“My pleasure, Highness,” answered Dakros. “I’m very glad to see you restored to health. We’ve a troop carrier waiting to escort you both back to your rightful home. Prince Nichothodes, you are aware, are you, that you will shortly be crowned Emperor?”
“All right. If that’s what you want,” Nick said.
Oh well, I thought. I suppose this is what had to happen. Nick, for a moment, almost had me fooled. Then I remembered the smoothness with which he had three times ducked out and evaded Janine, and I realised that he intended to do it again. From the Empire this time. It was his placid, agreeable manner that gave it away. Goodness knew what he meant to do. Probably he did not know himself how he would manage it yet. But, somehow, I knew that when it came to the coronation of the new Emperor, Nick was going to be missing. The way Maree came and gripped my arm warningly only confirmed it. Maree knew too.
I risked a major row with Maree. I shook her hand off my arm. “You just can’t do that!” I said to Nick.
“I realise you don’t think he’s Intended to be our Emperor,” Dakros said, misunderstanding me, “but he’s the only male heir I’ve got, Magid, and I’m damn well going to get him crowned!”
“I don’t think my brother meant that,” Will said. “Did he, Nick?”
“Didn’t he?” Nick said guilelessly.
“It takes one to catch one,” Will said. “When Rupert was your age, we used to call him Houdini.”
“I don’t follow—” Dakros was beginning, rather irritably, when two things interrupted him, almost simultaneously. From across the hall came the snarl and flare of a beam-gun – aimed, I think, in the air as a threat – and some shouting. Soldiers were dragging a struggling robed figure out from under the chairs there. Dakros had scarcely time for an “Ah!” of satisfaction before he found himself confronted with Ted Mallory.
“You!” said Mallory. He was still pale, but firm and angry. “Yes, you, sir! What do you mean by shooting my wife?”
“It was necessary,” Dakros said.
“That’s a bare-faced admission of murder, if ever I heard one!” Mallory said.
“The woman was a murderess,” Dakros explained, “and a sorceress.”
“I bear witness to that,” I said.
Ted Mallory stared at us both, blankly. I was wondering what else one could say, when Maree seized her uncle by his arm. “You do know!” she said. “Come on, Uncle Ted. You didn’t even like her! Admit what you saw her do. Admit it, just for once in your life, Uncle Ted! Come on.”
Mallory looked down at her. “Admit to…” he said. “Oh all right. I do admit I thought I saw Janine as a most unpleasant – she was part of a most unpleasant sort of bush, I think.”
“Bravo!” said Maree. “Well done, Uncle Ted. Nick, you’re going to have to look after him rather after this.”
“I can’t if I’ve got to be this emperor, can I?” Nick said hopelessly.
“Take him with you, I meant,” said Maree.
“He’d go mad,” Nick said.
I was inclined to agree with Nick, and I was again wondering what I could say, when the soldiers arrived with their struggling prisoner. His beard was jutting. His robe was half off and being used to wrap his arms in by his captors, and he was yapping, “I tell you I am not Gram White! You have no business laying hands on me! Let me go this instant! I am an eminent writer!” I must say I was glad to see Mervin Thurless having a bad time, even though it was evident that Gram White had done a quick substitution as a prelude to a quick bunk.
Will and I exchanged looks. With those troops guarding the doors, White had to be in the hall still. He must have done the classic thing and hidden himself among the other people dressed just like him. We set off at a run towards the nearest grey huddle. Thurless screamed after us, “Stop those two! Stop them, I tell you! They are trying to rule the world!”
There were disarranged chairs and frightened people all over the place. Will and I had only made it as far as the central aisle when a trumpet pealed out from behind us. It was a strong fanfare, incredibly loud, and joyous, and ceremonial. It meant something. It heralded things. We spun round. Everyone did, people of Earth and troops of Koryfos alike. Every one of us stared.
The trumpeter was Rob.
He was alive after all – or more than alive: triumphantly and vibrantly alive. He had that same glow to his eyes and his coat that I had seen in my quacks when they returned, and that poise to his body, full of life and health. More than that, he gave you that sense that
he was now filling his true outlines, the same way as Maree and even Nick now did. Rob’s outlines were unequivocally the outlines of a prince. His mass of black hair was formally tied back. He had on a royal-blue uniform coat, braided with gold, evidently borrowed from someone in the élite troops, and it sat on him like a royal robe. He looked magnificent. As far as I could see, there was no sign of the wound in his side now.
He finished blowing the fanfare and brought the trumpet smartly down to rest against his right flank. “Silence!” he called out. “Silence for the Emperor Koryfos the Great!”
One forgets what lungs centaurs have. Rob’s ringing shout caused every movement and murmur to stop – except for the irrepressible Kornelius Punt, who was hugging himself and muttering, “A centaur now! A centaur! Now I have really seen it all!”
More soldiers entered the room behind Rob. They wore the uniforms I had always associated with an Empire honour guard, the royal blue and gold of Rob’s jacket, and bore themselves very smartly and formally. I heard one of the troops holding Thurless whisper, “They’re from the Twenty-Ninth! I thought we’d left them holding down Iforion!” They were followed by four splendidly dressed people. Zinka in her green velvet was one. Next to her was Lady Alexandra in full court dress, train, fan, coronet and all, and beside her was Jeffros as a Mage of the Empire in full panoply, and the flared cloak with Infinity shining on it in gold. The fourth was a Magid in ceremonial robes: white damask, fluttering purple bands, everything. Infinity shone on his breast too. Will and I both exclaimed as we recognised our brother Simon.
Following them, the Emperor came in.