The Veiled Dragon h-12 Page 10

  The pillars and lintels were carved with a great variety of stylized creatures: birds with tails of flame, tiger-faced jackals, furry imps with long curling tails, and a hundred more. The building's two roofs, as the witch had seen from outside, were covered with scarlet tiles and swept up at the eaves. Every detail was arranged in perfect symmetry and balance, carefully contrived to impart upon the onlooker a complete sense of serenity and con- sonance, as though to imply that the master of the palace could control even the wildest whim of nature.

  Ruha started to follow the Honored One across the courtyard, but suddenly found her path blocked by six guards who had apparently stepped out of nowhere. They were armed and armored as those outside, save that their emotionless gazes were locked on the witch's face.

  Abazm took Ruha's sleeve and gently pulled her back.

  "Please, Mistress, we have not been invited into the palace."

  He pulled the witch toward a pillared gallery that ran along the inner perimeter of the curtain wall, where a long line of stone benches had been provided for the com- fort of those waiting to visit palace residents. Ruha counted more than thirty merchants gathered on the seats. Many wore the billowing tunics and outlandish hats of Sembite merchants, but there were also dwarves in striped burnooses, elves outfitted in their customary leather and green, even a pair ofbare-chested ores dressed in silken knickers and garish stockings. No mat- ter what their costume, they were all holding a coffer similar to the one in Fowler's hands.

  Ruha's heart fell. Abazm had gotten them inside the Ginger Palace as promised, but it was going to be a long time before she could begin her search.

  A few of the merchants called greetings to the dwarf.

  Abazm returned each salutation with artificial warmth and politely introduced his companions as Ruha and

  Fowal'sid of the Mtair Dhafir. Without exception, the dwarf went on to explain that his clients were incense traders from Anauroch, and then suggested a meeting in his shop-no doubt with an eye toward earning a com- mission if anything came of the arrangement. With each introduction, the witch silently cursed Abazm's efficacy, but she forced herself to offer salutations and respond enthusiastically to her guide's efforts. Before she finally reached a vacant bench at the end of the line, Ruha had made three appointments for two days hence-by which time she hoped to have returned the stolen staff to

  Yanseldara and be well on her way back to Storm Silverhand's farm in Shadowdale.

  Fowler remained strangely silent the whole time, pre- ferring to stand behind Ruha with his gaze fixed firmly on the ground. As the witch took her seat, he leaned close to her ear.

  "I told you this plan was a foolish one. I've carried cargo for half a dozen of these fellows."

  Ruha looked back down the line and saw that several merchants were, indeed, staring in their direction. "Then sit down and do not look so suspicious. I am sure you are not the only half-ore they have ever seen. With luck, they will find it difficult to toll you from the others."

  Fowler scowled as though insulted, but sat down with the coffer in his lap and pulled his keffiyeh down his brow. Ruha settled in beside him, and Abazm clambered onto the bench next to her.

  "Not to worry," the dwarf whispered. "I am a favorite of the Princess Wei Dao. She will see that we do not wait more than three or four hours."

  "Four hours?" Ruha gasped. That was half the day, and from what Tombor had said, Vaerana would be able to delay Hsieh's arrival little more than a day. "Is there no faster way?"

  Abazm's bushy eyebrows came together in an exaggerated expression of hurt. "That is fast." He gestured to the long line of merchants. "Of late, Prince Tang has been slow about his business. Some of these men have been waiting three days already!"

  Ruha glanced at Fowler and caught him sneering as though he were going to speak. "Say nothing, Fowal'sid. At least we are inside."

  "Of course we are. Is that not what I promised?"

  Abazm cocked an eyebrow and gazed thoughtfully at Ruha. "But if that is all you wished, there was no need to hire me-as I am sure your friends told you."

  "They said you could arrange a quick audience."

  Ruha looked toward the rear of the courtyard, deciding to use the time to familiarize herself with the palace's layout. She could see only the front part of the com- pound. The back half was sealed off by a pair of winglike ramparts that spread outward from the midpoint of the mansion, where it changed to a two story structure, to meet the walls of the outer curtain. Above these parti- tions showed the tiled roofs of two huge, single storey buildings located near the back of the compound.

