JULIEN
II
Chapter 36
More imperi
When he got back to the villa Julien had recovered his poise and was able to hide his worries to some extent. But there was no fooling those who knew him best, such as Niil and Ambar, and so he explained the latest developments to them.
“Don't worry about it,” advised Niil. “We've always done things this way – and it's not as though Ajmer didn't ask for it.”
“Obviously. I know he behaved like a moron. I just don't see why a decent man has to risk his own life just because one of his cousins acted like a prick.”
“He wasn't just a cousin – he was his First Councillor, too.”
“All right, but I just don't like a system where you only have to be better with a dagger or sword to kill good people legally. If I'm strong and I spit in your face, either you chicken out and lose your authority, or you fight and get killed. Oh, sure, you die with your honour intact, but you're still dead and your family and friends have to cope without you in future. And the fact that another champion can fight me later and kill me, or that I can get sent to Tandil, isn't going to bring you back from the dead.”
“It's not as simple as that.”
“I know that. I'm not completely dim. But I'd like to remind you that you were ready to go and get butchered by a piece of shit who had already murdered your father just because you were afraid that people would say you lacked balls if you backed out of it.”
“That's not true at all – that isn't why I wanted to fight!”
“No, you're right. I'm sorry – maybe I'm being unfair. But there's still something seriously wrong with the system as it stands. And if one of your kin tried to plot against me in future I would refuse to risk losing you in such a stupid way.”
Niil was ready to argue, but it was clear from Julien's tone that it wasn't an argument he could hope to win.
“All right,” he said. “Perhaps I don't understand properly yet, but let's leave it: the man's done enough damage already without getting you and me to fight each other. I really don't want that to happen again – ever – so let's just change the subject, all right?”
“That's good advice. You can be a pretty decent Privy Councillor when you try, you know.”
“I'm the best there is. And I think I ought to go with you tomorrow. I'd consider it my duty.”
“I'm coming too,” said Ambar.
The loud unison “NO!!” that greeted this suggestion persuaded him that there wouldn't be any point in asking again later.
oo0oo
Of course, Ambar's nature meant that he couldn't hold a grudge: he couldn't sulk for very long, and tantrums weren't his thing at all. Besides, he recognised that he'd been phenomenally lucky to get where he was now. He was still capable of flashes of anger, and could swear like a trooper when annoyed. He could still lie sometimes, too. But something in his make-up protected him from the worst of the base passions, and hatred, ingratitude and jealousy never entered his soul. Which is why a couple of minutes later he'd moved the subject on to happier matters and led Julien back to the beach.
oo0oo
Chapter 37
For the sake of honour!
The massive Hall of Arms of Bakhtar Tower had been laid out specially for the event. Tiered seating had been arranged on both sides of the hall to hold the members of the fighters' families, because although Aldegard and Ajmer were cousins, they were far enough removed for their kinsmen to form two distinct groups. Altogether there were around thirty people sitting on the polished wooden benches. At one end a dais had been set up with seats for Julien, Tannder and Niil, and to reach it they had to pass between the protagonists of the drama. Julien greeted Lady Delia and her daughter Izkya with a nod, and did the same for Ajmer's wife Heyni and his two young children Halda and Adjor.
Once Julien, who was dressed for the occasion in the dark-green hatik he now wore for all ceremonial events, had reached his place Aldegard got up from his bench and spoke in a voice that could be heard throughout the hall.
“I, Aldegard, seek restitution for the damage done to the honour of my house! I demand the blood of the traitor Ajmer, and am determined to take it, with the leave of the Emperor!”
He bowed to Julien, who acknowledged his request with a curt nod. Then Ajmer stood up and pronounced the ritual response.
“I, Ajmer, am determined to prevent it!”
With no further ceremony both stripped to the waist and moved to the fight area. There was no salute: they simply ran at each other and began the dance of death. Both had clearly had good teachers and both were at the peak of their fitness. Aldegard was visibly older than his cousin, but it was immediately obvious that this made him no less dangerous.
Julien wished he could have just closed his eyes and avoided having to watch, the way he had occasionally done at the cinema. But he knew that he couldn't: it was sure to be taken as an insult if he did. After all, two men were fighting for their lives, and one was one of his closest supporters.
The fact that he now had enough training himself to be able to follow the contest with understanding somehow made it worse: he almost lived through each attack, feint, parry and riposte as if he was making them himself. And he was afraid for both of them, anticipating continually the lightning bite of the blade into flesh.
And then Aldegard made the tiny slip which, sooner or later, decides every passage of arms, leaving a minuscule opening in the complex system of his defence through which Ajmer's blue steel djangtri plunged at once. A thin purple line was left as evidence. Technically Aldegard was dead – and yet he lived. Ajmer had held back the stroke.
Julien stood up, unconsciously unsheathing his own nagtri. He took the four quick steps needed to bring himself between the fighters, who stepped back, breathing heavily.
He turned to Ajmer and said, “Lord Ajmer, you will die with honour.”
Then he turned to Aldegard.
“Lord Aldegard,” he said, “your honour is restored, and I beg you to renounce your claim for vengeance on a man who, as a sign of his own repentance, has just given me your life.”
He placed his forefinger against the scratch that Aldegard hadn't even noticed, and Aldegard stared in astonishment at the death-mark on his skin.
“Honourable Master Tannder!” said Julien. “Did I judge the stroke correctly?”
“You judged correctly, My Lord.”
Julien faced the families sitting along the sides of the hall.
“Does anyone claim to have seen otherwise?” he asked.
But before anyone could answer Aldegard spoke.
