Free House of Illusions by Pauline Gedge

heard her spoken of among the Heralds but rarely and briefly, as a mild and usually humorous inconvenience, and I paid no attention. Describe her to me.” Now it was my turn to frown.
    “She is a peasant, and like most peasants she should be anonymous,” I said slowly. “Her hair is black, her skin burned dark by the sun. But I remember her well. There was something different about her, something exotic. Her language and her accent were too refined for a mere villager and she had blue eyes.”
    When I finished speaking he stared at me for so long that at first I thought he had lost interest and ceased to listen, and then that he had been struck by some sort of fit. An awkward silence fell. For a while I did not wish to appear rude so I continued to look into his face but the moment became embarrassing and I let my attention wander. It was then I realized that he had certainly heard me and was struggling to absorb the impact of my artless words, for he was gripping the edge of his desk with such ferocity that the skin around his rings was white. My heart began to pound.
    “You know who she is!” I blurted, and at that he came to himself.
    “For a moment I thought I did,” he said quietly, “but of course I am mistaken. This is coincidence, nothing more. Leave the box with me. You were a sentimental idiot to accept it in the first place, Kamen, but no harm has been done. I acknowledge your misplaced sense of pity. You may go.” His voice was strained, and as I watched he began to massage his temple as though his head had begun to ache.
    “But General Paiis, Noble One, you will not throw it away?” I pressed. He did not look up.
    “No,” he said slowly. “Oh no. I will certainly not throw it away. But seeing you have chosen to foist the responsibility for it onto me, young man, you must leave all decisions regarding its disposal in my hands. Do you trust me?” Now he did lift his glance as he spoke the last words. His mouth had thinned and I swear that if I had been close enough to feel his breath it would have been cold. I nodded and came to attention once more.
    “I am your obedient servant, General. I am grateful for your indulgence.”
    “You are dismissed.”
    I saluted, turned on my heel, and left his office, my mind in a turmoil. Had I done the right thing after all? I had not thought of my action as divesting myself of a responsibility, and I did not believe that placing the box in the General’s hands gave him the right to do with it as he wished.
    I had bid my replacement on the door an absent good evening and was walking through the gate when it came to me that I did not in fact trust General Paiis in this matter. The woman had not trusted him either. She had warned me not to give the box to him and I had ignored the warning. He did know who she was. Not by reputation, not by gossip among the Heralds, but by actually standing face to face with her. I was increasingly positive of this. He had asked me to describe her and I had told him of someone familiar to him, someone, moreover, with the power to evoke a surprisingly intense response in him. He had recognized the knots first, and my words had confirmed that recognition. But what was between them? I wondered as I set off towards my home. What could possibly link a peasant and the rich and mighty Paiis? Whatever it was, the General was very troubled. Could at least some of the woman’s story be true?
    The whole encounter with my superior had left me filled with an uneasiness that had not abated by the time I reached my own watersteps. Sending Setau for beer, I sat in the garden by the pond, watching its surface gradually fade from blue to an opaque darkness and then become slashed with orange as Ra rolled towards the wide mouth of Nut. I was not sure what distressed me most, the possibility that the woman was not insane after all, the astonishing and oddly threatening suspicion that Paiis knew all about her or the fact that in relinquishing the box