15. Damon

15

DAMON

D amon sends a messenger ahead to request an audience with Emperor Selim. A private audience with the Emperor is not something that is easily granted, however Damon has confidence Selim will find the time.

When he dismounts his horse in the Great Imperial Stable Yard of the Rose Palace, he finds one of Vindar's pages waiting for him.

"Master Damon," says the page. "His Imperial Majesty Emperor Selim and his Grace Chancellor Vindar are breaking their fast in the Emperor's private dining room. They request your attendance." The page is young and slender, dressed in the purple robes of Vindar's personal servants.

"Very well," says Damon, grateful Selim is not at prayer for once.

He follows the page through the maze of corridors of the Rose Palace, up a sweeping flight of stairs and to the entrance to the Emperor's private quarters. He is led past the Imperial Guard and through three different opulent parlours and into a dining room with walls and ceiling of carved, gilded marble and a long wide open balcony overlooking the sparkling waters of the Gleam. A small number of servants and guards stand around the edge of the room. Silent and still.

Selim sits at one end of a long table in his usual grey robe. Vindar is at his right hand. A place is laid for Damon on the left. The table is set with the traditional food eaten to close the Feast of Surrus. Dark berries and spice cakes. A strengthening honeyed tea.

Damon bows to Selim.

A noblewoman sits beside Vindar. Tall and red-haired and in a red gown. She sips a cup of the honeyed tea. Damon doesn't recognise her. Selim gestures for Damon to sit, saying, "Ah, my dear nephew, Master Damon, please sit down."

Damon takes his seat. Vindar waves a hand in the direction of the woman. "Do you know Lady Underlia?" Damon shakes his head as Vindar continues. "Her husband is Warden of Pluma-Ferris. My Lady, meet the man who secured your husband's command. Damon Darekul. The One Man Army of Azuria."

The woman extends a pale hand on a slender wrist across the table. "An honour, Master Damon."

Damon takes her hand and stands briefly to kiss it. Up close, he can see she is a little older than she looked at first glance. Closer to Selim and Vindar's ages than to Damon's.

Damon slips back into his seat and says, "I trust the island is still at peace."

A page steps forward and pours Damon some tea from a silver pot.

Lady Underlia says, "The savage Plumians stay in the eastern mountains. The border between our half of the island and theirs is well-guarded. The Ferric Wall is true."

The Ferric Wall, Damon thinks. He may as well have laid the stones for that wall with his own bare hands. The annexation of Pluma-Ferris is a stain on his heart he can never wash away. He thinks wistfully of Trysta. His heart aches a little. It feels like a long time since he saw her, heard her laugh. He has so many enemies and yet the person in the world who should consider him her greatest foe calls him friend.

Damon drinks a little of the tea. It is very sweet, too much honey. A page places a golden cup of Fanosti peach wine in front of him too. He sets down his tea and sips a little of it. It soothes his blood but it is also sweet as nectar. There is no water or ale on the table. Everything is sickeningly sweet.

"Lady Underlia," Vindar says, "I must beg of you to take your leave. We have important business to discuss with Master Damon, although it pains me to deny us your company."

A soft, sour look crosses Lady Underlia's face. But she stands up. "Of course. I quite understand." She glances at Damon. "Master Damon, Chancellor Vidar, Your Imperial Majesty."

When she has left with her two ladies, Selim says, "Do not bring that woman to my table again, Vindar."

Vindar wets his bottom lip. "She wants something from us, Your Grace. And we ought to keep her loyal."

"Ask her what she wants and give it to her," Selim says bluntly. Before turning to Damon. "Chancellor Vindar tells me you made a great show of covering your wife last night at the Feast of Surrus. I am glad to hear it."

Damon nods. It always surprises him how quickly news travels in Attar. But of course, Vindar has eyes at Sanglora. " Thank you, Your Grace. Inez was keen to receive the blessings of Mother Surrus."

"I am sure she will and there will finally be a grandson for the Darek line."

