King of the Murgos

  ‘N-no,’ Sariss stammered in a squeaky voice.

  ‘I was sure you’d see it my way. This is what we’re going to do. This lady and her young friend want to have a word with the queen, so you’re going to take us to the throne room.’

  ‘The queen?’ Sariss gasped. ‘No one goes into her presence without permission. I-I can’t do it.’

  ‘This conversation has suddenly taken a definite turn for the worse.’ Issus looked over at Polgara. ‘Would you like to turn your head, Lady?’ he asked politely. ‘The sight of a man with his brains oozing out of his ears makes some people queasy.’

  ‘Please,’ Sariss begged him. ‘I can’t. The queen will kill me if I take you into the throne room without being summoned.’

  ‘And I’ll kill you if you don’t. Somehow, I’ve got the feeling that this isn’t going to be one of your good days, Sariss. Now get on your feet.’ The assassin jerked the trembling fat man from his chair.

  They stepped out into the corridor with the eunuch leading the way. Sweat was streaming down his face, and there was a wild look in his eyes.

  ‘No blunders, Sariss,’ Issus warned. ‘Remember that I’m right behind you.’

  The two burly guards at the entrance to the throne room bowed respectfully to the Chief Eunuch and swung the heavy doors open for him.

  Salmissra’s throne room was unchanged. The enormous stone statue of Issa, the Serpent God, still loomed behind the dais at the far end of the room. The crystal lamps still glowed dimly on their silver chains, and the two dozen bald and crimson-robed eunuchs still knelt on the polished floor, ready to murmur in unison their phrases of adoration. Even the gold-framed mirror still stood on its pedestal at the side of the divanlike throne.

  Salmissra herself, however, was dreadfully changed. She was no longer the beautiful, sensuous woman Garion had seen when, drugged and bemused, he had first been led into her presence. She lay on her throne with her mottled coils undulating restlessly. Her polished scales gleamed in the lamplight, and her flat reptile’s head rose on its long, thin neck, with the golden crown of the serpent queen resting lightly above her dead, incurious eyes.

  She glanced briefly at them as they entered, then turned back to regard her reflection in her mirror. ‘I do not recall having summoned you, Sariss,’ she said in a dry, dusty whisper.

  ‘The queen questions the Chief Eunuch,’ the two dozen shaven-headed men kneeling near the dais intoned in unison.

  ‘Forgive me, Eternal Salmissra,’ the eunuch pleaded, prostrating himself on the floor before the throne. ‘I was forced to bring these strangers into your presence. They threatened to kill me if I refused.’

  ‘Then you should have died, Sariss,’ the serpent whispered. ‘You know that I do not like to be disturbed.’

  ‘The queen is displeased,’ half of the kneeling eunuchs murmured.

  ‘Ah,’ the other half responded with a certain spiteful satisfaction.

  Salmissra swung her swaying head slightly to fix her eyes on Issus. ‘I seem to know you,’ she said.

  The one-eyed man bowed. ‘Issus, your Majesty,’ he replied. ‘The assassin.’

  ‘I do not wish to be disturbed just now,’ the serpent queen told him in her emotionless whisper. ‘If that means that you’re going to kill Sariss, please take him out into the corridor to do it.’

  ‘We will not disturb you for long, Salmissra,’ Polgara said, pushing back the hood of her cloak.

  The snake’s head turned slowly, her forked tongue tasting the air. ‘Ah, Polgara,’ she hissed without any evident surprise. ‘It has been some time since your last visit.’

  ‘Several years,’ Polgara agreed.

  ‘I no longer take note of the years.’ Salmissra’s dead gaze turned to Garion. ‘And Belgarion,’ she said. ‘I see that you’re not a boy any more.’

  ‘No,’ he replied, fighting down an involuntary shudder.

  ‘Come closer,’ she whispered. ‘Once you thought that I was beautiful and yearned for my kiss. Would you like to kiss me now?’

  Garion felt a strange compulsion to obey and found that he could not take his eyes from those of the Serpent Queen. Not even aware that he did it, he took a hesitant step toward the dais.

  ‘The fortunate one approaches the throne,’ the eunuchs murmured.

  ‘Garion!’ Polgara said sharply.

  ‘I will not hurt him, Polgara. I never intended to hurt him.’

  ‘I have a few questions for you, Salmissra,’ Polgara said coldly. ‘Once you answer them, we’ll leave you to your entertainments.’

