He paused, reached up with his own finely drawn hands, and removed his ceremonial headdress. A servant rushed in from the sidelines, knelt, and relieved him of its burden. With the high, feathered crown gone from his head, Ichindar seemed to shed his formality. He ran a hand through tousled brown hair and turned reflective. ‘When I first embarked upon my course within the Great Game, it was because I saw my uncle, Almecho, manipulate the Empire for the sole purpose of keeping himself in power as Warlord. The results brought suffering to many. His ambition was a threat to the nation . . . and myself,’ he added ruefully. ‘In working with Lord Kamatsu and others to end the bloodshed, I came to question the manner in which we live our lives, and I believe I understand something of the necessity that moves you.’
Ichindar stood. He waved away the guards who would close at his shoulders, and descended the steps from his dais. ‘Let me share something with you, Mara of the Acoma, something only a handful of men know.’ The Emperor’s manner was sure, but behind the mask of a ruler born, Mara saw a boy who was still vulnerably young and as human as she under the enveloping weight of his state finery. He crossed the floor in measured steps. The priests watched, the one from Juran’s temple rapt as a carrion bird, and the High Father Superior of Lashima’s order faintly smiling as the Light of Heaven reached across the rail and took her hand from its position of salute.
Since such unexpected familiarity appeared to disconcert Lady Mara, he looked directly into her eyes. ‘Originally, I tried to force peace upon the nations, for I saw great danger to us as a people if conquest were our only goal. But after Milamber returned, my reasons changed. You may have heard rumours of a great conflict upon the world of Midkemia. I confide to you now that the foe confronted there was the being our legends name the Enemy.’
Mindful of a past discussion with Arakasi, Mara was unsurprised to hear this confirmed. She had reread the ancient tales of some unknown horror called the Enemy, which had destroyed her ancestors’ homeworld, sending them across a mystic Golden Bridge into refuge on Kelewan. Although most of her peers had no cause to believe the old tales were anything other than myth, her quiet, earnest manner held no hint of scorn or disbelief. This was not lost on the Emperor.
Warming still more, Ichindar said, ‘The menace from before the dawn of our history existed, and was more terrible in fact than in story. The Assembly of Magicians stood with me in my desire that should such an evil conquer our former enemies in the Kingdom and turn their wrath upon us, we as a nation must stand united to face them. For this I suspended the High Council, that the machinations of the Great Game not be allowed to weaken us against such awesome threat. At my command, ten Great Ones and three thousand soldiers of the Kanazawai clan, led by Hokanu of the Shinzawai -‘
‘Hokanu has been upon the other world?’ Mara blurted. Then realizing her rudeness before the Emperor, she added, ‘I beg my Sovereign’s forgiveness.’
Ichindar smiled. ‘You hold the young man in some regard, I see. Yes, Hokanu spent some weeks at war on Midkemia, and more time with his brother, Kasumi.’ The Emperor smiled. ‘We do not understand our former enemies in the Kingdom. Kasumi’s bravery in serving his new master in the conflict won him appointment to a lordship among the nobles of the Kingdom. I am unfamiliar with their titles, but the one granted Kasumi is no mean thing, I’m told.’
The Great Freedom that Kevin had recalled with such fondness was true, then! Mara blinked back sudden tears, this certain proof setting final seal upon her changed beliefs. Forever after, she could not live comfortably with her own people’s rigid concept of caste. Men and women were only human beings – gods did not appoint them slaves, or nobles, or craftsmen with irrevocable finality. That in her culture a son might be born and live in exemplary honour, and yet never be awarded the rank deserving of his deeds, was injustice and waste of the first order.
‘It is to our shame,’ she murmured unthinkingly loud, ‘that a captive might gain freedom and begin a noble house that might someday rise to greatness among his former enemies – those we call barbarians – and yet many equally worthy sons taken prisoner into our Empire could become no more than slaves. I fear we are the barbarians, and not the Midkemians.’
Taken aback by this concept, which previously had only been aired with Kamatsu of the Shinzawai, the Emperor of Tsuranuanni regarded the woman across the rail. ‘So I thought, also. Perhaps you will appreciate the fine point, that all slaves returned across the rift will be free men on their home soil. Their King Lyam swore such to me, and though the first peacemaking was a disastrous mishap, I now know him for an honourable ruler.’
Torn by memories of Kevin, Mara could only nod.