Miro opened his mouth. "Those places mean nothing…"
The Emir held up a hand, and then was pensive for a moment. He looked at the soldiers. "Leave us," he said.
The guards withdrew.
The Emir then turned to the seneschal. "Forgive me, Ruben, but I wish you to leave also."
The seneschal bowed but Miro could see the man frown, before turning to Miro. "Do I have your word as a man of honour that you will not harm, nor allow harm to come to the Ruler of the Seas, Emil Volkan?"
Miro was again surprised they would trust his word. "You have my word," he said.
The seneschal bowed again before departing, leaving Miro alone with the Emir.
"You are from the lands in the east, are you not?"
Miro wondered whether to lie, but he couldn't see any reason to, and these people seemed to value honesty. "I am. My name is Miro Torresante. I am the Lord Marshal of Altura, the land of enchanters."
Emir Volkan's expression grew pained. "Do not speak of lore to me!"
Miro was taken aback. "My apologies."
"How do you come to be in my lands?"
"My ship blew off course…" Miro began.
"That's a lie. Commodore Deniz described your ship to me. You could never have come all the way from the lands in the east in that ship, particularly not with the stores you had aboard. So, tell me again, why are you here? What are a man and his wife doing half-way across the world, far from home? You say you are a leader of some kind. Where are your men?"
"It's a long story," Miro said wryly.
"Save the story. Tell me why you are here."
Miro took a deep breath. "An outside force is causing problems in our realm, and we don't believe the source to be within our lands. We travelled to the three abandoned islands in search of an answer, but our ship ran against a reef, killing everyone except for my wife and myself. We found more questions than answers on the islands, and then we found a map that shows this continent. We decided to come here."
Miro thought about the plight of his son. These people must know about the poison, but his intuition told him it wasn't yet the time to bring it up.
The Emir stroked his beard. "I sense truth in your words, but I also sense there is much you are hiding from me. We will come back to your journey, and the next time I feel unsatisfied you will feel my wrath. For now, we are new acquaintances, and the code says we must be civil at all first meetings."
Miro knew he had to speak carefully; this man held their lives in his hands.
"Tell me," the Emir said, his hawk-like gaze suddenly fierce. "Are you a loremaster in your lands?"
"No, I am not," Miro said. He decided to say nothing of being a bladesinger.
"Good. If you were, I would have you killed."
Miro thought about Amber. Lord of the Sky, he hoped she said nothing to their captors.
Emir Volkan nodded. "I take it you know nothing of the history of our people, and how it relates to your own?"
Miro slowly shook his head, while the Emir looked satisfied.
"That is as it should be. Come," he gestured for Miro to follow him.
With stately steps the Emir led Miro to the far side of the chamber, where a partition set aside a series of benches. Strange tubes and vials of coloured powders were lined up and labelled, though Miro had never come across the words before.
"I am an amateur alchemist, you see," the Emir said, "although my skills are as nothing compared to the Guild. Watch."
The stern ruler became animated, and Miro realised he was pleased to have an audience. The Emir picked up a bottle containing a large amount of clear liquid.
He held the bottle up. "This is just water."
Volkan poured the bottle into a wide-mouthed glass carafe. He filled it to a depth of six inches and then put the bottle back down on the bench.
The Emir then took a second bottle. "Look," he said, swirling the contents.
Miro gaped. The fluid inside shone like steel, yet was obviously a liquid. It slipped and whirled in a mesmerizing way as Volkan tipped the bottle.
"This is an alchemical substance called quicksilver. Have you heard of it?"
"No, I haven't," Miro said.
The Emir tipped the silver liquid into a second wide-mouthed carafe to the same depth as the water in the first carafe. "I now have two quantities of liquid. One is water, the other is quicksilver."
Volkan put the bottle away, while Miro stared mesmerized at the shining fluid in the carafe.
He then took a small metal sphere and handed it to Miro. "How would you describe this?"
"It's a ball. Heavy," Miro said. "Probably steel."
"It is steel. What will happen when I drop it into the carafe of water?"
"It will sink."
The Emir took the ball from Miro and dropped it into the carafe of water. It sank immediately to the bottom, hitting the glass with a clunk.
"Now," Volkan said, "watch."
He took a second steel ball and gave it to Miro to check its weight. He then dropped the ball into the carafe of silver fluid.
Miro watched mesmerized. Even though there was six inches of silver liquid in the carafe, the heavy ball floated on top.