"There is already a grandson, from the legitimate line," Damon says cautiously, looking to Vindar. "I am sure Atticul will marry soon. And Endrew is still young. There will be many Darek grandsons."

"I hope so." Selim covers Damon's hand with his own. "You must forgive me, worrying about the succession so. It is only my guilt at not continuing the line myself."

"You have dedicated your life to Zai, uncle," says Damon. "The empire thanks you for your sacrifice."

Vindar coughs lightly. He picks up a small bell on the table and rings it. Without a word the guards and pages all leave the room in a swift and silent tide. Vindar waits until the door is closed before he says, "Master Damon, you are here because you have information for us about the Hevelikar she-demon Jareleezi of Jur-Mattan?"

"I do, but before I give it, I need certain assurances."

Selim looks grave. "You would deny us what you know?"

"To learn more I had to become closer with the slave I brought home from Jur-Mattan. You will be aware that this could have been dangerous for me. I wish only to ensure my own safety, Your Grace."

"Very wise," says Vindar with his eyes narrowed.

"I want what you promised. I want you to name me Warden of Vashti, with all the garlands that position grants."

Vindar and Selim exchange glances, before Selim says, "If you know the location of the last Hevelikar, it is yours. I will confer it along with the Order of Azuria at the gala to celebrate your achievements. You may take Felgrace as your new home."

Damon pauses. Felgrace. He hadn't thought to ask for Felgrace. He's never seen it, but he has heard it is a great and beautiful palace, built by King Damon to be his home on Miracle Lake. He will live where his ancestor went mad, but he will live in wealth and luxury beyond his dreams. "And then what of Sanglora?"

Selim shrugs. "Sanglora belongs to you for the whole of your life and beyond. Do with it as you wish. You will need it when Inez gives you many sons."

Damon is overwhelmed by this. Warden of Vashti and the wealth of all its lands, Felgrace and Sanglora. He'll be so rich. Beyond the dreams of any bastard. Nevertheless, there are things he wants more than any of this. He says, "I want to keep the slave. I will name him my favoured when I move to Vashti."

Vindar leans forward and takes a spice cake with long fingers. "You would honour him so? You think he knows more?"

Damon shakes his head. "The opposite. He knows no more. I want assurance that no one will ever use him against the Hevelikar. No one will ever try and extract more information from him or use him as leverage against Jareleezi."

Selim swallows his mouthful of cake. "You think Jareleezi would want him back? He was just her pleasure slave. I am sure she has acquired many more."

But it is Vindar who looks at him more darkly and says, "And why do you care so much about this slave that you would make his safety part of this bargain?"

Damon swallows, but says, "All men have weaknesses, uncle." A bolder statement than he has ever dared make before about the truth of his heart .

Selim nods and surprises Damon, saying, "This is very true. You cannot help your nature. I am sorry to say that the Darek line was cursed two centuries ago by the Lady Iril. I would have hoped that as a bastard you would have been lucky enough to escape the curse, but it seems not. You are enamoured of a male slave. Just as every one of us will betray Zai in our way." He stands up and walks over to a small table at the back wall, where a silver jug sits on a small candle burner. He brings it back to the table. His bare feet are silent, only his grey robes make soft sounds as he moves.

There are empty silver cups set at each place on the table. Selim fills each one with a pale pink liquid from the jug. The scent of roses is overpowering.

Milk of Gaari. Honeyed goat's milk with rose petals.

Damon hopes he will be able to get away without drinking much of it. Sometimes, Damon has heard, for certain festivals, Selim washes his subjects' feet in Milk of Gaari. Damon is glad he has only ever had to endure the warm rose-scented water. Selim takes a sip of his own milk and says, "You must be discreet about it. Every Darek has to accept his curse and make his peace with it in the eye of Zai."

Damon nods cautiously. This seems unexpectedly simple. Selim and Vindar must really want those books.

Selim looks at Vindar, "Chancellor, do you agree? Can Damon have your word that the Rose Court will look away from his weaknesses when he is in Vashti?"