  In the front courtyard, where Ruha and the other merchants sat waiting, a narrow, L-shaped building stood in the southeastern corner of the enclosure. The witch con- cluded that this was the sentry barracks, for a steady flow of guards passed through the doors in both directions. A similar building sat in the opposite corner of the courtyard. Save for the two guards posted outside its doors, this structure seemed deserted.

  The witch had barely finished her study before the Honored One emerged from the mansion at the head of a small procession of guards. He led the troop across the courtyard toward Ruha and her companions, drawing an astonished murmur from the pillared gallery. Abazm frowned in puzzlement, but pushed himself off the bench and turned to his clients.

  "It is better than I hoped," he declared. "We will not be required to wait at all."

  Fowler looked far from relieved at this news. "Why all those guards?"

  Abazm shook his head, bewildered. "Because of you two, perhaps. The Shou are not fond of half-men, and they are bound to be suspicious of women who cover their faces."

  The procession stopped before them; then the Honored

  One bowed to Abazm. "Princess Wei Dao asks you into audience hall."

  The dwarf cast a smug look over his shoulder and returned the bow, as did the witch and the captain. The Honored One turned toward the mansion, and the guards closed around Ruha's small company without showing a flicker of suspicion or anxiety. The witch found it strange that, if the Shou were suspicious other and Fowler, they did not bother to take herjambiya or the captain's sword.

  The Honored One led the procession up a marble stair- case and through an open doorway at the far end of the mansion. They passed through a high-ceilinged anteroom so quickly that Ruha barely noticed the stylized frescoes, then entered a long, spacious room hung with silk tapes- tries and floored with the mosaic of a beautiful, flametailed crane.

  In a teak throne at the far end of the room sat a striking Shou woman in a tight, ankle-length dress embroidered with a golden dragon almost as sinuous as she.

  Arrayed around her were a dozen women and half as many men, all watching in expectant silence as Abazm boldly led his clients forward. As the trio drew nearer, Ruha saw that the princess was a woman who believed even more firmly than the Bedine in the power of cosmet- ics. Her painted lips were as glossy and red as the palace's lacquered gates, her eyelids were sapphire blue, and, save for the rouge highlights beneath her round cheekbones, her face was powdered as white as alabaster.

  Only a yellow scarf carefully tied around her throat seemed at all out of place, bunched up as it was around the dress's high collar.

  The Honored One stopped before the throne and bowed, then flourished his hand at Abazm. "The dwarf Abazm, Princess."

  Abazm stopped before Wei Dao's throne and kneeled on the floor, then leaned forward and pressed his fore- head to the wood. Ruha cast a questioning glance at

  Fowler, who scowled at the dwarf's gesture and merely bowed. She did likewise, hoping they were not inadver- tently insulting their hostess.

  If they were, it was impossible to tell. The princess glared at the back ofAbazm's skull as though she wanted to stare a hole through it. The Honored One slipped away from the dwarf, and no one took any notice whatsoever of Ruha or Fowler.

  At last, Abazm could no longer stand the silence. The dwarf cautiously allowed his gaze to creep across
the floor to the princess's feet. "Princess Wei Dao, you honor me with your radiance."

  "Abazm, how surprising that you return so soon to Ginger Palace." The princess fingered the scarf at her neck. "And how fortunate."

  Abazm raised himself so that he was merely kneeling before Wei Dao. "I am your servant, and the servant of the Ginger Palace as well." He twisted around to gesture at his clients, and Ruha glimpsed a bewildered gleam in the dwarf's eyes. "I have brought traders from a distant land-"

  "No! No more foreign powders!" Wei Dao ripped the scarf from her throat, exposing an ugly swath of partially healed skin eruptions. "See effects of your pearl dust?"

  Abazm gasped at the sight of the princess's ravaged complexion. Incoherent, half-voiced explanations regard- ing Lheshaylian sorcerers began to pour from his mouth, and he looked to the Honored One for help. The Shou fixed his gaze on Princess Wei Dao and pretended not to notice.

  "You say, skin shine like moon!" Wei Dao waved a hand toward the sky, gesturing so angrily that the effort car- ried her to her feet. "Skin shine like harvest moon, craters and all!"

