We sat on a narrow steel bench at the end of it. The bench was designed, I think, to keep a sentry awake. It was certainly darned uncomfortable.
“Waiting room?” I said.
“After a fashion,” said my brother and sprawled his legs, robes and all. Simon is the most restless man I know. He looks more like Will than me, since he is tall and sturdy, but fairer than both of us, with sharp cheekbones. “I wanted to have a word with you first, because I seem to have got pitchforked into a business that ought to be yours.”
“Yes, how did you get mixed up in it?” I said.
“Zinka phoned me in the middle of last night,” Simon said. “And I’d been getting a feeling anyway that you, or Will, were in a bit of trouble. So, as she’d woken me up, I thought I might as well come here and see what I could do. And I was in transit and quite near the Empire when I came across a centaur and somebody who was obviously Koryfos the Great, blundering about a hillside, not quite sure whereabouts in the Empire they needed to go. Things had changed a bit since Koryfos was last there. So I took them in tow and led them along to Iforion and then found myself having to organise the restoration of Koryfos as Emperor.”
“As was Intended,” I said.
“I’m afraid so,” Si said, tossing legs and robes about as he sat. “I need to talk to you because of that. I seem to have got your job with the Koryfonic Empire now. Sorry about that. Koryfos will tell you about how it happened. But there’s no doubt that that’s Intended too. The Upper Room has been in touch. You’ll be getting confirmation from Senior Magid any time now. She’ll be confirming that, and that you’ve selected Maree Mallory as the newest Magid.”
“I hadn’t actually quite—” I began.
“The Upper Room seems quite clear that you have,” said Si. “They say you can sponsor her, but they want her to come to the Empire for now so that I can teach her.”
My stomach sank. “In other words,” I said dismally, “I’m being relieved of all my responsibilities, pending reprimand. Am I suspended for incompetence, or something else?”
“It’s not really like that.” Simon surged to his feet, having sat still for actually slightly longer than he usually did. “You talk to them,” he said, roving around in front of me, “and you’ll see. I think they may even be slightly ashamed of themselves – anyway, they were discussing giving you something slightly easier after this.”
“Like a violently science-ridden world Naywards of here,” I said bitterly.
Simon paused in his roving and tried to pick some of the trim off the doorway of the cubby-hole. It was firmly fixed, so he left it and roved about again. I knew that if he had got it loose he would have played with it for an hour and then tried to weave it into the ceiling grating. I smiled, in spite of my growing depression. It was good to see Si again. “No. Don’t talk nonsense,” he said. “You see, what seems to have gone on is that they were Intending to work the Empire round to the point where all the prophecies said Koryfos would return, and as far as they knew, that meant more or less destroying it first. Koryfos says he doesn’t think that was right, but there you go. The Upper Room do this sometimes. Anyway, Will says and Rob says that you thought they Intended to get the Empire saddled with a boy Emperor and then let it collapse around him. Rob’s sure you worried about that and tried to keep Nick away from Dakros because you were so worried. But in actual fact, Rupert, you were the Upper Room’s boy Emperor yourself. You were the one it was suppose to all fold up around.”
“Thank you very much!” I said.
“Well, you have only been a Magid for just over two years,” Si said. “I think you’ve done damn well, considering you had the Upper Room working against you most of the way. I think it’s only thanks to you encouraging Dakros that there’s still an Empire for Koryfos to rule, frankly.”
“I haven’t done well,” I said. “I can see any world that’s offered me as Magid in charge in future screaming, ‘No! Not R. Venables! Anyone but R. Venables! He lets all those people die! He lets children get their throats cut!’”
“They Intended that,” my brother said. “You know how ruthless they can be. They’re not going to blame you for that, or let it give you a bad name. They’re fair, as well as ruthless. I think they’re really quite pleased with you.”
“So why aren’t they letting me instruct Maree?” I said.
“Oh that’s different.” Simon came and plunged down on to the bench again. “They wouldn’t let me instruct Zinka – Zinka says I just confused her with long explanations anyway. They never let you teach someone you’re married to, and they seem sure you’re likely to marry Maree—”
“Hang on,” I said. “Are you and Zinka married?”
“These last three years,” Si said, grinning merrily. “It’s nice.”
“But—” I said, in some consternation.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “She may draw sexy pictures of alien life forms, but I make damn sure it’s only Art.”
“Sure,” I said, though that was not what I had in mind at all.
Luckily, Will came striding down the corridor just then and fetched up with a clang against the cubby-hole doorway. “Family reunion,” he said. “Wow, that was an interview and a half! Koryfos seems to think I reformed Rob overnight.”
“Well you did shout a few home truths at him,” I said. “Rob needed someone to do it.” I stood up nervously. “Does he want to talk to me yet? Or not?”
“Oh yes,” said Will. “Show him, Si. I’ll wait for you here.”
Simon showed me up the rest of the short passage to a steel door heavily stencilled in red. It slid aside to let me in and slid closed again behind me, shutting me in a big steel box with the almost overwhelming presence of my one-time neighbour.
He was sitting on a bench rather like the one I had just left, but he got up to meet me. “Forgive me keeping you waiting so long, Rupert,” he said. “I wanted to get the other things sorted out so that I could talk to you properly.”
He had somehow contained his kingliness, pushed it down to a more domestic level, but he was still not an ordinary man. You know how thunderclouds produce those shining white towers above the main cloud, full of energy? What he was showing me was like that, a smaller energy pile above the main one. Being in the same room with a thunderhead is a fairly stunning experience.