Blade found himself being offered women and girls, men and boys, gold and silver, jewels, spices, wine, drugs, and every other imaginable form of wealth or pleasure. He began to feel like a politician surrounded by all the special-interest groups in the world at once. At times he thought of taking up one or two of the more outrageous offers, just to see if the people would deliver. More often, he began to wonder if he'd made the right choice in calling himself a man from the future. Being dragged into Gohar's religious politics might have been easier and perhaps even safer.
Prince Harkrat visited twice. Those visits were a positive relief to Blade, even though his shoulders and back were bruised and aching afterward from the prince's bear hugs and bear slaps. The prince was happy to talk to Blade as one warrior to another without worrying about what the English would know of him a thousand years from now.
The first time, they talked of nothing but women, wine, and war. Blade gave an edited description of warfare in the twentieth century, and explained that he couldn't tell anymore without breaking the Historians' laws.
«Of course, of course,» said Harkrat cheerfully. «Don't worry about that. We're a long way from knowing the magic needed for those chariots without horses and those ships without rowers or sails. If it isn't known in Gohar it isn't known anywhere in our time. So even if we could build the chariots and ships, we wouldn't need them. Don't worry, Blade. Your English secrets are safe, and you'll have my word on that if anyone argues.»
On the prince's second visit, the talk was more formal, because Harkrat brought his wife Elyana.
«Only one wife, you understand,» Harkrat said. He seemed slightly ashamed, as if Blade might question his virility for not having the six wives Goharan law permitted him. «My father insisted.»
Thrayket was wise. Given free rein, someone as full-blooded as Harkrat might sow enough children across Gohar to hopelessly confuse the succession and breed civil war.
Elyana was tall for a Goharan woman, nearly reaching her husband's shoulder. She was dark, with a plump, almost plain face but a truly magnificent figure draped to advantage in a heavily embroidered robe of silk-like tissue with a pearl-studded belt and sandals. She was also obviously intelligent and alert, with a quick, even sharp tongue-and not held back from using it by her husband. This was something of a surprise to Blade, since even among the highest nobility Goharan women were given little freedom and less education.
Elyana began the conversation with a question about books in Blade's England, and kept things moving after that. Within a few minutes, Harkrat was leaning back in his chair, trying not to look too obviously bored. He had the easily recognizable expression of the husband who knows little and cares less about what his wife is discussing.
With a fine sense of tact and timing, Elyana changed the topic just as her husband showed signs of real impatience. Now both prince and princess talked of the feast they'd give for Blade when the thirty days came to an end.
«Don't know what my father's thinking,» Harkrat said. «I never have, I probably never will. He doesn't talk much. But we'll have the feast no matter what he does. Either we'll welcome you among us, or send you back to England in a good mood. That's all I'm going to do to get on your good side, in spite of what all those other damned fools are offering.»
«You've heard some of the things I've been offered?»
«Of course. I'd have to be deaf not to, considering how some of them have talked, and cursed you for being-whatever you are.»
«Perhaps he's just incorruptible,» said Elyana, smiling.
Harkrat rumbled with laughter. «He's not human if he is.»
«You may be right, but I could hope you're wrong,» she said. «And who knows? Things may be so arranged in England that an honest man can rise high.» She didn't smile as she said this, and both Blade and her husband noticed it. There was a moment's silence, then Harkrat put an affectionate arm around his wife.
«Lovely one, I believe in a lot of things, including-«Here he listed several parts of Elyana's body, so that she blushed and feebly tried to pull away from him. «But not even HemiGohar can make a world where honest men can prosper in a palace. So I'll go on believing that Blade's got something hidden in his boot. I do believe that it's nothing dangerous to us, though. Fair enough?»
«Oh, I agree with you,» said Elyana. Her smile was back, but only Blade noticed that it was pasted on like a fashion model's. Then prince and princess rose, and Elyana held out a hand to Blade. As etiquette required, he kissed his fingertips, then pressed them to the palm of her hand.
«Until we meet again.»
Chapter 8
The next time Blade met Harkrat and Elyana, it was at the banquet held to celebrate the end of his thirty days in seclusion. It also celebrated his welcome to Gohar.
«Naturally you will obey the same laws as any other noble of Gohar,» said the Emperor, when he'd finished giving Blade the news. «Otherwise you may go where you wish, see what you wish, and ask any questions of any man, woman, or child.» He smiled thinly. «I do not promise that you will always get answers, though. The people of Gohar will honor a Historian from the future, but they will not let him into their bedchambers or baths.»
«I doubt if I'll need to go there,» said Blade. «Your Radiance has given me permission to do practically everything necessary.»
Thrayket appeared unmoved by the praise. «Thank me if you must,» he said sourly. «But don't forget to thank my son, and above all thank my son's wife.»
«Elyana?»
«Of course. My son has only one wife, as I'm sure he's told you more times than there are fingers on both our hands! At times I think I would have done better to let him take the lawful six. Elyana is worth two or three ordinary women, but half the time she forgets that she's a woman at all. Ah well,» with a long sigh. «I'll not burden or bore you with tales of an old man's family troubles.»
Blade was quite sure that hearing the secrets of the Imperial family would be neither a burden nor a bore. He was equally sure that it was something he could hardly ask. He stood in silence as Thrayket struggled to his feet and departed.
Was it just his imagination, or did Thrayket look and sound weaker than he had thirty days ago?
The Emperor was not at the feast in Blade's honor, but nearly everyone else who was anyone in Gohar and could reach the City in time appeared. Blade was introduced to most of them, but after a while all the names jumbled together in his mind and, he remembered only those people he'd met before.
Prince Harkrat and Princess Elyana were both draped in flowing robes of the silky tissue, with coronets of silver set with marble-sized pearls on their heads. Princess Elyana's robes covered her from head to foot and drifted around her like smoke.
It turned out that the «silk» of Gohar was the lining of a large clam found in the shallows of the Sea. Blade was reminded of the byssus shell, which provided a similar luxury fabric for the civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean. Blade mentioned this, and he and Elyana fell into a long discussion of silkworm culture and shell diving.
«When I was about fifteen, I got the shell women near my father's estate to take me out diving,» said Elyana. «I slipped out about once a week for nearly three months before my father caught me. I think that was one of the things that told him he'd better find me a husband soon. It was fun, though, and I can still swim better than most men.»
Then the princess saw Captain Nemyet and Degyat, newly promoted to admiral for his victory, approaching together. With a wave of her hand she turned to go, and for a moment she stood silhouetted against a rack of torches. In that moment Blade knew that, however much her robe might cover, she was wearing nothing under it. She held her pose until Blade was sure it was no accident, then vanished.