  ‘What manner of questions, Polgara? What could I possibly know that your sorcery could not ferret out?’

  ‘You recently met a Mallorean named Naradas,’ Polgara said. ‘A man with colorless eyes.’

  ‘Is that his name? Sariss never told me.’

  ‘You made an arrangement with him.’

  ‘Did I?’

  ‘At his request, you sent diplomats to Sendaria. Among them was a foreigner named Zandramas. Your diplomats were instructed to give the foreigner every possible assistance in getting to Halberg on the west coast of Cherek. You also ordered a ship to the Isle of the Winds to bring Zandramas back to Nyissa.’

  ‘I gave no such orders, Polgara. I have no interest in the affairs of Zandramas.’

  ‘The name is familiar to you?’

  ‘Of course. I told you once that the priests of Angarak and the sorcerers of Aloria are not the only ones who can find a truth that lies hidden. I know of your desperate pursuit of the one who took Belgarion’s son from the Citadel at Riva.’

  ‘But you say that you were in no way involved in the arrangements?’

  ‘The one you call Naradas came to me with gifts,’ Salmissra whispered, ‘but said nothing more than that he wished my permission to trade here in Nyissa.’

  ‘Then how do you explain this?’ Polgara took the parchment sheet Sadi had given her from under her cloak.

  Salmissra flicked her tongue at one of the kneeling eunuchs. ‘Bring it to me,’ she ordered.

  The eunuch leaped to his feet, took the parchment from Polgara, and then knelt on the edge of the dais, holding the sheet open and extended toward his queen.

  ‘This is not the order I gave,’ Salmissra said flatly after the briefest of glances. ‘I ordered the diplomats to Sendaria—nothing more. Your copy is not accurate, Polgara.’

  ‘Would the original be about anywhere?’ Garion asked her.

  ‘Sariss should have it.’

  Garion looked at the fat eunuch groveling on the floor. ‘Where is it?’ he demanded.

  Sariss stared at him, then his gaze went in terror to the enthroned serpent.

  Garion considered several alternatives but discarded most of them in favor of simplicity. ‘Make him talk, Issus,’ he said shortly.

  The one-eyed man stepped over, straddled the trembling eunuch, and grasped his chin firmly from behind. Then he pulled up sharply until Sariss was arched backward. The saw-edged dagger made a steely grating sound as it came out of its sheath.

  ‘Wait!’ Sariss begged in a choked voice. ‘It—it’s in the drawer at the bottom of my wardrobe in my room.’

  ‘Your methods are direct, assassin,’ the queen observed.

  ‘I’m a simple man, your Majesty,’ Issus replied. ‘I do not have the temperament for subtlety nor intricacy. I’ve found that directness saves time in the long run.’ He released the terrified Sariss and pushed his Ulgo dagger back into his sheath. He looked at Garion. ‘Do you want me to go get the parchment?’ he asked.

  ‘I think we’re going to need it.’

  ‘All right.’ Issus turned and left the room.

  ‘An interesting man,’ Salmissra noted. She bent and caressingly touched her mottled coils with her blunt nose. ‘My life is much changed since you were last here, Polgara,’ she whispered in her dusty voice. ‘I am no longer driven by those hungers I had before, but pass my days instead in restless doze. I lull myself into slumber with the s
weet sound of my own scales caressing each other. As I sleep, I dream. I dream of mossy caves in deep, cool forests, and I dream of the days when I was still a woman. But sometimes in my dreams, I am a bodiless spirit, seeking out the truths that others would hide. I know of the fear which lies in your heart, Polgara, and the desperate need that drives Zandramas. I even know of the terrible task which lies upon Cyradis.’

  ‘But you still say that you are not involved in this matter?’

  ‘I have no interest in it. You and Zandramas can pursue each other across all the kingdoms of the world, but I am incurious as to the outcome.’

  Polgara’s eyes narrowed as she looked at her.

  ‘I have no reason to lie to you, Polgara,’ Salmissra said, sensing the suspicion in that look. ‘What could Zandramas possibly offer me that would buy my aid? All of my needs are satisfied, and I no longer have desires.’ Her blunt head came up and her tongue flickered. ‘I rejoice, however, that your quest has brought you again into my presence so that I may gaze once more upon the perfection of your face.’

  Polgara’s chin lifted. ‘Look quickly then, Salmissra. I have little patience for the involuted amusements of a snake.’

