On a ship in the harbour of Brennan on the island of Carawell in the archipelago known as the Lesser Teeth, the oracle Yen Olass Ampadara said goodbye to her child Monogail, who was given over to the care of a young Rovac warrior by the name of Altol Stokpol. The warrior was scarcely twenty years old, and to Yen Olass he looked like a boy. His wife was even younger; Yen Olass had briefed her successfully on the care of frogs and fish, but had found it difficult to convey the niceties of the feeding, grooming and sleeping habits of the ghosts of long-departed dragons. Yen Olass could only hope that Monogail would be all right.
The ship slipped out of the harbour that evening, and sailed south by night. Very shortly – in three or four days at the most – they would be landing at Iglis. Yen Olass would once more find herself under the jurisdiction of the Collosnon Empire. She remembered precisely what that empire had done to her. She suffered nightmares in which the coarse breath of men oppressed her, in which a knife cut away her flesh, in which a needle stabbed at her privacy – and, waking from those nightmares, she knew them as memories.
The ship they sailed on was a big-bellied merchantman. There was a stateroom in the stern, which was reserved for Yen Olass, so she could prepare herself in the little time which was available to them. The day after they left Brennan, the warrior Watashi came to the stateroom and found Yen Olass dressed in white silk, her face veiled. She was positioning Indicators on a Casting Board, muttering to herself as she did so; a copy of the Book of the Sisterhood lay open beside her.
As the door swung open on its leather hinges, Yen Olass looked up. She drew herself up to her full height, and demanded, in a clear and penetrating voice:
'Who is it who intrudes upon the Silent One?’
'What?' said Watashi, who did not understand, because Yen Olass had addressed him in Eparget, the ruling language of the far-distant city of Gendormargensis.
Yen Olass rephrased the question in the Galish Trading Tongue.
'You know who I am,' said Watashi easily.
'I know you as a barbarian from beyond the Pale,' said Yen Olass, still practising the grand manner of the Silent One.
The Silent One is silent only in that she does not give readings; otherwise, her voice is a formidable weapon. Apart from the need for practice, Yen Olass was genuinely curious to know who Watashi was. They had been introduced, but in the confusion of plotting, scheming, arguments, child-care arrangements, briefings and conspiracies, Yen Olass had entirely forgotten who he was.
'I am Watashi,' said Watashi, matching her own grand manner. 'Son of Farfalla the kingmaker, ruler of the Harvest Plains. In my own right, I am master of the island of Stokos, which is mine by right of conquest. I am a companion of the quest-hero Morgan Hastsword Hearst, dragonbane; I have fought by his side, matching my sword against his enemies.’
'Then hear me, Watashi, son of Farfalla. Know that you stand in the presence of the Silent One of the Sisterhood; make reverence accordingly.’
Watashi laughed.
'For a slave girl, you've got quite a way with the language,' he said.
'Whom are you addressing?' said Yen Olass, in a voice that would have frosted dragon-flame at fifty paces.
'The slave I see before me,' said Watashi, who did not appreciate his danger.
'An oracle is a pivot,' said Yen Olass. 'The turning point of the destinies of lives and nations.’
'Pivot?' said Watashi, querying the Eparget word she had used for want of any equivalent in Galish. 'What kind of sex toy is that?’
'One that castrates the unwary,' said Yen Olass.
'Then perhaps I should have worn my armour,' said Watashi, amused by the way in which Hearst's slave girl felt so free to contend with him.
'You are not amusing me,' said Yen Olass.
'It is not my function to amuse you,' said Watashi, now annoyed at her pretensions.
Reaching out, he lifted the veil from her face. He kissed her, pressing his lips against hers, grappling with her when she resisted. This was a mistake, as he soon found out. However, by the time he recovered consciousness, Yen Olass was ready to forgive him; she poured him a cup of wine, and, now that he had learnt a measure of respect, they talked as equals.
For hours, as the ship sailed south, Yen Olass quizzed Watashi about his recent history. She had heard one story from Morgan Hearst, but she wanted to know whether she had been told the truth. Watashi confirmed the outline of the tale she had been told, and filled in some of the details for her.