  Abazm leapt up, but before he could turn to run, two guards caught him by the arms. They lifted the dwarf into the air and held him before the princess, his feet dangling six inches above the floor.

  "I b-b-beg your forgiveness!" the dwarf cried. "I did not know this would happen! I made my own wife try the powder before I sold it to you!"

  "You give me same powder as dwarf woman?" Wei Dao snarled.

  "Only to see if it was safe, Princess!"

  The princess's eyes narrowed. "Liar-it is not safe!"

  She tied her scarf around her throat and nodded to the guards. "Take deceitful dwarf to tanning vats."

  Ruha cringed at the punishment. It was unlikely that the tubs would be deep enough to drown Abazm but, unless the Shou tanned leather differently than the Bedine, the vats would be filled with harsh fluids and the foulest offal gathered from the pens of dogs and swine.

  The witch knew better than to think she could intercede on the dwarf's behalf, but she would not leave him behind after she recovered Yanseldara's staff.

  As the guards carried him out the door, Abazm jerked one arm free and swung around to face the throne. He glanced briefly at the witch and Fowler, then yelled, "Wait! Spare me. Princess, and I will tell you something you should know!"

  Ruha's stomach grew as heavy as lead. Fowler gnashed his tusks; then the Honored One's panicked voice echoed across the chamber. "Take him away!"

  The guard recaptured Abazm's arm and turned to obey.

  "Wait." The princess leaned forward in her throne, peering past Ruha and Fowler to the dwarf. "Say what I should know, Abazm. Then I decide whether to spare you."

  The Honored One stepped forward, positioning himself squarely in front of Wei Dao. "Frightened dwarf say a- anything, Princess. We cannot b-believe him."

  There was a catch in the Shou's voice-and Ruha thought she knew why. "But you can believe us." The witch bowed to the princess, tugging on Fowler's sleeve so he would do the same. "We have no reason to lie."

  Wei Dao studied the witch and her companion, then asked, "You know what insidious dwarf says?"

  Ruha turned to face Abazm, trying to decide whether it would be wiser to expose the chamberlain's corruption herself, or to restrain herself and hope the treacherous dwarf realized that his best interests now lay in working with her.

  "Do you know what dwarf says?" the princess demanded.

  Ruha fixed her gaze on Abazm and let her hand drift toward herjambiya. Without turning around, she said, "I think I do, yes."

  Abazm swallowed hard, then looked away from Ruha.

  "Most Merciful Princess," the dwarf began. He glanced at the witch's hand, then continued, "Most Compassionate Lady, I beg leave to report that it is necessary to pay your trusted chamberlain in order to secure appointments within the Ginger Palace."

  Ruha sighed behind her veil. She turned to face the princess, fully expecting to be called upon to confirm Abazm's story.

  The chamberlain was already kneeling before Wei Dao's throne, his brow pressed to the floor and his arms stretched out before him. "Compassionate Princess, I beg mercy for my family."

  Wei Dao raised her thinly plucked eyebrows. "Then you acknowledge this crime, Chuang?"

  "I do. My pockets hang heavy with silver." Chuang's muffled voice was barely audible. "It is way of this land, and I am weak. At first, I am surprised and grateful when visitors pay me silver. But soon it is expected, and I do not open gates until-"

  "Enough. You do not lie to me, and I grant mercy to your family." Wei Dao stared at the prone chamberlain until his body began to tremble and great, racking sobs reverberated across the floor. "But you dishonor your ancestors before Mandarins of Heaven, and it is beyond me to ask that they make you welcome."

  "Yes, Princess. I know."

  Wei Dao looked up, then turned to a squat, flat- cheeked man with an unwavering scowl and granite eyes.

  "Please, General Fui."

  Before Ruha realized quite what was happening, the general had drawn a heavy, square-tipped sword from one of the guard's scabbards and stepped to Chuang's side. There was a sharp, wet thunk, and the witch saw just how swiftly and surely death would come if the Shou found her out.

  The general cleaned the blade on the headless cham- berlain's silken robe, then returned the weapon to its owner and stepped back to his place. His face remained as impassive as ever.

  Wei Dao studied the chamberlain's disembodied head for a moment, then seemed to remember herself and looked toward the chamber entrance.

  "Perfidious dwarf is permitted to leave."