  ‘The centuries have made you waspish, Polgara. Let us be civil to one another. Would you like to have me tell you what I know of Zandramas? She is no longer what she once was.’

  ‘She!’ Garion exclaimed.

  ‘You did not even know that?’ the serpent hissed maliciously. ‘Your sorcery is a sham, then, Polgara. Could you not sense that your enemy is a woman? And did you perhaps not even realize that you have already met her?’

  ‘What are you talking about, Salmissra?’

  ‘Poor, dear Polgara. The long, long centuries have filled your wits with cobwebs. Did you really think that you and Belgarath are the only ones in the world who can change their shapes? The dragon who visited you in the mountains above Arendia appears quite different when she resumes her natural form.’

  The door to the throne room opened and Issus came back in, holding a parchment sheet with a red wax seal on the bottom of it.

  ‘Bring it to me,’ Salmissra commanded.

  Issus looked at her, his single eye narrowing as he gauged the distance between the serpent’s throne and his own unprotected skin. Then he went over to the prostrate eunuch who had presented Polgara’s document to the queen. Without changing expression, he kicked the man solidly in the ribs. ‘Here,’ he said, thrusting out the parchment. ‘Take this to her Majesty.’

  ‘Are you afraid of me, Issus?’ Salmissra asked, sounding faintly amused.

  ‘I am unworthy to approach you too closely, my Queen.’

  Salmissra bent her head to examine the parchment the trembling eunuch held out for her to read. ‘There appears to be some discrepancy,’ she hissed. ‘This document is the same as the one you showed me, Polgara, but it is not the document to which I ordered my seal affixed. How is this possible?’

  ‘May I speak, my Queen?’ the eunuch who held the parchment asked in a quavering voice.

  ‘Of course, Adiss,’ she replied almost pleasantly, ‘so long as you realize that if your words displease me, the kiss I will give you in payment will bring you death.’ Her forked tongue flickered out toward him.

  The eunuch’s face went a ghastly gray color, and his trembling became so violent that he very nearly collapsed.

  ‘Speak, Adiss,’ she whispered. ‘It is my command that you disclose your mind to me. We will determine then whether you live or die. Speak. Now.’

  ‘My Queen,’ he quavered, ‘the Chief Eunuch is the only person in the palace permitted to touch your Majesty’s royal seal. If the document in question is false, must we not look to him for an explanation?’

  The serpent considered that, her head swaying rhythmically back and forth and her forked tongue flickering. At last she stopped her reptilian dance and leaned slowly forward until her tongue brushed the cringing eunuch’s cheek. ‘Live, Adiss,’ she murmured. ‘Your words have not displeased me, and so my kiss grants the gift of life.’ Then she reared her mottled form again and regarded Sariss with her dead eyes. ‘Do you have an explanation, Sariss? As our most excellent servant Adiss has pointed out, you are my Chief Eunuch. You affixed my seal. How did this discrepancy come to pass?’

  ‘My Queen—’ His mouth gaped open, and his deadwhite face froze in an expression of stark terror.

  The still-shaken Adiss half rose, his eyes filled with a sudden wild hope. He held up the parchment in his hand and turned to his crimson-robed companions kneeling to one side of the dais. ‘Behold,’ he cried in a triumphant voice. ‘Behold the proof of the Chief Eunuch’s misconduct!’

  The other eunuchs looked first at Adiss and then at the groveling and terrified Chief Eunuch. Their eyes also furtively tried to read the enigmatic expression on Salmissra’s face. ‘Ah,’ they said in unison at last.

  ‘I’m still waiting, Sariss,’ the Serpent Queen whispered.

  Sariss, however, quite suddenly scrambled to his feet and bolted toward the throne room door, squealing in mindless, animal panic. As fast as his sudden flight was, though, Issus was even faster. The shabby, one-eyed assassin bounded after the fleeing fat man, his horrid dagger leaping into his hand. With the other he caught the back of the Chief Eunuch’s crimson robe and jerked him up short. He raised his knife and looked inquiringly at Salmissra.

  ‘Not yet, Issus,’ she decided. ‘Bring him to me.’

  Issus grunted and dragged his struggling captive toward the throne. Sariss, squealing and gibbering in terror, scrambled his feet ineffectually on the polished floor.

  ‘I will have an answer from you, Sariss,’ Salmissra whispered.

