[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
ward off the icy breeze. At least, he thought, the bureaucrats kept their
offices warm.
Videssian troops occupied two of the four barracks halls the legionaries had
used in the palace complex; a company of Halogai, newly come from their cold
Page 162
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
northern home, was quartered in the third. The last stood empty, but Scaurus
had no desire to rattle around in it like a pebble inside a huge Yezda drum.
Instead, he took up residence in an empty second-floor room of the
bureaucrats' wing of the compound that held the Grand Courtroom. The
seal-stampers greeted him with wary politeness, recalling his meddling in
business they considered theirs alone.
He worked in a desultory way on the report the Emperor had requested, but it
seemed stale and flat even as he wrote it. He could not attach any importance
to it; in trying to numb himself to the shock of Helvis' leaving him as she
had, he pulled away from the rest of the world as well. He moved in a gray
haze that had nothing to do with the weather.
He did his best to disregard the knock on his door which he kept closed most
of the time but it went on and on. Sighing, he rose from a low chair by the
window and lifted the latch.
Waiting outside, beringed hands on hips, was a plump, smooth-cheeked man of
uncertain age, clad in a robe of saffron silk shot through with green
embroidery one of the eunuchs who served the Videssian Emperors as
chamberlains. "Took you long enough," he sniffed, giving Marcus the smallest
bow protocol allowed. He went on, "You are bidden to attend his Imperial
Majesty this evening in his private chambers at the beginning of the second
hour of the night." The Videssians, like the Romans, divided day and night
into twelve hours each, beginning respectively at dawn and sunset.
Marcus started; Thorisin had ignored him in the week since the officers'
council. He asked the chamberlain, "Does he expect my account of the western
campaign? I'm afraid it's not quite done." Only he knew how much an
understatement that was.
The eunuch's shrug set his puddingy jowls shaking. "I know nothing of such
things, only that an attendant will come to lead you thither at the hour I
named. And I hope," he added, putting Scaurus in his place, "you will be
prompter in greeting him than you were for me." He turned his back on the
tribune and waddled away.
The attendant proved to be another eunuch, somewhat less splendidly robed than
his predecessor. He started shivering as soon as he stepped from the
well-heated wing of the Grand Courtroom into the keen night breeze. Scaurus
knew a moment of sympathy. He himself wore trousers, as most Vides-sians did
when not performing some ceremonial function. He did not miss his Roman toga;
the Empire's winters demanded warmth.
The cherry trees surrounding the imperial family's personal quarters sent bare
branches reaching skeletal fingers into the sky no fragrant blooms at this
season of the year. A squad of Halogai stood guard at the doorway, their
two-handed axes at the ready. In fur robes of otter and white bear and fox and
snow leopard over gilded cuirasses, the big blond men seemed perfectly at
ease. And why not, the tribune thought they were used to worse weather than
this. They eyed him curiously; he looked as much like one of them as like an
imperial. They discussed him in their own guttural language as the chamberlain
led him by; he caught the word "Namdalen" spoken in a questioning tone.
The entrance hall still showed scars from the fighting this past spring, when
Baanes Onomagoulos had slipped a murder-squad into the city to try to do away
with Thorisin. The legionaries, opportunely returning from a practice march,
had foiled that. Scaurus glanced at a portrait of the great conquering Emperor
Laskaris, now seven and a half centuries dead. As always, the tribune thought
Laskaris looked more like a veteran underofficer than Avtokrator of the
Videssians, but now a bloodstain marred the lower left quadrant of his image,
and sword strokes had chipped at the hunting scenes of the floor mosaics over
which the tribune walked.
The chamberlain paused. "Wait here. I will announce you."
"Of course." As the eunuch bustled down the passage, Marcus leaned against a
wall and studied the alabaster ceiling panels. They were dark now, of course,
but the translucent stones were cut so thin that during the day they lit the
hall with a pale, shifting, pearly light.
