«That was a letter to Prince Durouman.»
«I thought he was a count.»
«Indeed, he is that, among the nobility of the Kingdom of Nullar. But he is by right a prince, for he is the true heir to the throne of Saram.»
«He is of the house that Kul-Nam's grandfather overthrew?»
«Yes. He is the great-grandson of the emperor who perished. The kings of Nullar have been good to the exiles over the past century, for they have no great love for the usurpers of Saram. At the same time, they have been cautious. They have given the exiles titles and honor, wealth and positions of trust. They have never been willing to aid them in an attempt to return to their rightful place upon the throne of the Empire.»
«That is not unwise of them. The attempt might fail, with nothing to show for it but another war with the Empire.»
«That is true. Or rather, it has been true. What you have told me and what I have heard from others suggests that times are different now. As Kul-Nam grows more and more bloodthirsty in gripping his power, he will put more and more people in fear of him. In the end he will weaken that which he seeks to strengthen.»
«So you think it is time for Prince Durouman to strike?»
«It is time for him to know all that I have learned and to consider what he should do. I will ask for your help in speaking to him.»
«You think he is so much better than Kul-Nam that it is worth a civil war to place him on the throne of Saram?»
«I do. I would ask you to take my word for it, but you are not a man to do that.»
«I am not. I gather you have summoned him here?»
«Yes. I do not know when he will come, for he must come alone and secretly. He is negotiating a marriage with the king's daughter, Princess Varra, and he will be careful to do nothing to endanger it. But he will come, sooner or later.»
«That is good,» said Blade. He reached out a hand and stroked her hair, then her cheek. «We have time for ourselves, then.»
«We do,» she said with a smile. Her own hand reached out and stroked Blade intimately. Her other hand moved under the pillow and drew out the letter, then placed it on the floor beside the couch.
«So that it won't get wrinkled,» she said, and turned to him.
Chapter 19
The letter to Prince Durouman could not go off for several days. After it was sent, nothing Blade or Princess Tarassa could do would bring Prince Durouman to them any faster. So they put him out of their minds and turned to the work at hand.
Blade quickly understood why Princess Tarassa's subjects respected her and were willing to bear the expense of her little pleasure palace and her other indulgences. Out of every ten waking hours, she devoted nine to the work of ruling Parine and only one to her personal affairs and pleasures. When she was not at her desk reading or dictating state papers, she was in her audience chamber hearing complaints, dealing out a brisk but even-handed justice, presenting or receiving gifts. When she was in neither of those places, she was in the saddle crossing and recrossing the island. Once she even boarded one of Parine's few galleys and spent an exhausting and uncomfortable week touring the other eight islands that made up the principality.
The only thing she did for her own pleasure was to move her household from the marble palace to the Prince's Suite in the main castle overlooking the harbor. That way, Blade could more easily keep an eye on his ship and still spend each night with her. Even that meant giving up the luxury of the palace for a sparsely furnished, dank, and generally grim suite of cramped rooms at the top of the castle keep.
Blade had no real work after the first few days. The workers of Parine's modest shipyard knew their business, their tools were good, and their backs were strong. As the days went by, Blade realized that by hovering over the workers he could do nothing except annoy them and probably slow down their labor. His ship was in the best possible hands.
The galley's crew was just as well off. Word rapidly got around the town and the island beyond it who these men were and what they'd done. They found themselves greeted as heroes of a battle against the pirates, who were cordially hated in Parine, and victims of the tyranny of Kul-Nam, who was hardly more popular. They were wined, they were dined, they found all the women the loneliest sailor could hope for, and they seldom had to pay for anything.
Blade had been worried that his crew might be jealous of his relationship with the princess. Instead, he occasionally found himself being almost jealous of his sailors. On an average day they saw a good deal more of their girls than he saw of Princess Tarassa. Their girls did not have to work twelve hours a day ruling Parine!
Blade found himself spending many hours of his free time talking war and politics with the commandant of the castle. The commandant was the first of the four officers who'd visited Kukon upon her arrival. When he was not putting on an act, he was a sensible enough man, well educated and obviously a competent soldier. He came from one of Parine's oldest families-in fact, from one older than Princess Tarassa's own.
«Three hundred years ago we had as strong a claim to the principality as her forefathers,» he said. «As little as a century ago the prince had to cast two of our house from the West Cape cliffs for plotting against him. But those days are long past, and no one wishes our princess anything but prosperity and happiness, and her son after her. What the gods send to them, they send to us also.»
«To Princess Tarassa!» said Blade, raising his cup, and they drank.
Two days after that, news reached Parine that made everyone start, and sent cold chills up and down the spines of those who understood what the news meant.
A pirate galley had been caught in a squall off the north coast of the island, driven ashore, and wrecked. Half the crew perished in the surf, but the other half made it to shore and were promptly rounded up by the local farmers and fishermen and a force of soldiers under Tarassa's personal command. The prisoners talked so freely that there was no hope of concealing the news that they brought.
A force of Steppemen had ridden out of nowhere and camped along the western shore of the Emerald Sea, just north of the Strait of Nongai. They made no hostile move against the tribes there, but sent word of their coming to the pirates of the islands. The pirates sent back an armed mission, to find out what the Steppemen were doing so far from home and what they might want.
It turned out that they wanted an alliance with the pirates against the Empire of Saram. They would move south along the coast toward the northern border of the Empire. As they went, they would drive out the local people and permit the pirates to set up bases in the harbors there. Then the pirates could raid the coast of the Empire as they had never done before. The Steppemen would sail aboard the pirate ships, to strengthen the landing parties. The Empire of Saram would be caught between attacks from the sea and attacks from the land and crushed like an eggshell.
Details didn't matter. All the pirates told so nearly the same story that it was obviously true. It was also just as obviously grim news.
«Such an alliance would indeed be a terrible danger for the Empire,» said Tarassa. «Even if the Steppemen are on the northern border of Saram, they could not easily get through the mountains.
«But aboard ships of the pirates they would not have that problem. The pirates have seldom raided the coasts of Saram with much effect. They do not greatly care to fight on land to begin with, and if they land they cannot ride. So they cannot go far from the coasts or escape from the Emperor's cavalry.