  ‘Talk,’ Issus said in a flat voice, setting his dagger point against the eunuch’s lower eyelid. He pushed slightly, and a sudden trickle of bright red blood ran down the fat man’s cheek.

  Sariss squealed and began to blubber. ‘Forgive me, your Majesty,’ he begged. ‘The Mallorean Naradas compelled it of me.’

  ‘How did you do it, Sariss?’ the serpent demanded implacably.

  ‘I-I put your seal at the very bottom of the page, Divine Salmissra,’ he blurted. ‘Then when I was alone, I added the other orders.’

  ‘And were there other orders as well?’ Polgara asked him. ‘Will we encounter hindrances and traps on the trail of Zandramas?’

  ‘No. Nothing. I gave no orders other than that Zandramas be escorted to the Murgo border and provided the maps she required. I pray you, your Majesty. Forgive me.’

  ‘That is quite impossible, Sariss,’ she hissed. ‘It had been my intention to hold myself aloof in the dispute between Polgara and Zandramas, but now I am involved because you have abused my trust in you.’

  ‘Shall I kill him?’ Issus asked calmly.

  ‘No, Issus,’ she replied. ‘Sariss and I will share a kiss, as is the custom in this place.’ She looked oddly at him. ‘You are an interesting man, assassin,’ she said. ‘Would you like to enter my service? I am certain that a position can be found for one of your talents.’

  Adiss the eunuch gasped, his face suddenly going pale. ‘But your Majesty,’ he protested, leaping to his feet, ‘your servants have always been eunuchs, and this man is—’ He faltered, suddenly realizing the temerity of his rash outburst.

  Salmissra’s dead eyes locked on his, and he sank white-faced to the floor again. ‘You disappoint me, Adiss,’ she said in that dusty whisper. She turned back to the one-eyed assassin. ‘Well, Issus?’ she said. ‘A man of your talents could rise to great eminence, and the procedure, I’m told, is a minor one. You would soon recover and enter the service of your queen.’

  ‘Ah—I’m honored, your Majesty,’ he replied carefully, ‘but I’d really prefer to remain more or less intact. There’s a certain edge my profession requires, and I’d rather not endanger that by tampering with things.’

  ‘I see.’ She swung her head briefly to look at the cowering Adiss and then back to the assassin. ‘You
have made an enemy today, however, I think—and one that may some day grow quite powerful.’

  Issus shrugged. ‘I’ve had many enemies,’ he replied. ‘A few of them are even still alive.’ He gave the cowering eunuch a flinty look. ‘If Adiss wants to pursue the matter, he and I can discuss it privately some day—or perhaps late some night when our discussions won’t disturb anyone.’

  ‘We must leave now,’ Polgara said. ‘You have been most helpful, Salmissra. Thank you.’

  ‘I am indifferent to your gratitude,’ Salmissra replied. ‘I do not think I will see you again, Polgara. I think that Zandramas is more powerful than you and that she will destroy you.’

  ‘Only time can reveal that.’

  ‘Indeed. Farewell, Polgara.’

  ‘Good-bye, Salmissra.’ Polgara deliberately turned her back on the dais. ‘Come along, Garion—Issus,’ she said.

  ‘Sariss,’ Salmissra said in a peculiar, almost singing tone, ‘come to me.’ Garion glanced back over his shoulder and saw that she had reared her mottled body until it rose high above the dais and her velvet-covered throne. She swayed rhythmically back and forth. Her dead eyes had come alight with a kind of dreadful hunger and they burned irresistibly beneath her scaly brows.

  Sariss, his mouth agape and with his piglike eyes frozen and devoid of all thought, lurched toward the dais with jerky, stiff-legged steps.

  ‘Come, Sariss,’ Salmissra crooned. ‘I long to embrace you and give you my kiss.’

  Polgara, Garion, and Issus reached the ornately carved door and went quietly into the corridor outside. They had gone no more than a few yards when there came from the throne room a sudden shrill scream of horror, dying hideously into a gurgling, strangled squeal.

  ‘I think that the position of Chief Eunuch just became vacant,’ Issus observed drily. Then, as they continued on down the dimly lighted hallway he turned to Polgara. ‘Now, my Lady,’ he said, ticking the items off on his fingers, ‘first of all there was the fee for getting you and the young man into the palace. Then there was the business of persuading Sariss to take us to the throne room, and then . . .’