“This is a dead man speaking,” he said. “If Ajmer had driven the stroke home he would have killed me. My Lord, you judged well and I bow to your wisdom. Lord Ajmer has just presented you with my life, and for that he is entitled to my gratitude – not for having spared me, but for having chosen not to deprive you of a loyal servant.”
“So your life is mine?” asked Julien.
“It has always been yours, My Lord.”
“And your honour is yours, as it has always been. Can anyone here claim that Lord Aldegard did not act according to the strict rules of honour?”
There was silence.
“Lord Ajmer,” Julien went on, “your lack of judgement and loyalty brought you to dishonour. It was me whom you betrayed when you betrayed the Empire. Can anyone here dispute my right to judge the one who wronged me?”
He was looking at Tannder as he said this, and so Tannder replied, “Nobody can do so, My Lord.”
“Aldegard, will you abide by my decision?” asked Julien.
“If I am the Mirror of the Emperor, you are the Mirror of Honour, My Lord.”
“Then I declare that Lord Ajmer of the Bakhtars has, by his generous gesture towards the Empire, made amends for part of the wrong against me. Clearly I can't restore a man who has shown such a lack of judgement to his previous position . But I declare that his honour is restored and will remain intact as long as he lives as he should.
“His deeds resulted in the death of two men and put a third into a serious condition. I therefore sentence Lord Ajmer to take care of their families exactly as he cares for his own House. He must also surrender the leadership of the minor branch of House Bakhtar of which he is head and see to it that the Lordship of that line is passed to whoever should take it over as soon as possible. Lord Ajmer, please approach.”
Ajmer had the thoughtfulness to kneel before Julien, since otherwise he would have loomed over him by several inches.
“Ajmer,” said Julien, “you see that my nagtri is in my hand? That blade was a gift from a powerful friend who, in his own way, served the Empire before leaving us. It is a blade that once drank my blood, and it will drink yours too if you ever again forget that you also serve the Empire.”
oo0oo
“You don't look happy,” commented Niil when they got back to Rüpel Gyamtso and were changing out of their ceremonial clothes and into much lighter laďs. “I don't know why not – I thought you handled that brilliantly.”
“I'm not happy,” said Julien. “I almost lost Aldegard there, and if it hadn't been for Ajmer's decency I would have done. That's why I insisted on thanking him, sort of. But it's all going to happen again somewhere else, and next time it might be a fool who decides he is going to kill someone I can't manage without. I'm not talking about you personally here, but sometimes I think you're a bunch of savages, the way you...”
“Of course you're right,” said Niil. “We should take lessons from the wise Earthlings and settle our quarrels by bombing the shit out of each other. That's so much more civilised!”
“All right, I know it isn't. But I really wish I could do something to change things!”
“You've done plenty already. Simply ordering the closing of the arms dumps, for a start. Everybody resented it, including me, if I'm honest: you were taking our toys away, like we were naughty kids. All right, I suppose I am still a kid, but the others...! But now I can see that you had to do it.”
“Thank you.”
“And in Ajmer's case, too. I'm not quite sure what yet, but I'm sure you've effected a change of some sort, and it's going to get talked about right round the Nine Worlds, too.”
“I hope it does!”
“I don't think you realise quite what you are.”
“So what am I?”
“I'm sure that Subadar or Xarax could it explain it better than I can, but... you're the one who stops everyone from making monumental mistakes. Like the stupidity that destroyed Emm Talak, for example. That's a lesson that's lasted a very long time already.”
“Yes, but you, at least, know that I'm not that Yulmir!”
“Julien, I know that you are that Yulmir, even though you're my friend too.”
“But...”
“You might not realise it, but that's how things are. We've talked about it with Tannder and the others, and they agree that just about everything you've done since you got here confirms that you are Yulmir. The rest of what you are is only important to you and those of us who love you.”
“That's not easy to take on board, you know.”
“I know, and that's why we leave you in peace as much as we can. We don't see places like this as a luxury – rather this is just a little compensation that helps you to cope with things. The people of the Nine Worlds are not ungrateful, I promise you, and nor are they so naďve that they think you can solve everything with a click of your fingers. But there is a lot that depends on you – and of course there are people, quite a lot of them, who wouldn't be at all sorry if they could get rid of the person who stops them from doing whatever they want to.”
“I can understand the way they're thinking. Perhaps I should finance a minor revolution.”
“Don't make jokes like that. It has happened in the past, you know.”
“What, Yulmir funded a revolution against himself?”
“No! At least, I don't think so. But attempts have been made.”
“And what happened?”
“Each time Yulmir disappeared for a hundred cycles or so.”
“And?”
“The memory of what happened last time is still so vivid, and so horrible, that nobody has tried it since. And that was eighteen hundred cycles ago.”
“Perhaps next time there could be a better outcome?”
“That's what they said every time. And every time it worked out the same.”
“So now nobody wants to try changing the system of government any more? Nobody fancies trying democracy, or something?”
“No, that's not it, and we have tried changing things from time to time – in fact I suppose we've probably tried just about every form of government there is. But the one thing we're agreed on is that we don't want to get rid of the Emperor of the Nine Worlds – who, let me remind you, doesn't actually govern us.”
“Like the Queen of England.”
“I don't know that lady, but I do know the Emperor.”
“You lucky so-and-so! You're obviously really well connected!”
“I've even seen him naked!”
“No! Really? And is he good-looking?”
“Let me think for a moment...”
“Ever heard of a place called Tandil? It's a charming place to visit, so I'm told.”
“Then let me say that the Emperor exceeds my poor self in every possible way. His Diamond Sceptre radiates power, and the very stones of the benches in the garden groan with pleasure when he sits upon them. He...”
But Niil's lyrical attempts were, perhaps fortunately, cut short by the arrival of Ambar, who was keen for them to get back to sailing the little catamarans across the lake.
oo0oo