Maia

  Forms, however, did not come to grief. Six days later, having sailed nearly two hundred miles down the Zhairgen and then the Telthearna, she landed at the Ortelgans' sacred island of Quiso and sought sanctuary of the Tuginda and her priestesses--a request never denied to any fugitive woman not guilty of a grave crime. And here she remained for two months, while the scandalous news of her exploit was bruited from Ortelga to Urtah, Dari and all over the empire.

  Before the end of those two months, Kephialtar was killed in a brush with the Katrians.

  Fornis, an exceptionally strong, energetic girl, returned to Dari on foot by way of Gelt and Bekla; a journey lasting three weeks. She was escorted by Ortelgans, for although Ashaktis was still with her, the two young sailormen were not. Indeed, where they went no one ever found out; but it was commonly supposed that they must be afraid of the probable consequences of showing their faces again in Paltesh.

  A few days after her arrival, having summoned her father's barons and commanders--all those who were not in the field against Kamat--she told them that she, the indisputable successor to her father, intended to rule Paltesh in her own right: she called upon them all for loyal allegiance and support.

  Her announcement fell upon the province like hail in harvest. Everyone had hitherto supposed that if the girl had fled from her bridegroom and her wedding, it could only be because she had secretly promised herself to some other lover--an affair of the heart. Her tomboy reputation--though nothing scandalous was known against her-- tended to support the notion.

  There were those who, unenthusiastic about Eud-Ecachlon, were ready to take her part, despite the appalling effect of what she had done on relations between Paltesh and Urtah. Ah, well, but she'd shown herself a fine, spirited girl, now, hadn't she?--too good by half for that thick Urtan fellow. She'd displayed dash and courage: she was her father's daughter all right. Depend upon it, her heart was already fixed on some young blade of lower birth than her father would have welcomed. Good luck to him, whoever he was! But who was he? It took them some time to become convinced that nothing like this was involved at all.

  That the people in general were ready to condone and support her if they possibly could was in large measure due to Fornis's appearance and style. From the age of thirteen or fourteen the girl had been strikingly--almost magically--beautiful, the talk and pride of the province, her fame extending to Bekla and far beyond. Her exquisite, rather pale face and wide, green eyes were framed by a great mane of auburn hair which actually seemed to glow with a kind of incandescence so intense as almost to transcend nature. People stood and stared at her as they might have stared at some magnificent summer sunset, or the migrant purple kynat returned in spring. Beauty of this order (which again and again had blunted the edge of her father's anger) conferred on Fornis a power beyond her years. It was very difficult to resist her. Doors opened easily and objections tended to dissolve.

  Together with this, however, she had tastes and leanings over which her uncles--her mother's family--had often expressed misgiving among themselves. Kephialtar had been much engaged in campaigning and all the other affairs of a border province. His wife was a placid, indolent woman, not given to taking a long view or considering consequences. As a child Fornis, lacking brothers and sisters, had been left a great deal with the servants. From their company she had acquired a racy elan, a sly and cunning opportunism in getting her own way, a great belief in the value of intimidation, an appetite for material possessions and a general conviction that principle and responsibility were so much pretentious rubbish. Whatever else she might have acquired was as yet uncertain; but there had been a whispered rumor, never allowed to reach the ears of her father, that once, when she was fourteen, she had been seen with her maid on the balcony of a room overlooking her private garden, pointing and laughing as though at a play, while below her, on the grass, her groom supervised the serving of a sow by a boar.

  In company she was free and bold and from an early age well able to converse and hold her own with her father's subjects of all degrees; but particularly with soldiers, huntsmen, tradesmen and the like.

  Peasants on the whole she despised, preferring sharper performers and quicker wits.

