Yen Olass woke to find morning sunlight streaming through a window of white waxed paper. Somewhere, someone was drilling troops, shouting harsh commands in Ordhar.
'Why's the man shouting, mam?' said Monogail.
'Because he's warped,' said Yen Olass. 'Come on, let's go to the kitchen.’
In the kitchen, chefs and kitchen hands were bustling round making breakfast for Hearst and all his braves. Yen Olass saw two plates heaped high with steamed vegetables, rice and gaplax. She snaffled them.
'Hey,' shouted a man. 'That's reserved for Morgan Hearst and Watashi!’
'I know,' said Yen Olass. 'I was sent to get them. Come on, Monogail.’
And she exited from the kitchen bearing her trophies. They found their way to a courtyard, which was empty but for an old man painting oval ceramic tiles according to the Collosnon military fashion. They sat down to eat, using their fingers. The man drilling troops was still bellowing at the top of his lungs, as if hoping to be heard 'in backwater Lorp', as the local expression had it.
Yen Olass and Monogail were still eating when a shadow blocked out the light. Looking up, Yen Olass saw a big, big man, a hulking brute with ox-yoke shoulders and sheep-strangling hands.
'Why!' she said, with pleasure. 'Nan Nulador!’
Nan Nulador nodded gravely.
'So this is the child,' he said.
'Yes,' said Yen Olass. 'The last child of the Lord Emperor Khmar. She's got his chin.’
'I cannot speak for the Lord Emperor Khmar,' said Nan Nulador solemnly.
'Nobody's asking you to,' said Yen Olass, supposing he was making a clumsy joke of some kind. 'What're you doing here? I thought Chonjara was in Celadric's dungeons.’
'He is,' said Nan Nulador. 'He released me from my oath of loyalty. I took service with the prince. So I ended up on the Greater Teeth. We-’
T know the story,' said Yen Olass.
'We got to meet some of the pirates,' said Nan Nulador. 'One of them was Mellicks.’
'Yes?' said Yen Olass.
'Does that name mean anything to you?’
'No,' said Yen Olass. 'Here, do you want some gaplax? It's very good. They cooked it especially for me. Take some.’
'No,' said Nan Nulador. 'This Mellicks – he had yellow eyes. He got them from a wishing machine.’
'Oh, him,' said Yen Olass. 'I'd forgotten about him.’
'He said you got your child from the same machine,' said Nan Nulador. 'Now I see your child. It has yellow eyes.’
Monogail munched gaplax, and stared at Nan Nulador, too shy to speak or ask questions.
'Mellicks rnust've been drunk,' said Yen Olass. 'You were at Nightcaps yourself. You know the child is Khmar's.’
Nan Nulador picked up her hand. She twisted it away, cutting him with one of her fingernails. He stared at the bright flash of blood burning out of his flesh.
'Claws,' he said. 'What else changed when you made your pact with the powers of death? What else did vou ask for?’
There was an ugly expression on his face. Yen Olass got to her feet. 'Hearst!' she roared.
A guard looked into the courtyard.
'Get me Hearst!' ordered Yen Olass. 'Now!’
Very shortly, Nan Nulador was being dragged away by a squad of guards, shouting and struggling. Yen Olass was more than a little relieved to see the last of him.
'What's that thing he said, mam?' asked Monogail.
'Eat your gaplax,' said Yen Olass.
'But what's a dralkosh, mam?’
'A bad word.’
'Like tit?’
'Yes.’
'And bum?' 'Yes.’
'And burdok malor skida dik?' said Monogail innocently.
'That's enough!' said Yen Olass sharply.
She was a little shocked. Honestly! Where did they learn these things?
'Eat your gaplax, then go and find Elkordansk,' said Yen Olass, 'and play somewhere quietly.’
Hearst was in a bad mood when he met Yen Olass. She had stolen his gaplax, she had quarrelled with one of his allies, and her child had led Elkordansk on a raiding mission into his wine cellar, damaging, among other things, a year's supply of coffee.
'Don't worry about it,' said Yen Olass. 'That coffee stuff's vomit-making. I tasted it last night. It stinks. You're better off without it. Anyway, once you're master of Argan you'll have no trouble replacing it. As for the gaplax – I want the same again tomorrow.’
'It's not good manners to make demands like that,' said Hearst. 'A guest has obligations, you know.’
