At this they all gave various cries of encouragement and enthusiasm and went on along the upper level towards the dining room, leaving me face-to-face with Ted Mallory, who must have been at the back of the crowd.
“I see you’ve made the acquaintance of my esteemed brother-in-law,” Mallory said. “Nasty bit of work, isn’t he?” I nodded. He said judiciously, “But I very much liked what you just said to him. You wouldn’t think of letting me have a copy of it, would you? It would fit in perfectly with the thing I’m writing at the moment.”
I thought of Maree, and the wobbly windows. I felt I owed it to Maree to say, “What I just said was a very powerful geas – but you don’t believe that, do you?”
He gave a great jovial laugh. “My dear fellow! I’m a rational man! I may write some pretty strange stuff, but it stops there, you know, stops there.”
“A geas,” I said, “is a magical prohibition.”
Mallory looked at me expectantly for a second. “I know that,” he said. “I know my trade. Well, if you won’t give me a copy, I dare say I can do it from memory.”
I gave up on him and watched him stroll away to breakfast. He was worse than Odile.
After that, I simply could not face going that way myself. I found the staff door behind one of the mirrors and went off by back corridors to the staff car park. I felt awful. By the time I reached my poor battered car, I was shaking all over and could hardly get the door open.
Inside, the gentle tinkle of Scarlatti faded out. Stan said, “What’s up now, lad?”
“Reaction,” I said. “I think.” I flopped into the driver’s seat and told him.
“Oh dear,” he said. “Oh dear. It doesn’t get any better, does it? I’m sorry about that girl. And that centaur lad. But on the bright side, if the Upper Room do Intend this Gram White for the next Koryfonic Emperor, at least you stopped him from being an Emperor Mage. They’re always bad news. Though he sounds as if he’d be bad enough as just plain Joe Emperor, this one. Talking of which, your phone keeps going. I think Dakros wants you.”
“I’m sure he does,” I said. “I’d better get it over with.” I got through to Dakros, still without the least idea what I was going to say to him. “Venables here,” I said.
“Ah. Magid,” he said. “I was just going to call you again. Half a second while I secure my cubby.” He was evidently aboard one of the troop carriers. I could tell by the machinery noise and the distant military voices in the background. These were abruptly cut off. “There,” he said. “Are you secure for serious stuff your end?”
“Yes,” I said. “Look—”
“Good,” he said. “Now, listen to me, Magid. We finally found that young centaur. Nice naïve fifteen-year-old, name of Kristefos, scared witless and hiding in a stack of vine props. Alexandra, Jeffros and I have had a long talk with him.”
“I am extremely relieved to hear that,” I said. “Is he wounded?”
“No,” said Dakros, “and you might well be relieved, Magid. If it wasn’t for that centaur’s evidence, I’d have no means of knowing you weren’t up there in that colony entirely on your own.”
“What?” I said. “Now look here…!”
“As it is,” Dakros pursued, “I have Kristefos to say that the Lesser Consort Jaleila – whom we all thought was dead – and Gramas Albek were up there too, and the evidence of a hover crew that these two were pursuing Kristefos in an Earth vehicle. At least, we’re fairly clear from the timing that it was those two and not the pair I found you with in the lane. So the most I’m going to accuse you of, Magid, is of holding out on me.”
“Now look—” I tried again.
“Holding out on me,” repeated Dakros. “Concealing evidence, if you like. Now I respect Magids and Magid laws, and I do know there is precious little a Magid can do if a thing is Intended. But I have an empire to settle, Magid, and I don’t care if a thing is Intended or not.”
“I don’t follow you,” I said hopelessly.
“You will,” Dakros told me, “when I tell you that Jeffros, who is no one’s fool, spent nearly an hour yesterday with those youngsters who came with you—”
“They didn’t come with me!” I managed to protest. “I didn’t know they were there. They were fetched by Knarros – at least Maree was—”
“Ah,” said Dakros. “You didn’t say that yesterday, Magid. You let me believe they were with you. And the other thing I have to tell you is that those two girls left alive up there – well, forget them. Blood tests and so forth show they can’t possibly be related to the Emperor and Kristefos claims they were simply servants for the little girl.”
“I’d sort of expected that,” I muttered.
“Sure you had,” agreed Dakros, “because you knew, and I didn’t, that when I was standing in that hedge talking to you, the youngster I was looking down on was Nichothodes, our next Emperor.”
Now the fat was in the fire. “I didn’t know. I only suspected,” I said.
“And made sure I didn’t,” Dakros replied. “Well, Magid, I’ve had enough of this. I want two things of you, and I want them today. First I want Nichothodes, handed over, in one piece, ready for coronation. Second, I want Gramos and Jaleila Albek handed over, also in one piece, ready for justice. I give you until dinnertime, Magid. By dinnertime today, you give me these three people, regardless of what’s Intended or what isn’t, or I take serious action. Is that understood, Magid?”
“Yes,” I said limply. He rang off. I sat staring at the phone, thinking that I supposed I should be grateful that Dakros was not accusing me of murder. He had obviously thought about it. Finally, I said, “Stan, when the hell do they eat dinner in the Empire?”