  When her father's barons had at length realized that in fact there had never been anyone whom Fornis wanted to marry, that she had no intention of marrying and seriously intended them to regard her as the actual ruler of Paltesh, there was grave disquiet. Inheritance by a female in her own right was unknown to Beklan tradition and custom. No female had ever attempted it. Yet since there was no written code of law, Fornis's design could not simply be declared invalid. If a man had daughters but no sons, then by custom the inheritance passed to his eldest daughter's husband. If his daughters were unmarried, then the male next of kin--his brother or cousin--had prior claim. As her maternal uncles were not slow to point out, there was no precedent for what Fornis meant to do. But among those with no personal interest the disquiet was scarcely less. For a girl of seventeen to rule a province herself, let alone a province at war, was of course out of the question. Who then was to be the real and actual ruler?

  Fornis might, of course, have chosen a small executive council of five or six nobles and governed in her own name with their advice and support. If she had done this, she would probably (dependent upon results) have had sufficient baronial backing, despite her immodest audacity. But a responsible approach of this kind was altogether foreign to her character. Wayward, domineering and headstrong by nature, she enjoyed risk and excitement for their own sake. She also enjoyed provoking her father's former friends and flouting propriety and custom. At this time in her life she placed a high value on luxury and frivolous pleasure, and delighted in exploiting her appearance. Regarding this last, however, she was shrewd enough to realize that if once she gave herself to any man--whether in marriage or otherwise--its general power would diminish; and accordingly she took care that whatever older people might say about her behavior, no one could credibly allege that she had ever been loose in the hilts. Here, however--as will be seen later--her natural propensities helped rather than hindered her.

  By the customs of the society in which she lived, she should have been reprehended and brought to comply with what was expected of her and of womanhood. This her uncles attempted, but what Fornis had realized was that while she might be advised, browbeaten, importuned, even entreated to act in a conventional manner, she could not be compelled. The province was hers and this could not be gainsaid or altered. At one point an attempt was made to keep her under house arrest until she saw reason, but this failed on account of her widespread popularity among the common people who, as soon as they knew what was going on, demanded her release.

  Gradually a modus vivendi evolved. The truth was that Fornis, in asserting her own right to Paltesh, had never intended actually to govern--a task far too tedious and demanding for her taste. What she wanted was simply to do as she pleased and have the spending of as much money as she could get her hands on.

  Left to herself, she would probably have beggared the province in five years and then sold it to the highest bidder. Her uncles, understanding the risk, finally made the best of a bad job. What this came down to was that they paid her a large allowance and governed the province in her name.

  With this Fornis at first appeared content. But her uncles had underrated her. If they had known what she was capable of they would certainly, despite the unforeseeable consequences, have had her assassinated. For a time she amused herself with various extravagances in Dari, spending not only her own money but also that of any young noble or rich man's son sufficiently infatuated to give her more.

  Her personal daring and bravado added greatly to her popularity among those with no responsibility in the province, and stories were always circulating of her audacious exploits; how she had joined in following up a wounded leopard in close country; scaled a sheer cliff for a wager; or plunged forty feet from a promontory into the Zhairgen.

  After a
time, however, beginning to tire of Dari, she started making trips to Bekla. Here, naturally enough, she soon became all the rage among the younger men in the upper city, where she bought a house and entertained lavishly. In reply to those who condemned the shameless freedom of her behavior--nothing like it had been seen before in the empire, where women of good family lived in relative seclusion--her adherents pointed out that at all events her chastity was indisputable and beyond question; she was just a fine, spirited girl. And since she spent much time in the company not only of young nobles but of influential and well-connected men such as senior army officers, most people assumed that her real intention must be to find herself a husband, one who could rule Paltesh with her or for her. In this, however, they were mistaken.

  At this time the empire was enjoying greater prosperity than ever before, due partly to increasing exploitation of its natural resources and partly to the growth of trade to the southward, beyond Yelda.

  The landed nobility were ceasing to be the only wealthy class. Fortunes were being made, particularly by those dealing in luxuries--builders, stone-masons, purveyors of slaves, and merchants buying and selling metals and jewels. Among the foremost of these was Sencho, who was seizing every opportunity to advance money and gain influence in the upper city. Needy and unscrupulous aristocrats were very much up his street, for what he was really seeking was the practical means to power.

