flexed his shoulders, and then leaned forward with
both hands planted on the table. ‘General Jainar, you said that
there was something else to discuss with these young men?'

Jainar said in
a relieved tone, 'They have a proposal for a plan of battle against
the Dornites. I think that it is worth hearing.’

For the next
half--hour, we presented the idea for a battle formation that we
discussed just before the attack on Asjolorm. Vaxili and Jainar
questioned us closely and appeared to be more than interested in
our ideas. As the discussion ran towards a conclusion, Vaxili
asked, ‘Has your service on the frontier produced any other
ideas?’

Sharma said,
‘There is one thing, your majesty.’

‘Yes?’

‘Your majesty,
we shouldn’t only meet the Dornites on the battle field.’

‘No? How,
then?’

‘Your majesty,
I mean that we should take the fight to them wherever and whenever
we can.’