Page 163 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl fopke.keep.pl
ward off the icy breeze. At least, he thought, the bureaucrats kept their
offices warm.
Videssian troops occupied two of the four barracks halls the legionaries had
used in the palace complex; a company of Halogai, newly come from their cold
Page 162
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
northern home, was quartered in the third. The last stood empty, but Scaurus
had no desire to rattle around in it like a pebble inside a huge Yezda drum.
Instead, he took up residence in an empty second-floor room of the
bureaucrats' wing of the compound that held the Grand Courtroom. The
seal-stampers greeted him with wary politeness, recalling his meddling in
business they considered theirs alone.
He worked in a desultory way on the report the Emperor had requested, but it
seemed stale and flat even as he wrote it. He could not attach any importance
to it; in trying to numb himself to the shock of Helvis' leaving him as she
had, he pulled away from the rest of the world as well. He moved in a gray
haze that had nothing to do with the weather.
He did his best to disregard the knock on his door which he kept closed most
of the time but it went on and on. Sighing, he rose from a low chair by the
window and lifted the latch.
Waiting outside, beringed hands on hips, was a plump, smooth-cheeked man of
uncertain age, clad in a robe of saffron silk shot through with green
embroidery one of the eunuchs who served the Videssian Emperors as
chamberlains. "Took you long enough," he sniffed, giving Marcus the smallest
bow protocol allowed. He went on, "You are bidden to attend his Imperial
Majesty this evening in his private chambers at the beginning of the second
hour of the night." The Videssians, like the Romans, divided day and night
into twelve hours each, beginning respectively at dawn and sunset.
Marcus started; Thorisin had ignored him in the week since the officers'
council. He asked the chamberlain, "Does he expect my account of the western
campaign? I'm afraid it's not quite done." Only he knew how much an
understatement that was.
The eunuch's shrug set his puddingy jowls shaking. "I know nothing of such
things, only that an attendant will come to lead you thither at the hour I
named. And I hope," he added, putting Scaurus in his place, "you will be
prompter in greeting him than you were for me." He turned his back on the
tribune and waddled away.
The attendant proved to be another eunuch, somewhat less splendidly robed than
his predecessor. He started shivering as soon as he stepped from the
well-heated wing of the Grand Courtroom into the keen night breeze. Scaurus
knew a moment of sympathy. He himself wore trousers, as most Vides-sians did
when not performing some ceremonial function. He did not miss his Roman toga;
the Empire's winters demanded warmth.
The cherry trees surrounding the imperial family's personal quarters sent bare
branches reaching skeletal fingers into the sky no fragrant blooms at this
season of the year. A squad of Halogai stood guard at the doorway, their
two-handed axes at the ready. In fur robes of otter and white bear and fox and
snow leopard over gilded cuirasses, the big blond men seemed perfectly at
ease. And why not, the tribune thought they were used to worse weather than
this. They eyed him curiously; he looked as much like one of them as like an
imperial. They discussed him in their own guttural language as the chamberlain
led him by; he caught the word "Namdalen" spoken in a questioning tone.
The entrance hall still showed scars from the fighting this past spring, when
Baanes Onomagoulos had slipped a murder-squad into the city to try to do away
with Thorisin. The legionaries, opportunely returning from a practice march,
had foiled that. Scaurus glanced at a portrait of the great conquering Emperor
Laskaris, now seven and a half centuries dead. As always, the tribune thought
Laskaris looked more like a veteran underofficer than Avtokrator of the
Videssians, but now a bloodstain marred the lower left quadrant of his image,
and sword strokes had chipped at the hunting scenes of the floor mosaics over
which the tribune walked.
The chamberlain paused. "Wait here. I will announce you."
"Of course." As the eunuch bustled down the passage, Marcus leaned against a
wall and studied the alabaster ceiling panels. They were dark now, of course,
but the translucent stones were cut so thin that during the day they lit the
hall with a pale, shifting, pearly light.
Page 163 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]