  Sencho had been in the same company as Fornis on at least six or seven occasions before she even became aware of him as an individual. When she did, she naturally despised him, since apart from being a merchant and a man of no birth--to say the least--he had never been a soldier, was neither a hunter nor an athlete and appeared to have no recreations apart from gluttony and loose women. Sencho, however, endured her contempt with the kind of indifference that a general on campaign might show towards severe weather. He simply took it in his stride. "You can despise and insult me as much as you like," his manner seemed to imply. "Spit in my face if you want to. That's quite immaterial to what you do not as yet realize to be our mutual interest; to what I have to seek and to offer."

  Fornis became intrigued. She could perceive well enough--she had had sufficient experience for twenty girls-- that whatever his designs might be, they were not sexual. She knew also that he was rich and cunning, while she herself was a feckless spendthrift with few ideas beyond luxury and the easy admiration of unprincipled people. (She received none, for example, from the High Baron Senda-na-Say, who pointedly ignored her and on public matters dealt direct with her uncles in Paltesh.) In the end she decided to give Sencho an opportunity to talk to her freely, and with characteristic effrontery invited him to supper with her on the Bramba Tower of the Barons' Palace, dismissing her maids at the end of the meal. Nevertheless, she learned nothing of importance that evening, nor for several meetings after. At this stage Sencho wished only to gain more of her interest and confidence while he made preparations in other quarters. He would speak out in his own time, when he was ready.

  He lent her, however, a large sum of money.

  He was ready in about ten months, towards the end of Fornis's next visit to the capital. She had run through twice as much as her uncles were prepared to give her for the following year, and was in debt both in Paltesh and Bekla. This she told Sencho in his own dining-room, but did not suggest another loan.

  That--or something--she knew he would offer unsolicited if it formed part of his scheme; and else not.

  Sencho, stuffing himself with peach pie and almonds, watched her closely as he listened; and then, perceiving that the time was ripe, at last spoke without reserve.

  What he outlined--once it had become clear to her-- made the blood beat in Fornis's head and aroused her so powerfully with its mixture of deadly risk, cruelty, wickedness and great gain that she almost offered herself to him on the spot. She realized, however, that this would merely earn his contempt. In the real world, appreciated by only a perceptive few, the enjoyment of bodies--zard and tairth-- was a superficial matter. Anyone physically attractive was good enough for that. What lay between her and Sencho was something far colder and deeper. This real world she had now been invited to enter; if she chose. If not, she was free to decline, and know for ever after that her show of audacity and ruthlessness had been a mere act, a bluff which Sencho had called.

  Sencho's proposition was that they should destroy the de facto government in Dari-Paltesh by first suborning the soldiery and then deliberately murdering her uncles and anyone else in their entourage sufficiently powerful to merit it. Thereafter Fornis would be able to live entirely as she wished and make use of as much of the provincial revenue as she liked. He himself would finance the preparations and provide the necessary bribes, which would need to be large. He also had, ready and willing to discuss the matter further, two suitable and resolute men--soldiers of fortune--who, with the cooperation of some of her own intimates in Paltesh, he felt would be equal to pulling off the necessary mutiny and bloodshed.

  Fornis was fascinated by his contempt for humanity and his cold zest for gain through treachery and destruction. This, she now realized, was what she had unknowingly been seeking in flouting her family and outraging the orthodox. Those, though mere games of a child, had nevertheless served their turn by leading her to this present, clear vision. She had thought herself a hedonist; she had been wrong. She had been born for a more demanding, worthwhile vocation--the seizure and exercise of power.

  Meeting Sencho's fellow-conspirators, her confidence grew. Han-Glat, aged about thirty, was a former slave promoted and freed after more than ten years' valuable service in the army, during which he had distinguished himself by showing remarkable ability in the sphere of fortifications and similar military works. Nothing would appear more natural than that he, now his own master, should seek still further advancement by active service in Paltesh.