  The guards set Abazm down. As soon as the mer- chant's feet touched the floor, he spun on his heel and bowed very low.

  "Your wisdom is more boundless than the sky, Princess!" As he spoke, he was backing out the door.

  "Only Eldath herself is more merciful and forgiving!"

  Wei Dao accepted the tribute with a faintly amused smirk. "You always welcome at Ginger Palace, Abazm. Please to call when berry lip paint is ready."

  Once the dwarf was gone, Wei Dao rose and, stepping around the pool of blood at the base other throne, led her entire entourage across the floor to Ruha and Fowler. She circled them slowly, running her gaze over their robes and studying the witch's veil especially closely, then stopped in front of them.

  Ruha was astounded that Wei Dao's guards would allow their mistress to approach so closely to two armed strangers, a fact that suggested they believed the princess to be perfectly capable of taking care of herself.

  "Abazm says you come to do business with Ginger Palace?"

  "Aye, with Prince Tang," Fowler confirmed.

  Wei Dao's eyes hardened. "Prince Tang is no longer receiving today. Perhaps you come back tomorrow."

  "We're wanting a large cargo, and we're ready to pay now."

  "Tomorrow."

  The princess stepped away without turning her back on her visitors and paid no attention to the coffer in Fowler's hands, even when he shook it to clank the heavy load of coins inside.

  Ruha laid a restraining hand on the captain's arm.

  "That is enough, Fowal'sid."

  The half-ore scowled, but held the coffer steady, and Wei Dao stopped short of turning to leave.

  "We have come to sell as well as buy, Princess," Ruha said. "And you will be more interested in our wares than your husband."

  Out of the corner other eye, Ruha caught Fowler frowning at her unexpected improvisation. She ignored him and lowered a hand to the pocket other aba, asking, "If I may, Princess?"

  Wei Dao nodded, but Fowler, who had seen her draw spell components from those same pockets, cleared his throat.

  "Maybe now's not the time-"

  Ruha whirled sharply on the burly half-ore. "Did I not tell you to be silent, Fowal'sid?"

  Fowler's leathery lip trembled with the impulse to curl into a snarl, but the half-ore forced himself to lower his
gaze and nod respectfully. "You did, Lady."

  When the witch looked back to their hostess, she noticed a glimmer of respect in Wei Dao's otherwise inex- pressive face. Deciding that she had read the princess's character correctly, Ruha reached into a pocket and with- drew two milky tears of hardened tree resin.

  "Have you heard of frankincense or myrrh?"

  Wei Dao examined the droplets closely. "Are they gems?"

  "In a manner of speaking, for they are more valuable than gold. If you can have someone fetch a brazier and afill it with coals, I will show you."

  "Magic is forbidden in my presence."

  "This is not magic." Ruha found it interesting that the jshou considered sorcery a greater threat to the safety of Etheir nobility than they did blades. "The drops will pro- duce a pleasant smoke, nothing more."

  Wei Dao nodded to two men, who promptly left through a door in the rear of the chamber. Fowler continued to stare at the white tears so tensely that Ruha feared he would alarm Wei Dao. The witch stepped closer to her hostess, until their shoulders were almost touching.

  "While we await the brazier, I will tell you more about these wondrous tears." Ruha raised her hand, displaying the milky drops before Wei Dao's eyes. "They are resins, scraped from beneath the bark of certain trees that grow only on the eastern side of the highest mountains in Anauroch."

  "The great desert?" Wei Dao asked.

  "Yes. There, we use frankincense and myrrh to scent the air around stagnant oases. The tears can also be pressed to create perfumes, or mixed with almond oil to create restorative tonics and soothing lotions, or stirred into elixirs to ease the pains of childbirth." Ruha paused to see if this elicited any interest from the princess.

  When it did not, she continued, "They are also good for soothing stinging eyes, earaches-even as a remedy to the bites of certain venomous insects, and as an antidote to some kinds of poison."

  Again, Ruha watched closely to see if the last item of her description drew any special notice from the princess.

  But if Wei Dao had any interest in poisons, it remained concealed with the rest of her thoughts.

  "Is there anything frankincense and myrrh cannot do?" Wei Dao's voice was somewhat incredulous.