Free Earthly Crown by Kate Elliott Page A

any concubine might own? Feh.”
    Syrannus said nothing, but he extricated the delicate parchment from his lord’s smooth, dark hands and rolled it up with the reverence due any communication from the person of a great lord and King’s Companion of Vidiya.
    “And I showed laudable restraint, I would have thought,” Jiroannes went on, although in a more subdued tone of voice. “I brought only three of my concubines.”
    “Eminence, perhaps your most honored lord uncle has obtained information that forces his hand in this?”
    “I know. I know.” It was too much, really, to have to endure a year in circumstances of the utmost coarseness, ambassador to these jaran, and now to have to maintain himself as a Vidiyan ought with so few servants. “I doubt if these barbarians can even recognize such markers of status.”
    “I think, eminence, that it would not do to underestimate them. Eight kingdoms and four principalities have already fallen to their onslaught. Why else would the Great King, may his name endure a thousand years, bother to negotiate with their prince?”
    “Four kingdoms and eight principalities. Let us not exaggerate their power. Surely, if it came to war between us, you don’t think these barbarians have the slightest chance to win?”
    “One hears tales, eminence. The more savage the man, the less honor and the Everlasting God’s tenets will stay his hand. They say this Bakhtiian violated a holy temple and its ten virgin priestesses. That he massacred an entire town out in the wilderness, five thousand men, women, and children, even the cattle, leaving only the smoking ruins of the buildings and bloodied corpses for the scavengers. They say jaran men are so proud that they won’t touch any women but their own, that they call foreign women ‘dogs.’ They ride covered in their own blood, and they can’t walk, since they sit on horseback from childhood on.”
    Jiroannes stroked his beard, amused. “I hope you do not believe all these superstitious tales, Syrannus. I have also heard it said that they scorn the bow and arrow because it is a woman’s weapon. Can you imagine? Thinking a woman could shoot? It is nonsense, and you’d do well not to believe such stories.”
    “Still, eminence, your most honored uncle must have had good reason to give you this order.”
    “Yes. I have never doubted my uncle’s judgment. And it was undoubtedly my uncle’s influence that convinced His Imperial Majesty to grant me this mission.”
    “It is true, eminence, that five other young men of good family vied for the position. To succeed with such an important assignment will assure you higher standing at court.”
    “Yes. And a hope of moving into the Companion’s Circle.” Jiroannes sank back onto the silken couch and snapped his fingers. His Tadesh concubine padded forward from the corner and knelt at the foot of the couch to massage his feet. “And if I fail, I will spend the rest of my life in the provinces.” He considered the papered walls trimmed with gold leaf, the arched windows looking out over the gardens, sere and brown with winter, and the beaded curtain that concealed this room from the rest of the honored guest suite. Wooden beads, indeed!
    “Certainly, eminence, the rewards for succeeding will be great. Your most honored uncle has already begun negotiations, I believe, for your suit for the hand and dowry of the daughter of this house.”
    “Yes. The daughter of the Great King’s fourth cousin. That would be sweet indeed.”
    “With such a connection to the royal family, eminence, surely a Companion’s Sash would be guaranteed you.”
    Jiroannes did not reply. He watched the Tadesh. Her hands, stroking his feet and ankles, were strong and assured. She was a foreign girl, from the Gray Eminence’s lands across the sea. He had paid a ridiculously high price for her. She was not a beauty, certainly, but exotic as any foreigner is, and in any case she knew the five fabled arts of