  The second man, Kembri-B'sai, was a compelling figure; the embittered younger son of an impoverished baron in Lapan. Huge, black-bearded and taciturn, he looked a warrior capable of wading through oceans of blood without turning a hair. A professional soldier with a good record, for some unknown reason he had nevertheless been disappointed in his hopes of advancement under Senda-na-Say, against whom he entertained a brooding hatred.

  The plot took two years to come to fruition and was entirely successful. Fornis showed herself a model of cunning and duplicity. Having completely regained the confidence of both her uncles by a convincingly sustained show of contrition and reformed ways, she was able with little difficulty, on the night of the coup, to poison them both, at the very time when Kembri and Han-Glat, having brought their mutiny to the boil, were killing the Palteshi commanders in Dari.

  In such affairs, one step tends to compel the next. Sencho and Kembri had foreseen this, though Fornis had not. Senda-na-Say in Bekla could seem to ignore much of the internecine quarrelling of the provinces, but this he could not ignore. The conspirators' night's work had seriously weakened the effective strength of the empire to resist Terekenalt, and in all probability only the onset of the rains (Kembri had timed the business with this in mind), putting an end to campaigning for that year, had averted an immediate invasion of Suba by King Karnat. Fornis was summoned to Bekla to give an account of herself and of the death of her uncles.

  She declined to go, pleading at first illness and then, with some plausibility, the impossibility of travelling seventy miles over roads more than ankle-deep in rain and mud (though her secret messengers continued to reach Sencho throughout the winter). Nor was Senda-na-Say prepared to travel then, being beset nearer home with difficulties of a nature and gravity which his predecessors had never encountered.

  The truth was that Senda-na-Say had first failed to grasp and then completely underrated the profound social change in Bekla brought about by the growth of trade and wealth. Years before, he had inherited a realm based on aristocracy and land tenure, but these were now of diminishing importance in a society increasingly full
of moneyed commoners--many richer than nobles and actually able to buy them up--impatient for recognition and influence commensurate to their wealth and the taxes they paid. Not surprisingly, he and his associates had little time for people like Sencho and Lalloc; but less excusably, they were not ready to listen to more acceptable representatives of the merchant and craftsman class--men such as Fleitil, for instance. Whether they pretended or whether they genuinely thought that there was nothing to discuss, the effect was the same. They lost the confidence of their most affluent subjects, men well able to bribe servants to spy and soldiers to desert. Also turning against them was the newly-formed clique of Beklan nobles calling themselves the Leopards, several of whom had friends (and creditors) among the merchants.

  With the return of the spring, envoys were once more sent to Dari-Paltesh, with a mandate that Fornis should return with them at once. For three weeks nothing was heard. Then came news more disturbing than any received by a ruler of Bekla in living memory. Fornis, having agreed with King Karnat of Terekenalt to offer no resistance to his occupation and annexation of Suba, in return for his promise to desist from further attacks on Paltesh, had publicly declared herself Sacred Queen of Airtha and, with Kembri and Han-Glat at the head of a considerable force, was about to advance on Bekla.

  The office of Sacred Queen was a religious, not a political one. Traditionally, the Queen's role was to officiate as chief priestess in the temple of Cran and in particular, at the great spring festival held each year as soon as the rains had ended, to perform her ceremonial coupling with the god in the presence of the rulers, nobility, priests and chief dignitaries of Bekla. Nine months later, at the winter solstice, she gave symbolic birth to the new year in a ceremony attended only by her own priestesses and certain noblewomen of the city. A new Sacred Queen of Airtha was chosen by popular acclaim every fourth year, immediately after the ritual birth. Although the people usually acclaimed a well-born and beautiful girl of good family, and although the office conferred great honor, it had never involved any political influence, even for the Queen's male relatives. Very often, in practice, the Queen was content to leave the esoteric work and ritual of the temple to the professional priesthood, herself simply playing her appointed part on ceremonial occasions and notably at the two festivals.