"Dar," Dolanna said seriously.
"Sending that Amazon with him may have saved his life, Dolanna. There's someone out there looking for us, looking for him, and it's someone I don't think we want to cross. That human-" she shuddered. "There was something about him, something about how he looked at me. He was evil, totally and utterly evil. It was almost a pall that hung over him."
"If Tarrin received a similar visitor, it may explain his, activity," Dolanna said. "Threatening Dar would no doubt incite him to violence."
"We'd better talk to him."
"We will, but we must do it later," Dolanna said. "If he was threatened, he may still be angry. Let us let him sleep off his anger. He will be more amenable this afternoon."
"Good point," Sarraya agreed. "Let's go back to Renoit's. I'm starving. Share your roll with me?"
"Of course, little one," Dolanna smiled.
The carnival didn't perform that day, but it was a momentous day in its own way.
Tarrin slept most of the morning and afternoon in the performing tent, laying in dark cubby holes, but commotion outside roused him from his slumber and caught his attention. He padded to the entrance curiously, and found the performers lined up away from the tents, literally surrounded by military men wearing burnished steel breastplates and helmets with horsehair crests of black affixed atop them. There was an elaborate carriage nearby, pulled by six black horses, and it was surrounded by guards and men and women wearing extravagant robes of every color imaginable.
Curiosity got the better of him. What was going on? Were the performers being questioned, or arrested? That man said he knew who he was, and he mentioned the circus. Did he send the military men to the pavillion to arrest them? He stalked out of the tent carefully, slinking towards the knot of people, listening intently. Their conversation was light, excited. The military men weren't trying to arrest them, it seemed. They were too happy to be under arrest. So what else was going on?
It didn't take him long to find Allia. He meowed plaintively at her feet to get her attention, and she reached down and picked him up, cradling him in her arm. "What's going on, Allia?" he asked in the unspoken manner of the Cat.
"The Emperor and Empress have come," she replied in a low tone. "They have come to meet the performers."
"Renoit said it may happen," Tarrin said without much more interest. He didn't really care about the rulers of this diseased empire. "Put me down, I'm going back to sleep."
"It is odd that they have come before we mean to perform," she noted critically. "Why come when they can do nothing more than talk? From what I have heard, that is not like this Emperor."
"Who knows? Who cares?" he responded. He was about to tell her to put him down, but the door to the carriage opened, which caused the guards to form up in a protective pair of lines to each side of the carriage, and made the robed people scurry about. When they were in position, a man and woman exited.
Tarrin was not impressed. Emperor Zarthas Arakis, ruler of the largest empire in the world, was a tall, lanky man in his middle years. He had the swarthy skin of an Arakite, but his black hair was streaked with gray at the temples. His face was a bit sunken and his eyes seemed a bit hollow, but Tarrin could tell that it had been a very handsome face when he was a younger man. He wore a very simple robe of deep purple, trimmed with black sable, and held a small gold rod in his left hand. Empress Lika, Zarthas' wife, was a woman slightly more than average height. What set her apart from any Arakite he had ever seen was her flaming red hair, hair that immediately reminded him of Jesmind. It was long, elegantly done up with gold chains woven into it, and it framed a face that looked like a mask of feminine perfection. She had the same swarthy brown skin as all Arakites, but her red eyebrows gave her a very exotic appearance. She was lovely, as lovely as Allia, but with human features beneath that perfect face rather than exotic Selani features. Her body measured up to the promise her face made, full of sleek lines and curves that would make any man's eye follow them. Tarrin took in her beauty, and he again was not impressed. He was usually surrounded by very pretty women most of the time, so the appearance of a woman-especially a human one-couldn't move him as it could a human man. She wore a robe of red, slightly darker than her hair, that gave her coloring an even darker cast than if she were wearing a different color.
Tarrin was surprised at one thing. These were the rulers of the largest, richest kingdom in the world, but they wore no jewelry. No rings, no necklaces that he could see, not even earrings. Their garments were richly made, but they were not extravagant, opulent, as most rich people's clothes tended to be. Were they not surrounded by an army of guards and servants, one wouldn't be able to pick them out of a crowd-well, except for the Empress' red hair. It was strange that the most politically powerful man in the world would be so unassuming.
Perhaps there was more to Zarthas Arakis than he first thought.
Curiosity getting the better of him again, Tarrin settled himself into Allia's arms and watched the procession. The Emperor and Empress greeted Renoit, who bowed to them grandly, and then motioned for them to accompany him to where the performers were lined up. Renoit would introduce each performer by name, who would bow or curtsy, and the Imperial couple would simply nod their heads and move on. The Emperor of Arak did speak when Renoit introduced Camara Tal as an Amazon, however.
"An Amazon?" he asked in a wooden-sounding voice, speaking perfect Sulasian. "Will you demonstrate the sword skills your people are famous for possessing? I do enjoy displays of martial skill."
"I will for you, Your Imperial Majesty," Camara Tal said with eloquent politeness.
"Excellent. I very much look forward to watching your performance, good Renoit. Again you manage to bring such interesting sights to my city."
"I seek only your pleasure, your Imperial Majesty," Renoit said with a flourishing bow.
They moved down the line, until they reached Allia. The Emperor's hollow eyes widened a bit when he looked up into the Selani's face. She was nearly half a head taller than the man, and it again reminded Tarrin how unnaturally tall Allia was compared to human men. "A Selani!" he said before Renoit could introduce her. "You amaze me, Renoit. However did you lure her from the desert?"
"She sought wisdom and experience with humans, your Imperial Majesty," Renoit replied. "I convinced her that she could find such things by seeing many human cultures."
"Amazing, good Renoit," he said appreciatively. "Despite the animosity between Arak and the Selani, I would be very happy if you would perform your famous dance for me, desert flower."
"I will do as you ask, Emperor of Arak," she replied calmly, looking him directly in the eye and not bowing to him. "If it pleases you."
"It will please me greatly," he smiled.
Then he went by. The Empress of Arak was trailing along behind him silently, and she paused to look at Allia while the Emperor was being introduced to Deward. "My, what a cute little cat," she remarked in an odd accent. She moved a little closer, and Tarrin caught her scent.
He had never smelled anything like it before. It turned his stomach, it nearly made him ill. Her scent was the distilled scent of pure and utter corruption, a dark taint of foulness that permeated the air between them. It was horrid, and the very whiff of it filled him with a complete and nearly hysterical need to get away from it. But he was firmly held in Allia's arms, and he was held captive to the instinctual terror that the scent incited within him. This was an inhuman smell. It was an unearthly smell, a scent that did not belong in the natural world. Much as the dark, decaying scent of a Wraith triggered something deep inside him, a reaction to the imbalance of nature's workings, this woman's scent triggered something a thousand times more intense inside him. She was reaching out to pet him, but he would have none of that.