Alarmed by the incursions of the Swarms, the Lord Emperor Celadric had ordered his brothers to secure the western coast of Argan. Knowing this task was beyond their combined military strength, Meddon and York had dragged their heels. Urged on by his military advisors Chonjara and Saquarius, the lame-brained Exedrist had declared his brothers traitors, and had attempted to have them executed. Saquarius had bungled the job, which had cost him his life – his had been a brief and inglorious career, from deserter to fighting soldier to general to the gallows – and in the subsequent brief civil war in Trest and Estar, Exedrist had been killed and Chonjara imprisoned.
Celadric, investigating, had discovered that the Swarms were stronger than his advisors had previously let him know. Realizing that Meddon and York were right in refusing to commit their forces against the full strength of the Swarms, Celadric had sought allies, travelling south in force to Stokos. There, as a seasoned and skilful diplomat bearing gifts and peace treaties, he had been welcomed; the Swarms had been making local incursions across the sea to Stokos, and Watashi was ready to commit himself to a joint operation to recover the west of Argan.
To celebrate the new alliance, Celadric planned to remove the heads of his two dangerous brothers, and place Watashi in command of all forces in Argan. The armies of the Collosnon Empire, drawn from many foreign parts and united only by their common knowledge of the command language Ordhar, would have no difficulty in accepting a stranger as commander.
Celadric and Watashi had travelled north from Stokos on the same ship, bound for Estar. However, a storm had scattered their convoy, leaving them without an escort; the pirates of the Greater Teeth had fallen upon their single ship and had taken them prisoner.
Draven, lord of the Greater Teeth, had sent word to Meddon and York in Estar. If they wanted to see Celadric alive, they would have to hand over a ransom – gold, silver, warm wool and a woman. The woman was the Princess Quenerain, previously a mistress to the General Chonjara.
Before a reply could come from Estar, Celadric had suborned some of Draven's men with promises of power and money. With that help, the prisoners had broken out of their holding cells; they had fought their way to the pirate harbour; under the command of Watashi, the survivors had escaped to sea.
'But Celadric…’
'He died?’
T don't know. I hope not. We were separated when it was sword to sword. After that, I didn't see him any more.’
'What about the Silent One?’
'Everglen Tamara? She got herself killed. An arrow. Through the back and out through the front. You won't be seeing her any more, I'm afraid.’
'I never knew her, at least not on a personal basis,' said Yen Olass.
The words she used for 'personal basis' were the Galish words 'ken shen lokday', literally 'bargain-making level'. Watashi continued with his story.
With pirate vessels in hot pursuit, the escapers had run north, thinking to lose the enemy in amongst the shoals and shallows of the Lesser Teeth. They had succeeded in doing precisely that. They had also succeeded in wrecking their ship on a sandbar. Once ashore, they were swiftly rounded up by men under the command of Morgan Hearst.
Now Hearst was risking his life – and theirs – in an attempt to finesse control of the west of Argan. Their party, ostensibly led by Watashi, was going to land at Iglis and claim the ransom for Celadric, stating that the Lord Emperor was now held prisoner on the Lesser Teeth.
Once in possession of the ransom, Hearst intended to barter with Draven for Celadric's life. And once in possession of the emperor, he intended to negotiate an agreement with that worthy which would give him, Morgan Hearst, title to at least the west of Argan – preferably all of it – and command of all the imperial forces on Argan.
The plan was, to put it mildly, hair-raising. So many things could go wrong. What if Meddon and York decided that they would prefer their brother Celadric dead? What if Draven attempted to take the ransom by main force rather than exchange? What if Celadric subsequently reneged on any arrangements made under duress, and made it his business to eliminate Morgan Hearst and his entourage? What if Watashi… well, there was a simple way to find out about Watashi.
'Don't you feel cheated?' said Yen Olass. 'Hearst is trying to take what was going to be yours – command of the west.’
Watashi grinned, denied nothing.
'I've sworn an oath to support him until he gets Celadric in his power,' said Watashi. 'After that, there'll be plenty of time later for a trial of strength.’
When their interview was at an end, Yen Olass sent Watashi away with orders to fetch Eldegen Terzanagel. The text-master entered the stateroom looking old – Yen Olass had a hazy notion that he was now a bit over sixty-five – and weatherbeaten. And rather ill. Yen Olass realized he was feeling seasick. She had been too busy to pay much attention to the motion of the ship, but she realized they were lubbering through the waves in a way which might well disconcert those with weak stomachs. 'Sit,' said Yen Olass curtly.