'I'm the Silent One now. The Silent One always gets gaplax for breakfast. That's the tradition. Now, as for Nan Nulador-’
'Yes, Nan Nulador. That very valuable warrior-' 362
'Is harmless as long as nobody puts ideas into his head. But now someone's managed to do just that, and there's so little competition that it's running his brain for him. He thinks I'm a…’
'A dralkosh?’
'Yes,' said Yen Olass, relieved that she did not have to explain.
'So what is a dralkosh?' T thought you knew.’
'I'd never heard the word until today. Monogail said Nan Nulador had used it. She asked what it meant.' 'So what did you tell her?’
T told her she had other things to worry about. Yen Olass, did you know these two children broached my only cask of Carvel Squen? What's more, they were drinking it!’
'A little wine is good for the digestion. Now listen – I'm going to tell you about the Yarglat and the dralkosh.’
She told him all about it, then said:
'I'm surprised you didn't know that to begin with.’
'Yen Olass,' said Hearst, T know bits and pieces of twenty different languages and fifty different cultures, but I can't know everything.’
'Well you should learn some more about the Yarglat, and fast,' said Yen Olass. 'Before you have to deal with them face to face. Now I've got something else to tell you about.’
'Before you start,' said Hearst, 'how are we going to punish the children?’
'If they've drunk as much as you seem to think they have,' said Yen Olass, 'their hangovers will be punishment enough. Now listen. This is important.’
And she told him of the five monsters she had killed on the flats. Hearst identified them as keflos.
'Baby ones,' said Hearst.
'Baby ones? Blood's grief, what do the parents look like?’
'Well,' said Hearst. 'The adults-' 363
'No,' said Yen Olass, cutting him off, 'I don't want to know. I just don't want to know.’
'Don't be afraid of them,' said Hearst. 'They can be killed – you've found that out for yourself. When I rule the west coast of Argan-’
'If you rule the west coast of Argan.’
'When I rule the west coast of Argan.' said Hearst, his voice rolling on, 'we'll wipe them out. Eliminate them.’
Yen Olass knew he would never be able to eliminate her nightmares.
That evening, Yen Olass visited Nan Nulador in the dungeon adjacent to the wine cellar. She assured him that he would be released once she and Hearst returned from their dangerous mission – and would also be set free if they died on that mission. Nan Nulador just swore at her.
She knew what his problem was. He had trusted her, and had benefited greatly from that trust. She had saved his wife, and thus had given him a son. So now, finding that she was a dralkosh, he was faced with an enormous disaster. Since Yen Olass – a dralkosh! – had comforted him when he wondered if he should put his wife to death, that meant his wife must be a dralkosh too. And his son? The child of a dralkosh…
Yen Olass gave up in the end, and left him. She looked in on the wine cellar, and located Hearst's precious cask of Carvel Squen, which was still nine parts full. She summoned two soliders and pointed them at it.
'Morgan Hearst has commanded you to take that cask of wine and share it amongst your comrades. So take it – then come back and take this one as well.’
They were good soldiers – the best. They obeyed without question.
Morgan Hearst was woken in the middle of the night when a brawl broke out amongst his roistering soliders. He was enraged to find his men all drunk, and his fury was not mollified when they toasted him when he appeared on the scene. And his anger when he found Yen Olass had escaped would not bear description.
By dawn, scouting parties were spreading out all over Carawell, searching for the missing woman and her child. But it was not until noon that Hearst got his first news of the fugitives. A fishing smack was reported wrecked on the Dungon Banks, two leagues offshore.
Hearst mounted a rescue mission, taking a longboat crewed by experienced sailors out to the Dungon Banks. He found the boat wrecked beyond repair. Yen Olass was sitting on deck filing her nails, which, though they were steel, still grew, and needed to be kept in order. Monogail was playing on an exposed sandbank, making sand castles.
Hearst saw at a glance that the fishing smack would be impossible to salvage. In the interests of public relations – the islanders could make very dangerous enemies – he would have to pay the owner full compensation.
'You,' said Hearst to Yen Olass, as he took her aboard, 'are staying under close arrest until we leave.’
'And when is that?' said Yen Olass.
'As soon as possible!' said Hearst. 'Before you organize my head onto a platter or something.’
'I've thought about it,' said Yen Olass. 'It wouldn't be impossible.’
He hoped she was only joking.