Vindar takes a small sip of his Milk of Gaari and says, "Your gala is still almost a moon's turn away. Can I be assured you will not commit these sins until you are in Vashti? You will resist your slave until then?"

Damon nods. "Of course, Your Grace." He takes another sip of his peach wine. It seems a little more palatable now.

"Then I think it a reasonable request," Vindar says. "The Rose Court will take no interest in sins committed in Vashti as they ignore sins committed by men away at war."

"And what would Doroth Zain say of this?" says Damon. His voice sounds thick.

"Doroth Zain is a servant of the empire as much as he is a servant of Zai," says Vindar. "He will be instructed."

"Prince Atticul may try to spread rumours about me. He has been asking questions about my bedchamber habits for some years."

"That jealous boy," Selim coos.

"Atticul is unmarried," says Vindar. "If he insists on trying to say you are a luxorite perhaps people will wonder about his own bed companions."

"No one would believe that sin of Atticul," says Damon. "He is as much of a whore as our father." He knows as he says this that he has drunk too much of the wine. He reaches for a spice cake and eats it quickly.

Selim says, "My own dear brother, he has his weaknesses too. Emperor Markus, my older brother, was sly, of course. You would not be the first Darek man to be cursed to prefer men in bed."

Damon swallows the last of his cake. "And Markus only reigned three moons before he was sent into exile by the enforcers."

"Ah, no," says Vindar. "Is that what troubles you? That you will suffer the fate of your uncle? There was far more to Markus's end than that. Markus's lover was a whore and a Priam. Markus refused to give him up to justice. His taste for luxoli was just a simpler way to be rid of him than exposing the truth of his treachery to the entire court. "

"Oh," says Damon, taking a second spice cake. The spice is strong. They taste better than he expected.

"Simply being sly," says Vindar, "would never be enough to make the Enforcers of Zai turn against an Emperor of Azuria. If you are discreet Damon Darekul, your proclivities will never stand in your way. But you must be discreet. Do not forget that. You can name Lyr your favoured and lie with him in Felgrace without scrutiny from the Rose Court, but this blessing must be kept secret. You must not make your sins public, the Rose Court could not defend you then."

Damon drinks more peach wine. His heart is fluttering. This is working. His dream is within his grasp.

"So we have a deal," says Selim. "What do you have to tell us? Do you have her location?"

Damon snaps out of revelry. Clearing his throat, he says, "Her destination is Ismagaar. She rides north. It must have been a feint taking that ship to Ik-Sundal. She doubled back overland through Jur-Mattan and Soflio."

Selim nods. "Of course, she takes the Books of Alios to the demons that created them."

"What are the Books of Alios?" says Damon. His head is spinning now. He will have a headache soon.

"The words of a false god," says Selim. "Lies."

"But these are the items you wish to recover. Why are you so keen to have them if all they contain are lies?"

"I want them destroyed," Selim says sharply. "When the Imperial Army returns from that filthy desert, we will plan a new campaign to rid the world of the Hevelikar."

"I wish you every success, Your Grace."

"It would be my greatest wish to have the new Warden of Vashti lead that campaign," Selim says. "Lead my armies to Ismagaar. Take that filthy frozen place for the empire. "

Damon swallows. He remembers he promised Lyr he would not be the one to chase Jareleezi. "I cannot, uncle. I grow old."

Selim reaches across the table. "Then I can only hope your wife will give the empire sons with their father's skill in the art of war." He leans back, his thin hand sliding over Damons, and says, "Enjoy what you have achieved here today, loyal nephew. In less than a moon's turn, we will hold the Great Hero's Gala in your honour and I will name you Warden of Vashti and you will be able to live the life your heart desires with your Juran whore." He smiles and raises his silver cup of pale pink liquid. The stench of warm roses seems to hang in the air.

But Damon ignores it. He thinks of Lyr's sweet body. Of his torso decorated with runes that glow when they make love. He can wait a moon's turn. Then, in Vashti, he will have Lyr sleep in his bedchamber. And he will make love to him.

He will make love to him every night. He will see that beautiful face twist with pleasure, again and again and again.