She felt a little thrill of power as Terzanagel sat. She remembered those years long ago, when she had been brought to Gendormargensis in chains and he had purchased her at auction. And had then tried to rape her. She had resisted, biting him – she wondered if he still had the scars. While he tried to think what to do with her, she had been kept locked up in a pitch-black cellar with only rats for company. In those hours of terror and darkness, she had sworn that she would kill him, slowly, if he ever came into her power.
Now she had the opportunity. Terzanagel was expendable; she was sure Morgan Hearst would not object if she wanted to have the old man skinned alive. She could do the job herself, with a small, sharp knife. She could castrate him first…
'It's been a long time,' said Terzangagel, speaking in Eparget.
Hearing that familiar voice once more, hearing that familiar language, Yen Olass suffered unexpected pangs of homesickness. Terzanagel was her one and only link to so much which had once been dear to her. It all came back to her with a rush: her room in tooth 44 in Moon Stallion Strait, her humble little corner table in the Canoozerie, her balcony seat in the Hall of Heavenly Music, her horse Snut, her cat Lefrey, her dreamquilt and her seven-stringed klon.
'It has been a long time,' said Yen Olass.
Tears started at her eyes as, with a shock, she realized how often and how totally she had been displaced, suffering the loss of an entire way of life. She had been a child in her homeland of Monogail, a slave in Gendormargensis, a translator with an imperial army of invasion, a refugee in Penvash, a pioneer by Lake Armansis, an amber hunter in the Lesser Teeth – and now she was launched on her most dangerous venture yet, impersonating the Silent One of the Sisterhood.
Her veil hid her tears.
She wondered if Terzanagel was a potential traitor. No. He had broken imperial law by leaving the continent of Tameran, without permission; for that breach of law, his fellow text-masters would arrange his death no matter what pardons he obtained from any other quarter. Terzanagel had placed himself outside the protection of imperial law; he was committed to their own cause.
T never thought to see you again,' said Terzanagel.
'Or me you,' said Yen Olass, 'Tell me, what happened to Nuana Nanalako. Tell me all about it. Leave nothing out.’
So Eldegen Terzanagel told the story of how he and Nuana had left Tameran, departing from Port Domax on a voyage south which was supposed to take them, eventually, to the Stepping Stone Islands, where he had planned to complete his researches into the life and works of that greatest of all poets of antiquity, Saba Yavendar.
He spun her a lurid tale of piracy, shipwreck, mountain treks, dragons, nomad tribes, imprisonment, escape, capture, torture and slavery. Having lived through so many incredible events herself, Yen Olass could hardly doubt him. Terzanagel had last seen Nuana in Havanar a Asral, a seaport on the island of Asral in the Ocean of Cambria, east of the Inner Waters. She had been sold to a ship owner; he had been sold to a visiting wizard, who, delighted at his command of the High Speech of wizards, had employed him as a scribe.
When the Swarms breached the defences of the Great Dyke, Drangsturm, and started their invasion of the lands to the north, the wizards had retreated from the castles they had occupied near Drangsturm. In the company of his master, Eldegen Terzanagel had fled to the Harvest Plains; on the journey, his master had died of cholera.
After many vicissitides, Terzanagel had finished up on Stokos in the court of Lord Watashi, working as a scribe and translator.
'And now,' said Terzanagel, winding up his long and weary talc, 'they want me on this adventure as a pair of eyes and ears. And you… if I may be so bold as to ask?’
'The same,' said Yen Olass. 'This interview is now terminated.’
It was fear which made her conclude their meeting so abruptly. She disliked talking about what she had to do. As the Silent One, she could review the readings of every oracle she could have brought before her. Now that Trest and Estar were established provinces of the empire, they had their usual complement of oracles. Few of these would have seen the Silent One in years, and none would have been personally acquainted with her – but any one of these intelligent young women might discover a mistake which would betray Yen Olass as an imposter.
And then?
Yen Olass could only imagine the kind of punishment which might befall a slave who impersonated the Silent One. If she got off lightly, they might let rats eat her breasts, then take her out and burn her alive. On the other hand, if they decided to be vindictive…
Pushing such thoughts out of her mind, she turned her attention once more to the Indicators, the Casting Board and the Book of the Sisterhood, struggling to master delicacies of technique and interpretation which had once been second nature to her. It had indeed been a long time.
That evening, Yen Olass slept alone for the second night in succession. She found it hard to get to sleep in her lonely bed. She yearned for Monogail. That, indeed, was part of the reason why she had filled her day with so much talk and work – it helped take her mind off the pain of separation.